Garrett Sea Hunter MK II VS. Minelab Excalibur II question

[nitro74d]

I am moving to Florida in September and will still be using my MXT Pro on the land but I would like to get into beach and surf hunting as well. First off if there is a post like this please point me in the direction and I can end this thread right now. What my issue is I ultimately want the excal but I don't have $1500 to spend right at the moment but will be able to save it up in a year or so. Is it worth the wait to get the excal or should I just get a Garrett now and then upgrade to the excal when I have the money?

Any help would be greatly apprieciated,

Thanks,

Charles

 

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[Can Slaw]

I am moving to Florida in September and will still be using my MXT Pro on the land but I would like to get into beach and surf hunting as well. First off if there is a post like this please point me in the direction and I can end this thread right now. What my issue is I ultimately want the excal but I don't have $1500 to spend right at the moment but will be able to save it up in a year or so. Is it worth the wait to get the excal or should I just get a Garrett now and then upgrade to the excal when I have the money?

Any help would be greatly apprieciated,

Thanks,

Charles

I have and use both, so I guess I can answer your question. If the beaches you plan on hunting are clean of iron, the SH is a great machine. If the beaches are infested with iron, you will be looking forward to the day the SH has found enough to pay for the Excalibur. The deeper in the water, the less the iron targets and the SH will shine. The closer so shore, the more iron and you will wear out quickly digging unwanted targets.

 

[lookindown]

I have and use both, so I guess I can answer your question. If the beaches you plan on hunting are clean of iron, the SH is a great machine. If the beaches are infested with iron, you will be looking forward to the day the SH has found enough to pay for the Excalibur. The deeper in the water, the less the iron targets and the SH will shine. The closer so shore, the more iron and you will wear out quickly digging unwanted targets.

Your right about the iron being shallow...when I get tired of not hitting any targets, a quick trip up through the shallow water has iron playing me a tune...sometimes I just need to hear SOMETHING.

 

[R.Danneskjold]

Do all minelabs ignore iron?

 

[Can Slaw]

Do all minelabs ignore iron?

All of the ones I hunt with do.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Do all minelabs ignore iron?

They dont ignore iron, they just tell you when there is iron there... When they hit iron they "null", (loss of threshold) telling you there is iron under your coil, the trick is when it nulls to swing coil from multiple directions, if there is also gold or slver under the coil with the iron it will tell you, the iron does not mask the good targets...

If you swing your coil from multiple directions and you only get a null, move on it is just iron, no need to dig............

 

[Sandman]

Treasure Hunter and Can Slaw are correct. The Sea Hunter being a PI will find every small piece of hair pin and piece or gun wrapper on the beach and deep too. The Excal is not as deep as a PI but it saves your energy for the gold ring. I would look into getting a Sand Shark.

 

[dennco2000]

I'm in the same boat (no pun intended) I wanted the excal but bought the MarkII and I have to say it has been a good machine functional, durable, and resonably priced.
It was also my first submersable machine and I didnt want to drop alot of money until I was certain I would enjoy UW MD'ing.

FYI its awsome!!!

 

[robt357]

Ive had my Sea Hunter for about a month now. It has the ability to ignore aluminum, although i have been playing around with the settings and when set to ignore aluminum it can miss some gold. So its best to not use that feature and just dig everything. But ive been happy with it.

 

[dennco2000]

Treasure Hunter and Can Slaw are correct. The Sea Hunter being a PI will find every small piece of hair pin and piece or gun wrapper on the beach and deep too. The Excal is not as deep as a PI but it saves your energy for the gold ring. I would look into getting a Sand Shark. View attachment 844606

Sandman you are correct, my MarkII will pick up a hair pin 1.5ft down and just a shank of a fish hook will wear you out. I use a certain size sifter and if it falls through the first time just move on and dont look back. I nicked named the "DIGGER"!

 

[nitro74d]

Thank you everyone for the great replies, that is exactly what I was needing to hear. I think I am going to pick up a Sea Hunter and when I can afford an Excal I will get that one too. I would be nice to have both of them anyway since I have some cousins that live down there and they would probably get into MD'ing if I had a spare machine.


Thank you,

Charles

 

[dennco2000]

Thank you everyone for the great replies, that is exactly what I was needing to hear. I think I am going to pick up a Sea Hunter and when I can afford an Excal I will get that one too. I would be nice to have both of them anyway since I have some cousins that live down there and they would probably get into MD'ing if I had a spare machine.


Thank you,

Charles

It's better if you tell your wife your buying another one so the two of you can spend more time together....

 

[Mr.Excavator]

It's better if you tell your wife your buying another one so the two of you can spend more time together....

I have 2 of the Sea Hunters one for me and one for the wife. They are Great and miss NOTHING in the sand, but you will dig. The Excal is a bit better by not having to dig the iron objects. I am starting to get a liking for my Excal not as much diggiing, but also not as deep either.

I say start with the Sea Hunter because of cost make sure you like the hobby and lets be honest digging for treasure is what it is all about. Then as time goes on give the Excal a try a lot more expensive but has some advantages. Its nice to trade back and forth depending on the hunting situations that I plan for the day.

 

[dirtynails]

I recently started beach detecting too and couldnt afford an Excalibur, but I knew my beach couldn't handle a PI due to extreme iron. (Surf City NC). I got a used minelab sovereign elite and put it in a waterproof box. I carry it in a back pack and hunt the shallows up to my chest. The sovereign is like an Excalibur as it is bbc. It only took :30 min to rig the waterproof box and cable clam. I highly suggest this as an inexpensive alternative to an Excalibur and less digging than a PI.

 

[seeker41]

I recently started beach detecting too and couldnt afford an Excalibur, but I knew my beach couldn't handle a PI due to extreme iron. (Surf City NC). I got a used minelab sovereign elite and put it in a waterproof box. I carry it in a back pack and hunt the shallows up to my chest. The sovereign is like an Excalibur as it is bbc. It only took :30 min to rig the waterproof box and cable clam. I highly suggest this as an inexpensive alternative to an Excalibur and less digging than a PI.

lets see some pics of your setup! I want to do something similar with my tdi.

chuck.

 

[Les West Central Fl]

I enjoy the Excal because of the different tones. The null when over iron , the low mellow tone when over gold and the other tones which indicate dimes, silver and misc. I have hunted with Excals since they first came out and learned about discrimination tones and threshold tones.How the threshold ends gives you a big clue on the target. Since the Florida coast is not highly mineralized like some other areas the Excal works great. Some types of detectors have their specialties, The Aquasound will identify iron and bottle caps immediately but will not function in black sand, volcanic soil, the PI will.
You can buy an inexpensive or luxury car, both will get you where you are going. The difference is the comfort.

 

[dennco2000]

That's the best analogy I have ever heard when describing a metal detector.

For the beginner MD'er I would always suggest a machine in the $100-$300.

When I bought my second detector I asked the shop owner how deep will it detect, he replied... "its not how deep will a machine detect its how much do you want to dig?

 

[Fletch88]

I am moving to Florida in September and will still be using my MXT Pro on the land but I would like to get into beach and surf hunting as well. First off if there is a post like this please point me in the direction and I can end this thread right now. What my issue is I ultimately want the excal but I don't have $1500 to spend right at the moment but will be able to save it up in a year or so. Is it worth the wait to get the excal or should I just get a Garrett now and then upgrade to the excal when I have the money?

Any help would be greatly apprieciated,

Thanks,

Charles

Buy a used Sovereign and use chest mounted up to hip deep. You'll be able to buy an Excal soon. I prefer the GT when wet sand shallow water hunting its light as a feather. I would take discrimination over depth any day of the week.

 

[dirtynails]

Here is my waterproof sovereign. There are plans online and a video on YouTube. It is easy. I used a large Plano waterproof box and the largest cable clam they make. You need to get the end of the coil cable through the cable clam and the smaller ones wont fit. Also, when you cut through the cable clam rubber, make sure you use a very sharp and sturdy knife and make only 1 slice. I made the mistake of cutting through twice and left a wedge in the slice. So I filled it with silicone too. It is good protection and can sit in the water, I just don't know how deep it can be submerged. I never go deep enough to worry about it failing from water pressure.

 

[Fletch88]

That's a pretty cool setup, but I like to be able to change sensitivity quite often. I put mine in a gallon ziplock inside ML hip mount. and ziptie around coil cable. Works great up to about maybe knee/ thigh deep on a good day. I've seen some mods where they had all controls accessible from outside, but the cost of this plus the machine = an Excal.