Is the Excal all everyone says it is?

[UNCLENICK]

I really am wanting the Tesoro Sandshark...Good deal brand new, lifetime warr, light weight, good batt time... But I'm being told hold it!...save up a little longer and get an Excal. I would only buy a water machine new. Not used...what do you think? h H

Nick

 

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[UNCLENICK]

By the way...I see a lot of guys run the disc so little, (close to zero) what is the point of having it? Why not use it, I guess cause you might lose it?(Depth that is). But still if your affraid to run a little amount of disc, I dont see the point of me buying this, and not the PI.

 

[47thelement]

I will not hunt the surf with anything else!

to paraphrase a very smart hunter "Life is too short to swing an inferior machine"

 

[JoeSWFla]

The Excal is great.You can run in 0 disc. and still have the
iron mask feature,which eliminates most iron.Thus,less
digging and more chances of good items.Good to get a
new machine,but I have had good luck with used ones from
reputable sellers.Have 2 now,both used,and still going strong.
Good luck on your choice.HH Joe

 

[stitchlips]

I started with a Sandshark and within six months got an excal. With the sandshark, I was spending all of my time digging up iron while everyone passed me up getting gold. I just got real tired of digging bobby pins, staples and tent stakes. If that is what you like then by all means get a sandshark, just don't be surprised to see someone with an excal passing you as you dig all of that junk.

Oh yeah the excal also has rechargeable batteries.

 

[Sandman]

By the way...I see a lot of guys run the disc so little, (close to zero) what is the point of having it? Why not use it, I guess cause you might lose it?(Depth that is). But still if your affraid to run a little amount of disc, I dont see the point of me buying this, and not the PI.

I like the Pulse units and they have their place. However the Excal though more costly has Iron Mask which is different than Iron Disc. It will respond to a gold ring very near a piece of iron. Most detectors you disc out the iron you also won't hear the signal from the gold ring or coin. Now that I am older I don't want to spend all my time digging deep holes for a hairpin. That time can better be spent sweeping for the better targets. True the Sand Shark as good a detector as it is still can reach depths at the saltwater beaches the Excal can only get with the addition of a WOT Coil. But it comes down to how much time you want to spend digging in the sand. Then you have to consider many of the newer Excals with the slimline coil are having problems. Tesoro Sand Sharks are excellent quality and warranty that you may never use in your life time.

 

[digum smacks]

i have put my excal in the closet and using my pi .every time i go hunting i have someone hunting with me that uses only a excal.since i switched to the pi it has been destroying the excal. the bottom line was when we went hunting i had my excal i found 1 gold ring my buddy found 9.since i switched i average at least 3 per hunt.but heres the thing.i will tell you the excals suck while the next guy swears by them.my opinion is if the machine works its a good machine.

 

[bigscoop]

If you want a first hand demonstration as to why so many swear by the Excalls, borrow an Excall and place a few coins or a gold or silver ring on a large piece of iron and try to accomplish a clear target tone with anything else. The Excalls will automatically mask out the iron signal and present only the good target signal. I use a CZ-21 most of the time, love the machine, but I just got my butt handed to me this past week while hunting over a concrete boat launch slab with iron rebar. My partner was easily plucking coins and jewelry out of the sand over the concrete ramp without making any special adjustments to his Excall. I can't do the same thing so effortlessly with my CZ-21.

 

[Silver Surfer]

I started with a Sandshark and within six months got an excal. With the sandshark, I was spending all of my time digging up iron while everyone passed me up getting gold. I just got real tired of digging bobby pins, staples and tent stakes. If that is what you like then by all means get a sandshark, just don't be surprised to see someone with an excal passing you as you dig all of that junk.

Oh yeah the excal also has rechargeable batteries.

And I have found just as many people posting all over the internet that they follow behind Excal owners and find gold that they missed...
I love my Excal, dont get me wrong, but am really looking forward to trying out the new PI Dual Field... My opinion is (and I am not Mr. Experienced for sure) that the Excal found a niche in our hobby, and then that niche grew to what it is now, nearly a crazy fad... I can only ask this... If the PI's are so bad, why are they used by nearly all (if not all) of the Pro treasure hunters?
Just like when I was younger, Chevy's were the best... You were no one if you didnt have one... Then it was the Dodge Hemi's... Then Ford's...
Get what you want, you will find good stuff... I know an old guy that worked a park that I had just worked with my MXT, and I mean I WORKED it.... He used his 35 yr old machine and found a nice heavy 14k mens band.. Excal's are great, but I also hear the Sandsharks are too..

 

[Silver Surfer]

If you want a first hand demonstration as to why so many swear by the Excalls, borrow an Excall and place a few coins or a gold or silver ring on a large piece of iron and try to accomplish a clear target tone with anything else.

Oh come now Bigscoop.... Now really, just how many times is that scenario going to happen My lord.. A PI person can just as easy say "Just go to a beach that has been sanded in, and try to find that gold ring at 18" with a VLF machine"...
I suppose that if money werent an issue, and someone only wanted one machine, I would have to vote for an Excal... BUT... People find plenty of gold with an ACE 250, and I just dont think the Excal deserves this almost insane reputation... Mine found plenty of gold in it's short life, but my MXT has found a load of gold too... Even on the beach... I see one (Excal II) on ebay right now that is almost 6 months old, no warranty transfer, and it is sitting at $1100 with 4 hrs left... A new one is $1198 and free shipping on ebay.. Tell me that is not insane??
It really comes down to people losing stuff, and anyone with a detector being in the right spot at the right time.. Albeit, there are extraordinary situations that come up, such as what you describe, but most of the time, gold is lost, then it is found by a lucky detector..
I am very glad to be having both a VLF and a PI machine... The best of both worlds..

 

[excal/pirate]

the excal is only as good as the operator is meaning theres alot of tricks that you need to master in order to get great depth this takes along time in other words learn your machine and it will find the gold

 

[bigscoop]

If you want a first hand demonstration as to why so many swear by the Excalls, borrow an Excall and place a few coins or a gold or silver ring on a large piece of iron and try to accomplish a clear target tone with anything else.

Oh come now Bigscoop.... Now really, just how many times is that scenario going to happen My lord.. A PI person can just as easy say "Just go to a beach that has been sanded in, and try to find that gold ring at 18" with a VLF machine"...
I suppose that if money werent an issue, and someone only wanted one machine, I would have to vote for an Excal... BUT... People find plenty of gold with an ACE 250, and I just dont think the Excal deserves this almost insane reputation... Mine found plenty of gold in it's short life, but my MXT has found a load of gold too... Even on the beach... I see one (Excal II) on ebay right now that is almost 6 months old, no warranty transfer, and it is sitting at $1100 with 4 hrs left... A new one is $1198 and free shipping on ebay.. Tell me that is not insane??
It really comes down to people losing stuff, and anyone with a detector being in the right spot at the right time.. Albeit, there are extraordinary situations that come up, such as what you describe, but most of the time, gold is lost, then it is found by a lucky detector..
I am very glad to be having both a VLF and a PI machine... The best of both worlds..

I still love my CZ, and as I said, I got my butt handed to me in that one particular situation because of the iron mask feature on the Excalls. Day in and day out I opt for the CZ, but was just remarking as to why so many people swear by the Excalls, because there are a lot of places and hunting situations that are iron rich, which is why I also use an Excall at times. There is no perfect machine for all conditions so trying to stand by just one unit over another is a rough sell to anyone who understands why some are better then others in certain situations. The question was in regards to why so many feel the Excalls are the supreme machine, and I think the iron mask feature is the main reason why, "less time spent on fooling around with junk targets in high iron areas, less chance of missing or discriminating out good targets in high iron areas". I tell people that "I think" the CZ-21 is the best all around machine, but I still recognize those areas where a different unit is a better fit and I'll often set my CZ aside in favor of the other machine. And in support of your statement that just about any machine is capable of finding gold and the such, I just returned from a trip up north and my partner and I hunted a section of beach with a variety of high dollar detectors, including Excalls, so later I took a Cobra Beach Magnet back to this same section of beach just to kill some time to fool around with it a bit and I turned up an exceptional find. Don't know why we missed it with the other units, can't really say? Just one of those things that happens. But whatever machine you use, learn all of it well and it should do fine by you day in and day out.

 

[JP]

I'll quote what someone posted on here several times "a machine is only as good as the person operating it" (or something like that....).

When I'm hunting neck deep water the Excal is perfect. My SeaHunter (PI unit) is excellent for shallow. I found a ring the other day that was down at least 16 inches (4 scoops down and no it wasn't that I was missing the item and it kept going down further....it was an almost silent blip that started me digging). Why is the Excal perfect when I am in deep water? Because it is almost impossible to recover a target that is more then 6 inches down while in neck deep water. If someone knows a trick please let me know It is excellent in iron filled areas, etc.....

I'm sure that the Sandshark is an excellent machine. There is a guy that hunts at Clearwater with a Tesoro that finds a whole heck of a lot more than me. Again it's a combination of skill and machine.

Honestly it all depends on the conditions of the beach that you are going to hunt. If there is tons of garbage you will definitely want something that will discriminate.....

Good luck.....

 

[COTTON]

I'll quote what someone posted on here several times "a machine is only as good as the person operating it" (or something like that....).

When I'm hunting neck deep water the Excal is perfect. My SeaHunter (PI unit) is excellent for shallow. I found a ring the other day that was down at least 16 inches (4 scoops down and no it wasn't that I was missing the item and it kept going down further....it was an almost silent blip that started me digging). Why is the Excal perfect when I am in deep water? Because it is almost impossible to recover a target that is more then 6 inches down while in neck deep water. If someone knows a trick please let me know It is excellent in iron filled areas, etc.....

I'm sure that the Sandshark is an excellent machine. There is a guy that hunts at Clearwater with a Tesoro that finds a whole heck of a lot more than me. Again it's a combination of skill and machine.

Honestly it all depends on the conditions of the beach that you are going to hunt. If there is tons of garbage you will definitely want something that will discriminate.....

Good luck.....

By the way does any one have a CZ 20 they dont like? Let me know i have lots of(Excal) gold to trade.

 

[OBN]

Well said JP.. ...Detectors are like Guns, different detectors, different guns, you don't take a pistol deer hunting.. and then it's only as good as the one who has it in there clutch.

 

[COTTON]

Well said JP.. ...Detectors are like Guns, different detectors, different guns, you don't take a pistol deer hunting.. and then it's only as good as the one who has it in there clutch.

I do

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Love my Excals, with the WOT coil I spliced on it I get great depth, I have pull up targets at 16" + on more then a few occassions..................I love it when people run their Excals with discrimination, it means they are skipping over gold.

 

[bigscoop]

Love my Excals, with the WOT coil I spliced on it I get great depth, I have pull up targets at 16" + on more then a few occassions..................I love it when people run their Excals with discrimination, it means they are skipping over gold.

I think I just learned this the past week. Makes me wonder how many other good targets get missed while in the discrimination mode? I'm betting quite a few, just not sure why it missed this time because the item was only about 2 - 3 inches under the sand?

 

[Silver Surfer]

hunted a section of beach with a variety of high dollar detectors, including Excalls, so later I took a Cobra Beach Magnet back to this same section of beach just to kill some time to fool around with it a bit and I turned up an exceptional find.

That is very cool! Goes to show you, you just never know... But to be embarrassingly honest, I would have been a lot wiser to have not spent the money I did when I bought the Excal (money is practically non-existent) but had to have an Excal... It has paid for itself though, in my defense.. So even I "went for the best"..

But whatever machine you use, learn all of it well and it should do fine by you day in and day out.

Now that right there sums it all up... Very wise words!

 

[Silver Surfer]

Love my Excals, with the WOT coil I spliced on it I get great depth, I have pull up targets at 16" + on more then a few occassions..................I love it when people run their Excals with discrimination, it means they are skipping over gold.

How big of gold are we talking about here?
I keep mine on 2, not because I know, but because that is what someone suggested to me... I often get good signals that are too small for my 1/2 inch holes... I figure maybe a post of something.. But do I really want to dig signals of stuff smaller than what I already cant keep in my scoop? Are you saying that it should be as far counter clockwise as one can turn it, or are you saying that it should be ran in pinpoint mode all the time??