best detector for discrimation on the salt beach

[IMF2020]

Am looking to add a 3rd detector your answers could save me from watching hundreds of videos ..

 

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[ColonelDan]

A multi frequency or pulse Induction detector is a must for stability on a salt water beach.

After years of hunting our Florida beaches, I'd recommend one of the Minelabs. Although I have used the Excalibur II and the CTX 3030 in years past, I currently use the Equinox 800 and love it. Fast processor, good discrimination, Multi IQ, light weight, priced right and very stable on wet salt sand or in the surf but not as water proof as the Excalibur. If you're planning on going into the surf for extended hunts, I would grab the Excalibur for its enhanced waterproof characteristics. If not, the Equinox series will do exceptionally well for you.

The CTX 3030 is a great beach machine as well and has a mite better discrimination capability than either the Excal or Equinox but it is much heavier and doesn't have as fast a processor as the Equinox. But at $2,500 new,compared to less than $1,000 for the Equinox,...well, you decide.

The pulse induction detector is also at home on a salt beach but there is no discrimination capability so you'll be digging everything and at considerable depths. I've used PI machines on our beaches a time or two and I don't like digging down 18-20 inches for a bobby pin....which I've done with a PI.

Bottom line recommendation, one of the Equinox detectors...600 or 800.

Just the view from my salty foxhole...

 

[Terry Soloman]

Garrett Apex; Minelab Vanquish 540; Minelab Equinox 600

 

[cudamark]

I'd give another vote for an Equinox.

 

[IMF2020]

Could any of these detectors tell if the target of say a 0ne foot cubic or bigger say 1 meter deep or deeper is steel or a good target ??...Or do i need a P.I that might.. maybe one exists ...Am only guessing but i don't think the above brands and models are any good past 12" the most 24" ..Do Two box work in salt water ?? You all know its almost impossible to dig by hand that deep in the tide area and illegal in some places in a few hours the water level will change 6 feet ..any ideas would be helpful am guessing its impossible without a dredge

 

[Terry Soloman]

Could any of these detectors tell if the target of say a 0ne foot cubic or bigger say 1 meter deep or deeper is steel or a good target ??...Or do i need a P.I that might.. maybe one exists ...Am only guessing but i don't think the above brands and models are any good past 12" the most 24" ..Do Two box work in salt water ?? You all know its almost impossible to dig by hand that deep in the tide area and illegal in some places in a few hours the water level will change 6 feet ..any ideas would be helpful am guessing its impossible without a dredge

What are you trying to find, and in what depth of water? Also, what is your budget for a detector?

 

[cudamark]

Large targets at depth will fool most detectors and will give you false discrimination readings. For large targets on land, a 2 box detector is your best bet. They won't work properly in wet salt water sand or ocean, and they're not waterproof. For deep targets in salt water, a PI machine is about your only option unless the target is iron and as big as a cannon ball or bigger. Then you can used a magnetometer.

 

[TheGreenBoy]

Looking for large deep targets? Welcome to the club, i am doing that on daily basis. using deep seaking PIs with large 1m x 1m frame coils. First, it is entirely different game not to be confused with casual "metal detecting". In my oppinion, PIs are wery siutable and most affortable for the purpose. They rufly fall in three categories: DIY machines and chiper hobby deep seekers, such as DBP2010, Xr71, Miner4, Golden Mask Deep Hunter, Pulse star II and many others. They are all very capable of reporting deep targets, but they usually come without discrimination or the provided discrimination is more cosmetic than usefoul one. The Miner4 is an old digital machine, with discrimination that actually works. This is true when used with a small coil as a casual hobby machine, it will differ between ferrous and non ferrous targets quite well. When looking for targets deeper than 0.5m the amouth of soil scanned is hudge, compared to the target and discrimination is almost always a guess. These PIs are priced up to 2000 EUR. The second category are PIs that are of simmilar caracteristic than the first one, but are more ment for professional use and allow a few trick more and are usually provided with discrimination. The Beringer Upex is a tipycat representative, a deep seeker made for military and humanitarian organizations. Then there is a bunch of military PIs in this range. They are all capable of discriminating between ferrous and non ferrous, som are able to identify cavitys. Again, with increasing depth of the target, the dicrimination is rappidly lost. 0.5m is a margin where discrimination starts loosing its reliability. The price range is 2000 to 5000 EUR. The third category are highly professional PIs, usually combined with magnetometer ofently using modern mathematical methods, and visualization, the discrimination is of course not inferior by any means even for deep targets. Prices goes above 10.000 EUR, look at military market. Definetively unsiutable for my pocket.

 

[smokeythecat]

All good answers. I assume you are going underwater. Maybe a bad assumption? Almost any modern detector will work well on the dry sand. Lots will do just find with tweaking on wet sand. Even my little Tesoro Cibola would be fine in 6" or more of the ocean. If you are going to get really wet get a PI machine or a true underwater machine. Some of the others mentioned won't hold up to the stresses of having their control heads flexed like when waves hit them and they die.

 

[IMF2020]

I want to thank all of u for the info ..cudamark u state iron can be found with a magnetometer ...My target is either steel or gold alloy ..type 93 were made of steel and gold alloy copper 18k ..Can a magnetometer see steel ? My dad tell me steel is a way different animal then iron ..Im figuring i can get all my pinoy friends to dig i figure we have maybe tops 2 hours at the lowest tide which is about sunrise ..Thank u for saying large size because for sure theres many small objects out there ..

 

[IMF2020]

I just look this device up made by Fisher ..it states iron or steel am guessing maybe nickel to ..It looks like a phony LRL but i know its based on a real science i read how it works and understand ..My dad laughing at me he says that beach is made out of iron and everyone in the past has failed ..Could 2 inch layers of black sand give this device false readings ..this beach is volcanic ..another thing how long does it take to set up for sure i might have less to 2 hours either shore patrol , PNP , might beat the tide ..cudamark and greenboy again thank you for putting me in the right direction

 

[IMF2020]

Terry my dad dug down almost 2 feet before he had to swim away he tells me in almost 80 years he thinks that the target could of sunk 2 feet to 4 feet he says theres gravel and sand past one foot level ..this target in the tide area am guessing 4 Pt boats were based there and at least 2 ship sunk in this area many treasure hunters have looked in the past my dad told me

 

[Terry Soloman]

Terry my dad dug down almost 2 feet before he had to swim away he tells me in almost 80 years he thinks that the target could of sunk 2 feet to 4 feet he says theres gravel and sand past one foot level ..this target in the tide area am guessing 4 Pt boats were based there and at least 2 ship sunk in this area many treasure hunters have looked in the past my dad told me

https://bigboyshobbies.net/minelab-excalibur-ii-1000-metal-detector

 

[IMF2020]

I just seen the coins u found terry thats your banner find u had the luck that day ..My dad told me he found a Hammered coin back in 1975 not far from there in a Place called Tuxedo N.Y. not far from the red apple rest near the old iron furnace on the road to Monroe ..He said he found it with his hands under oak leaves in a old foundation east of the furnace . I don't understand any of this ive never been to N.Y. ..He told me the coin was over 500 years old how is that possible were the vikings there before spain he always laughing at me ..Great find terry

 

[IMF2020]

This question for the Greenboy ..my dad has shown me rocks as big as washing machine that magnets stick to ..he told me that hes been to many sites were hunters dug up to 100 feet deep only to find nothing ..Many have found layers of minerals probably of copper or lead minerals ..These large hot rocks are either iron or nickel the ones my dad broke open looked like pure iron inside a regular magnet stuck to it ..Gossin or bleeding rocks are all along the river banks like 1 out of 20 and some as big as automobile ..some beaches are black sand , brown and even white ..This device cost about $4000 USD and i have no idea how i would get it here .. Thats 3 years of salary for me ...My dad told me that the search area has up to fist size rocks under the sand and even upland this area has more black sand then any place hes ever seen ..If i knew the target was steel its just war junk but if this device says its not steel the japanese man told his worker one ton of gold ..My dad seen photos of a pt boat near this site and knew of this site before hearing this from a fisherman about the gold ..i think my dad holding back info i seen a photo of a pt boat at this site that he has .. Its like my dad was there how is that possible ..He keeping a secret none of the crews listed have his family name i looked ...Greenboy would u spend the money or just dig the target remember its illegal because its in a marine area ..all war areas were listed as marine areas due to the fact of UXB's .. u probably understand all this because u are a WW2 hunter .. thank u for your time

 

[SlateBeltDigger]

For what this is worth...I only detect on beaches one week per year. This year I took my Equinox 600 and it made me wonder what all the hubbub was about concerning saltwater beaches. It was stable, quiet, and Beach 1 worked like a charm. I didn't do much in Beach 2 but when I did it performed like a champ.

 

[cudamark]

I want to thank all of u for the info ..cudamark u state iron can be found with a magnetometer ...My target is either steel or gold alloy ..type 93 were made of steel and gold alloy copper 18k ..Can a magnetometer see steel ? My dad tell me steel is a way different animal then iron ..Im figuring i can get all my pinoy friends to dig i figure we have maybe tops 2 hours at the lowest tide which is about sunrise ..Thank u for saying large size because for sure theres many small objects out there ..

My understanding is that a magnetometer will detect any ferrous metals. There are stainless alloys both in ferrous and non-ferrous, so not sure every version is detectable with a magnetometer. I'm sure the manufacturer will know though. Large metal items can mask other metal items, so. it's not as easy as you think to distinguish one target from another with a two box, PI, or other types of detectors and large objects. No way I would be hunting an area with old rusty live ordinance, unless you have a death wish. No amount of treasure is worth dying over.

 

[IMF2020]

Cudamark my dad has warned me about UXB's thank you ...the target is either a type 93 steel or its gold my dad says if that device said steel its off limits ..My dad told me he dosn't think theres any type 95s ..all large steel objects are off limits the last 2 found here were both still live one had 100 kilos of TNT dropped in sept 1944 it was under 4 feet of sand made in the usa my dad told me the drag device either failed or it was dropped at tree top level its target was a school building where young japanese were learning how to fly ..I don't think the device will work may dad says if that beach drives vlf crazy with all the black sand which could be off many different elements not only iron .. what i read people use them to locate large pipes would a layer of thick black sand look like a pipe am guessing yes ..And UXB's theres 1000x as many of them to treasures here so u either dig lightly or u QUIT ..I seen what less then a 100 grams of HE can do i just have to look at my dad ..Thank u for the info

 

[IMF2020]

slatebeltdigger so u like the ML 600 ......My dad says u have to drive about a hour to the beach to a real beach 2 or more hours ..My dad said the nearest iron mines are in North eastern New Jersey and he dosn't remember Hot rocks or black sand being a problem near that part of the atlantic ocean so that machine u used should of worked great ..enless the beach is on a lake then it should of worked perfect ..

 

[TheGreenBoy]

You are right, steel(s) are different story. Pure iron is seldom ever seen in every day life, you will find it in chemical lab and some electronic applications. In common life, iron is mainly present in two forms, a casted iron which is rufly a solution of graphite in iron with many other inpurities, some added in purpose, some not. Objects like large pots, owen parts such as grills and doors, are usually made from casted iron. All the rest are warious steels, which is a general term for iron alloys containing warious amonth of cementite (iron carbide). Thousends of steel alloys are known and used. Concerning metal detecting, i would divide steels in three groups: soft or mild steels, hard steels and hardoxide steels and finally, steinless steels or chromium steels.
Casted iron and soft steels such as nails, nuts, bolts and many every day items with relatively low amounth of cementite are all feromagnetic, they will be find as "ferrous" with VLFs and PIs, they can be readly detected with magnetometer if large enough.
Hard steels and hardoxide steels, as well as high carbon steels are feromagnetic too. They will be find with magnetometer, the PIs will mostly find them as "nonferrous", the VLFs will most offently give bouncing VDI or nonferrous number, seldom ever a correct ferrous result.
Steinless steels with high chromium content such as AISI 316 and to some degree AISI 304, as well as chrom-vanadiun steels are bad candidates to look for. They are only weekly feromagnetic, and what is even more problematic, they are rather poor electric conductors compared with other metals. VLFs will fid them with seriously impaired depth, PIs will most likely ignore them all together. Magnetometer would most likely find them, if they are of size of submarine. Small parts would be ignored.