few questions....

[mnruxpin]

anyone used the new stealth 720i scoop with half inch holes in freshwater? theres rocks clay etc... or is it strictly a ocean sand scoop?

my buddies excal 2 seems to go a lot deeper than mine, is that due to electronics or the coil mine goes 4 or 5 inches max, its a whisper, on a clad quarter, his goes twice as far.

is there an excal 3 coming out?

 

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[Southernstyle]

The Stealth scoops are REALLY nice. I have the older model and it is a tank. Should work great for you. As far as the excal goes, I've had a few. You should be getting great depth with it. You have another one to compare it to, so i'm sure your settings are the same. If you are in fresh water, you should be able to have the sensitivity up to 9, not on auto though. Disc on 0 and your volume about 3/4 up. I can run mine at 8 in salt water if i swing it slow and steady. I you don't think its right, you may want to send it in. If it's under warranty, minelab picks up all shipping charges. I think they still do... Buckle in for the ride though. I have sent a machine to them that was 6 months old and the headphones were shorting out in thew water. It was clearly a manufacture defect.....However, because the stock knobs on my unit had also stripped out, I replaced them with Anderson knobs, which are awesome. Minelab tells me because I put aftermarket knobs on the machine I voided the warranty, costing me all service charges. Maybe if Minelab put better knobs on the machine, they would have never stripped, thus I would not have changed out the knobs. I've always been surprised that such large companies that have loyal customers don't understand that a unhappy customer really hurts them in the end. They should have fixed the 6 month old machine, sent it back and kept me happy, instead of trying to collect another $500 plus dollars on the machine.

 

[Sandman]

The stealt 720i is built better than a tank. The half inch holes are fast draining even in muck or freshwater lakes. The use of a 90 degree handle is what I prefer as I bring the basket up in small hops with the left hand instead of swinging it up which wears out the wrist.

As for the depth of your Excal, have you cleaned out the coil cover of any black sand?

 

[bigscoop]

I have the big Stealth, but it's a love hate relationship. I really like it in the soft stuff, hate it in the firmer/harder stuff - especially when the targets are deep. I differ with Sandman in that I don't care for the current 90 degree setup at all because all of the leverage is at the very back of the bucket and balancing a heavy load can present a real challenge, especially in the surf and stronger currents. It's also heavy, perhaps too heavy for all day hunts and on those days when there's a lot of targets and digging.

The Excal, they're not all alike - same for coils - each machine/coil sometimes having its own little differences. I've owned a couple of them and I used/use different settings on each machine. I use to hunt a lot with CZ's and this same difference in settings existed there as well. The Excal I owned previously would get really unstable if I tried to adjust the sensitivity higher then about 1/2 over the wet sand, the machine I have now runs extremely stable over the wet sand with the sensitivity adjusted to 3/4 even with a really large coil. I can't explain why these differences sometimes exist but I suppose for the same reasons that the same identical model/make/year vehicles can experience different gas mileages, etc.

 

[mnruxpin]

thanks guys, good stuff as usual, appreciate the input

 

[DnD]

I've used (2) RTG's, a few custom made and the 720 is still my favorite. As far as the handle angle....duck tape a broom handle on a small bucket and pretend to dig. You'll see that to dig down and into the sand, you have to really lean forward which can throw off your balance and/or get a face full of wave. The angled handle allows you stay up straight and dig. Sunspot offers both the angles, so it is really your preference...but I'd encourage you test one or at least make a mock-up to see what I'm talking about.

 

[Sandman]

I also have the angled handle Sunspot Stealth and it does allow you to plant the point without getting your face wet when in deep water.