The unoffical, offical test done by Bill
I've allways wondered about how different metal detectors would respond to
a target burried at different depths. So I ran my own test to see. First I had to
find a good spot, so I picked my garden which due to the drought doesn't have
much planted in it this year. I layed out a rope from the apple tree to a stake to
the cherry tree back over to the row of onions. This was to be the test area but
first it had to be cleared of trash targets. I spent 4 days clearing the area with all
the metal detectors I could get my hands on. They include a Garrett Treasure
Ace 100, Whites GM-3, Tesoro Lobo Super Traq, and last but not least a Minelab
GP Extreme. I had extra coils for the Whites and Minelab.
Its hard to tell but there are many pieces of wire, nails, foil, metal, coins on the lid,
all dug from the test area. The aluminum foil and metal was the hardes to find. It's
unbelievable how some of the tiny wire pieces will scream at you when its detected
and how hard it is to find or see.
After I cleared the area of trash I burried a one ounce gold eagle down 6 inches
to start the test with. Here the Treasure Ace 100 could not see it. The Tesoro
and Whites could see it no problem. I never turned on the Minelab because that
would be a waste of time. I then scrapped away 1 inch of soil which made it now
5 inches down. Now the Treasure Ace would just see it, not every sweep but
most of them. So that was the limit 5 inches for the Garrett detector. Now I'm
not knocking Garrett detectors but this was a inexpensive coin shooter and it
preformed as expected.
Next I burried the coin down 8 inches, here the Tesoro had no problem seeing it
but I could tell it was getting weaker. I tried the Whites and it to had no problem
seeing it. I still didn't try the Minelab because it would be a waste of my time.
The Minelabs detect very DEEP!
Here is where things started getting shakey just beyond 8 inches. The Tesoro
and Whites with stock 9 inch coils started to loose it.
On to Page Two of the Shoot Out