The Monsters are taking over


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Seems as though the Gold Monster is going to be the next big thing.  Anyone with a GPX or GPZ machine will want this as an auxiliary machine for specialized use.  For example, I know some really great very rich dry washing area where that little 5 inch coil will kill.  Also I have a place where the old timers worked where the gold is about 3 inches down sitting on hard pack.  Above that is just fluffy gravel.  The big issue there is 40 pieces of trash for each little nugget.  The ability to hunt in all metal and then switch into discriminate is a big plus and I look forward to savaging this area.

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The other thing this detector is going to be really good for is when you are using those really large coils on your induction machine, and have a hole going that is getting pretty deep.  Because the shaft is in three pieces you can really shorten it down, and with the 5 inch coil it is going to make a great pin-pointer for those deep holes that you can't get a large coil into.  It will save a lot of senseless digging.

Got a chance to go play with the Gold Monster 1000.  I didn't really do any serious detecting with it, just testing various size nuggets etc.  It was 106 out in the desert, so I wasn't exactly in the mood for a hike.  What a neat machine.  What an easy machine.  I have a Gold Bug 2 as well.  Hands down I would use the Gold Monster over the Gold Bug if for no other reason than the auto-ground balance, the quiet operation, and it comes with two coils, THAT HAVE COIL COVERS.  I remember when I bought my Gold Bug II and I bought an extra coil.  I was shocked to see that they didn't include coil covers with the Gold Bug coils, so I had to buy them.  Also the Gold Bug runs on 2 9 volt batteries, no rechargeable.  This comes with rechargeable and a AA alkaline adapter.  The other thing that can be a plus is while the machine comes with headphones, the jack is 1/8th inch.  If you want to use a 1/4 inch jacked headphones you need an adapter.  However, and 1/8 inch plug allows you to use ear buds, which are significantly cooler. 

The supplied headphones are "on the ear", as opposed to over the ear.  I personally do not like that style of headphone.  While they are cooler, on the day I was in the desert, it was really windy.  Very hard to hear because of the wind noise using the supplied headphones.

No doubt the Gold Bug is a great machine.  It has proven itself time and again.  But the ease of use of the Gold Monster and the sensitivity, WOW.

I also didn't get a lot of detecting done because I had promised my 5 year old grandson I would get him two buckets of dirt so we could look for gold.  I have a budding Parker Schnabel on my hands.

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Other news:  Bates has finally came out with a NO METAL, gusseted tongue (important to keep dirt out) boot that is desert tan, and is made for HOT conditions.  They are sending me a pair to test out.
They are actually called the 8670-Cobra 8”Hot Weather boot.

$134.95
8670-Cobra 8”Hot Weather59444c652f2aa_BatesHotWeather.jpg.b74f0430171d580e8a2a38743232e69d.jpg

If you have a friend that has a Gold Monster, ask if you can play with it.  Takes two minutes to understand how to use this great little machine.

Doc

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Hey Doc,

   I have to agree, I'm on my third order of the Gold Monsters and I still don't have one to play with yet.  With the 15% Military Discount, you can't beat a top of the line Minelab VLF for $679.15.  This price smashes all the competition in my opinion.  I have a buddy that bought one from me, we played with it a bit together and I was amazed on the sensitivity to small gold.  I wouldn't of thought the 45Khz could find such small gold.  

I have a bunch of spots that still has dinks, so this will be fun to re-visit with the Gold Monster! 

Good looking boots also.  

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2 hours ago, adam said:

Bates are always a good choice but that boot and many others no longer have Vibram treads

I have one with Vibram treads but they are Black.  They are the Bates 3135's they are a beast of a boot.  I like them, but I don't mind the black color. 

Adam where are you finding Desert Tan colored boots with Vibram treads?  Brand?

Rob, I think we all get hung up on the kHz.  We know that higher kHz is supposed to mean smaller gold.  But we forget there are many other factors to consider.  If you are running a high kHz machine but it is a manually ground balanced machine, and the machine has slipped into being negatively ground balanced, you may not hear that little dink.

Having a 45 kHz machine with Minelab's always superior auto-ground balance and AUTO-Sensitivity and their reputation of dealing with ground mineralization better than brand out there and I don't think it is a surprise the way the machine responds.  Although I must admit I think it is vast improvement over even the Eureka Gold that had the 60 kHz setting.  Just some more Minelab magic I guess.

Doc

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Doc,

5.11  and Bates used to have Vibram soles. they have always been great boots but last year I ordered some 5.11 Jungle boots and the soles are complete junk. I had a blunt twig go right through the bottom. Anyway, I just ordered a pair of these because they are on clearance  http://www.lapolicegear.com/bpg-83bt18-lightweight.html  . I was going to order the bates cobras until I saw these ones , and they have vibrams. I will try them out and see how it go`s.

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Hey Doc and Adam,

   Doc - let us know how those new Bates work out.  The last couple of pairs of Bates I purchased just fell apart too quickly. 

Adam - Same to you, let us know how those ones work.  It's hard to find a good pair of boots anymore that are No Metal.   Also, if we know what boot you're wearing, we can ID who was walking up the wash! :D  I'm wearing sandals now, so it's hard to see the footprints. :ph34r:

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3 hours ago, nuggethunting said:

Hey Doc and Adam,

   Doc - let us know how those new Bates work out.  The last couple of pairs of Bates I purchased just fell apart too quickly. 

Adam - Same to you, let us know how those ones work.  It's hard to find a good pair of boots anymore that are No Metal.   Also, if we know what boot you're wearing, we can ID who was walking up the wash! :D  I'm wearing sandals now, so it's hard to see the footprints. :ph34r:

Well I was going to admit which (combat approved) boots get the job done but since ya'll are the spying type, maybe I'll keep that hushhh:ph34r:

HINT- They are (hot weather,desert tan,no metal and have the Vibram treads) OH and for you savvy folk they have an NSN# applied.........See you in the GOLD fields, or NOT. ;)

Edited by AZ-sourdough
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22 hours ago, adam said:

Doc,

5.11  and Bates used to have Vibram soles. they have always been great boots but last year I ordered some 5.11 Jungle boots and the soles are complete junk. I had a blunt twig go right through the bottom. Anyway, I just ordered a pair of these because they are on clearance  http://www.lapolicegear.com/bpg-83bt18-lightweight.html  . I was going to order the bates cobras until I saw these ones , and they have vibrams. I will try them out and see how it go`s.

Adam,  I have a bad feeling those have metal eyelets.  I hope I'm wrong.  One of the questions on the site was about whether or not you could get through a screening metal detector.  One of the answers was, " The little metal that it does have if any isn't enough to set the detector off."

I just ran across another answer.  They DO have metal eyelets.

" It is a composite toe,but soft.the only metal is the lace eyelets."

I would bet the vent eyelets on the side of the boot are metal as well.

Any metal is too much metal when it comes to the GPZ7000. 

Rob the boots have a 1 year warranty.  If there were issues all you have to do is contact Bates.  I've been wearing the same boots for three years, the nubs on the bottom of the soles are almost completely worn down.

Doc

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Hey Doc,

  The last couple of Bates I got from you really tore out on the side.  I have somewhat flat feet, so this is not uncommon over time with most boots I wear.  However, the last couple really tore out quickly and one sole even came completely off. 

It just seemed in my opinion the quality of the Bates boots went downhill over the years. 

I should have sent the pairs back, but I just figured it was a hassle and decided to give a few other boots a try.  In all honesty, it's hard to find a good quality No-Metal boot. 

Hope all is well on your end.

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On 6/20/2017 at 5:48 AM, AZ-sourdough said:

With all due respect fellows, when they say "no metal" it typically means no metal shank in the sole and/or steel toe. Best wishes

Not in my world.  When I sell a  boot that is NO METAL, it means it is NO METAL.  NO METAL anywhere.  Composite eyelets, fiberglass shanks, etc. etc.  With these high powered detectors and large coils, they will pick up eyelets with no problems. 

You end up with one of two issues.  You either hear a subtle target sound every time you sweep by your boots, or even worse you ground balance manually or tracking sees that "constant" as mineralization and adjusts your metal detector lowering the sensitivity of the detector to small targets.

I've sold thousands of pairs in the 37 years I've been doing this.  I believe in making life easy on yourself when metal detecting, I don't need the distraction of a piece of metal in my boots.  True NO METAL boots are just a real pleasure to detect in.

I have even had customers who purchased "no-Metal" boots with a side zipper.  THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS "NO METAL" SIDE ZIPPER BOOTS.  The pull on the zipper of the boots is metal, and YES you will hear it.  Took a guy out for training on his GPZ7000 he had side zipper boots.  Halfway through the day, he said, "You were right, I hate these boots.  I didn't think they would bother me, but when I get a subtle target I have to try to turn the zippers away from the detector, which is impossible to do when you have a zipper on the outside of each boot."

Each to his own.

Doc

 

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On 6/19/2017 at 5:41 AM, nuggethunting said:

Hey Doc and Adam,

   Doc - let us know how those new Bates work out.  The last couple of pairs of Bates I purchased just fell apart too quickly. 

Adam - Same to you, let us know how those ones work.  It's hard to find a good pair of boots anymore that are No Metal.   Also, if we know what boot you're wearing, we can ID who was walking up the wash! :D  I'm wearing sandals now, so it's hard to see the footprints. :ph34r:

 

On 6/18/2017 at 10:30 PM, adam said:

Doc,

5.11  and Bates used to have Vibram soles. they have always been great boots but last year I ordered some 5.11 Jungle boots and the soles are complete junk. I had a blunt twig go right through the bottom. Anyway, I just ordered a pair of these because they are on clearance  http://www.lapolicegear.com/bpg-83bt18-lightweight.html  . I was going to order the bates cobras until I saw these ones , and they have vibrams. I will try them out and see how it go`s.

Doc- we can both agree on one thing, quality footwear is essential to any prospector.

-None of us want "blunt twigs" going through the sole nor do we want the sides to blow out "too quickly"

I don't wear this brand but you might check out this military contractor. They may have what your looking for and are usually available commercially as well.

https://www.bellevilleboot.com/index.php?

Best wishes!

 

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57 minutes ago, AZ-sourdough said:

 

Doc- we can both agree on one thing, quality footwear is essential to any prospector.

-None of us want "blunt twigs" going through the sole nor do we want the sides to blow out "too quickly"

I don't wear this brand but you might check out this military contractor. They may have what your looking for and are usually available commercially as well.

https://www.bellevilleboot.com/index.php?

Best wishes!

 

Those are some bad azz looking boots.

Doc

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On 6/19/2017 at 5:41 AM, nuggethunting said:

Hey Doc and Adam,

   Doc - let us know how those new Bates work out.  The last couple of pairs of Bates I purchased just fell apart too quickly. 

Hi Rob, sadly I have to agree with you on the Bates, mine lasted exactly 2 days in Gold Basin before the sides blew out on them, fortunately I was still in Vegas at the time and Doc just gave me a replacement set right away (which are in the box and have not been tried so not sure if they'd last any longer).

That being said, those two days did score me several hundred $ in AU so the cost benefit analysis clearly showed a win in my favor so I won't complain. ;)

Jen

 

IMG_2291.JPG

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Hey Jen,

  Ya, no offends to Doc, the boots were nice and at the time they were the only No-Metal I could find.  The last pair I had the entire sole ripped off like on the third hunt out.  I ended up using Shoe Goop to fasten the sole back to the bottom.  I also had problems like you shown along with the outer front sides ripping out.  

Bottom line, Doc has always treated his dealers and customers top notch, but the Bates Boots don't get my top approval anymore. :angry2:

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On 6/19/2017 at 8:10 PM, DOC said:

Adam,  I have a bad feeling those have metal eyelets.  I hope I'm wrong.  
 

Doc

Well Doc, And all. 

I did get those blackhawk boots.  Yes they have lots of metal in them. One idiot on the review Q&A said there was no metal. lol  I left my comments regarding the metal on the Q&A so people are clear on the metal issue.

Anyway since im using the Gold Bug II  alot of the time, this will have no affect on me. For the price, I decided to keep them.

 The cobras by bates will likely be my next pair, especially for Super Detector PI usage.  

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That is total bull crap the way those boots ripped out.  All you had to do was let me know Rob.  I really need boots like that sent back to me so I can send them back to Bates.  I mean it could be an entire run of boots, and I will need to check my remaining stock carefully.  Personally I have two pair that I have been wearing over 3 years with no issues other than I have worn them out.

I did get the Coyote Boots and they are pretty amazing.  The soles have been redesigned.  I don't see how they would come loose.  They are gusseted up the side of the tongue so no dirt can get in.  They are actually made as a HIGH HEAT desert boot, so it isn't just the color it has been designed to keep your feet cool.  Great support in the ankles, good aggressive tread, extremely comfortable.

I will reserve final decision until I actually wear them in the field, but just the structure of the boot looks pretty damn bullet proof.

Doc

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Unfortunately for me, I have narrow feet with high arches. Nobody makes a no metal boot in a "B" width. My only choices are Danners and Redwings. Both of course have metal, but the Danners have the least. My solution since I recently got a 19'' coil from Rob was to also get Doc's longer lower shaft for that coil. Works fine for me. Plus the Danners fit proper so my feet don't hurt at the end of the day like they would wearing a lesser boot. Dennis

P.S. I also got a Hipstick to better handle the weight extended that far out.

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Hey Doc,  

   I probably tossed the boots out, but will check the Garage. If so, I will send them back, but I doubt since it's been awhile they are worth sending back and out of the 1 year warranty.  

Looking forward to the new boots your going to carry. 

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