Cheap detector for the beach?

Viddy

Sr. Member
Aug 16, 2011
447
220
Harrisburg, PA
Detector(s) used
Xterra 705, F2, Etrac, T2, V3i, AT Pro, CTX3030, Equinox 800, Vanquish 540, Go-Find 66, F5, Q60, Apex
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Heading to the Outer Banks, NC for vacation for a week. I rented a beach house and I am definately gonna hit the beach with my E-Trac. My GF will be using my AT Pro that she claimed.
My daughter and her friend are coming (both 17), and I wanted to get them a cheap detector that will work on the beach so they can come along. (I'll keep them in dry sand if needed).
I know some lower-end detectors are almost impossible to use on the beach with all the chatter and falsing.
Anyone know of any cheap detectors from White's, Fisher, Tesoro, Garrett, Minelab, Teknetics, etc that work good on the beach?.....
Cheap as in 'under $300' ...new under $300 or a used detector I can get for that price.
I just hate to pick something up for them and get down there and it just frustrates or is un-usable. At that point, it would be better not getting anything, you know?
Any suggestions or ideas would help... especially on detectors that you have used on the beach or heard they work pretty good.

Thanks in advance..

Viddy
 

Treasure_Hunter

Administrator
Staff member
Jul 27, 2006
48,458
54,896
Florida
Detector(s) used
Minelab_Equinox_ 800 Minelab_CTX-3030 Minelab_Excal_1000 Minelab_Sovereign_GT Minelab_Safari Minelab_ETrac Whites_Beach_Hunter_ID Fisher_1235_X
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Heading to the Outer Banks, NC for vacation for a week. I rented a beach house and I am definately gonna hit the beach with my E-Trac. My GF will be using my AT Pro that she claimed.
My daughter and her friend are coming (both 17), and I wanted to get them a cheap detector that will work on the beach so they can come along. (I'll keep them in dry sand if needed).
I know some lower-end detectors are almost impossible to use on the beach with all the chatter and falsing.
Anyone know of any cheap detectors from White's, Fisher, Tesoro, Garrett, Minelab, Teknetics, etc that work good on the beach?.....
Cheap as in 'under $300' ...new under $300 or a used detector I can get for that price.
I just hate to pick something up for them and get down there and it just frustrates or is un-usable. At that point, it would be better not getting anything, you know?
Any suggestions or ideas would help... especially on detectors that you have used on the beach or heard they work pretty good.

Thanks in advance..

Viddy

Your not going to find a detector under $300 that really works very well on the beach.... The ace 250 can be used there if you turn your sensitivity way down, it will still false a lot though... I would suggest you think about a used AT PRO, Sovereign GT or another good water detector.... Used they will still cost you close to $500... You will need a scoop to to recover your target......

Do you plan on hunting in the water or just the wet sand? Any detector will work in the dry sand, it is the wet sand and in the water where the problems are, the salt minerals are metal, detector thinks it sees metal every where....
 

willie d

Silver Member
Jul 13, 2005
4,007
394
Close enough to the beach
Detector(s) used
**Tesoro Tiger Shark** Tesoro Silver Umax** Minelab Sov Gt w/WOT coil** Whites 6000Di Pro SL**
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Tesoro Silver Umax for the dry sand. :thumb_up:
 

bazinga

Silver Member
Oct 31, 2005
2,966
80
High Five!
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
You have an F2, an X-Terra, and a T2. Why are you even asking this question? You already have 3 perfect machines for them to use in the dry sand. :dontknow:
 

liftloop

Silver Member
May 7, 2008
3,140
390
lakelinden mi
Detector(s) used
MXTdeepscan 8by14dd, bulls eye 2, 5900diprosl Maxima1500, Master Hunter cx plus Treasure Hound, surf
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
white's coin-master pro or coin-master check them out...at white's Electronic.com
 

U.K. Brian

Bronze Member
Oct 11, 2005
1,629
153
Detector(s) used
XLT, Whites D.F., Treasure Baron, Deepstar, Goldquest, Beachscan, T.D.I., Sovereign, 2x Nautilus, various Arado's, Ixcus Diver, Altek Quadtone, T2, Beach Hunter I.D, GS 5 pulse, Searchman 2 ,V3i
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I was also going to say that the dry is well sorted. The T2 will also work fairly well on the wet (but not up to Sovereign or CZ standard) if they ground balance themselves rather than use "fastgrab" and a slightly higher than usual discrimination level is used. Sensitivity will have to be set according to the conditions on the beaches you will be on. What you will have to do is find the best settings yourself if they haven't much experience and make a note of them as the detector isn't going to retain them when they switch off for a break.
 

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