Seeking experienced beach/water hunter advice on a new detector

[ltd063]

I am looking to get some advice on which machine to get, an Minelab Excalibur II or White's Surf Master PI? I have the money to buy the Surf Master right now, but am willing to wait to get the Excalibur II if I decide to go that direction. I was hoping that there are individuals out there that have used both and share their experiences and any pros/cons of each. I am only able to beach/water hunt a couple times a year right now (but those are a week at a time), but hope to start going at least once a month (weekend) in the future. There are some lakes and river swimming holes in the area that I can hunt. I am not sure what questions to ask, so think of this string as open ended.

Thanks for any help.

 

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[MrMikeJackie]

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/b...-detector-east-coast.html?highlight=Excalibur

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/b...-beach-detector.html?highlight=Beach+detector

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/b...-md-under-700-a.html?highlight=Beach+detector


Some good reading, try these.

 

[redcobra8u]

When I did my research on which machine to buy, I looked at the machines racking up the most finds. The Excal and Fisher were on the top of the pile. I also dive so the Excal was my choice. You'll love it.

 

[ltd063]

MrMike, Thank you for the links. I will read them. They may let me know what questions to ask.

 

[ltd063]

redcobra, I don't know anything about Fisher products. So that is why the are not one of the detectors I listed. I guess I have more homework to do. The Excal keeps coming up when I do any looking into the beach hunting. Everything I read (so far - I haven't read MrMike's links yet) has the Excel as the best available.

 

[TooManyHobbies]

As long as your still undecided, check out the DetectorPro Headhunter Underwater. I love mine.

 

[cudamark]

If you go deeper than 10' under water and you want discrimination, the Excal is #1 IMO. #2 would be the CZ21. The thing I don't like about the CZ21 is the silent search (ie. no threshold tone). If you hunt an area with very little iron trash, a PI machine will work fine. Look at the Sand Shark, Dual Field, and Infinium LS. If all you're going to hunt is shallow fresh water, the AT Pro is a good economical choice.

 

[RustyGold]

Excalibur II.

 

[ltd063]

TooMany,
I will look into the DP HH. Thanks!

 

[ltd063]

I keep coming across references to upgrades for the Excal. Any idea how much all of these upgrades cost?

 

[agflit]

Just my opinions..based on MY personal experiances...


If your gonna get it wet...get a diving detector. End full stop.

Freshwater...vs saltwater...

If a combo beach/surf/diving detector...hands down between Excal and CZ for a VLF machine. Seahunter or Sandshark if P.I.

I do ALOT of freshwater wetwork...my Tesoro Tigershark paid for itself 59 minutes into it's first dive. It has since paid for an Excal, a Seahunter, and last 4 Caribbean scuba vacations.

Tigershark for freshwater will sniff out ALOT..(even the Excal) of small stuff others pass right over.

If salt, beach or ocean work...hands down Excal or CZ-21.

Tesoro Sandshark is a great machine for salt work as well....but you WILL hit every pull tab, sprinkler rod, and small ferrous junk if it exists. Great machine..be prepared to dig ALOT.

Best combo machine for fresh or saltwater, or wet beaches..my vote goes to Excal. Yeah..you want to mod it, but by gawd, once you have it set up, and MOST importantly...LEARN IT'S LANGUANGE...it WILL speak to you if you listen.

So what do I use? If in freshwater..Tigershark
If saltwater, either beaches or diving...Excal

Second best advice I can offer....get a GOOD scoop for what your doing. Do NOT scimp.

Good luck, and good hunting!!

ag

 

[KirkS]

I keep coming across references to upgrades for the Excal. Any idea how much all of these upgrades cost?

That's why I decided against an Excal for now. My thought is that if I'm spending that much money, it needs to be the best it can be right out of the box. Things like needing a knob guard, IMO, is something Minelab should have taken into consideration during the design, and either changed the design, or included the guard. The other reason I went against the Excal is the potential downtime if there is servicing required. Everything I've read says that while their customer support is great, their repair service can take months. That does not equate to a fun experience in my eyes.

The Fishers are supposed to be great, but I guess they just don't appeal to me. But that's just a personal thing.

I went with a Sand Shark. The White's Dual was my other PI thought, but I just really like the idea of a lifetime warranty on a saltwater submersible machine. I didn't mind the savings over the others either.

I'm ok with a PI, as the % of junk in the water is lower, and I'd dig pulltabs anyway, so I saw no real advantage (to me) in not getting a PI machine.

 

[vpnavy]

Whatever you finally decide on ltd - please consider buying one from one of

's Supporting Vendors.

 

[ltd063]

Whatever you finally decide on ltd - please consider buying one from one of

's Supporting Vendors.

VP,
Most Definitely! I have been looking at them for prices and accessories! After all, I will need some supporting equipment to make my digs easier.

 

[Goldfleks]

Do you have another detector for Land that you are using at home?

Beach-diving detectors are specalized equipment and don't tend to work well off the beach. If you're not going to be hitting the beach a ton, and don't have a solid land machine, you could consider getting a land multi-spectrum VLF and use a weather/moisture guard on it. You'll be locked out of wading in the water/waves but you'll still be able to detect on the wet sand and shallow water. Plus during low tide you'll have access to pretty much everything.

The Minelab E-Trac or even the Safari should work great at the beach. They will work great in the dry sands. And work great in the shallow water/wet sands (just don't get the head unit wet). Just be sure to wash off the machine in fresh water after every beach outing, and break down the shaft and coil to get it clean.

This would give you the benefit of having a solid beach detector for those few times you get to the beach, and then a great machine for the other 48 weeks of the year where you're not in the salt water. If you end up going to the beach more often in the future, you could always pickup a used Sand Shark or other PI machine for around $3-$400 bucks if you really want to start wading in the waist to chest deep water and need a submersible machine.

But I wouldn't spent $1500 dollars on an Excal11 that you're only going to use a couple days of the year. But that's my .02.

 

[cudamark]

That's why I decided against an Excal for now. My thought is that if I'm spending that much money, it needs to be the best it can be right out of the box. Things like needing a knob guard, IMO, is something Minelab should have taken into consideration during the design, and either changed the design, or included the guard. The other reason I went against the Excal is the potential downtime if there is servicing required. Everything I've read says that while their customer support is great, their repair service can take months. That does not equate to a fun experience in my eyes.

The Fishers are supposed to be great, but I guess they just don't appeal to me. But that's just a personal thing.

I went with a Sand Shark. The White's Dual was my other PI thought, but I just really like the idea of a lifetime warranty on a saltwater submersible machine. I didn't mind the savings over the others either.

I'm ok with a PI, as the % of junk in the water is lower, and I'd dig pulltabs anyway, so I saw no real advantage (to me) in not getting a PI machine.

No detector will eliminate pull tabs and keep gold. The problem with PI machines is the iron targets.

 

[Goldfleks]

No detector will eliminate pull tabs and keep gold. The problem with PI machines is the iron targets.

PullTabs sound so good to on PI. Especially the old ones that are nice and big. Pulled a really crusty one today from about 12"-15" down that I was SURE was going to be something good. Typically tabs are closer to the surface but this one had some nice heavy black sand buildup on it that gave it some extra umph on both the signal and the weight. I had to laugh after spending at least 5 to 10 minutes fighting with the surf to dig that sucker up when I finally saw it in my scoop.

 

[ltd063]

Goldfleks,
I do have a White's DFX that I have owned for about 12 years now. I bought it while I was in the military with high hopes of spending a lot of time using it. Alas, I ended up spending the better part of the next 10 years overseas. The DFX sat in the back of the closet. I am now have some free time and am starting to fill it with the DFX. I do want a good machine to use at the beach. I spend a few weeks a year at Panama City Beach and live about 2 hours from North Myrtle Beach. I want something that I can use while in the water.

I opened a real can of worms by starting this thread. I thought it would be a simple question to get answered. Boy......was I wrong. There are way more options than I thought.

I have a question....Why the SandShark over the TigerShark for saltwater? Just because it is a PI?

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Using a TigerShark in saltwater has the same aversion as the AT Pro. They'll drive you crazy on ocean beaches & in the water. Whole lot of falsing.

If you pay attention to the For Sale forums here, you'd see a couple of great condition used Excals for $750.

And contrary to the statement above about the Excal not being so good out of the water, I have to dispute that. I've used mine quite a bit in the dirt & sand..

Peace!

 

[Goldfleks]

I have a question....Why the SandShark over the TigerShark for saltwater? Just because it is a PI?

Salt Water plus heavy mineralization (So Cal heavy black sands) makes the Sand Shark a better machine than the Tigershark for the Saltwater I'm detecting in at the beaches in Southern California. Salt settings on single frequency machines probably work well enough in beaches with low black sand content. Maybe Flordia? But like DeepseekerADS said the heavy mineralization makes the detector chatter and false all over the place. I can't speak for the TigerShark as I don't own it, but my MXT has a Salt setting and was completely useless at the beach. I had to turn down the gain to such a low-level jus to get it stable that I wasn't getting ANY depth. If you want discrimination on a heavy black sand beach you need a multi-frequency machine.

That and I got the Sand Shark on Craigslist for $360, which was a steal. Especially with the upgraded shaft and basically brand new condition. The next cheapest option was a Whites Dual Field PI but they wanted $600.

And I'll admit that you can use an Excal on dry land (parks and dirt). It's still a great detector. But I wouldn't want to given other options IF I had them. I think you require certain pieces of information to responsibly detect on public park land, specifically a depth indicator so you can decide if cutting a plug or flap is necessary, and how large of a plug/flap is needed to retrieve the object so that you can disturb as little of the grass/sod as necessary.

I wouldn't mind a depth indicator on my PI machine (is that even possible?) but when digging in sand it's so easy that I really don't care how much of a mess I'm making while I retrieve an opbject since the hole just fills itself with each wave.