GTAx 550
Street Price $500 - Coin, relic
Number of Reviews: 5
on 1 pages.
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Also in this price range:
Tesoro DeLeon
Whites IDX PRO
Tesoro Golden uMax
Fisher ID Excel
Whites Prizm V
better than not having a metal detector.
fanmegaman in Pismo beach, CA USA -
I am a rookie at detecting but mark my words it is worth in invsesting. I live along the coast and have found rings class rings you name it and has returned them back to their rightful owners. Its very good at pinpointing but if it marks it, it means its there. I am a proud owner and have no regrets ;) Hope this has helped
Apr 06, 2009
15 Yes
2 No
Not too impressed
tabdog in Bryant, Arkansas -
I have a Bounty Hunter Quick draw II and I wanted to up grade so I got the Garrett 500.
The Garrett has higher quality materials and more bells and wistles but is very unstable around here. I don't know why because the QD II does just fine even with it's preset GB. The Garrett should do better with it's auto GB.
I can't get any depth out of the Garrett because of the instability.
I'm trying to sell my Garrett on Ebay and my slightly used Tesoro Cibola should arrive here tomorrow.
I hope it doesn't let me down like the Garrett did.
Sep 10, 2007
9 Yes
9 No
Agreed, a good unit for the money
Rob Shinnick in Golden Isles of Georgia -I have used the GTAx-550 for about two years and have found an 1850 large cent, and a six-inch-deep 1877-S dime in a park I've hunted for nearly 20 years, not to mention a small silver cache and a number of other coins and relics. It is a good middle-of- the-line detector. I used its predecessor, the old GTA-500, for about twelve years, and that machine paid for itself four or five times over, at a conservative estimate. I found coins dating back to the colonial era with that detector, and a rare War of 1812 US Light Dragoons beltplate that I sold for $1,000, despite its being bent, corroded, and ugly.
Here are some minor criticisms of the Garrett machines I have used:
1. Jumpy target ID (though I have learned to "read between the lines" and interpret some of those strange readings. To be fair, most if not all machines will perform erratically over certain targets, like large iron).
2. Less accurate discrimination than other brands I've tried (when set to reject something, the machine still beeps and ID's targets in that range sometimes). Is my sensitivity set too high? Maybe. But I still say the Bounty Hunter, Fisher, Tesoro, and Troy detectors I have used had much cleaner discrimination.
3. Fairly poor salt water beach performance, even when sensitivity is reduced. I could never get my old GTA-500 to work at all on the beach, despite the manufacturer's claims. I have gotten the GTAx-550 to work, but I felt its performance wasn't great. I've seen other folks with cheaper Garrett detectors do okay on the beach, though. I think my lack of success there is due partially my own lack of beachcombing expertise, but not entirely so.
4. The owners' manuals I have read were long on hype and short on useful information. They provided some useful info, but they also tooted their own horn too much and gushed about the product.
Those are my only real criticisms. Everything else is good.
I have noticed that nail and bottlecap rejection on the Garrets I have used (GTA-350, GTA-500, GTAx-550, GTI-2500) is pretty good, at least in my soil conditions, and better than some other brands I've used. I've used Fishers that seemed to love nails- I guess every machine must have that one trash item it really loves. The Garretts seem to like foil- it often reads in the nickel range.
Overall I have more experience with the GTA-500 and its modern counterpart, the GTAx-550, than with any other model or brand of detector. Sure, they have their quirks, but the fact that I've used them for more than a decade should tell you something- they're good machines.
Apr 24, 2006
52 Yes
1 No
Verty good unit for the money
John Stark in Wichita, Ks -Bought this unit a couple of months ago. It was very easy to get going with it..I reccommend following Garrett's advice in the video and use the turn on and go mode the first few hours to get used to how it reacts to different metals. I have had a lot of fun using it to find coins. It does a very good job of locating them and the pin point feature works well. The weight has not been a problem for me and I'm not a very big guy. It seems to be balanced pretty well. The only con I have found is that the pin point button is sometimes hard to keep depressed when you are in the pinpoint mode...All in all I have been very pleased with it so far.
Jul 10, 2005
14 Yes
0 No
Great Starter Machine
John F in Texas -This is a good machine to start with as it truely is a turn on and go detector. Depth & ID features are accurate, and the cointone feature is helpful. Not so good aspects are its weight, somewhat slow response, and the battery carriers are somewhat delicate.
Dec 11, 2004
39 Yes
6 No
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