Newbie- Wow.... all i can say is WOW!

[Hogfish]

sorry no, i haven't found any treasure ... i just had no idea metal detecting was so big.
T
o be polite some introduction and a little background info to start
After loosing my wedding ring after only 3 months of marriage, (probably not a record but close) and then hearing a friend do the same thing, i thought sheesh... this is a common problem. There's no hope of finding mine which is at the bottom of the ocean but his is on the beach somewhere so i start to think about getting a metal detector. Do a search and BOOM! now where do i begin...

Ive searched and read what I can about which specific detector would suit my purposes but as a total newbie i would still kindly ask for some guidance with questions that have probably been asked a thousand times before.

I'm from and live in the Bahamas and my detecting will be 99% beach use.
The sand is , i believe, almost entirely white limestone (calcium carbonate) with a little ground coral thrown in.
There's no clay or iron oxide but i read the salt water has an effect.
I wish to SPECIFICALLY TARGET GOLD AND SILVER JEWELLERY.
i've read Pulse Induction would be the way to go BUT i intend to target high traffic areas which means also there would be a lot of trash and i would be bending over every 5 seconds for a bottle cap. ssooo ...

Recommendations please for an entry level unit? budget... is $300 enough? (i see plenty for under $200 on toptenreviews.com but would the y suit my needs?)

Many thanks for all and any advise in advance,
best regards and happy hunting,
Hogfish

 

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[Sir Gala Clad]

Hogfish, might I suggest a different approach.
Rather than budget X amount of dollars for an entry level unit budget X amount of dollars, which would be the amount of money you would lose, if you decided to sell the metal detector. In order words look for metal detectors which are in high demand, have high resale value, and are easy to sell.

As a beginner, you will need every edge you can get, as you will be competing against the best, most of who only use top of the line equipment - time is money.
The metal detector(s) you are looking for are easy to spot by looking at the finds pictures on TNet and other forums as you can see what was found, identify the zone it was found in (dry sand, wet sand, shallow water) and type of detector used.

Unless you find Spanish silver, key silver coins, designer jewelry - silver is a runner up as it does not have much melt value. As silver is less dense, the rings will be relatively light. At best near $40 per troy oz when the Hunter brothers tried to corner the commodity market.

For other than relics, what You want is a metal detector which is sweet on gold and platinum, as that is where the value (Spanish, Key Coin, jewelry, melt) is.
Look at the classified by T Net members (still have to be careful) and EBay (riskier) and You will notice that such detectors are difficult to buy used as they sell fast and their sale prices are closer to original purchase cost(s).

Go to the beach and see what experienced treasure hunters are using at the beaches where you will be detecting. If you talk to them on their way to the car, some may even give you guidance, as they know how hard it is to start.
If there is a metal detecting club, or do you know someone who treasure hunts try to use the detector, what you are looking for is what works for you - the interface to the machine: do you use switches and knobs vs. menu driven to input, Is the target visually identified, or Audio identification: variable multitude, VCO (voltage controlled oscillator) which gets louder/ faster near target, discrete tone(s) , beeps (low, medium, high).

For beach detecting I prefer a knob and switch metal detector as display screens are difficult to see in sunlight and my vision is poor. I also like multivariable tones as they provide more information, next I like three different tones especially if a VCO ia used.
I really do not like beeps, as I find them annoying especially annoying in trashy areas.

 

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[Iron Patch]

Get an Excal if you can. More of an investment but probably a much better return. As long as you hunt on a regular basis it will probably be the only detector you will ever have to pay for, assuming you'd use some finds to cover the next. If it doesn't work out you sell and lose a few hundred, not the end of the world.

 

[dewcon4414]

You didnt mention if you wanted to get in the water. If you only want to dry hunt..... there are better single freq machines than a multi freq to find gold with. In the wet sand or in the water a multi freq/PI machine is a must for effective hunting. Take a look at the warranties and customer service as well. Water machines pay for them selves quickly..... dry sand hunting can get a little more discouraging if you have a lot of competition since most machines will work there. 150 to 1 ratio of bad to good targets on dry sand...... 20 to 1 in the water with fewer hunters... think about it. You can use a VLF disc multi freq anywhere, especially if you dont know what to expect out there yet..... a PI however can get frustrating if trashy conditions.

Dew

 

[Sir Gala Clad]

Here is a list of PI metal detectors which I looked into for shallow water and wet sand hunting:

Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II - More flexible: allows use of different size search coils: the small 8" mono coil for diving and shallow water hunting and the larger 10"X14" DD coil for hunting on wet sand.

Tesoro Sand Shark - I have read that it is good on small gold but does not go as deep. I think I would really like the VCO mode to home in on the target and it's hard to beat a lifetime warranty but: The spiral antenna is a concern as I have read that it tends to act like a rudder or flip up in strong surf.

White's Surf master PI Dual Field better? I heard the small coil is sensitive to gold and you can go deeper with the larger coil.

Garrett Infinium LS. I think I would really like this beastie, as it is the most versatile being designed to find gold nuggets, coins, gold, treasure caches, and relics and you can dive to 200 feet with it. Like the Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II: it allows use of different size search coils. But I have heard that it has a longer learning curve as you have to master ground balancing, adjusting the frequency, and get used to the LO/HI and HI/LO tone for target discrimination.

 

[lost items recovery]

Here is a list of PI metal detectors which I looked into for shallow water and wet sand hunting:

Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II - More flexible: allows use of different size search coils: the small 8" mono coil for diving and shallow water hunting and the larger 10"X14" DD coil for hunting on wet sand.

Tesoro Sand Shark - I have read that it is good on small gold but does not go as deep. I think I would really like the VCO mode to home in on the target and it's hard to beat a lifetime warranty but: The spiral antenna is a concern as I have read that it tends to act like a rudder or flip up in strong surf.

White's Surf master PI Dual Field better? I heard the small coil is sensitive to gold and you can go deeper with the larger coil.

Garrett Infinium LS. I think I would really like this beastie, as it is the most versatile being designed to find gold nuggets, coins, gold, treasure caches, and relics and you can dive to 200 feet with it. Like the Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II: it allows use of different size search coils. But I have heard that it has a longer learning curve as you have to master ground balancing, adjusting the frequency, and get used to the LO/HI and HI/LO tone for target discrimination.

I've owned the dual field. Does not pic up small gold at all! Bring a gold hoop earing to a local dealer or someone who has on and test it..you'll see for yourself. Air or buried. Switched to sand shark with an 8" coil and gets all smalls plus rings. Tighten the coil nut and it doesn't flop up in the surf! Don't believe everything you hear, test it for yourself!!! Dual field and beach hunter 300 ID both have the same coil and flop up because of size and read it may be foam filled. I've owned 4 whites and now have a sand shark, my finds have tripled!

 

[Sir Gala Clad]

LIR: I have heard that there is a modification which can be made on the dual field to make it more sensitive to small gold, and that a T Net member has had great luck with it. However, I have no idea what it is, how much it would cost, nor who makes sucn a mod?

 

[search and recovery]

Sir Gala Clad you have my attention! Does anybody out there have this modification? I would gladly pay to make my Duel Field a better machine. If you know how to accomplish this, please PM me...Stuart

 

[Buzzlitebeer]

Great thread! My Bday is weds and my wife said I can get the machine of my choice! I have an f4 and swing 5-7 days a week...beach every chance I can get there! I was going strictly Excal, but now I think I am more confused...so many choices.

I like my F4 for the dry stuff, but want to do more wet!

My choices for N FL

Excal 2
CZ-21
Sand Shark
Sea Hunter

Now what coil? I have a dry machine so looking for inout please.

 

[bigscoop]

Great thread! My Bday is weds and my wife said I can get the machine of my choice! I have an f4 and swing 5-7 days a week...beach every chance I can get there! I was going strictly Excal, but now I think I am more confused...so many choices.

I like my F4 for the dry stuff, but want to do more wet!

My choices for N FL

Excal 2
CZ-21
Sand Shark
Sea Hunter

Now what coil? I have a dry machine so looking for inout please.

If I was West Coast FL I'd choose the larger coil, East Coast I'd choose the smaller coil. Big difference between West and East Coast. East Coast is typically rougher with more current, smaller coil is just easier to handle in the water on the East Coast.

 

[H-2 CHARLIE]

FISHER CZ-21 for the WIN

 

[Hogfish]

whoa, great response and info. thanks to all of you!

so... gone from a budget of 300, to 700, .... now it looks like a 1000bux plus. all of yoll should be salesmen.

 

[Hogfish]

so the sand shark appears to be a good candidate for shallow water and wading in 2-3' deep, and also wet sand. Is it any good for on dry sand?

otherwise looking now at the excalibur .

 

[lay385]

Remember!! gang
The tesoros machines are LIFETIME WARRANTY.

 

[ivan salis]

well if you stick to the dry sand / wet sand areas and only the very shallow water (coil and lower shaft gets wet only) and keep the upper shaft and the control box totally dry --the cheapest entry item that could be used is a delta 4000 at about $279 USD -- its not waterproof housing wize however so it must be kept out of the water except for the coil tip end part which can be used in water --very shallow of course.--salt water of course has minerals in it that many detectors will read the minerals as "metal" so you will need to adjust the machine accordingly to a baseline reading to "adjust" for this "balance wize" by adjusting the "power level or sensitivity level" until the machine is "stable" --tryig to "push" too much power / sensitivity into ground that due to high mineral levels can not accept the signal --just causes "feed back" and actually harms rather than helps detection -- the term "ground balanced" is important --it means you are "pushing" all the signal that the ground can accept given the mineral conditions and the detector 's freq you are using.

you might start with this and by saving up the cash off rings you find-- "save up" for a better go into the water type machine later on.

 

[handyman007]

kindest thanks to all so far.
ok with a revised budget of 700bux, (remember i'm a total novice. the minelabs would be nice but 1k+ is a little extravagant),
i think it's narrowed down to these three:



I'm only intersted in getting a signal for Gold and Silver. -- No coins (pennies, quarters), iron, buttons, bottle caps etc ..

more Questions:

The tiger shark seems also like a good fit. There's no display but i'm assuming that, in salt water, it can be tuned so as to only make a beep when its over gold/silver. Yes or no?

The sand shark is a Pulse Induction , just to clarify (as i'm getting a couple mixed answers from talking to people and the above answers). Am i correct in saying that I CANNOT filter out just gold and silver with this detector. This would scratch the sand shark off the list.

again, many thanks for all the advise, it's much appreciated.
happy hunting to all.
Sounds great! Just silver and gold! The PI machines, like Tesoro Sand Shark, Garret Sea Hunter, Infinium, Garrett ATX has no discrimination, all iron will be yours) Single frequency VLF detectors, like Tesoro Tiger Shark or Garrett AT pro or AT Gold doesn`t work in SALT water around the US! Check the salt level in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans!