doubloonhunter said:
.. You spend more time tinkering with them then detecting..
This is the best line in your post.
Out in the field many times when I'm hunting with a ML or any fancy machine, while the user is scrolling through their menu, deciding whether to dig or not, I have dug up 4 relics and 1 old coin in the that time with my old Fishers!
Also, any machine that nulls out iron and doesn't have a true all-metal is scary in my books.
Finally, they are slow. With all those frequencies, the processing is slow and you have to go like a turtle. This sucks when scouting a new potential site in several hundred acres. Take an old VLF out in the field with it's lightning response time and you will be deciding which target out of three non-ferrous signals you'll dig by the time a ML gets one signal.
Sure they pluck out old coins in trashy areas. But they will never produce the sheer volume of finds that an old "workhorse" would like the 1200 or CZ series Fishers or any Tesoro and Nautilus to name a few.
I'm sure they work good for those who have learned them. This rule applies to ANY machine. After 10 years of using a 1266X, I still learned something new. Now I am a master of that unit and never run out of good signals to dig.
In the world of learning tones and understanding all the variables in the ground, why would you need to add a bunch of programs and technical jargon to help you decide whether to dig or not? Keep it simple. Go back to the basics.
Cheers,
Dave.
BTW, after finding a silver coin that was partially covered with iron, I called over a ML user and they tried every setting in the book and could not get a signal.
Hmmn, my 20 year old detector could see through trash. Doesn't that put a dent in all the hype nowadays about machines that can see through trash? I have found a tiny copper rivet attached to a large iron piece many times and I knew that the tone was telling me that there was non-ferrous mixed in that iron signal.
Whatever. It doesn't matter. Everyone is going to praise their machine and get defensive if you criticize it. Nothing new under the sun.
