Myers Depot Metal Detectors

Why Minelab is top dog

phrunt said:
You're wrong. Minelab employ 700+ people, 30% of which are engineers, perhaps you need to read their report.

The good news for Garrett is I believe their 24k is better than the Gold Monster, the Gold Monster is a massive selling detector for Minelab especially in the African market (their biggest market by far - see the report), Garrett have far more chance than Whites did of selling the 24k around the world and overtaking the Gold Monster as the most popular VLF gold detector.
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I'm not wrong. Minelab's detector division employs around 150 people. Under the Codan umbrella you have Zetron and Domo Tactical Communications. Perhaps you should do a little more research.

Zetron: For 40 years, Zetron has been creating mission-critical communications solutions for public safety, transportation, utilities, natural resources, healthcare, and academic institutions. Nothing to do with metal detecting.

Domo Tactical Communications: IT’S NOT JUST A CONFLICT WITH FORCES ON THE GROUND. IT’S A CHALLENGE TO COMMAND, CONTROL, AND COMMUNICATE TO ALL DEPLOYED UNITS, GET REAL-TIME UPDATES, AND COORDINATE TACTICS. Again, nothing to do with metal detecting.
 
longbow62 said:
I don't think any other metal detector company has the money or brain trust to overtake them.
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Maybe not now, but I think someday. I think we are in the waning days of VLF; there is only so much you can squeeze out of software and throwing different frequencies around. I don't think modern VLF detectors are really any deeper than their ancestors, they are just better at processing.

Who knows what it will be. Ultrasound? GPR? A combination of things. VLF is hamstrung by the mineralization as you get deeper, and PI is hamstrung by TID. Something else has to come along, and when it does, it will win. I can hit large coppers at 12 inches but not silver dimes at the same depth in mineralized ground. We all know they are there, tho. Need a new technology to cut thru it.

I'm aware of people working on this sort of stuff. So far only smoke, but I think someone will figure it out eventually. Maybe it will be Minelab. We'll see.
 
jmaclen said:
The Gold Scorpion (1990) was a 15 kHz VLF detector. Back in those days there was still a lot of surface to near surface larger gold. Now, the Gold Scorpion would be a lot like the AT Gold which basically replaced it. Great for near surface .5 gram and bigger gold or 6” to 10” deep really big coin sized or larger gold nuggets. Anything smaller or in high mineralization……..not happening.

The Hand of Faith (1980) weighed almost 60 pounds and was only a foot deep. A Harbor Freight detector would hit that target. Just imagine detecting a 20 pound dumbbell buried a foot deep.

Tesoro Lobo and then the Lobo Super Traq were my first detectors. They could ground balance fairly well in nasty dirt and at 18 kHz, they were pretty good for smaller gold.
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But a Garrett still found it...that itself was a big boost in his advertising too.
 
bigtim1973 said:
But a Garrett still found it...that itself was a big boost in his advertising too.
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Absolutely!

"Why Minelab Is Top Dog" was the title for this topic and without Minelab's outstanding gold prospecting detectors......they would not be anywhere near the Top Dog.....if they are.

I didn't respond to this thread to be critical of one company over another. I don't know and don't care who makes the best hobby/gold prospecting metal detector or who has the best company. I want all of them to succeed and bring us and people in the future great metal detectors.

Minelab has the money, brain power and cutting edge technology to keep producing competitive detectors. I want Garrett to do the same along with Nokta and FTP and any other company that wants to produce top of the line metal detectors.

I believe that Garrett made some very positive strategic decisions in buying much of White's Electronics. Whites had three detector lines that exceeded what Garrett was producing=TDI pulse induction detectors, V3i/VX3 simultaneous multi frequency VLF detectors and the Goldmaster/Goldmaster 24K 48 kHz gold prospecting detectors. Garrett has already successfully taken advantage of two of those lines and hopefully they will do something progressive with the TDI/Infinium/ATX platforms that they now control in the future.

The African and South American gold prospecting industry is no where near capacity yet. Garrett has the industrial framework especially if they are also using White's old facilities to mass produce the 24K that White's did not have since they were occupied with producing a full line of detectors. And like everybody in the US knows, Garrett is a very well-known name in the hobby and industrial metal detecting world. They should have no trouble being competitive in the very profitable African and South American gold mining industry once the detector prospectors there get their hands on the Goldmaster 24k.
 
Has anyone here on this thread seen lovestheshineys silver total? And that's with a Garrett,at pro . . Now,I read these threads,and it's always the same ole same ole.. I'm not knocking minelab,I have several,and several makro and Garrett too ..But the proof is in the pudding, Lovestheshiney has surpassed or just blown away any minelab counts as far as silver I've seen so far,,and with a Garrett... If I'm wrong ,please post your finds
 
Oh yeah, it isnt a matter of who is best as far as an individual user goes, It is more about what machine is best for the user and what they do with it.

I really hated to see the other companies fold here in the USA. I must admit though, the technology seems to be leading from manufacturers outside of the USA which may have led to this happening.
 
I can say this. Our city park is a made in heaven detector depth test garden. It is over 130 years old and sits alongside the Arkansas river which used to flood on average every 30-40 years. When it flooded, it would deposit 3"-6" of mud throughout the park. A sandstone wall was built around it in 1933. AS the floods came in it would fill the inside of the wall with mud. I have measured the outside of the wall at 24". It used to be the same inside the wall.

Now the ground inside the wall is level with the top of the wall. That means any items dropped in 1933 and before are at least 24" deep at the wall. The deposited mud tapers off as you go to the south to a point where the ground is back to normal. So, if you take a detector from the south and work your way to the north, you will find coins until you reach the limits of that detector. I have taken every detector I have owned down there to test depth. Out of all the ones I've taken there, the E-Trac went the furthest still finding coins. The CTX3030 did well also.

I had one of the posters on here except my challenge and bring down a couple of his favorite machines to put aginst the E-Trac. I had him check a few of my signals and he got junk, I pulled not just wheats but silver. When he went back home he told me he had a new respect for the E-Trac.

Just my results
 

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Garrett has a real opportunity with the 24k to get into the African market, and start the momentum and brand recognition, and if they can do that they can open themselves up to reworking the TDI or ATX to make a modern prospecting lightweight detector at a cheaper price to sell to Africa too and that'd really give them some big sales. It was very sensible for them to release the 24k first as there is a need for it and it's an area Minelab dominate with a very simplified detector, sure it works well but it's also something that is a sitting duck, it's easy for the 24k to be better than it and if they make a 24k v2 when they have time with wireless and so on to really show the GM1000 who's boss.

Coils are important too, with the GM limited to two coils once they release the 24k coils that will help it be seen as the better detector, especially with concentric coils available for it. People might be thinking Whites did this, and yes they did, but they were not an international company in the way Garrett is, Garrett has a much larger worldwide footprint.

The Gold Monster build quality isn't perfect with it's shaft always coming undone. Mines failed twice under warranty too all in the first year, once with the speaker failing and another time a coil split, the coils are very hollow and thin plastic to keep them light I guess but not very robust like the Gold Bug 2 coils. They're also prone to bump sensitivity especially in higher gains which I hear the 24k coils are not.

Unfortunately with these things time isn't on your side, it needs done quickly as Minelab likely have a GM2000 in the pipeline and could just be there waiting for a competitor to move.

Things are looking very promising for Garrett at the moment.
 
I first remember noticing Minelab when watching the TV series "The Detectorists" when Lance had a CTX3030 and had to give it to Hugh to help ward off his curse of the gold. Lance was explaining that the CTX3030 was more complicated than his toy like detector. Which was true.

Then saw the Equinox circus in the Fall of 2017 and Spring of 2018. Got caught up in all the hype and speculation and sold my AT Pro and bought my 800. It was a rocky ride for me that transition from the AT Pro to the 800.

But having two big companies with resources competing with each other is very good for our hobby. Just wish Garrett would devote more engineering brain power and resources to the recreational metal detecting business. Probably won't happen without another Frank Garrett at the helm. Recreational seems to be sucking hind teet in terms of resources.

Just my opinion.
 
the old codgers have been fightin' for the scraps from longshank's table for a good many years now. a lot of 'em are croakin' takin' the market with them.resources are drying up!
the future is difficult to predict with too many people "tearin' up Real estate, and sites
goin' "off limits". to stay relevant,guys are turnin' into "gold and silver ring hunters at the beaches.

(h.h.!)
j.t.
 
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woodbutcher said:
Has anyone here on this thread seen lovestheshineys silver total? And that's with a Garrett,at pro . . Now,I read these threads,and it's always the same ole same ole.. I'm not knocking minelab,I have several,and several makro and Garrett too ..But the proof is in the pudding, Lovestheshiney has surpassed or just blown away any minelab counts as far as silver I've seen so far,,and with a Garrett... If I'm wrong ,please post your finds
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I posted this tread just to show how Minelab is doing. Their detector sales are very strong and growing. Minelab seems to always be the company at the cutting edge and throws a lot of money at it to stay that way. I've watched a lot of Minelab videos, and they appear to be at the forefront technical expertise. They have actual PHD research scientist working on this stuff. It would be hard to argue against them being Top Dog.

Never said an ATpro can't find silver, but using a particular persons silver finds totals means absolutely nothing. Generally anyone who finds that much silver is not finding it in hunted out parks. Finding that much silver requires putting in a lot of time and hitting mainly virgin sites and door knocking for it. In one time scooping up the easy never to return. Besides that where a person lives and how aggressively they seek out permissions makes an enormous difference on how much silver they can find yearly.
 
Again a single persons totals don't really show you anything unless they are getting impressive totals from places it's hard to find. Lovestheshiney may be hunting parks and curb strips for all I know. I wish Jamflicker would chime in. California Etrac user with impressive totals. Seems like someone told me on another forum he was still pulling it out of hammered places with his Etrac. His signature says 132 silver coins for the year so far.
 
If a company wants to clean up and become top dog, all they need to do is introduce a detector that can reliably discriminate aluminium in the same way most machines have the ability to discriminate Fe...
 
longbow62 said:
I posted this tread just to show how Minelab is doing. Their detector sales are very strong and growing. Minelab seems to always be the company at the cutting edge and throws a lot of money at it to stay that way. I've watched a lot of Minelab videos, and they appear to be at the forefront technical expertise. They have actual PHD research scientist working on this stuff. It would be hard to argue against them being Top Dog.

Never said an ATpro can't find silver, but using a particular persons silver finds totals means absolutely nothing. Generally anyone who finds that much silver is not finding it in hunted out parks. Finding that much silver requires putting in a lot of time and hitting mainly virgin sites and door knocking for it. In one time scooping up the easy never to return. Besides that where a person lives and how aggressively they seek out permissions makes an enormous difference on how much silver they can find yearly.
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Minelab can not claim sales that are not their sales from metal detectors or things that have something to do with metal detecting. If they have cutting edge technology ... why did they release the Go-Find detectors ...did they work some deal to purchase them from K-Mart so they could sell them as their detectors?

I am not saying Minelab detectors are all bad, I use Minelab, Fisher, White's and Garrett detectors all of them work great for finding things.
 
Since I'm mentioned in this thread, I thought to jump in for a bit.

To get to those 1000 silver coins in 4 1/2 years, I do work hard, and enjoy detecting a lot! I know my AT Pro extremely well, with several thousand hours on the machine. I am not afraid to ask permission in all kinds of places, as I can only get a "no" and there are millions of spots in this country left that would produce good coins and relics.

The only comment from above that I would make a remark about is "one time scooping up the easy never to return." Since it is most likely a one time permission in the private yards, because of that I really work the permission carefully, knowing that I will not be back, and wanting to get each and every good signal. I overlap my coil on each swing. I make sure the coil scrubs the grass throughout the swing. I run the Pro at max sensitivity with nothing discriminated out. I've gotten to know the sound of deep targets with the Pro, and have learned to hear the very quiet squeak of deep silver. When hunting with a partner, I ask to double check their side of the lawn when they are done, and invite them to do the same to my side. Almost all my detecting friends run the Equinox models, so I get good comparisons. Many times I will find deep wheat cents and once in a while a silver that was missed, not because my machine is better than theirs, but because I treasure the private permission and want to be thorough on knowing that the yard is well checked, and that I don't need to come back again.

Both Minelab & Garrett detectors have many good features, and I hope both companies flourish in the metal detecting field and produce new and innovative products. I did buy a Minelab Vanquish 440 for my wife to use, or for friends who may want to try detecting. I'll keep using my AT Pro though, for the soil type, depth of targets here (not super deep), audio and VDI quality, build quality, it seems to work well for me.
 
graybeard said:
Minelab can not claim sales that are not their sales from metal detectors or things that have something to do with metal detecting. If they have cutting edge technology ... why did they release the Go-Find detectors ...did they work some deal to purchase them from K-Mart so they could sell them as their detectors?

I am not saying Minelab detectors are all bad, I use Minelab, Fisher, White's and Garrett detectors all of them work great for finding things.
Click to expand...

Minelab and its parent company are not in the business of producing elite, high end detectors or equipment. They're in the business of making money. It's just that they have chosen to make high end detectors and equipment to make money.

If they could make reasonably more money pounding salt or flying kites, they would.
 
LovestheShiny! said:
Since I'm mentioned in this thread, I thought to jump in for a bit.

To get to those 1000 silver coins in 4 1/2 years, I do work hard, and enjoy detecting a lot! I know my AT Pro extremely well, with several thousand hours on the machine. I am not afraid to ask permission in all kinds of places, as I can only get a "no" and there are millions of spots in this country left that would produce good coins and relics.

The only comment from above that I would make a remark about is "one time scooping up the easy never to return." Since it is most likely a one time permission in the private yards, because of that I really work the permission carefully, knowing that I will not be back, and wanting to get each and every good signal. I overlap my coil on each swing. I make sure the coil scrubs the grass throughout the swing. I run the Pro at max sensitivity with nothing discriminated out. I've gotten to know the sound of deep targets with the Pro, and have learned to hear the very quiet squeak of deep silver. When hunting with a partner, I ask to double check their side of the lawn when they are done, and invite them to do the same to my side. Almost all my detecting friends run the Equinox models, so I get good comparisons. Many times I will find deep wheat cents and once in a while a silver that was missed, not because my machine is better than theirs, but because I treasure the private permission and want to be thorough on knowing that the yard is well checked, and that I don't need to come back again.

Both Minelab & Garrett detectors have many good features, and I hope both companies flourish in the metal detecting field and produce new and innovative products. I did buy a Minelab Vanquish 440 for my wife to use, or for friends who may want to try detecting. I'll keep using my AT Pro though, for the soil type, depth of targets here (not super deep), audio and VDI quality, build quality, it seems to work well for me.
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Hunters like you are a fascinating bunch. :cool3: Sounds like you're so familiar with your AT Pro, short of someone coming out with x-ray vision glasses, no other device would be able to give you the same finds as the AT Pro.

Or maybe there is a machine out there that could out perform your AT Pro. But you'd need to put in a few hundred hours (at least) to make the equivalent finds that you're now making with your AT Pro. And losing all that hunting time to learn a new machine means you'll miss out on find that you would have made with your AT Pro.

I hope to become as familiar with my AT Max (or w/e machine I end up settling on) as you are with your AT Pro.
 
graybeard said:
If they have cutting edge technology ... why did they release the Go-Find detectors ...did they work some deal to purchase them from K-Mart so they could sell them as their detectors?

Go-Finds first came out in the USA in 2014 branded as National Geographic/Minelab detectors. They have the same technology as the X-Terra 705 V-Flex and the top model has Bluetooth audio. They were meant to be an easy to deploy stow and go detector, for beaches and especially for kids and teens. The technology in the Go-Finds is perfectly good. The design of the detector's exterior and display stinks for serious detector use.

I gave one to two of my nephews and nieces. They love it and still use it at beaches near their home in coastal SE Georgia.

Minelab made up for the atrocious Go-Find ergonomics by releasing the Vanquish series which absolutely anyone can swing easily and successfully with a little prep.
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mh9162013 said:
Minelab and its parent company are not in the business of producing elite, high end detectors or equipment. They're in the business of making money. It's just that they have chosen to make high end detectors and equipment to make money.

If they could make reasonably more money pounding salt or flying kites, they would.
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Minelab's (not its parent company Codan) founder was an audio engineer in the music industry. I doubt kites would appeal to him as much as audio engineering as a way of making big money.
 
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