Need help deciding on a machine

[treasurehound]

I live in east Tennessee and mainly hunt civil war relics but once a year we go to the beach for vacation. I have borrowed several machines in the past when we go and liked them all. I mainly have used the Whites Surf Pro PI and the Garrett ATX. I actually have found more with the Surf Pro but only used the ATX one week. It is deep but heavy. I like the tones on it. We mainly have gone to Myrtle Beach but this year we are going to Fort Walton Beach, FL. I have been looking at the Whites Beach Hunter ID 300, Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II and the Garrett Infinium LS. Looking for reviews on all three. The Infinium I can use relic hunting as a back up if needed. But I am mainly looking at how they performat the beach in water and out. I am mainly looking for rings/jewelry. I hate digging clad so already know they will find those. Features such as discriminating pull tabs and bottle caps but still sound on jewelry is a huge plus. I know a lot of rings sound as pull tabs. So any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

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[ChampFerguson/TN]

The Excal II is the standard by which all nonPI beach machines are judged imo. They function just as well in land as long as you don't require a visual indicator. fwiw, bigscoop is making a summer of using just the Excal on dirt. See his posts/blog to follow how well he is doing.

If budget isn't a consideration, get the Excal. If budget REALLY isn't a consideration, get a CTX. (afwiw, I would dig anything that isn't clearly iron at the beach)

 

[FLORIDA KEYS PIRATE]

I agree , spend the money on an Excal II. It's the only machine I use. Land or water.

 

[dewcon4414]

The problem with NOT digging pull tabs is .... there are several type and all seem to fall where gold does. On the beach...... use a disc machine like the Xcal that hates iron. Then learn what a shallow bottle cap sounds like. Everything else you should check out. Gold items can range from foil to a penny range. Not digging all those worthless targets that a PI can give you saves an amazing amount of time..... and at the end of the day, my beat is you end up with more good finds in your pouch. Best all around machine id say is a CTX. Its increased recovery speed has made a huge difference in depth and TID accuracy. It also gives you the ability to set tones for targets and do programs...... if you dont want to dig coins ect. Not to mention..... its a great dirt machine. Beach hunt is all about ...... what are you willing to pass up when making a machine choice. People hunt differently..... some dont like small targets some want to cover more beach.... but like i said it comes down to time spent vs pay off.

 

[bigscoop]

I live in east Tennessee and mainly hunt civil war relics but once a year we go to the beach for vacation. I have borrowed several machines in the past when we go and liked them all. I mainly have used the Whites Surf Pro PI and the Garrett ATX. I actually have found more with the Surf Pro but only used the ATX one week. It is deep but heavy. I like the tones on it. We mainly have gone to Myrtle Beach but this year we are going to Fort Walton Beach, FL. I have been looking at the Whites Beach Hunter ID 300, Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II and the Garrett Infinium LS. Looking for reviews on all three. The Infinium I can use relic hunting as a back up if needed. But I am mainly looking at how they performat the beach in water and out. I am mainly looking for rings/jewelry. I hate digging clad so already know they will find those. Features such as discriminating pull tabs and bottle caps but still sound on jewelry is a huge plus. I know a lot of rings sound as pull tabs. So any help would be greatly appreciated.

The Fisher Cz-21, don't overlook that fantastic machine as it is a great water/land combo. I am currently using the Excal both land & water and it just takes some getting use to but very effective. Yes the Excal hates iron but put the machine in PP mode and it loves iron. So in order to get the most out of the Excal you have to use both modes quite a bit, something you'll get accustom to the longer the use it. Pulltabs & bottle caps, skipping any of these is risky, too many factors can often cause good targets to sound just like both, especially where there is the potential for a lot of masking effect or in certain soil conditions. I just pulled a really nice silver ring that was acting just like a bottle cap due to being suspended in the matrix a few inches over a piece of deeper iron, using both PP and disc modes can help you in better analyzing these situations. Remember, for the most part, the Excal is just a Sovereign in a waterproof package, the Sovereign being one of the most highly regarded land machines ever made so don't let the Excal's wrapping fool you. BUT....you'll need to convert to a straight shaft and later you'll want to additional modes, i.e., headphones, remote PP switch, and the ability to swap coils. If I didn't want to do all of this extra conversion then I'd go with the Fisher CZ-21.

 

[cudamark]

If it's in your budget, I'd get the CTX. No better all around machine currently, IMO. The Excalibur and Sovereign are great machines too, but the Excal is a bit ungainly on land and short on the features I like, and the Sov isn't waterproof. My choice for a PI machine would be the Infinium LS.

 

[slider66]

I have the CTX and Excal and love them both. Both are awesome machines.

 

[sonnar28]

Add an Excal, and bag up your TDI for wet sand

The combination of an Excal and a TDI is very effective to use on beaches with significant wet sand area. Go in with the Excal to find good ground with manageable iron, then come back with the TDI to clean up the deep gold. I use a 2 gallon plastic bag taped up around the TDI control box to protect it. The ability of the TDI to completely ignore non-nickle coins when in low conductor setting is a powerful tool. Don't discount your TDI for beach hunting deep gold!

The Excal is a fun water machine to use, and you will find gold with it.

HH

Charles

 

[Sandancer]

In my experience a machine that discriminates pull tabs and bottle caps but would reliably sound on jewelry, does not exist. If you find one let me know

 

[cudamark]

In my experience a machine that discriminates pull tabs and bottle caps but would reliably sound on jewelry, does not exist. If you find one let me know

The E-trac and CTX are reliable in discriminating out bottle caps. Back when I dug absolutely everything when I first got the E-trac, it never gave me a false negative......in other words......If it said it was a bottle cap, it was. If it was undecided, it occasionally was a bottle cap. Usually one extremely rusty or one covered in foil. I now ignore those bottle cap numbers without hesitation. They're in the 01 and 02 ferrous range (usually 01) and from high teens to mid 20's in conductive. I've never found anything other than bottle caps in that range.

 

[Sandancer]

I guess I am more of a headphone response hunter, but closely watching the numbers can be quite accurate in the better machines.

 

[bigscoop]

I have a Sov GT with a digital meter, take it to a location with lots of trash, i.e., masked targets, pulltabs, bottle caps, etc. Before you dig each target (all targets) take your best guess what the target is, see how many times you're wrong? See how many times you're surprised? Everything changes in these conditions, dig a target that greets you with a surprise sweep that same hole again, see how many times you get another hit. Again, in fairly clean environments the target i.d. can be a bonus but in really trash infested areas not so much.

 

[swamptick]

I have the CTX and the Excal, they compliment each other very well. Good luck with whatever you choose.