Minelab Excalibur II or Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II ?? HELP

[USTreasureClub]

Hi,

I've been on the phone with Kellyco and Garrett all day trying to figure out which Saltwater / Water / Beach Detector to purchase. I just sold my White's Surf PI because the detector was horrible. The double / dual field coil was the worst thing White's could have added and to top it off, you cannot change it. I constantly got signals on the beach with the PI but the main problem is, unless you have multiple hours to keep sifting the detector from side to side trying to find out if the signal is coming from the center of the coil, the outer coil or both, your day is wasted. At times on the beach and in the water, I would get hits, I would then sift my detector from side to side, as every person knows, doing this in the water with the waves and current blasting at you takes a steady hand. The issue is trying to pinpoint the buried object. Like I told Kellyco, the detector is flawed in the sense that if the object you get the signal on is coming from just outside the large coil, you are constantly sifting the detector from side to side trying to figure out which coil, center or outer, the signal is coming in from. What a total waste of time. My company has been detecting for many years, we have never wasted more time trying to pinpoint an object in the water or on land. As many reading this post will agree with, the large coils are a waste of money and time. You could end up spending 1 to 5 minutes trying to pinpoint each target underwater or on the beach due to the fact that you do not know which coil is picking up the object, like I said earlier, is the signal coming from the center or outer or both. I had the detector for almost 2 years, all I found in Rhode Island was a small ring with low value (Picture Attached). As many know, Rhode Island is surrounded by water. Amazing to say the least, We should have found thousands in gold and silver. So, here I am again trying to pick a detector worth our time. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Best of luck to all finding treasure!! Thank you

 

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[Sandman]

So you think the Garrett Sea Hunter is going to be easier than the White's...............

The Excal is a lot better for what you want to do. It isn't as deep as the PI's but you won't be wasting time scooping Iron and it finds the target easy by pulling the coil toward you when you get a tone till it stops. Then slide the coil forward till you first hear it and the item is just off the front of the DD coil.

 

[petersra]

If you are going to use a PI, you need a bigger scoop. It is true that iron will tend to hit on the outside of the outer coil, but when that happens you get a second hit as the other side of the coil passes over the target. I occasionally have trouble pinpointing with the dual field but not usually. Of course, I learned the unit with many hours on the wet sand pinpointing and trying to profile targets before I took it into the murky water. I use an 8" wide by 12" deep SS scoop. When I don't get the target with the first scoop it is usually because it is deep, not because I missed it. I also have magnets epoxied into my scoop to help keep the bobby pins from slipping through the holes. I do not have an Excalibur, but I understand they are excellent and discriminate and pinpoint well. However, they don't go quite as deep as a PI. Good luck on your choice and finding your treasure. HH, Ralph

 

[USTreasureClub]

Hi,

Thank you for all the responses / feedback so far. A few post have me wondering now, when you say it will not go as deep as a PI Detector, how deep am I looking at if I compare the PI to the EX II? Is it really a huge difference, enough not to buy the EX II?

Thanks again

 

[Aka Nameless]

There are a lot of guys that are extremely successful water hunting with the DF PI... no offense, but maybe it isn't the detector that is the problem... Practice pinpointing and target recovery on the wet sand or in ankle deep water with your eyes closed.

The 8" mono on the Sea Hunter will make for easier pinpointing in the water for sure, especially on deep targets where you can stick the coil into the hole after the first few scoops, and find exactly where it is. I prefer the 10x14" mono over the 8" mono though, for the extreme depth.

Is your main problem just the pinpointing? Or do you have extreme amounts of iron/trash targets that you want to avoid also?

 

[USTreasureClub]

Hi,

Thank you for your response. My main problem is with the White's DF coil. We know how to use PI Detectors but with the DF coil, you are in reality working with a small coil inside a large coil. With that said, the detector is flawed in design because when you sweep over a target and get a hit, now you are constantly sweeping side to side very slowly to try and find out if the target is hitting the middle coil or outside coil. If White's put a switch on the PI Pro to shut off either coil, the detector just might work better. So now we are looking to try another detector. Everyone is pushing us toward the Minelab but now the main question is how deep does the ML go compared to the Garrett.

 

[hamiddetecting]

Do you want to get gold, in my idea: you use Sovereign with search coil 10" an wot 15" and Excalibur II 800.
*/ sovereign GT 10" for the beaches little deep and deep.
*/ Sovereign GT 15" for thes beaches very deep.
*/ Excalibur II 800 for the beach lot of trash and hunting underwater.
I wait your result..
Happy hunting and Good luck.

 

[Can Slaw]

I have both the Sea Hunter and the Excal. Both are GOOD detectors, but have different uses. The Excal is used near shore where there is more trash so I am not wasting my time digging iron and bobby pins. The SH is used in deeper water or WELL HUNTED beaches, which we have a lot of in FL. You need to decide what your hunting conditions are like, before making a decision on a detector. ANY detector will pinpoint just fine, it is normally the user that needs to learn the machine. Lay a target on the ground that you can see, then see where the detector pinpoints.

All of my DD coil machines pinpoint right in the center of the coil, but do give a nice signal to the side.....shows me the DD is working and detecting a broader range than the size of the coil.

How much time did you have with the DF before getting rid of it?

If you get the Sea Hunter, do get both coils. The 10X14 is my choice for open beach hunting, but the 8 in is really nice for narrow troughs and wet sand runnels that the larger coil is to big to get into.

 

[petersra]

Ok, I understand you want to know depth. Unfortunately, I don't own either of the machines you are considering. However, the following link may give you a general idea, at least on the Excalibur: http://jimyce.home.netcom.com/test.html I have no reason to disbelieve the test results, but I have never used any of the tested machines myself to confirm how they may perform outside of the pure white sands of FL.

 

[stevemc]

The dual field uses 2 coils, but one is a transmit, and one is a receive. The coil combo doesnt hit on both coils. It really is only on one coil. I do know people that use them and have no problem pinpointing. I have never used one. But have many detectors and can pinpoint with all in a second. Just practice on the dry sand. And unless it broke off from the mainland, Rhode Island is a rectangle with 1 short side on the ocean and Newport Bay going into another corner, not a whole lot of waterfront, compared to the outline of the state. It is not an island.

 

[trsrseeker]

Some of the most productive hunters out there in terms of volume of gold use the Whites DF and dont take more than a few seconds to pinpoint a target. If you cant pinpoint a target with that machine I dont see how either of the alternatives you suggest are going to be any easier. My suggestion is get the books, take the time and learn the machine you have, unless of course you are in an extremely trashy area, in which case go with the Excal 11. But I think you will find that has a real learning curve that will take as much or more effort as the DF to master.

 

[Jason in Enid]

It's a poor mechanic who blames his tools for his failures.

Learn to use it and you will be happy, or you can just jump from machine to machine and complain when none of them do what you think it should do.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I use excals have a 15 'WOT on one and 12X15 inch SEF Butterfly Coil on the other, both hard wired on (I have 2 excals)..... I have no problem finding targets 15-16 inches deep with either one, and hit targets deeper..... AND I never have to dig any tiny pieces of iron.......

 

[Aka Nameless]

Both coils transmit at the same time, then both receive at the same time. The direct center of the coil is where the signal will be the strongest. The only time you should get multiple beeps, is from an elongated piece of metal like a bobby pin/nail, where you will get 2 beeps from one direction, it pretty much sounds like 2 targets right next to each other, the target is directly between where the 2 beeps are. I think you are confusing the double beeps (bobby pins), which happen on all machines, with the design of the DF coil. You generally only want to dig targets that beep once from all directions.

 

[The-Bone]

1 more thing to consider is that possibly you have a defective coil/machine that is not pp correctly

 

[Can Slaw]

1 more thing to consider is that possibly you have a defective coil/machine that is not pp correctly

Very good point. I wonder if a call was ever made to Whites with "what's wrong"? before the detector got bashed.

 

[FLauthor]

Do the gold ring and nail test. Take a gold ring and a 16 penny nail and thread the ring onto the nail. Take any detector other than the Minelab Excalibur and pass over it in nail discrimination. The nail will be discriminated along with the gold ring. Now do the same thing with the Minelab Excalibur. This unit doesn't know what iron is and its ignored but hits the gold ring. This was a big selling point for me when it was demo'd to me in 1990 and I still own that machine.

 

[USTreasureClub]

Hi,

Thanks again for all the responses. I recently spoke to a sales person at Kellyco who has been with the company for over 12 years. He has tested several if not all the detectors including the White's Pro PI. Guess what folks, this sales person agreed with me. He said, "The White's PI has problems pinpointing the target due to the dual coil. He said, he spent several hours on the beach trying to pinpoint objects with the White's and was not happy with the way the detector worked." If White's sold different coils for the PI Water Detector, he said it would make things a lot easier for the user. This sales person used the Excalibur II at the same beach and was able to pinpoint targets within seconds. He said, the main issue is what I wrote in the above post, with the dual coil, when you sweep the detector over a target, you need to keep sweeping it to find out where the target is, is the target on the outside coil or hitting the inside coil. Until you can pinpoint which coil the target is hitting, inner or outer, you may be sweeping for a minute or more which he also agreed is a total waste of time for a treasure hunter. Again, this person has over 25 years detecting. He also said which made a lot of sense, the reason not many other detector companies are making PI detectors is just because of this issue with pinpointing on a dual field coil / PI detector. He said a majority of detecting companies are producing more detectors for the water that support dual freq instead of PI detection. So, I was correct in my frustration with the White's PI water detector. It is and can be a waste of valuable time on the beach especially if you only have a few hours to detect. FYI... The sales person was not trying to push the Excalibur II on me either. He actually mentioned a few "new" freq detectors that Kellyco has sold hundreds of that you can take in the water up to 10 feet. These detectors are approx. $600 to $700 cheaper than the Excalibur II. So, the sales person was very honest and not trying to sell me on the higher priced detectors. He was a really nice guy who spent approx. an hour and a half on the phone going over different options for me. Any comments are welcome. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!! Catch that treasure....

 

[Buff4]

Hello, have you considered the Fisher CZ-21. I'll bet many on this website would back me up on saying it's a great machine. Very dependable, built like a tank, use in salt water up to 250 feet, and also works on dry land. I just bought one and I love it. You many want to check it out.
John (from Rhode Island)

 

[surfnturf]

Hello, have you considered the Fisher CZ-21. I'll bet many on this website would back me up on saying it's a great machine. Very dependable, built like a tank, use in salt water up to 250 feet, and also works on dry land. I just bought one and I love it. You many want to check it out.
John (from Rhode Island)

Yep the cz-21 is suppose to be great I have not used one, I do use an excal and in PP mode I can get a few more inches deeper in BLACK NE sand!! Much like a PI! Thought about getting a PI but theres just too much iron on the beaches that I hunt. The Wot coil will be my next mod. My buddy who has many years experience hunts with a PI and he CRUSHES IT!!! Sometimes I think he's got a horse shoe up his !!!

GL&HH SnT