.........your suggestion that he purchase a top-of-the-line XLT. Although you may find it great in your application, his expressed need was simply to locate trash dumps in which case the RS should be adequate and offers a lot for the money.

Jason is apparently a novice and has limited experience in detecting. An XLT,with it's long learning curve would buy him nothing in his application except frustration.

Tom has already answered his question about the nails. All ID detectors are merely an educated guess with limitations in accuracy of about 80% WITHIN A LIMITED RANGE......which is less than it's detection depth.

Having found a IH and a silver dime WHILE DIGGING A BOTTLE may simply imply that that they were beyond detection range. An experienced detectorist with an ID problem could reasonably be expected to provide more specific data as to depth.......which he did not do. If his problem is depth and he has the bucks he would be better advised to invest in a Fisher CZ or Minelab ........not an XLT.

For the application, Jason's choice is probably adequate, but his experience is not.

Chet