CZ-21 or Garrett Sea Hunter MII

[ArnieTX]

I don't currently own a water machine and I'm interested in heading to the saltwater once a month to camp out with the kids, fish , and do some detecting on the beach. I want to get a PI machine that goes deep. I don't care about digging everything at the beach.

I have a river 30 minutes away that is recreational in the summer. There are many coins and I'm sure jewelry although I haven't found any gold rings yet. I use my Tejon and Compadres in the shallow stuff but I want to get out into the deeper areas to search.

So, I've heard the MK II can discriminate iron and I've also heard it can't. All I want it to do is ignore small iron like nails. Even if it loses a little depth to ignore nails, that's fine for me in this freshwater river. The bottom is mostly gravel until you hit bedrock so I don't need PI depth here. I do need to ignore nails though.

The CZ will do whatever I need for the freshwater but I don't think it will hang with the MK II at the beach in wet sand and in the water. If the MK II can't ignore nails-small iron in freshwater than I'll probably get the CZ and work the freswater for jewelry until I can cash in enough scrap to by a PI.

The best case is the PI can ignore the iron and still get 6" or so depth in the freshwater. That would solve both of my needs.

I know Minelab Excal is probably a good machine for what I am wanting to do but I'm not interested in dealing with possible hardware issue. The Garrett and the Fisher are solid. Tesoro Sand Shark is fine but I don't think it has any disc.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

 

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[Aka Nameless]

No PI can disc out iron, get a vlf for freshwater. You'll be getting a lot deeper than 6" with a cz 21.

 

[stevemc]

Yep, have a Garrett PI and have used others. Crap. The disc will eliminate everything BUT iron. I have never used the disc, but it does not eliminate iron, I can garrantee. Get a better PI, or get an Excal. If you are using it for fresh only, there are many that will work in fresh water that disc out iron. Tesoro Stingray works good in fresh, or any VLF UW detector should tell you what it is. White's amphibian is one.

 

[sandnut]

http://www.tesoro.com/product/detectors/tigershark/ Take a look at this one.

 

[Sandman]

If wanting a detector for only fresh water you will wrap a PI around a tree. All the manufacturer advertise the PI's will discriminate and they will but not iron. To do so you knock off about 80% of the depth. Your best bet is a VLF type. To eliminate hairpins and small nails you can't go wrong with a Excal. Next would be a Tiger Shark or CZ-21.

PI's find the smallest piece of metal and even foil pieces so small you can hardly see them. NO disc worth a darn.

 

[biggmike]

Get the CZ21 You won't regret it. You can find it brand new for under a grand if you shop around, cheaper if you buy used.

 

[Les West Central Fl]

I don't currently own a water machine and I'm interested in heading to the saltwater once a month to camp out with the kids, fish , and do some detecting on the beach. I want to get a PI machine that goes deep. I don't care about digging everything at the beach.

If you don't want to dig everything I suggest you don't get a PI machine.

 

[ArnieTX]

OK, so the general feeling is PI machines can knock out other types of trash but at a cost to performance and iron is not one of them. Appreciate the feedback since I have never used a PI.

I had a Tiger Shark for a short time and didn't really like the depth I experieced with it. I was comparing it's performance to my Tejon and it wasn't even close. Maybe I had a lemon...that happens. I like Tesoro stuff.

I've lurked for years on here and I know that the Minelab Excal pulls out a lot of goodies. The quality is what concerns me. I owned Fisher 1265X and 1266X machines back in the early 90's and quality was fine.

I'm leaning towards the CZ-21 but will reconsider the Excal. Obviously the Excal will cost a little more but what about "out of the box" expenses? Will I need to purchase additional machine related accesories to get in the river or ocean to hunt? I'm not talking sand scoops, etc., I mean detector related equipment. Do both machines pop out of the box ready to roll or will I need to buy XYZ to have a good setup for both fresh and salt?

Thanks for your feedback. I want to order something this week.

 

[Smudge]

Arnie, that's really going to depend. When you say "beach", I'm going to assume you mean salt water for the moment.

If you don't want a PI dues to their complete lack of discrimination, 99% of experienced beach hunters are going to recommend either the Excal or the CZ-21.

If you purchase the Excal, you will likely buy three things immediately to go with it: 1) a set of replacement knobs because the factory ones are notorious for breaking quickly; 2) a straight shaft because the ergonomics of the stock shaft are awful; and 3) if you don't purchase a straight shaft with an under arm mounting or a behind the elbow mounting, then you are going to probably want an attachment to either chest mount or hip mount the control box, due to the weight.

If you purchase the CZ-21, the one accessory most users get is either the chest mount or the hip mount, again because of the weight. The CZ-21 comes with a straight shaft that I've heard no complaints about and the knobs are not prone to breaking.

The CZ-21 has to be manually ground balanced when going from wet sand to dry and vice versa, the Excal does not.

Hope that helps.

 

[stpauli914]

I have had my Excal for less than a year, but I have paid for it twice in finds. It is deep, has a great bias for iron, is ready out of the box(I added a straight shaft with the pod behind the elbow $89). Don't know what the talk about the knobs breaking, mine are fine. Keep it cleaned after each hunt with a good warm water bath, air dry out of the sun, and a spray silicone will keep it like new. I have over 100 hours on mine and you can't tell it from new. I think the quality issues you hear about are from either abuse, lack of general maintenance, or a few bad machines. When you consider how many Excals are sold, there are bound to be a couple lemons. The resale value is unbelievable, and as of July 1st, the warranty is transferable.

My .02

Aaron