Garret at max need advice before I bye

[oldkoot]

what I did when I decided to get into this hobby was find a dealer in the area where I lived at the time I was lucky I went into the shop and talked to the guy running it at the time he showed me several detectors I decided on about three at the time but was still undecided as to which ones the AT PRO had just came out at that time and I was looking for two machines one for myself and one for my wife be as to how I was undecided at the time the guy that was running the shop said why don't I bring them to your house and show you the differences in them of course the house I lived in at the time could have had something to do with it because the house was on 3/4s of an acre of land and the house itself was built in 1889 but he ended up coming to where I lived and showed me all about them he spent at least 3 hours there until I was comfortable with my choice I ended up purchasing the AT PRO for my wife and a X TERRA 705 for me my point is find a dealer in your area that is willing to show you the differences and get the detector you want once you have your feet wet then for me I would have no issues purchasing online or from site sponsor dealers

 

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[vferrari]

what I did when I decided to get into this hobby was find a dealer in the area where I lived at the time I was lucky I went into the shop and talked to the guy running it at the time he showed me several detectors I decided on about three at the time but was still undecided as to which ones the AT PRO had just came out at that time and I was looking for two machines one for myself and one for my wife be as to how I was undecided at the time the guy that was running the shop said why don't I bring them to your house and show you the differences in them of course the house I lived in at the time could have had something to do with it because the house was on 3/4s of an acre of land and the house itself was built in 1889 but he ended up coming to where I lived and showed me all about them he spent at least 3 hours there until I was comfortable with my choice I ended up purchasing the AT PRO for my wife and a X TERRA 705 for me my point is find a dealer in your area that is willing to show you the differences and get the detector you want once you have your feet wet then for me I would have no issues purchasing online or from site sponsor dealers

Great story. Hey, did he find anything interesting on your property when he was demo-ing the detectors for you? A friend of mine bought a Deus on the spot when the dealer demonstrating the unit found a gold ring in her front lawn (the cynic in me would have had me casting doubts on this demonstration, but it WAS legit). Now she is finding the gold rings, silver coins, CW buttons, and CS belt buckles.

 

[vferrari]

I'm going to take a different approach to your question. You've been given a tremendous amount of sound and detailed advice here from very experienced detectorists. But from what you originally stated, you're new to detecting. And to start off hunting gold in streams in the Boston area sounds tricky at best without a lot of practice on detecting basics, to say the least. (I wasn't aware there was gold there.)

Perhaps you'd be better off banking some of your $800 budget for a while and start off with a basic metal detector for around $200 or less. And then set out to learn as much as you can from the experience gained from using it. You'll find, in time, that you'll like certain features better than others. And I'm talking Sensitivity and Discrimination settings. Not the plethora of other settings you'll have on more expensive machines, that will mostly confuse you, if you even use them in the first place.

Walk before you run. You'll be happier in the end. Best of luck with whatever you decide on. And keep us posted on your finds! HH

Absolutely sound advice, that is why the last thing I suggested was that he borrow a detector and really learn a little about what this hobby is really like before he buys anything. Once people find it takes a lot patience (hours of nothing punctuated by moments of pure excitement) and a lot of backbreaking trash digging vs. gold nuggets, rings, and coins popping out of the ground every five seconds like they are led to believe on you tube, they tend to rethink whether the hobby is for them. I have found however, if you try to lead them in this direction off the bat, rather than answering their question at face value (and with excruciating but valid technical detail) they tend to tune out the "try before you buy" message. Once they realize all the considerations that go into making a decision for a specialized type of detector for a specialized type of hunting then they tend to embrace the crawl, walk, run approach to learning the hobby.

 

[oldkoot]

Great story. Hey, did he find anything interesting on your property when he was demo-ing the detectors for you? A friend of mine bought a Deus on the spot when the dealer demonstrating the unit found a gold ring in her front lawn (the cynic in me would have had me casting doubts on this demonstration, but it WAS legit). Now she is finding the gold rings, silver coins, CW buttons, and CS belt buckles.

vferrari him and I went into my front yard and with in 15 minuets we had dug up 5 silvers at shallow depths and other clad coins with the AT PRO and then I had him to switch over to the X TERRA 705 and we hit another 5 or 6 silvers at around the same depths but the thing with that dealer was he handed me everything he dug up I told him he could keep them just for being willing to come to my house and show me the differences but he insisted I keep them the other thing which really impressed me with him was he then handed me the machines and told me to have fun so I did the whole time he was standing there giving me instruction on how to use them and how to set them up we spent approximately three hours in my front yard but I think he was enjoying it as much as I was in total we dug up probably $15 in clad with in the three hours and several silvers the dealer even made a statement that he had never seen anything like what we were doing, my wife came out and even got into it, our front yard it was like someone had used a broadcaster and seeded our yard with coins, after purchasing the two machines I ended up purchasing which was a new AT PRO and a used X TERRA 705 in like new condition with three coils after that I was hooked because of the thrill of the hunt I do not know though if it had not been for that dealers willingness to come to my house and spend as much time as he did if I would have stuck with this hobby but I have been doing it ever since and still love it as much now as I did then

 

[Peter1972]

Maybe I should said I'm from the boston area but for the most part I would be looking for gold in the streams of Vermont and nh I was talking to my friend's father the other night and he was telling me that Fisher gold bug 2 is much better than the at gold the only thing is that the Fisher ant water proof so I think I'm going to go with the gold bug 2 and get the max for everything else I see to that e Bay has some pretty good deals thank you everyone I no I have allot of questions

 

[oldkoot]

Maybe I should said I'm from the boston area but for the most part I would be looking for gold in the streams of Vermont and nh I was talking to my friend's father the other night and he was telling me that Fisher gold bug 2 is much better than the at gold the only thing is that the Fisher ant water proof so I think I'm going to go with the gold bug 2 and get the max for everything else I see to that e Bay has some pretty good deals thank you everyone I no I have allot of questions

I would also look at the GM 1000 ( Gold Monster ) the control box is spay proof so its good in rain just can not dunk it the coils are submersible though I have it also and it is vary sensitive to non ferrous targets I,E (Gold,Aluminum,Brass,and Lead) and probably the easiest gold detector you will ever run fully automatic, it bangs real hard on the tiniest pieces of non ferrous targets when you get your coil over them and also has good depth I have dug lead and brass casings down to 9-11 inches with it even the smallest pieces sound big have also dug clad coins with it while in the deep all metal mode

 

[xr7ator]

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[Roundness]

I own the Max and the V3i. I wouldn't go with the V3i as a first machine. If it were between the 2, as a first detector, it would be the Max. Much more user friendly. If the V3i is set up wrong, it can be rendered almost useless. Although if it is set up right, it is amazing. There are stock programs on it, but to get the most out of it you have to change a lot of settings.

 

[vferrari]

Maybe I should said I'm from the boston area but for the most part I would be looking for gold in the streams of Vermont and nh I was talking to my friend's father the other night and he was telling me that Fisher gold bug 2 is much better than the at gold the only thing is that the Fisher ant water proof so I think I'm going to go with the gold bug 2 and get the max for everything else I see to that e Bay has some pretty good deals thank you everyone I no I have allot of questions

Those are two great detectors, but why spend nearly $1500 for two detectors when you can get a single detector that will do all those detectors do for $900 (800 model). Consider the Minelab Equinox. Even the $650 600 has been shown to grab small gold. Light weight, waterproof, simple settings, what's not to love?

 

[HighVDI]

Those are two great detectors, but why spend nearly $1500 for two detectors when you can get a single detector that will do all those detectors do for $900 (800 model). Consider the Minelab Equinox. Even the $650 600 has been shown to grab small gold. Light weight, waterproof, simple settings, what's not to love?

The wait time? Sorry, I couldn't resist.

 

[vferrari]

The wait time? Sorry, I couldn't resist.

I hear you. It's cold here, so regular detecting won't start in earnest until March for me and the Equinox is shipping now so will be ready to go well before spring arrives.

 

[Kodiak43351]

Maybe I should said I'm from the boston area but for the most part I would be looking for gold in the streams of Vermont and nh I was talking to my friend's father the other night and he was telling me that Fisher gold bug 2 is much better than the at gold the only thing is that the Fisher ant water proof so I think I'm going to go with the gold bug 2 and get the max for everything else I see to that e Bay has some pretty good deals thank you everyone I no I have allot of questions

I didn't mention the gold bug or any of the other gold detectors because they run at a high freq and if you wanted to use them to coin shoot or detect for silver or old copper the gold bug won't hit them as easy as the other detectors mentioned already. I watched a video from Australia where they were finding gold in a tailings pile with the Max. I just got the Max and will run it through it's paces this season. I have been using the deus for past 2 seasons and I'm one of the few that didn't have as much luck with it as I did my AT Gold. That is why I'm giving the Max a try. I'll review it with multiple coils this spring. I have the stock coil, NEL thunder and will be getting the Nel or Cors 9.5 x 5.5. I've had my best detecting with the AT Gold. I didn't like the Pro much but I did have alot of luck with it. I'm a relic Hunter and want a true all metal capable machine. Anyway I'll go on and on lol. Good luck with the Gold Bug and Max. I can see you using the Max alot more than the Gold Bug.

 

[Peter1972]

What are the nels I keep hearing g about what are they just bigger coils to detect with lol like I said I'm new to this

 

[Kodiak43351]

The are a coil manufacturer. They specialize in coils so they test and research coil configurations till they find what works the best. As far as I know they don't make detectors so they can focus on coils. Their coils are great on the AT detectors. They have really small to very big.

 

[Andy Nunez]

I've got the Cors Cannon which is the same as the NEL thunder. Have been using it for a little over a year. It helps a lot in wide open spaces to cover more ground. Sensitivity is as good as any Garrett coil because I get .22 bullets and little bits of brass and depth (over a foot in one extreme example of a thumbtack head sized piece of brass in nice sandy soil). Now, I have the Ace 400 and the Cannon isn't much heavier than the stock coil so I can run a good six hours swinging it with a lunch break in between before my old arm tires out. Does it go deeper? hard to say. 90% of what I find is less than 6 inches (I hunt a lot of fields) but I have gone to 8 easily with coin sized objects, so hard to say. I know there were some issues with the Max and the NEL Thunder (I watched a Youtube with the Hoover boys) but I think they've straightened that out. NEL and Cors are the same company. A friend of mine has a NEL Thunder on his AT Pro and while he doesn't dig a lot of super deep targets, he covers a lot of ground and out-digs me in volume (He's 20 years younger, too). YMMV.

 

[Kodiak43351]

I've got the Cors Cannon which is the same as the NEL thunder. Have been using it for a little over a year. It helps a lot in wide open spaces to cover more ground. Sensitivity is as good as any Garrett coil because I get .22 bullets and little bits of brass and depth (over a foot in one extreme example of a thumbtack head sized piece of brass in nice sandy soil). Now, I have the Ace 400 and the Cannon isn't much heavier than the stock coil so I can run a good six hours swinging it with a lunch break in between before my old arm tires out. Does it go deeper? hard to say. 90% of what I find is less than 6 inches (I hunt a lot of fields) but I have gone to 8 easily with coin sized objects, so hard to say. I know there were some issues with the Max and the NEL Thunder (I watched a Youtube with the Hoover boys) but I think they've straightened that out. NEL and Cors are the same company. A friend of mine has a NEL Thunder on his AT Pro and while he doesn't dig a lot of super deep targets, he covers a lot of ground and out-digs me in volume (He's 20 years younger, too). YMMV.

They made coils just for the Max now. I have a thunder for my Max and I went out with it and it separates better than the stock and is alot deeper than stock. What was happening is they were using the Nel for At Pro on the Max early on. Not an issue anymore. It doesn't matter if you buy a Nel or a Cors you will be getting the same coil.