Field Test Report on the Garratt GTAX550 Metal Detector
Isn’t it funny how something can come along and alter your whole perspective and gives you an added dimension?
Throughout my years in the hobby I have been very focused on becoming a good detectorist, understanding machines, ground conditions, sweep speeds et.al. I was as keen as mustard, you name it I read it, thought it, practised it at home then put it into operation on the fields: more knowledge equalled more finds. Over the years I had to have the very best detectors and I didn’t really give “middle of the road” machines a second glance. So when Nigel of Regton suggested field testing the Garrett GTAX 550 I had a few preconceived thoughts, (ego or ignorance?) however these were pushed to the back of my mind when he readily agreed that both good and bad points would be allowed in print. I did mention that most of my land was now under crops, but he came back with, that being it is a coin shooter I could try it out on some parks. Parks? I can’t ever remember going on any!
The parcel arrived the next day, how’s that for service? That was the first thing to impress me. The second was whilst assembling the unit, the build quality; these detectors are really well put together. You know what it’s like to sit in an upmarket car; you don’t need to see the engine to appreciate the workmanship. The detector sports the unmistakable green and white livery of all Garrett machines and needless to say assembly was straightforward. The pocket handbook wasn’t, I read it through twice and I was still confused. To be fair, when I read it step by step in conjunction with the machine it then became a lot clearer, it’s the same situation with other onboard computer chipped detectors. The booklet itself is a handy size to fit into your back pocket when detecting, a nice little touch.
The GTAx550 is the stable brother of the GTAx1250 and both come with a 7x10-inch elliptical wide scan coil and this one operates at 7.0 kHz. The battery box, which sits under the armrest, houses two drop in pods each holding 4 x 1.5 volt AA’s and if required the unit has the facility to be removed for belt mounting. The headphone socket is situated at the rear of the box.
GTA are the initials of graphic target analyser, which is microprocessor driven, this will show the probable target on the Liquid Crystal Display unit. With the power on, the LCD will display a segmented horizontal bar graph in ½ increments up to 12. This is utilised for both all metal and discrimination. A second graph appears when adjustments are made to audio, depth, and pinpointing. Below this are eight touch pads to set up the detector, which I’ll just run through.
When using the POWER just give the touch pad a gentle press and the machine will burst into life. Two beeps later and you are ready to go, you can reset the machine back to factory default settings at any time by holding down this same touch pad for around ten seconds. Press the SET AUDIO and then using the + and – pads will increase or decrease the volume to give a threshold suitable for you.
The SET DEPTH (sensitivity) obviously use this as high as ground conditions allow.
LAST MODE allows you to alternate between the two modes of operation. If mode A (All metal) is chosen, all segments will be displayed, On receiving a signal, a cursor appears for five seconds over the relevant segment indicating the conductivity of the particular metal detected, whilst above the LCD are the usual icons depicting iron, foil, gold and silver coinage to give some idea of the target. Whereas in mode B(discrimination) by utilising the ACCEPT/ REJECT, a cursoris shown which can be moved up and down the graph by using the + and - touch pads then by repressing the accept/reject, segments will be removed. This way you can personalise just what you want to discriminate out, so in actual fact it’s a discriminator and notch facility combined.
The PINPOINT needs to be held in and when over the target, maximum audio will be heard with a corresponding graph, a second lower graph will indicate the depth, (reading from left to right). This is calibrated for coin size objects.
BATTERY condition is signified by segments in the bottom right hand corner (4 when full).
Finally a BELLTONE this normally sounds on high conductive metals, Sounds confusing? But as previously mentioned, read in conjunction with the machine at hand, it soon falls into place.
I had a spare couple of hours that afternoon so I thought that I would go out and have a little play, no need for anywhere special just somewhere to get myself accustomed to the controls. With most of the land now under crops, I decided on a hard pad the farmer used for standing his machinery, this was next to a medieval field. Although with the Garrett weighing in at 3.9 lbs. it wasn’t necessary to hip mount the battery box, as the machine was well balanced and easy to swing. After touching the power-on, the discriminate mode B programme came on the screen; this was a factory-preset programme and needed altering for this type of searching. It took little time to change to discriminating out the first 2 ½. Segments to knock out the iron, using the accept/reject. The set depth, because of the known conditions on the adjoining field was taken down to 9 ½, straightforward enough remembering to keep the sweep speed at 2 feet a second as advised in the book, it was surprising how easily it was handling the mineralization with a dead steady threshold.
Everything was running smoothly with the odd nail giving a chopped signal and reading 2½. Two round flat pieces of lead came in at 8 on the graph, one gave a bell tone! This was interesting because on my other machines lead comes in much lower down the scale.
Following this came a crotal bell at 8 ½, with a bell tone, very pleased; it’s over a year since I found one of these. Unfortunately the “handle” was broken otherwise it would have made a nice gift for the farmer. Every now and again I would get a signal where there would be two cursors on the graph, one in iron and the other much higher on the scale, but these turned out to be either bent nails or part of a knife. (Obviously if a dual cursor was shown and the lower one was above 3 this should represent a good target.) I was beginning to enjoy this, especially when a Henry 2nd penny (at 5) came to light, followed by a lead strap-end. (6 ½.)
The bell tone would give off the odd “bong”, but this was a one way non-repeatable signal, it certainly kept the interest high. To top everything off, I found another crotal bell (was the bell tone a mating call)? Two in under two hours and this one was whole, so the farmer wouldn’t miss out after all. After more buttons and suchlike, I came off the pad with the feeling of what a pleasure the detector was to use, I had no great expectations and, disregarding the finds I thoroughly enjoyed using it.
None of the items were that deep and seeing as that I hadn’t detected the pad before, the best thing I could do was to detect the same area the following day using one of my own machines and see what would turn up. The next day I tracked my previous path and really concentrated, I had missed only three good signals. Rather than digging, I marked them and went over again with the Garrett; it pulled all three; so obviously I was at fault. I had yet to try it out on a park, so I took it down to the beach!
50-gallon drums had been placed all along the beach for the people to throw their rubbish in. They missed.
I decided to search amongst the beach huts in the dunes and use the all-metal mode A., so when anything unwanted turned up I could then notch it out. I had thought of taking a coin of each denomination and just notch these in, and every thing else would be discarded; but it crossed my mind that I might be lucky enough to find rings or jewellery. Using the sensitivity on 11 and after finding a couple of pieces of foil, I notched out 2 ½. And 3, rather than using a blanket disc. Up to 3. The reason for this is that I found if the very first segment is left on, you gain a couple of inches! Taking the 12th. Segment out in Mode B also improves the discrimination. Buried coke cans caused a problem to begin with. (My fault). For quickness I’m so used to switching to all metal and identifying them by a long signal. Both modes on this machine give the same signals, I had forgotten about the pinpoint. Using this, it gave a note, which gradually intensified and showed a shallow depth, there were no problems from then on. On the subject of pinpointing I found this to be easy to use and more to the point very accurate. The only problems I came across were ring pulls; they have the same conductivity as a twenty pence piece. After digging quite a few I decided I didn’t want 20p’s anyway. I did get the odd rusty nail when near the huts, but at all times these were identified; those which were lengthways-on gave a double beep and yet objects of the same length but a higher conductivity produced only a single.
The GTAx550 works well on the dry sand, finds were being made at a steady rate and although working in all metal, each signal was identified on the readout. Separation of close signals understandably needed a little more care, but was then achieved. On the odd occasion a coin would be out of range of the meter but still give a definite two way audio signal, obviously these need to be dug.
As to be expected the standard of performance will drop when used on wet sand. I finally found a park. I’m pleased I did, old copper coinage including a couple of thre'penny Joey’s came to light and some of these at really respectable depths. The bell tone worked well with this type of coinage, although still sounding out on some larger unwanted items: these though were easily “sussed”. Amongst all the rubbish, mode A did have the edge and the depth.
CONCLUSIONS.
Garrett’s are celebrating their 40th. Anniversary in the detector business. To have lasted this long they must be getting most things right and yet their name is not the first on people’s lips when discussing the latest detectors.
It seems we all get to hear about the latest machine and it becomes the flavour of the month, until another takes its place, rather like the car industry. However there are certain marques of cars that aren’t the fastest or the most frugal but they have the reputation for quality and longevity, this I feel after testing the machine is where Garrett rightly stand. There’s no fuss or worries, it just gets on with the job. If you’re not into ground balancing, or tapping in a programme and then wondering when you come off the field if it was the right one, this detector is well worth thinking about. Yes obviously it has it’s limitations, there is no pretensions of it being a top of the range machine. However for the price, the amount of extras in the form of the up to date technology to give you ease of use bang the scales firmly down. I was particularly impressed with the all-metal audio with visual discrimination and the maintained steady threshold on mineralised soil. It opened up my eyes to the fact that this hobby of ours doesn’t have to rely on how many “hammered you need to pull in order for you to enjoy yourself.” Quite a number of detectors have passed through my hands, good and not so; this has been by far the quickest to get to grips with and a pleasure to use.
John Lynn