The most important thing is that the Minelab Go-Find was not suited to be a Garrett ACE killer. Is it for good or bad… For Garrett it’s probably not important any more. Is a new Garrett ACE AT coming soon? An underwater one?
What I don’t like most about the Minelab Go-Find 40 (and the Go-Find 20/60, too) is an armrest… To put it straight, the latter is absent in the Go-Find. A fixing strap serves as an armrest.
I have repeatedly pointed out: it’s impossible to hunt with the Go-Find without this strap. Never thought the day would come when I say the Garrett ACE 250 has a good armrest… Believe me, after the Go-Find, the ACE armrest will seem to be the pinnacle of comfort.
I personally try not to use the fixing strap. The signal sounds every few minutes and I need to dig a hole. While digging up, I put the metal detector aside (we have such soils that it’s impossible to dig with one hand or foot). And when you constantly put the device aside, it’s inconvenient to get the arm out of this strap as well as tuck it into the latter again. If the armrest holds the arm without a fixing strap, it’s a real plus for me. The ACE 250 armrest does hold the arm, whereas the Go-Find one doesn’t.
How Minelab praised its new detector construction! Lightweight, requiring no assembly, convenient… It’s all these things that are the weakest point of the Go-Find.
I have two Minelab Go-Find machines, bought with my own money, in my personal zoo of metal detectors and I certainly don’t want to break them in the first months.
The thing I most worry about is plastic camlocks. Besides the fact that they are made of plastic and always ready to break down, the upper shaft is made like a trough that accumulates all trash while hunting. After the hunt (particularly at the beach), when folding up the Go-Find I have to be careful that the catches and grooves are clean. There had already been such a crunch a couple times that I thought the ‘Dark Prince’ had already come to lay the Go-Find to rest.
I can assemble and disassemble my Garrett ACE 250 with my eyes closed in a matter of seconds. And that’s what usually happens: while assembling the detector you already let your eyes rove around the field… And I have never been nervous about this process. But the fact that the Minelab Go-Find doesn’t require any disassembly is also a plus (even for me).
Two examples of disappointing grips… The Garrett ACE 250 grip is a bit thin as for an adult’s hand, the foam grip starts spinning in course of time. But it’s convenient for one-hand control as I can reach all buttons with my thumb.
The Minelab Go-Find 40 handle is of normal thickness and almost doesn’t slide in the hand. Its main disadvantage is height. With such a height, the metal detector held in hand is swaying. So you start to adjust the fixing strap (on the armrest) tighter. And the tighter the strap, the more difficult then it is to get an arm out as well as tuck it into this strap.
That’s how, due to such grips-handles-armrests, you come to an understanding of classical S-shaped shaft. The handle when released on the straight shaft requires a good balance. There is no such a balance in the Minelab Go-Find 40. The only thing that saves the situation is weight (the Go-Find weighs 1 kg), supposing it weighed a bit more, you wouldn’t walk all day long with it.
The Minelab Go-Find has a real advantage: the coil cable is hidden inside the shaft. And no matter how good you are at wrapping the cable (with no loops). The advantage is that the detector’s height can be easily changed.
If it is possible to quickly change the height of the machine, I grab this opportunity. When on hillocks I adjust the height by sliding the shaft up, for flat areas – by sliding it down, thereby increasing my search speed. If the arm gets tired, I slide the shaft up again. The same goes for ploughed field: here a bit longer and there a bit shorter. If you have your coil cable wrapped around the shaft, any change of height requires cable rewinding. Otherwise there will be loops. And walking with dangling loops is a sign of absence of hunting practice.
Anyone, who at least once has gone out on these fields with the plants sticking up out of the soil, quickly comes to an opinion that a dangling loop is bad for him.
In this regard the Minelab Go-Find 40, with its cable hidden inside the shaft, is an order of magnitude higher than the Garrett ACE 250.
Both metal detectors are powered by 4 AA batteries. Soon it will be a disadvantage as there appeared the new products powered by 2 AA batteries only. And they demonstrate the same operation time at that (for instance, the Fisher F44 – 2 AA batteries, 40 hours of operation time). Until then, that’s also normal.
I’ve noticed the fact that the batteries, which stopped working in the Minelab Go-Find 40, gave additional 1.5 hours of search when inserted into the ACE 250.
What I like about the Minelab Go-Find is a screen. Maybe my Garrett ACE 250’s screen has grown dim by the lapse of time (I doubt that), but the Go-Find screen is cool. A contrasting one, with large signs and symbols, everything can be seen perfectly (you needn’t strain your eyes).
Do the Garrett ACE 250 buttons look outdated? Maybe so, the metal detector is more than 10 years old. But the buttons work as they should. So it’s convenient (and reliable) to control the Ace machine.
The Minelab Go-Find 40 has touch buttons… I still can’t understand where the catch is. Frankly speaking, when I learned of it, the first thing that occurred to me was: and how will they respond when I am wearing a glove? Thus I’ve tried different gloves – rag and rubberized ones (except for mittens), the buttons do respond.
I haven’t used the Bluetooth feature of the Go-Find. When on a hunt, I’m engaged in hunting and tinkering around with a phone besides is not for me. Furthermore, I am a programmer and have paranoia: I know for what purpose all these apps are made.
However, I got to make use of the Minelab Go-Find backlight… Have you ever gone out for a hunt early in the morning? We went out on one field for one week since 3:00 am, and as it happened, I tested this Go-Find with another coil. So I appreciate the backlight, it’s a good thing.
Year 2015: The egg-shaped and square coils are added to traditional elliptical and round ones.
Why Minelab has made a square coil, as I understood, is a philosophical question… I haven’t noticed any practical advantage. Plus, in soil the Go-Find 40 coil is losing out to the original one of the ACE 250 in depth. But it should be the opposite: the Minelab Go-Find 40 coil is 0.5 inch larger than the Garrett ACE 250 coil.
I was concerned that these cells on the coil crossbars would become clogged up with soil, thereby increasing the coil weight and making even false signals possible… But they don’t become clogged up, everything is ok.
The Garrett ACE 250 has long proved its effectiveness and become the real classics in the history of metal detectors. Will the Mibelab Go-Find 40 make its mark in this history? There are doubts. And not because it’s some detector with a difference. The machine is searching somehow and didn’t fall to pieces on first hunts (I mean the hunts of mine). But the way Minelab dished it up is destructive for treasure hunting magic.
That’s just what they are – cheap metal detectors. For more information about the Garrett ACE 250 and Minelab Go-Find 40, see the Encyclopedia pages. There you will find everything: photo reviews, tests, videos, coils and things (ACE 250, Go-Find 40).
