Beach detector?

[depwraith]

Have an old headhunter pro diver that has seen better days and thinking about a new machine. Will be used almost exclusively at beaches/shallow saltwater west of Tampa. Looking at the Deus (not sure on version), Etrac, Excalibur 2 and of course the CTX 3030 (not sure I want to spend that much though).

Any recommendations from those of you that have hunted the same area or conditions?

 

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[depwraith]

Look at all the past recoveries posted in these forums and there will be one very constant machine, the Excal. It's been around a long time, it's a proven machine, and it performs well in most any beach environment. Most experienced hunters who own other machines still have and use an Excal, and there's a reason for that. There's a reason why it's still top dog on the beach. And if you eventually upgrade the machine with the recommended modifications there just isn't another machine that can offer you so much performance in a wide variety of conditions. It's the one beach & water machine where you really can't go wrong.

So you would say the Excal over the 3030? What are the recommended mods should I get the excal?

 

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[Goldfleks]

For a PI Beach Detector and you can choose between the Tesoro Sand Shark or the White Dual Field PI, which would you choose?

 

[bigscoop]

So you would say the Excal over the 3030? What are the reconnended mods should I get the excal?

Yes, personally, I would. Upgrades include a straight shaft, remote pinpoint switch, better headphones, and a coil connector so you can swap coils. This will provide you with the most versatile and efficient beach & water machine possible.

 

[gamiller]

I kinda got agree if only one detector the excal. Keep in mind however the cost. A straight shaft is a must, knob guards highly recommended and pinpoint mode and depending how hard core different headphones . The downside is that machine sometime break and need to be sent away for repairs, now what?
I much prefer a multiple detector approach. Waiting for a machine to come back from repairs during the height of the season not good. I like The sand shark at one particular beach . The whites bhid 300 for my dry sand hunts (covers lot of ground). My all around performer when I am undecided is the cz 21. my Garret AT pro is a closet queen and a backup.
The sand shark slices through the water effortlessly and has a lifetime warranty for the original buyer. There is another user with the sand shark that outperforms many other members here. Look at Casper finds with the cz21.
A lot will depend on YOUR skill level .

 

[Terry Soloman]

For a PI Beach Detector and you can choose between the Tesoro Sand Shark or the White Dual Field PI, which would you choose?

Sand Shark every time.

 

[cudamark]

So you would say the Excal over the 3030? What are the recommended mods should I get the excal?

For water hunting....yes. If it's your one and only detector, the CTX without a doubt.

 

[agflit]

Sandshark is an absolute sleeper...and a phenominal force multiplier in the right hands...

I LOVE my Excal Bluetube....its a killer IF..you spend the time to learn her language.

I also use a Tigershark for alot of freshwater work...NOTHING...sniffs out the little stuff like a Tigershark..

Matter a fact...my Tigershark paid itself 59 minutes into its first hunt...and also paid for the Excal and a Seahunter....as well as last 4 Caribbean scuba vacations...

bottom line... whatever you get...LEARN IT INSIDE OUT.

Best of luck

AG

 

[Sodapop]

Thanks for the question OP and thanks for the answers folks. If my budget was strictly $500 to $750, would most of y'all agree with the Sand Shark (including scoop, headsets and pin pointer) for a noob? Beach hunting 90% of the time.

 

[Terry Soloman]

New Sand Shark and respectable aluminum scoop about $750.00 - and the best way to get IN the saltwater!

 

[lookindown]

Thanks for the question OP and thanks for the answers folks. If my budget was strictly $500 to $750, would most of y'all agree with the Sand Shark (including scoop, headsets and pin pointer) for a noob? Beach hunting 90% of the time.

Pi is a bad choice for someone new to the hobby.

 

[gamiller]

Pi is a bad choice for someone new to the hobby.

I agree with others that the sand shark is a fine machine and a relatively inexpensive way to get into saltwater detecting.
Lookindowns point is also very valid . As you probably know a PI is a dig everything type of machine. If I had first began with a PI type machine I most certainly would have quit out of frustration (bobby pins, bottle caps, small splits shots, fishing hooks and iron of every sort). I believe you got to grow into using a PI machine. Most hobbyist would be better served with a VLF type machine and then the cost factor becomes an issue . The 500 to 750 dollar budget almost locks you into the Sand shark or a used VLF machine. Some people do well with purchasing used machines but if you make a bad purchase the repairs will have you wishing you bought new.

 

[Sodapop]

quit out of frustration

I get your point. So, what I'm taking from the above advice is that the SS is a very capable machine in the hands of a detector that understands it. I should join a local detecting club and/or find an experienced detector to help me learn (greasing the wheels with beer and food ).

 

[cudamark]

I get your point. So, what I'm taking from the above advice is that the SS is a very capable machine in the hands of a detector that understands it. I should join a local detecting club and/or find an experienced detector to help me learn (greasing the wheels with beer and food ).

d

I didn't realize there was a need for a salt water machine in Oklahoma! Seriously, If you need a good salt water beach machine and haven't detected before, Either get a cheap VLF machine and stay in the dry sand, or get a good multifrequency machine and hunt anywhere. In your price range, you're looking at a used machine. A local detector store would be my first choice. They can give you hands-on help getting started. If you think you can figure it our on your own, check with our sponsor dealers here on Tnet. They can give you advice on which machine(s) to buy for your needs and maybe have a few to pick from.

 

[gamiller]

I get your point. So, what I'm taking from the above advice is that the SS is a very capable machine in the hands of a detector that understands it. I should join a local detecting club and/or find an experienced detector to help me learn (greasing the wheels with beer and food ).

Not a bad idea.
The sand shark is a very simple machine to operate , just be aware of its limitations.
If you were Tampa bay area I would let try some different detectors and see what you think.

 

[KirkS]

Like the OP, I'm in Tampa Bay, and I decided on either a Sovereign GT or an Explorer SE/SE Pro, as I wanted more of an all-around machine that will handle salt. I do realize that those machines are not waterproof, but I don't dive, and won't be going past knee deep. Because I couldn't find a Sov GT available, I went with an SE with the 11" coil.

I seriously considered the Excal, but I really wanted as close to a one-machine-for-everything type, without dropping $2.5k on the 3030. I also have seen/heard some stuff about the 3030 that me think it wouldn't be a good fit for me at the moment. The Excal is made for the water, and designed for folks that spend their time hunting in the water 100%. It can be used on land, but I don't think it would shine there as it does in the water. The thing that bugs me about the Excal is how much you hear about all these mods, and extras that you 'really need to do' to get the most out of the machine. I think I'll wait and see if they come out with an Excal that has all the necessary mods/upgrades. Requiring a know protector took the cake. If they didn't take the poor design of the knobs into consideration, in the back of my mind I wonder what else they passed on.

I think it comes down to where will you hunt? If you will be hunting 100% in the water, then an Excal. If you expect to be splitting your hunting time between the wet and the dry, the CTX. The Explorer SE, or a Sov (with precautions) would be the way to go if you expect more time on land then in the water (like me).

 

[Terry Soloman]

I get your point. So, what I'm taking from the above advice is that the SS is a very capable machine in the hands of a detector that understands it. I should join a local detecting club and/or find an experienced detector to help me learn (greasing the wheels with beer and food ).

No, no, no! This isn't rocket science, and beach detecting is THE EASIEST form of metal detecting there is - period. You are going to be using a long handled sandscoop, which means no bending, just planting your scoop and sifting it out. Arguments about wasting time digging iron and covering more beach with a multi-freq are red herrings. PI detectors RULE in the wet sand and IN the water. ANY vlf works on the dry sand - ALL of them. Multi-freq machines are great IF you want to spend $1,500-$2,500.00. But if you want to find the same targets even deeper, you'll need a PI.

 

[KirkS]

Terry, I seriously considered the Sand Shark, but (and please correct me if I'm wrong, as I'm still a newbie) a PI machine won't discriminate anything out, which leads me to believe I'd be digging lots of iron. In my personal experiences here on the Gulf beaches of the Tampa Bay area, I've dug lots of itsby bitsy bits of iron out of the sand at water's edge. Some so small I was amazed they were picked up by my machine(s) (White Treasure Pro which doesn't work in the wet salt, and a Compadre which does work in the wet salt (albeit with almost no depth)).

Is there a way to manipulate the settings to filter iron out with the SS, or is it more of a learning experience, where you know from the signal that it's iron?

Even though I'll be using the Exp SE, I have a feeling I'll be looking for a fully waterproof machine in the somewhat near future, and the SS is still one I'd consider, so I'm trying to figure this all out.

 

[Goldfleks]

New Sand Shark owner here! Been out on the beach with it the last 4 days. Here is my experience:

Top left Pile: Day1, the morning after Lucifer pounded the So Cal beaches. First day using my machine, didn't really know what I was doing all that well, basically chased the high tones. Found some change, some trash, and 1 gold and diamond engagement ring. This beach doesn't have much small iron on it, it was mostly those tent stakes. But If I had to guess, I was hitting 50/50 iron and trash, to coins.

Middle Right Pile: Day2. Hit the same beach I hit on day 1, but got started earlier in the day 6 am when the beach opened. Coins were everywhere. Much less iron in comparison. Probably 25% of my targets day2 were iron. 3 rings, 1 gold, 1 silver, 1 stainless and 1 silver bracelet.

Middle Left Pile (With the glass and rocks): Day 3. Started at the same beach, but it had sanded in. Targets were much more scarce, so I went south to the next major tourist beach. Hit that silver ring as my first target. Iron trash was heavy on this beach, tons of nasty barbed wire looking things, and nails, and just chunks of iron. I'm going to go with at least 60% iron and trash to 40% good targets on this beach. The guy I met at my first beach who was using a PI detector switched to a Minelab Sovereign GT for this beach. His comments were similar to those reflected above that the iron content was just too heavy to use a PI detector. HOWEVER, I did notice that I could go back over areas that he had detected and found a few coins scattered around the iron targets that he skipped over. I'm guessing they were deeper in the sand and he didn't hear them.

This was the most difficult day to detect for me simply because of the sheer volume of iron trash. Just roaming around produced a lot of frustration because I felt like I was digging iron after iron after iron. Especially after detecting post-Lucifer and finding that bounty of coins. I did, however, find success once I switched my strategy from quickly roaming to slow and careful gridding of an area. I slowed down, listened for the deeper tones (still learning this) and carefully detected an area of the beach. I dug tons of iron, but I also dug plenty of coins. Found my first Susan B Anthony coin deep down doing this method.

Day4 is the bottom pile, the sad one with no ring lol. Only spent 2 hours around low tide on the beach. Early bird gets the worm, my friend had already found a gold ring. I ended up crevicing for coins on some exposed bedrock and that's where pretty much 100% of my coins came from day4. You can see the iron trash I was digging as well, that's what's left of the trash I didn't dump midway through detecting. Beach was kinda sanded in and I wasn't hitting a lot of targets which is why I decided to try crevicing for coins.

Long story short, PI detectors work fine in iron infested areas, but you have to be more deliberate and patient with them (Harder to use). The benefit of a PI is that they are the deepest beach detector you can use. So you need to use that advantage by going slow and learning the sounds of a deeper target so you don't miss out on the deeper targets that you can easily miss by speeding around the beach. Yes, you dig iron/trash/everything. But the advantage is, is that you dig everything, and you dig deeper. You might not cover as much visible beach area as you will with a VLF discriminating out the iron. But you make up for it in additional depth ONCE you understand what your detector is saying. So you gain back that lost yardage underground. And you don't miss gold targets that you discriminate out because you thought it was trash.

I picked up my Shark used for $360 bucks. Not sure what the value of the two gold rings plus the two silver plus the silver bracelet are, but I'd like to think that between that and the clad I'm at least halfway to paying myself back after a weekend of fun.

 

[Wiganer]

For a PI Beach Detector and you can choose between the Tesoro Sand Shark or the White Dual Field PI, which would you choose?

I pondered this for 3 months and went with the dual field, and I think the thing that swayed me to the dual field was after reading the owners manual on both machines, the Whites just seemed simpler to set up , threshold, gain. Done.

 

[Sodapop]

need for a salt water machine in Oklahoma!

I have a HUGE aquarium.

My plans are to move to the southwest Florida coast in a few months. My kids are grown and it's just me now, so I have the luxury of picking (within my means) where I want to live.

So ...

If you were Tampa bay area

I am looking at Marinas around that neck of the woods. If it works out that way, and you don't mind, I'll shoot you a PM when I know for sure. I appreciate the kind offer.

No, no, no! This isn't rocket science

Sounds like my ex on our honeymoon! I think I get what you were trying to say and thank you. The buddy, beer and food would still be a good idea.