Water detectors and their limits.....ATPro vs the PIs....or?

[marco]

Water detectors and their limits.....ATPro vs the PI's....or?

Hello
After about a 2 year break from detecting I am looking to get back into it. The bug has bit me again. I had an ATPro...once I learned its language I was consistently listening past the junk and pulling coins out of local parks every outing. No complaints although I never really found anything beyond clad and a few 1960's silver and junk jewelry. Getting to the point of my post....I have discovered that I have 4 freshwater lakes within an hours drive with big sandy swimming areas and plenty of shallow water. The lighbulb went off ( gold rings!) and I am now looking to either....buy an ATPro again...or....buy a true beach-underwater detector. I also live within an hour of the ocean, so I dont want to rule out saltwater performance. My question is....if I go the Infinium-Sandshark-Excaliber route....will I be limiting myself to beach-water only? How do those detectors handle plain old grass parks? I'm not always going to want to drive out to a lake or get in the water....not 6 months from now when its cold...I will hit the local parks that are 5 minutes away. The ATPro seems the all-around detector for this...but if anyone has used something else that you can get completely wet....then head over to the grass and get good results also.....I am all ears.

An aside note...I have always wanted to use the X-Terra 705...If it is reasonably safe to use it in knee-deep freshwater I would consider it...but I'd sure hate to completely destroy it with one slip in the water.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Diving for Pleasure and Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[Longhair]

You could go with an Xterra. The control head is easily removed from the handle on the shaft, and a chest mount wouldn't be hard to make.

This is a pic of the entire control unit off the shaft (with a raincoat).

 

[marco]

Thats an interesting thought....just remove the detector and wear it higher. HMM. I'm also realizing that if I want to bust the bank I could get the CTX 3030...that would certainly handle any location, but really want to stay under $1000...not over $2000. It's tempting...just like a 911 when I see it in a car lot.
Anyone think the Fisher CZ is as good out of water as under? That seems to be another option.

 

[Terry Soloman]

For the cost of a CTX 3030, you could buy a Tesoro Sandshark for saltwater, a Tesoro Tiger Shark for freshwater, a Tesoro Vaquero for dirt hunting - AND have change left over. Just saying.

 

[Longhair]

Anyone think the Fisher CZ is as good out of water as under? That seems to be another option.

The CZ is a nice detector, and one that I would have if I hunted salt water. But, it is poorly balanced, heavy, and restricts you to whatever hard wired concentric coil you buy it with, making it a less than desirable land machine.

 

[shawninNY]

Excals , my top choice for salt beaches, wouldn't want to land hunt with it! For the money id say Xterra all the way! Anyone advising against a CTX , probably hasn't used one

 

[marco]

Thanks for the replies

 

[petey1231]

Pro is great in fresh water crap in salt water - really doesnt work just goes mental

 

[gulfcoaster]

I have a CZ-21, and it works great on land and in the ocean. It's sorta heavy, but not too bad. I swung it shaft-mounted last night for a couple of hours with no problem, but I can feel it a bit in my forearm today. It's designed so that you can use it hip-mounted or chest-mounted, which helps a lot (and it comes with the hip-mount clip). You can get a new one in your price range too, if you call a sponsor and work it out with them.

My AT Pro is great on land and in fresh water...it kills in my local river. It also works great on the dry sand. It works okay in the wet sand and in the salt water, if I turn the ground balance way down and lower the sensitivity. I think its performance really depends on the mineralization of your local beaches. It's a super-fun machine, in my opinion.

 

[petey1231]

Yes in the us it works ok on salt in England the salinity levels must be diff because it doesn't work on our wet sand no pos or neg gb
Or sensitivity adjust or freq shift make any different it does t work here that's why I got a credit card and bought a ctx3030

 

[Mach1Pilot]

You could go with an Xterra. The control head is easily removed from the handle on the shaft, and a chest mount wouldn't be hard to make.

This is a pic of the entire control unit off the shaft (with a raincoat).

Coiltek also makes a cable extension that would work really well for this purpose....

 

[el padron]

For the cost of a CTX 3030, you could buy a Tesoro Sandshark for saltwater, a Tesoro Tiger Shark for freshwater, a Tesoro Vaquero for dirt hunting - AND have change left over. Just saying.

Also its very possible the fake chinese CTX 3030's work better and they run as low as $600.00, They also come with a printed manual, because not everyone has access to a CD rom in the middle of Laguna Cove.