Is Depth The Most Important Thing?

[Michigan Badger]

Everyone (including me) is looking for that super comfortable detector that can detect a dime at 30 inches in highly mineralized soil. Oh my! can you imagine what you could do with that puppy on the beach!

We all know a detector needs a decent depth.

BUT I sometimes wonder, with all the emphasis on depth these days, are we missing something?

Please give us you point-of-view in regard to depth and general metal detector features.

 

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[Kentucky Kache]

Most goodies are not all that deep, but It just feels good knowing you are reaching way down there, just In case.

 

[birdman]

I think it is.Most of my younger years I spent getting skunked because I never had a good detector. People all around me would pull up stuff that my detectors could not even reach.I guess you really do get what you pay for but back in them days that was all I could afford and I had to use the lay a way plan for that.LOL

 

[JakePhelps]

Yes and No...

I mean at a beach you would want to dig everything at any depth right?

But at a really trashy park with nice lawn you don't want to dig super deep, instead you want to disc out all the trash.

In the woods you would dig anything at any depth.

Depends on the situation

 

[hollowpointred]

i think depth is every bit as important as everyone makes it out to be however...its not the only thing. to me,pinpointing is a really important. how well does it pinpoint? if i detect a dime at 20 inches and cant accurately pinpoint the damn thing the depth is useless.

 

[warsawdaddy]

Being an ol' hillbilly fisherman,I've learned that in almost everything--it's not how deep you fish,it's how you wiggle your worm!

 

[Rudy(CA)]

If depth was the most important thing to everyone, there'd be no manufacturers
making VLF units and everybody would be swinging PI units.

 

[rvbvetter]

No Unless you have the 2nd deepest detector. HH

 

[Michigan Badger]

If depth was the most important thing to everyone, there'd be no manufacturers
making VLF units and everybody would be swinging PI units.?

I shouldn't be butting in here on my own question thread but I can't resist.

I've been wondering about PI's for a long time. Are they really a lot deeper than VLF's? How do they compare?

Zeb

 

[gunner6170]

Can't answer the Pi's question, but i'll weigh in on whats important to
me in a detector. Yes, depth is one, and being able to pinpoint with it
is another. An added consideration for me is the weight so i can detect
with it all day and not get too wore out. Lastly, having good discrimination
is pretty good. Still learning a lot, myself, but the better i get with the
discrimination, the more productive my hunts have been. While not finding
anything exceptionally valuable yet, i have found a ton of clad and some earlier
1900s coins so far.

 

[U.K. Brian]

P.I. has the depth if you go for a high power European machine and intend to search for larger targets. Most P.I.'s will get little more or even less depth than a good VLF in all metal on coin size targets.
Pulse Star P.I. can manage 10 feet on a bag of coins or a pistol size item and has discrimination (ferrous/non-ferrous on large iron). Small trash is ignored because of the size of the standard coil (40 inches) but it also means individual rings/coins will be missed.

 

[Uncle Willy]

Depth is a spin term to sell detectors and for bragging sessions. 99% of all dropped coins are within the reach of most machines out there. I've found coins from the 1700's at two inches and clads at ten in the same area. Too much emphasis is placed on depth unless you are hunting caches or relics. One thing that hinders most users is their fascination with the sensitivity control and think one has to crank it wide open to find those really deep ones. Actually if they would lower the sensitivity they would recover a lot more.

Bill

 

[Jason in TN]

Depth is important but i do not think it is the most important. I have found many heavy lead Civil War bullets from areas that have been hunted for many years at 4 or 5 inches. It was not depth that allowed me to find the bullets but discrimination and target separation. These bullets were shot in the 1860's and are heaver than any coin so they should be deeper than most coins from that time period in the same type of ground. So good discrimination and target separation is more important to me. You can get a foot deep but if your detector can't separate the good stuff from the trash it will never let you know any thing is there. You can use all metal mode or a PI unit and get the most depth possible but you will have to dig everything including iron.

 

[bakergeol]

My sentiments have been echoed by several above. Target separation, the ability to work around trash and the ability to work in bad ground are equally as important as depth.

With regards to the PI depth issue. If there is someone out there who thinks that a top of the line VLF has equal or greater depth than a PI for coin sized objects, well they have never used a Minelab SD or GP series PI detector. There is a reason why we pay incredible bucks for high end PIs ( A new GP3500 will set you back$3500). You will clearly understand the depth issue after you have used a high end Minelab PI(It sure was an eye opener for me).

George

 

[Earl]

If there is little trash and highly mineralized ground the P.I. is the way to go. If you are working a high trash area and don.t want to dig trash then go with a good vlf unit top of the line in one of the 3 or 4 top brands. Just my 2 cents worth. Buffalo Earl

 

[Rudy(CA)]

If depth was the most important thing to everyone, there'd be no manufacturers
making VLF units and everybody would be swinging PI units.?

I shouldn't be butting in here on my own question thread but I can't resist.

I've been wondering about PI's for a long time. Are they really a lot deeper than VLF's? How do they compare?

Zeb

A good PI will beat the best VLF on dept on coin sized targets and one running ay 10us or so is great on gold.
Problem is .... no discrimination. In a trashy area you'll go crazy digging junk. That is why PIs are more often used on beaches, where digging is easy and on the shallow or deep water, where the iron objects have been oxidized into oblivion.

 

[IrishCharlieM]

Dig Everything......In the right location.

 

[tallpaul]

depth is different on a number of machines,, depends on how much you want to pay, and this also covers the knocking out trash,, some detectors still give a blip when discrimin,, its up to you to get to know your machine, most up to date detectors are reasonably deep,, well hey what do we call deep,, thats a question on its own,, iam useing a minelab x terra 50 and blow me what a machine this baby is really something,, its good at getting a 2 pence piece at 13 inches, and to me thats good enough when i knock out the iron and pull tabs and foil, it knocks em out, you dont hear anything,, only good signals,, you dont need an explorer ll at high end money,, but you do need to spend arround middle of the road 500, this gets a good detector but hey everyone to there own, you also need to ground balance to get your best depth,, all these little settings have to marry up with how and what your looking for and the mineral land,. ggod luck. ?

 

[Sandman]

They advertise DEPTH because most people think it is the most important, but it's not. ?Having a stable machine with good discrimination is more important. ?But if your machine does go deep, the cone of detection will be wider at depth. ?Plus if you walk along swinging the coil like a pendulum with it higher off the ground your only going to get max. depth right in front of you.

PI machines go deeper, but at a beach this is important to get thru the salt water and black sand. ?However with it's sad discrimination you will deep very deep holes for nails or bobbie pins. ?In my experience they also miss lots of white gold rings.

HH,
Sandman

 

[Crutch]

Controllable depth and good filters. That makes a good machine in my opinion. Sometimes I like being on the verge of instability and sometimes I only want a beep on a good target. This is due to hunting in prime areas and trashy filled wasting my time locations.