The best metal detector out there

[smokeythecat]

Now that I have your attention, first thank you, and second I don't think there is a "best" detector out there. Here is a real life example, something really cute that happened yesterday. It reminded me of the episode of "Detectorists" where the one guy sells his machine and gets a My First Detector from Fisher Price. At least that's what the script in the show said it was. Everybody else laughed at him on the show.

I was out digging aways from here, not too far, and dug a 1" grapeshot, still to be cleaned. The caretaker of the property came by with his two daughters, about 2 and a half and 3 and a half. They came up to about my waist. So cute.

I showed him the grapeshot, and the oldest daughter had her $29.95 (new) detector with her. All bright and colorful and plastic. He dropped the grapeshot in the hole, covered it somewhat and she swung the machine, and yes, I looked it up and the $29.95 was the Ebay price on her machine. Now down 5" with some dirt on it this little detector is going blam! blam! blam! I was actually kind of surprised. They had been out arrowhead hunting and he had a couple beauties.

Anyway, As I've said before it's not so much the machine as the operator. Learn your machine before you get a stable full. People scramble to get this or that machine, and yes, some are better at some stuff than others, but its the operator, and the targets have to be in the ground to begin with.

Happy hunting. (It was SOOOO cute.)

 

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[laidback4sho]

Now that I have your attention, first thank you, and second I don't think there is a "best" detector out there. Here is a real life example, something really cute that happened yesterday. It reminded me of the episode of "Detectorists" where the one guy sells his machine and gets a My First Detector from Fisher Price. At least that's what the script in the show said it was. Everybody else laughed at him on the show.

I was out digging aways from here, not too far, and dug a 1" grapeshot, still to be cleaned. The caretaker of the property came by with his two daughters, about 2 and a half and 3 and a half. They came up to about my waist. So cute.

I showed him the grapeshot, and the oldest daughter had her $29.95 (new) detector with her. All bright and colorful and plastic. He dropped the grapeshot in the hole, covered it somewhat and she swung the machine, and yes, I looked it up and the $29.95 was the Ebay price on her machine. Now down 5" with some dirt on it this little detector is going blam! blam! blam! I was actually kind of surprised. They had been out arrowhead hunting and he had a couple beauties.

Anyway, As I've said before it's not so much the machine as the operator. Learn your machine before you get a stable full. People scramble to get this or that machine, and yes, some are better at some stuff than others, but its the operator, and the targets have to be in the ground to begin with.

Happy hunting. (It was SOOOO cute.)

That's true to a certain extent. But I guarantee that no matter how good of a detectorist you are, you will miss that silver coin lying just underneath those three square nails with my old Garrett GTAx 1250. My Deus and my Equinox would snag it though. And they would do it deeper. HH.

 

[smokeythecat]

You know what would be fun. Take one of the $29.95's to a local beach where people lose clad on top or just under the sand daily. Would drive the other detectorists nuts. Laidback4sho, the "bad" machines get weeded out real fast. That's 4sho! I was digging up against what should have been a very good Minelab yesterday. He got maybe 3 keepers. Have no idea what happened there. The Minelab may need to be taken to the vets and put to sleep. Made no sense. He should have smoked me good. And it's not because I'm real good. Can't figure that one out, except maybe the machine needs to go back to the factory.

 

[laidback4sho]

You know what would be fun. Take one of the $29.95 to a local beach where people lose clad on top or just under the sand daily. Would drive the other detectorists nuts. Laidback4sho, the "bad" machines get weeded out real fast. That's 4sho! I was digging up against what should have been a very good Minelab yesterday. He got maybe 3 keepers. Have no idea what happened there. The Minelab may need to be taken to the vets and put to sleep. Made no sense. He should have smoked me good. And it's not because I'm real good. Can't figure that one out, except maybe the machine needs to go back to the factory.

I agree. A bad detectorist on a good machine will often be outdone by a good detectorist on a bad machine. Seen it often.

 

[smokeythecat]

Correct. I still can't figure out what when wrong with the Minelab yesterday.

 

[laidback4sho]

Correct. I still can't figure out what when wrong with the Minelab yesterday.

What was it, a CTX?

 

[smokeythecat]

Sovereign. I am not familiar with using one of those myself.

 

[laidback4sho]

Sovereign. I am not familiar with using one of those myself.

Yeah, same here.

 

[Honest Samuel]

I do the best I can with what I have. Good hunting and good luck.

 

[HighVDI]

All boils down to big egos. They're in every hobby. Instead of people comparing finds they should be soaking up the outdoors and each others company.

I've found more than people that have been detecting for decades on some hunts and vice versa. Luck of the swing. Still hard to beat someone with a bunch of hours on a machine.....some of these entry level machines are pretty darn impressive these days!

 

[smokeythecat]

HighVDi you are correct. Sometimes I just like to go by myself, sad to say. It doesn't really bother me if people dig more than I do. This cat's getting old and can't move too fast. Maybe it's the slow steady swings that helps. And yes, my best coin ever was found with a $329 entry level machine.

 

[HighVDI]

HighVDi you are correct. Sometimes I just like to go by myself, sad to say. It doesn't really bother me if people dig more than I do. This cat's getting old and can't move too fast. Maybe it's the slow steady swings that helps. And yes, my best coin ever was found with a $329 entry level machine.

I know what you mean. Digging solo is definitely good let down time but that gets old too.

I don't know about others but I feel like many of the youtube videos give a false sense of real world detecting. Probably not intentional but when you only see the best digs from 3-4 guys from a 12 hour shift of detecting it could ruin a newbies self esteem quickly! Haha. Only recently have I found satisfaction in digging more holes removing it to get to the good stuff! I guess now days with most of the spots being pounded to death this is getting to be the norm.

I never underestimate an old man! Lol.

 

[smokeythecat]

HighVDI, I personally don't bother with most of the youtube videos. The only ones I REALLY like are the one where they mudlark the Thames in London. You never know with most if they're real or pretend, and since I've made motion pictures, the real kind, I know what can be done manipulating the "film" for the desired result. Case in point: I had a 19th century shipwreck scene filmed in my BASEMENT. Looks real too. You can put pretty much anything together on film these days, digitally, and a picture of something on TOP of the ground just doesn't do it for me. BTW the news doesn't do it for me either. The youtube videos should be considered entertainment, not something to trust in.

 

[Roundness]

Smokey, looks like you sure were on top of it yesterday. I agree on the detector theory you have. Been beaten several times by people with "cheap" detectors. It's all what you swing over.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

You know what would be fun. Take one of the $29.95's to a local beach where people lose clad on top or just under the sand daily. Would drive the other detectorists nuts. Laidback4sho, the "bad" machines get weeded out real fast. That's 4sho! I was digging up against what should have been a very good Minelab yesterday. He got maybe 3 keepers. Have no idea what happened there. The Minelab may need to be taken to the vets and put to sleep. Made no sense. He should have smoked me good. And it's not because I'm real good. Can't figure that one out, except maybe the machine needs to go back to the factory.

Lot of new people do not know how to set up the Excalibur, cant even guess how many times I have looked at someone's Excal and seen the discrimination set between 10 and 17. it should be set to 0. Threshold set way too loud which causes it to drown out deep targets which are whispers, and running it in auto sensitivity too.

 

[HighVDI]

HighVDI, I personally don't bother with most of the youtube videos. The only ones I REALLY like are the one where they mudlark the Thames in London. You never know with most if they're real or pretend, and since I've made motion pictures, the real kind, I know what can be done manipulating the "film" for the desired result. Case in point: I had a 19th century shipwreck scene filmed in my BASEMENT. Looks real too. You can put pretty much anything together on film these days, digitally, and a picture of something on TOP of the ground just doesn't do it for me. BTW the news doesn't do it for me either. The youtube videos should be considered entertainment, not something to trust in.

Same here smoke. I gave up on watching the news a couple years ago. Thought I was going to have to get on anti depression pills watching that Gossip.

 

[ARC]

Had the first sovereign... many moons ago.
Used it along with a TM808... in S.C. for ordinance removal at Camp Croft.
So...
Familiar with one... and if asked...

an "ok" detector. IMO

 

[ARC]

Lot of new people do not know how to set up the Excalibur, cant even guess how many times I have looked at someone's Excal and seen the discrimination set between 10 and 17. it should be set to 0. Threshold set way too loud which causes it to drown out deep targets which are whispers, and running it in auto sensitivity too.

Has got to be the most common mistake made on them.

I too have seen this mistake so many times.

 

[pepperj]

One can equate it to what a guy said one time. "A bad painter can make a master carpenter's finishing look bad-A good painter can make a bad carpenter's work look good".

I watched a bunch of guys detect across in a field in England one day, these two guys were just short of full out running while detecting. Fast walking, flapping like headless chickens across the field. I video taped this as it amazed me how fast these guys detect. While I thought I was missing out on something going half coil laps, digging everything small.

But at the end of the trip I started to realize that these two found things-all large items.
Big brass, coppers, a Half Crown, bits of stuff that a $50 machine would pick up. Nothing really in either pouch that would show that a person was swinging slow and methodically.
Both fellows have detected for decades and it was just proof that if these guys detected a stout, well it would be a site that I'd like to detect.

Have a look at posting of finds and you'll realize what I'm saying, folks post up things and all the items are big, nothing small, everything would have been found with the cheapest machine out there in the market place.

Put a good machine (doesn't have to a great one) into the hands of a good operator and there will be a consistent showing of almost magical finds.
Folks wonder what, where, when, who, why they can't achieve this also, it comes down to this " SLOW DOWN AND LISTEN"

 

[ARC]

One can equate it to what a guy said one time. "A bad painter can make a master carpenter's finishing look bad-A good painter can make a bad carpenter's work look good".

I watched a bunch of guys detect across in a field in England one day, these two guys were just short of full out running while detecting. Fast walking, flapping like headless chickens across the field. I video taped this as it amazed me how fast these guys detect. While I thought I was missing out on something going half coil laps, digging everything small.

But at the end of the trip I started to realize that these two found things-all large items.
Big brass, coppers, a Half Crown, bits of stuff that a $50 machine would pick up. Nothing really in either pouch that would show that a person was swinging slow and methodically.
Both fellows have detected for decades and it was just proof that if these guys detected a stout, well it would be a site that I'd like to detect.

Have a look at posting of finds and you'll realize what I'm saying, folks post up things and all the items are big, nothing small, everything would have been found with the cheapest machine out there in the market place.

Put a good machine (doesn't have to a great one) into the hands of a good operator and there will be a consistent showing of almost magical finds.
Folks wonder what, where, when, who, why they can't achieve this also, it comes down to this " SLOW DOWN AND LISTEN"

Wow brotherman... I did not know you were a MD preacher teacher,,,

One word... errr...

two...

Amen... gospel.