Top machine and testing men’s gold 14kt band and silver dollar at a foot in wet saltwater beach sand

[Surfline]

I recently ran a test using a men’s 14 kt gold wedding band and silver dollar at 1 foot in the wet saltwater sand.

I tested 3 machines on either all metal or discrimination mode:

-Original Excalibur (not Excal II) with 10” coil.

-Equinox 800 with large elliptical coil 15”

-AQ1B underwater pulse induction with 15” coil / 30 foot cable length.
,
After the testing was done, only the Excal on all metal (pinpoint mode) was able to pick them up. Discrimination mode did not pick it up without taking a few inches of sand off the top.

I tried various settings of the Equinox 800 with no luck. On land/regular soil I’m sure the Equinox would pick both up.

I would like to know if anyone can beat these results with the Excalibur on the beach in wet sand. My guesses would be the Deus or a pulse induction machine from Garrett or Whites. Maybe an AT Pro. I don’t own any of those machines.

 

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[Treasure_Hunter]

I have several excals with the reverse discrimination mod, I always hunt in all metal then switch to disc mode to see if it is a ferrous target, excal in all metal is much deeper and with the reverse pp/disc switch on the hand grip it is very simple to switch back and forth to check. In all metal it sees targets it doesn't see in disc mode till I remove sand. I also have an Equinox 800 and CTX 3030.

 

[Surfline]

I have several excals with the reverse discrimination mod, I always hunt in all metal then switch to disc mode to see if it is a ferrous target, excal in all metal is much deeper and with the reverse pp/disc switch on the hand grip it is very simple to switch back and forth to check. In all metal it sees targets it doesn't see in disc mode till I remove sand. I also have an Equinox 800 and CTX 3030.

Thanks for the post. I run in PP as well to get the deeper targets unless there is a crazy amount of iron fragments.

 

[OBN]

No doubt the excalibur rocks in All metal / Pin Point.

What is the weight of the wedding band and size if possible?

From the test I have done, the excalibur 10 inch does better on silver coins than gold rings. When compared to my AQ PI. The AQ does better on the gold rings and is rather weak on the silver.. On (5 cent) nickels buried at 12 / 14 / 15 / 16 and 18, the excalibur struggled at 14 inches (Iffy signal), the AQ PI was good to 18 no problem. Remember the AQ's coil is 12.5 inches also, compared to the stock 10 on the excalibur.

Several years ago I did a compare with a guy from NY, (CZBob), comparing the CZ21 to the excalibur on a 7.5 grams gold wedding band. 14 no problem, At 15 inches the excalibur (AM) struggled to hear the gold ring. The CZ21 (stock coil) in all metal had no problem at 15 inches, even at 16 it could get the gold ring. That was one HOT CZ21..

Here is a video showing the excalibur to Nox. No contest on deep targets.


Turn volume up to hear AQ audio. My friend Mike testing the AQ on nickel's

 

[Surfline]

No doubt the excalibur rocks in All metal / Pin Point.

What is the weight of the wedding band and size if possible?

From the test I have done, the excalibur 10 inch does better on silver coins than gold rings. When compared to my AQ PI. The AQ does better on the gold rings and is rather weak on the silver.. On (5 cent) nickels buried at 12 / 14 / 15 / 16 and 18, the excalibur struggled at 14 inches (Iffy signal), the AQ PI was good to 18 no problem. Remember the AQ's coil is 12.5 inches also, compared to the stock 10 on the excalibur.

Several years ago I did a compare with a guy from NY, (CZBob), comparing the CZ21 to the excalibur on a 7.5 grams gold wedding band. 14 no problem, At 15 inches the excalibur (AM) struggled to hear the gold ring. The CZ21 (stock coil) in all metal had no problem at 15 inches, even at 16 it could get the gold ring. That was one HOT CZ21..

Here is a video showing the excalibur to Nox. No contest on deep targets.


Turn volume up to hear AQ audio. My friend Mike testing the AQ on nickel's

Thanks for the post! I would say the gold ring is on the smaller side for a men’s band. I don’t have a scale otherwise I could tell you how many grams.

I like the result with the cz but digging 16 inches and finding out it was an iron nail would be rough. Maybe that’s the way it goes.

Also interesting on the differences in detecting gold/silver with the different machines, thank you!

 

[Surfline]

Thanks for the post! I would say the gold ring is on the smaller side for a men’s band. I don’t have a scale otherwise I could tell you how many grams.

I like the result with the cz but digging 16 inches and finding out it was an iron nail would be rough. Maybe that’s the way it goes.

Also interesting on the differences in detecting gold/silver with the different machines, thank you!

It also looks like the Fisher AQ is about $2k.

 

[OBN]

the result with the cz but digging 16 inches and finding out it was an iron nail would be rough. Maybe that’s the way it goes. It also looks like the Fisher AQ is about $2k.

Its been awhile since I talked to CzBob but I would imagine he hunts like I do in All metal (With Excal) then after a scoop or two he checks the target in discriminate. Also the CZ21's send field is cone shaped, so the coil has to be dead center over the target. Easy if you know where the target is...and thats at the point of the cone. Where as the excalibur field is almost a blade shape, it being a little deeper near the rear of the coil. With the blade shaped field the excalibur covers a Lot more area ..say at 14 inches deep, where the CZs field is very narrow downward cone, but a inch or 2 deeper.

Yes, the Fisher AQ is maybe the deepest water detector, beach machine made. But has several issues that need addressed before I would purchase one at two grand.

 

[Surfline]

Its been awhile since I talked to CzBob but I would imagine he hunts like I do in All metal (With Excal) then after a scoop or two he checks the target in discriminate. Also the CZ21's send field is cone shaped, so the coil has to be dead center over the target. Easy if you know where the target is...and thats at the point of the cone. Where as the excalibur field is almost a blade shape, it being a little deeper near the rear of the coil. With the blade shaped field the excalibur covers a Lot more area ..say at 14 inches deep, where the CZs field is very narrow downward cone, but a inch or 2 deeper.

Yes, the Fisher AQ is maybe the deepest water detector, beach machine made. But has several issues that need addressed before I would purchase one at two grand.

Thank you for the excellent and detailed feedback. This is one of the more technical descriptions I have heard recently and appreciate your response. I have had many years of success with the Excalibur. I recently moved back to the stock 10” coil but in the past have used an S.E.F. Coil with success and also a 15” CoilTek coil. I noticed with the larger coils the baseline sound is a bit more erratic whereas with the 10” coil it’s more stable and I listen for subtle changes in all metal / pp mode. I had heard of someone putting on an adapter for the coil wire so that you can exchange coils rather than it be hard wired to the circuit board. My Excal is 20 years old and still running well which is amazing to me.

 

[OBN]

Thank you for the excellent and detailed feedback. This is one of the more technical descriptions I have heard recently and appreciate your response. I have had many years of success with the Excalibur. I recently moved back to the stock 10” coil but in the past have used an S.E.F. Coil with success and also a 15” CoilTek coil. I noticed with the larger coils the baseline sound is a bit more erratic whereas with the 10” coil it’s more stable and I listen for subtle changes in all metal / pp mode. I had heard of someone putting on an adapter for the coil wire so that you can exchange coils rather than it be hard wired to the circuit board. My Excal is 20 years old and still running well which is amazing to me.

I agree, in the saltwater the 10 is the best for me. And 20 years is Great!! Mine are as old but I do rebuild them about every 3 to 4 years.

I made several of the endcaps that allowed coil changing, but in the end I found it is best to be hardwired. So after a few years of using them on my excaliburs I went back to hardwired. And stopped making all endcaps and doing repair work on the Excalibur, other than my own stuff.
I would guess I made a few hundred endcaps over the years for others..

 

[Surfline]

I agree, in the saltwater the 10 is the best for me. And 20 years is Great!! Mine are as old but I do rebuild them about every 3 to 4 years.

I made several of the endcaps that allowed coil changing, but in the end I found it is best to be hardwired. So after a few years of using them on my excaliburs I went back to hardwired. And stopped making all endcaps and doing repair work on the Excalibur, other than my own stuff.
I would guess I made a few hundred endcaps over the years for others..

View attachment 2082479
View attachment 2082480

Why did you like hardwired in the end better? For example the 10” is hardwired but I would like the option to swap a larger coil to detect silver dollar size coins in the sand at depths greater than what the 10” can find.

 

[OBN]

Why did you like hardwired in the end better? For example the 10” is hardwired but I would like the option to swap a larger coil to detect silver dollar size coins in the sand at depths greater than what the 10” can find.

Just my opinion and since I hunt in the water only .. I feel I
have a stable connection, one there is less chances of having issues and I feel it is a weak link in that the signals have like a bottle neck. I used a few inline connectors over the years and always found them more likely to fail or to be a signal leaker, costing you depth. And what you will notice with inline connectors, when the saltwater hits that part of the cable it will false. Once I made the connector into the endcap it did seem more stable and no signal leaking. About 5 years ago I had several excaliburs so I was able to have a different coil for each machine, and after awhile I settled in to hunting in the water only..so I hardwired all my excaliburs with 10 inchers and one 800 coil, 7.5 inch stock coil. If your a wetsand beach hunter I think they will be fine, in saltwater your time is limited to when there will be problems.

 

[Surfline]

Just my opinion and since I hunt in the water only .. I feel I
have a stable connection, one there is less chances of having issues and I feel it is a weak link in that the signals have like a bottle neck. I used a few inline connectors over the years and always found them more likely to fail or to be a signal leaker, costing you depth. And what you will notice with inline connectors, when the saltwater hits that part of the cable it will false. Once I made the connector into the endcap it did seem more stable and no signal leaking. About 5 years ago I had several excaliburs so I was able to have a different coil for each machine, and after awhile I settled in to hunting in the water only..so I hardwired all my excaliburs with 10 inchers and one 800 coil, 7.5 inch stock coil. If your a wetsand beach hunter I think they will be fine, in saltwater your time is limited to when there will be problems.

Agree that putting the connector on creates a weak link and I don’t want to compromise depth. I hunt mostly in the surf and wet sand with the main unit out of the water. I could envision using a shrink wrap sleeve over the connector. I may consider a second machine as you mentioned with a hard wired large coil. It’s competitive on our beaches and gaining a few more inches in the sand could be useful. Again I’m looking for larger targets, dollar-sized silver coins. I liked the SEF butterfly coil the best and also tried the Coiltek 15”. If you have any recommendations for the largest, best coil for the Excal, I would be interested. Many thanks again, this has been a great thread.

 

[adamBomb]

I really miss my excal. I swear it was my deepest machine. It was just so darn heavy and kept breaking. Ive got a eqx now that I've had since they first came out and while its fine, I miss the all metal mode/tones of the excal. I just keep getting sucked into these new technologies and I'm not sure they are better. Now I'm debating the new minelab machines...

 

[finderzzs]

I recently ran a test using a men’s 14 kt gold wedding band and silver dollar at 1 foot in the wet saltwater sand.

I tested 3 machines on either all metal or discrimination mode:

-Original Excalibur (not Excal II) with 10” coil.

-Equinox 800 with large elliptical coil 15”

-AQ1B underwater pulse induction with 15” coil / 30 foot cable length.
,
After the testing was done, only the Excal on all metal (pinpoint mode) was able to pick them up. Discrimination mode did not pick it up without taking a few inches of sand off the top.

I tried various settings of the Equinox 800 with no luck. On land/regular soil I’m sure the Equinox would pick both up.

I would like to know if anyone can beat these results with the Excalibur on the beach in wet sand. My guesses would be the Deus or a pulse induction machine from Garrett or Whites. Maybe an AT Pro. I don’t own any of those machines.

White's Dual field, Surfmaster will blow those depths away. Of course they're not making it anymore, you'd have to find a second hand one.

 

[cudamark]

Agree that putting the connector on creates a weak link and I don’t want to compromise depth. I hunt mostly in the surf and wet sand with the main unit out of the water. I could envision using a shrink wrap sleeve over the connector. I may consider a second machine as you mentioned with a hard wired large coil. It’s competitive on our beaches and gaining a few more inches in the sand could be useful. Again I’m looking for larger targets, dollar-sized silver coins. I liked the SEF butterfly coil the best and also tried the Coiltek 15”. If you have any recommendations for the largest, best coil for the Excal, I would be interested. Many thanks again, this has been a great thread.

I like the NEL 15" Attack coil the best on my Excal.

 

[Mystic Mariner]

Hello, anybody know if Bill Crabtree is still doing Surfmaster mods?

 

[OBN]

Hello, anybody know if Bill Crabtree is still doing Surfmaster mods?

He is not. Last I heard he was not doing well. Have to check on that.

 

[Mystic Mariner]

Sorry to hear that. Do you know anyone who does similar work?

 

[ARC]

Sorry to hear that. Do you know anyone who does similar work?

I have a pair of needle nose vise grips... and duct tape... i can do it.

Its name brand duct tape too... so....