Help Me Make A Decision...

[Smudge]

Ok folks, here's the situation:

I want a detector for the salt beaches here in Florida. I also plan to spend a lot of time in the surf and on the dry and wet sand. I will be hunting almost exclusively on the east coast of Florida.

I cut my chops using the Sand Shark so I know what I'm in for with pulse induction machines, especially in trashy areas. In my area, the iron/bobby pin/ twisted wire pieces makes up about 20% of my day's finds with the Sand Shark, so it wasn't a terrible ratio. Bottle caps are my biggest nemesis!

I sold the Sand Shark and am ready to buy a White's Dual Field, mostly because of the greater depth and the sensitivity to small gold. I'm not worried about the "neutral buoyancy" (read that: floating) coil at all. I have a way to work with that.

But I hesitate. There are a lot of folks out there who love their Excals, in spite of some reported malfunctions and a long history of terrible Minelab customer service (maybe that's starting to change?).

I realize I'm comparing apples to oranges, but neither of these detectors are cheap and while I imagine one day I'll own both, for now it has to be one or the other.

I know of the Excal's superior iron masking capabilities, but like I said, iron makes up only about 20% of my finds on any given day. I wish the Excal could do something about all those blasted bottle caps without knocking out all the other targets, but I know I ask too much.

I can't help but feel that the Dual Field might trump the Excal on depth and small gold sensitivity.

I'd really like to hear the thoughts of dedicated Excal and Dual Field users out there. There's a lot of people who post on this section who opinion I respect greatly.

If anyone thinks I'm ignoring another good beach detector, let me me know too!

I'm going to buy one or the other come Friday.

 

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[darkwing_66]

hi
go with the whites. i think just the customer care they give is fantastic. im a minelab man but whites and tesoro have the customer support. its worth losing a little depth with the whites and tesoros just because of minelab customer service good luckdw

 

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[Keppy]

All i can tell you is i like Garrett then Tesoro then Whites ..... all 3 have great service.. Minelab's service for the last couple of years is not great They will go with great service for a few months then there service falls apart.............. then they are good again & then bad at service again.......... and just keep going that way ... up & down...up & down... and that excalibur seems to be haveing it's problems........ I hate to say that i have been a minelab person for 14 years give or take but they do scare me right now "again"

 

[DanFL1962]

Smudge, I pulled about 30 bottle caps out of Jetty Park for you today. All clear to go dig up the gold.

 

[Smudge]

Smudge, I pulled about 30 bottle caps out of Jetty Park for you today. All clear to go dig up the gold.

Much obliged!

But I think those suckers breed in the sand at night when no one's around.

Like roaches.

 

[DanFL1962]

LOL...no doubt they reproduce faster than we can clean them out.

I don't know how far you live from Cocoa Beach Smudge but if its convenient for you, you're welcome to take my BHID out for a few hours to see how you like it.

Dan

 

[Smudge]

LOL...no doubt they reproduce faster than we can clean them out.

I don't know how far you live from Cocoa Beach Smudge but if its convenient for you, you're welcome to take my BHID out for a few hours to see how you like it.

Dan

That is very kind of you to offer. I have it narrowed down to my original two, the Dual Field or the Excal. It's going to be one of those two.

I posted a question regarding depth, as I'm getting conflicting reports as to how much of an advantage PI's have over the Excals and CZ's in low mineralized beaches like we have in Florida.

 

[lacey333]

I have the DFX 300 with the 12" coil And I'm hitting stuff at over a foot down wet or dry! I just picked up a great new book that will help you get the most out of this machine, it's called digging deeper with the DFX by Jeff Foster! HH!

LOL...no doubt they reproduce faster than we can clean them out.

I don't know how far you live from Cocoa Beach Smudge but if its convenient for you, you're welcome to take my BHID out for a few hours to see how you like it.

Dan

That is very kind of you to offer. I have it narrowed down to my original two, the Dual Field or the Excal. It's going to be one of those two.

I posted a question regarding depth, as I'm getting conflicting reports as to how much of an advantage PI's have over the Excals and CZ's in low mineralized beaches like we have in Florida.

 

[Smudge]

Well, yesterday I bit the bullet, drank the cool-aid, totally blew my budget, and bought the Excal.

It was not an easy decision, but in the end, two things swung me towards the Excal over the Dual Field.

The first is depth. Since I hunt primarily in areas of low mineralization, the Dual Field and the Excal ran reasonably close. No question the PI could go deeper, but with the Excal hitting targets in my area in excess of 12", at least in the hands of an experienced detectorist, the Excal goes plenty deep enough for me. Had I been dealing with highly mineralized beaches, I would have likely bought the Dual Field.

The iron masking also won me over, as the Dual Field is extremely sensitive to iron flakes, even tiny ones (I've used other PI's and experienced this first hand) and therefore not, in my opinion, necessarily the best thing to have in trashy beach areas, which there are plenty of around here. However, I fully intend to buy another PI later.

I intend to run the Excal with minimal discrimination, so there will be plenty of pull tabs and bobby pins in my future. That's ok. Avoiding bird shot sized iron flakes will be compensation enough.

I am fully impressed by the depth and small target capabilities of the Excal, now I pray it functions normally and doesn't have to be sent in for any kind of repair any time soon. Minelab has a lot of reputation to rebuild in that area.

I also picked up an Anderson straight shaft for it, with the control mounted behind the elbow and the audio cd of Excal sounds to start familiarizing myself with what the detector is trying to tell me.

I'm heading out Monday morning to test this thing and I'll let you know how I did.

 

[DanFL1962]

Congrats! That machine seems to be the gold standard at the beaches I've hunted. I'm sure you'll have no regrets.

 

[erikk]

Well, yesterday I bit the bullet, drank the cool-aid, totally blew my budget, and bought the Excal.

It was not an easy decision, but in the end, two things swung me towards the Excal over the Dual Field.

The first is depth. Since I hunt primarily in areas of low mineralization, the Dual Field and the Excal ran reasonably close. No question the PI could go deeper, but with the Excal hitting targets in my area in excess of 12", at least in the hands of an experienced detectorist, the Excal goes plenty deep enough for me. Had I been dealing with highly mineralized beaches, I would have likely bought the Dual Field.

The iron masking also won me over, as the Dual Field is extremely sensitive to iron flakes, even tiny ones (I've used other PI's and experienced this first hand) and therefore not, in my opinion, necessarily the best thing to have in trashy beach areas, which there are plenty of around here. However, I fully intend to buy another PI later.

I intend to run the Excal with minimal discrimination, so there will be plenty of pull tabs and bobby pins in my future. That's ok. Avoiding bird shot sized iron flakes will be compensation enough.

I am fully impressed by the depth and small target capabilities of the Excal, now I pray it functions normally and doesn't have to be sent in for any kind of repair any time soon. Minelab has a lot of reputation to rebuild in that area.

I also picked up an Anderson straight shaft for it, with the control mounted behind the elbow and the audio cd of Excal sounds to start familiarizing myself with what the detector is trying to tell me.

I'm heading out Monday morning to test this thing and I'll let you know how I did.

If U run it in Disc there will B no bobbie pins in your future and after a while U will B able to eliminate about 75% of the bottle caps but I have yet to see anyone differentiate pull tabs from gold rings

 

[Smudge]

Well, yesterday I bit the bullet, drank the cool-aid, totally blew my budget, and bought the Excal.

It was not an easy decision, but in the end, two things swung me towards the Excal over the Dual Field.

The first is depth. Since I hunt primarily in areas of low mineralization, the Dual Field and the Excal ran reasonably close. No question the PI could go deeper, but with the Excal hitting targets in my area in excess of 12", at least in the hands of an experienced detectorist, the Excal goes plenty deep enough for me. Had I been dealing with highly mineralized beaches, I would have likely bought the Dual Field.

The iron masking also won me over, as the Dual Field is extremely sensitive to iron flakes, even tiny ones (I've used other PI's and experienced this first hand) and therefore not, in my opinion, necessarily the best thing to have in trashy beach areas, which there are plenty of around here. However, I fully intend to buy another PI later.

I intend to run the Excal with minimal discrimination, so there will be plenty of pull tabs and bobby pins in my future. That's ok. Avoiding bird shot sized iron flakes will be compensation enough.

I am fully impressed by the depth and small target capabilities of the Excal, now I pray it functions normally and doesn't have to be sent in for any kind of repair any time soon. Minelab has a lot of reputation to rebuild in that area.

I also picked up an Anderson straight shaft for it, with the control mounted behind the elbow and the audio cd of Excal sounds to start familiarizing myself with what the detector is trying to tell me.

I'm heading out Monday morning to test this thing and I'll let you know how I did.

If U run it in Disc there will B no bobbie pins in your future and after a while U will B able to eliminate about 75% of the bottle caps but I have yet to see anyone differentiate pull tabs from gold rings

Thanks for the input Erikk. I'm going to run at minimal discrimination. I'm glad you've reached a point where you feel you safely discriminate out bottle caps and bobby pins.

As for myself, I'm too nervous to do that right now. I'm one of those "dig everything" guys, and I doubt I'll change. Call me stubborn. As long as those iron flakes go away, I'm happy.

 

[seeker41]

good choice!
before you do anything , check everything out thoroughly to make sure you got a good one.

 

[erikk]

Well, yesterday I bit the bullet, drank the cool-aid, totally blew my budget, and bought the Excal.

It was not an easy decision, but in the end, two things swung me towards the Excal over the Dual Field.

The first is depth. Since I hunt primarily in areas of low mineralization, the Dual Field and the Excal ran reasonably close. No question the PI could go deeper, but with the Excal hitting targets in my area in excess of 12", at least in the hands of an experienced detectorist, the Excal goes plenty deep enough for me. Had I been dealing with highly mineralized beaches, I would have likely bought the Dual Field.

The iron masking also won me over, as the Dual Field is extremely sensitive to iron flakes, even tiny ones (I've used other PI's and experienced this first hand) and therefore not, in my opinion, necessarily the best thing to have in trashy beach areas, which there are plenty of around here. However, I fully intend to buy another PI later.

I intend to run the Excal with minimal discrimination, so there will be plenty of pull tabs and bobby pins in my future. That's ok. Avoiding bird shot sized iron flakes will be compensation enough.

I am fully impressed by the depth and small target capabilities of the Excal, now I pray it functions normally and doesn't have to be sent in for any kind of repair any time soon. Minelab has a lot of reputation to rebuild in that area.

I also picked up an Anderson straight shaft for it, with the control mounted behind the elbow and the audio cd of Excal sounds to start familiarizing myself with what the detector is trying to tell me.

I'm heading out Monday morning to test this thing and I'll let you know how I did.

If U run it in Disc there will B no bobbie pins in your future and after a while U will B able to eliminate about 75% of the bottle caps but I have yet to see anyone differentiate pull tabs from gold rings

Thanks for the input Erikk. I'm going to run at minimal discrimination. I'm glad you've reached a point where you feel you safely discriminate out bottle caps and bobby pins.

As for myself, I'm too nervous to do that right now. I'm one of those "dig everything" guys, and I doubt I'll change. Call me stubborn. As long as those iron flakes go away, I'm happy.

U will not have a choice as
The excal will not detect iron/bobbie pins in Disc mode
As for the bottle caps I said a percentage can B ignored not all. The first couple dozen U dig U will C what I mean

 

[Tony in FL]

U will not have a choice as
The excal will not detect iron/bobbie pins in Disc mode
As for the bottle caps I said a percentage can B ignored not all. The first couple dozen U dig U will C what I mean

I have had an Excal for close to a year and totally agree with Erikk. In discrimination mode I almost never dig bobby pins, unless I dig a questionable signal that nulls out. I often bypass bottle caps. And I am getting to the point where I can often predict that I am over a pull-tab although I usually dig them anyway. Note that I typically run with discrimination set on the lowest setting possible.

Welcome to the Excal club Smudge!

 

[time4me]

Yes, Erikk is right. I run in disc mode, with disc set to minimum, and I don't think I've ever dug a Bobby pin in 4 years.

Congrats on a great machine!!!!

Jim

 

[GuerillaBill]

I've got a Excalibur II and a Whites BeachHunter 300 ID.

I bought the Excalibur II first, and really like it - when it works.

I've had to send it back to minelab for service 4 times so far in the first 3 years of ownership (thank goodness for the extended warranty I purchased).

Each time it goes to the factory, it usually takes 60 days before I get it back.

So I've had it 3 years, and its been at the service center 200 days of those 3 years.

The first failure was at the beginning of summer, which meant the Excalibur was out of action during prime hunting time.

The first time it had to go back, I purchased a Whites Beach Hunter 300 ID as a backup detector.

After using it for the first summer, and finding a lot of deep goodies, I made it my main detector - using it every day for almost 6 months. (I live across the street from the beach).

After not using the Excalibur for six months, I decided to give it another try, and it worked well for about 60 days of continuous use. Then it started having problems again, producing false signals with every swing. So I sent it back for service, and started using the Whites again.

I've learned the excalibur is a great detector. When it works.

But better plan on having a backup detector for when it doesn't.

 

[L_Bo]

Hey Smudge I am in the same boat. I have been swinging a Fisher 1280 and thinking about these two. I was lucky and able to test out the PI over the weekend. I picked up a lot of junk in the sand and surf, never realized the beaches were so junky. I know you can train your ear and all but I am really leaning towards the Excal.

Good choice and good luck.

 

[OBN]

L_ bo and I did a little test on which is deeper on a few targets, the DF PI........or the excal in AM, with a Amp..Both Maxed out on settings........Guess which hit all 3 targets no problem? And which got 2 only?................You made a good choice Smudge.......Congrads...............joe

 

[s.c.shooter]

I've had my Excal 2 for a month and I've found more good stuff with it than I've found with my other 3 detectors total. Wouldn't trade it for any other!!

 

[Indasurf]

L_ bo and I did a little test on which is deeper on a few targets, the DF PI........or the excal in AM, with a Amp..Both Maxed out on settings........Guess which hit all 3 targets no problem? And which got 2 only?................You made a good choice Smudge.......Congrads...............joe

I doubt you'd run the excal like that in auctual hunting conditions.
In heavy black sand a PI is better on depth.