Let’s Go Treasure Hunting! SAKOBS GC1080 Metal Detector Review
REVIEW – Many years ago, my better half and I belonged to a treasure hunting club here in Southern Indiana. We each had a metal detector and liked to go to local parks to look for coins and other treasures. We even participated in some club events where dozens of people would hunt for buried mercury dimes and win prizes for the most dimes found in an allotted time. It was a lot of fun. When the offer came up to review the SAKOBS (GC1080) Pro Metal Detector, I thought about those fun times and wanted to experience them again so I agreed to do the review. Let’s see if I found some buried treasure in my yard!
What is it?
The SAKOBS (GC1080) Pro Metal Detector is an affordable metal detector that anyone can buy to get into the hobby of searching for buried metallic objects.
What’s in the box?
- SAKOBS (GC1080) Pro Metal Detector
- Zippered storage bag
- Headphone adapter
- User manual
- Folding shovel
- Folding shovel pouch
Assembly
Before you can use the SAKOBS (GC1080) Pro Metal Detector to go searching for gold coins and jewelry, you will need to assemble it. Don’t worry though, it won’t require any tools and only a few minutes of your time.
The first step is to attach the coil to the end of the lower part of the stem with the included bolt and nut.
Then you can connect the two stems together and tighten them in place.
All that’s left to do at this point is remove the cover over the control housing’s battery compartment and connect two 9V alkaline batteries.
It’s kind of a bummer that 2 batteries weren’t included with the metal detector. I realize that batteries included with these types of gadgets are usually pretty cheap, but it’s nice to be able to immediately start using a new toy without having to run to the store to buy something extra in order to get it to work.
Here we see the SAKOBS (GC1080) Pro Metal Detector fully assembled and ready to go.
The control housing has 2 knobs, several buttons, and a large LCD display. The knob on the left is the power and volume button. A quick turn turns on the metal detector and turns up the volume so that you’ll be able to hear tones when it detects something metallic in the ground.
You’ll want to read the manual to understand the modes and controls, but if you just want to get out and start digging, you can just turn it on and head outdoors!
Let’s go treasure hunting!
Unlike the metal detector that I used over 30 years ago, the SAKOBS (GC1080) Pro Metal Detector’s display gives you an idea of exactly what you will probably find when you start digging after you’ve found a target. If you look closely at the image above, the detector has detected either a nail or a bottle cap. Note that sometimes what this detector thinks it’s going to find isn’t what you’ll actually end up finding…
I took the SAKOBS (GC1080) Pro Metal Detector out in my front yard and started swinging slowly back and forth in a smooth sweeping motion with overlapping swings. I immediately started hearing low tones which told me that there were probably small bits of trash underground like nails, and pull tabs. The cool thing about this metal detector is that it has 3 tones that will let you audibly discern the type of targets you’re detecting. Low is probably junk, but could be really small gold objects, a medium tone is probably pull tabs, zinc coins, pennies newer than 1982, and gold objects, and a high tone is probably older pennies, dimes, quarters, and half dollars.
See it in action
Here’s a quick video showing the detector in action and a medium tone which I thought might be a penny, but… it turned out to be…
Just part of an old soda or beer can. Darnit!
I kept at it though and went to another area in my yard.
I got excited when I found a penny! Finally something “good”!
Then I got what I thought was a high tone and I was super excited. But after digging using the included shovel, I still hadn’t uncovered the target, so I grabbed another shovel and… It was only a hunk of junk metal. Boo! That’s what I meant about sometimes the tone and what shows on the detector’s display (in this case it showed that the target was probably a quarter), might not really be what you end up finding.
What I like
- Easy to use
- Tones and screen gives you an idea of what you will find
- Included shovel
What I’d change
- Include batteries
Final thoughts
Treasure Hunting with a metal detector like the SAKOBS (GC1080) Pro Metal Detector can be a lot of fun! It can be super frustrating too if all you find are old pull tabs and metal junk. But, that’s kind of the fun of it because the next target and high pitched tone might be your first real good find and then you’ll be hooked. I do have a warning though… Don’t come crying to me when your front yard is full of holes but you don’t have anything good to show for all your digging! 😉
The Author
From：The Gadgeteer
