Suggestions for a metal detector under the $500 price range....

[rumme]

I have been reading about these detectors for a few days now and gotten some friendly advice from a few people on this site. My hunting grounds will be in Arkansas and it will be mostly wooded areas or farm land and pasteurs { no water or sand} . It seems that this particular area may have high mineral contents so it may be best for me to stick with a unit that has manual ground balancing
{ which leaves out my 1st choice of the Garret 250} . I want a detector that I wont outgrow in 6 months but is under the $500 price point. I will be looking mainly for silver/gold coins, jewerly and dont care to much about gathering nickels, dimes or quarters that are normal, unvaluable type clad { 1965 - 2007 years} . I realize though, that I will have to dig up alot of junk but I am not a collector of junk and probably wouldnt keep the majority of that stuff .
So im assuming I would want a detectctor thats

user friendly
manual ground balance
pinpoint feature
depth feature
discrimination and good at alerting the user of junk iron, nails,etc
tone discrimination
{ anything else that would be useful that I forgot ?}


Ive had 3 different recommendations on what would be best for my needs and Im curious as to what everyone else thinks. Has to be under $500 .... and if there is a detector that only costs $300 but is as good as a $400-$500 unit, please let me know Thanks ..

 

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[stefen]

Actually a Garrett Master Hunter can be purchased online for under $500 and has all the features you are wanting.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

I want a detector that I wont outgrow in 6 months but is under the $500 price point. I will be looking mainly for silver/gold coins, jewerly and dont care to much about gathering nickels, dimes or quarters that are normal, unvaluable type clad { 1965 - 2007 years} .

If you ask six people you'll likely get six suggestions.

Well I'd like to only dig gold coins myself. But since there may be only six still buried in any given state in the Union it wouldn't be much fun.

You woun't find a detector that will isolate coins by date. You'll have to dig 2002 Lincoln cents if you want the 1882 Indian Heads. And you;ll have to dig 2004 Roosevelt dimes if you want 1884 Barbers. Clad sounds just as good as pure silver. Copper and silver are right next to each other in conductivity (relatively speaking) so a clad coin doesn't lose much to a 90% silver one.

If you want small gold rings you will be digging nickels. For the most part, if you want all gold jewlery you will be diggng pulltabs, too.

Minelab Musketeer Advantage and set the discrimination to just accept nickels. You won't miss much but you will get a lot of trash. If you don't dig anything that "squeeks" you can reject most trash, but some sounds worth digging and occasionally is. It's called "paying your dues".

 

[N.J.THer]

I don't own one but a lot of people on T-Net rave about the Garret Ace 250 which is less then $250 with shipping/handling. You may want to check it out. Plus if you are just starting out $500 may be too much for a beginning machine...you may decide you don't like the hobby now that new $500 detector turns into a $300 bargin for someone else on E-bay. (I guess I should read an entire post before I throw my 2 cents in - I see you already ruled the Ace 250 out)

If you want to find the old coin your research is more important then the detector you swing. There are a lot of people out there that own $500 - $1000+ detectors that only find clad coins because they don't research. When I'm on a site I try to figure out its potential from everything I pull out of the ground. I'll even look at the type of pull tabs and bottle caps I'm finding to help date the site activity.

Good luck with your search and I hope you find everything you are looking for.

NJ

 

[rumme]

Well so far it seems that the suggestions range from the Tesoro Deleon or Tejon to the Minelabs xtera50 or Musketeer advantage. Decisons, decisions,decisions. .

 

[warsawdaddy]

Don't forget the Tesoro Vaquero with the HOT circuit.

 

[stefen]

I don't own one but a lot of people on T-Net rave about the Garret Ace 250 which is less then $250 with shipping/handling. You may want to check it out. Plus if you are just starting out $500 may be too much for a beginning machine...you may decide you don't like the hobby now that new $500 detector turns into a $300 bargin for someone else on E-bay. (I guess I should read an entire post before I throw my 2 cents in - I see you already ruled the Ace 250 out)

If you want to find the old coin your research is more important then the detector you swing. There are a lot of people out there that own $500 - $1000+ detectors that only find clad coins because they don't research. When I'm on a site I try to figure out its potential from everything I pull out of the ground. I'll even look at the type of pull tabs and bottle caps I'm finding to help date the site activity.

Good luck with your search and I hope you find everything you are looking for.

NJ

Excellant advise.

 

[l.cutler]

Tejon is over $500 but not by a lot. If I were to buy a detector with a $500 limit, I would definitely get a Tesoro Vaquero.

 

[drywasher]

Re: Suggestions for a metal detector under the $500 price range.TOSORO "V"...

i have a tosoro "v" . i have been at this md stuff for a lot of years. i have to say that you will be very happy with this unit>....a tip: learn the md and what it can do/ then dig everything. i have a lot of gold coins & rings that i would not of had/if i dis. out all the trash and not dug the squeekie signals.
hope this helps
respectfully , george

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

A major benefit of the Tesoro Vaquero, is the lifetime warranty to the original owner.

 

[TonyinCT]

As we know , there is a lot to metal detecting. Mostly its the user but yo also have to have a quality detector that will work for you and the ground you cover. Unfortunately there is no end all get all detector yet. There are ways to set discrimination on some units to be more inclined to find certain objects but mid to lower detectors don't usually do this. One way to get what you want is a target ID meter. You can relatively "see" on the meter if the target is a high conductor and possibly a clad coin. Gold runs in the middle range so you could stick with those readings and only dig them. But ..... even then you'll get unwanted targets. Of the suggestions made to you , any would do the trick but the DeLeon and X50 are the ones with the target ID. Both would work for you. Let me know if you need any more help.
TonyinCT
www.tcmetaldetectors.com

 

[rumme]

Thanks for the replys...So something with a target ID is gonna help filter out some of the crap and help give a better identification of possible gold/silver hits? The Vaquero doesnt have that feature so it may be worth it to spend another $50 and step up to the Tesoro Deleon ? Im liking the idea of sticking with a unit from the Tesoro company. They offer the lifetime warranty and their detectors look to be user friendly along with getting soldi reviews/

 

[WV Hillbilly]

The time ranger has all the features you're looking for & then some . You can buy a new one off e-bay for $ 365.00 - $ 380.00 . You'll get the sniper coil with it . Use the extra money for a good pinpointer . If you buy one make sure it has the P4 feature & uses 9 volt batteries as this is the latest version . A lot of people don't seem to like bounty hunters but I have the time ranger & seem to be getting as good or better results than anyone else with a detector in this price range . It's a lot better than the ace 250 I bought my wife . It also has a 5 year warranty . Just my opinion , I like mine . Good luck with whatever you decide on & HH .

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Thanks for the replys...So something with a target ID is gonna help filter out some of the crap and help give a better identification of possible gold/silver hits?

Maybe. May also tell you an $8,000 18K white gold ring is a bottle cap and a $15,000 two carot diamond mounted in a large gold ring is an aluminum pull tab. They get confused and always give an answer whether they "know" for certain or not. Zero information is better than a lie.

Dig everything until you learn whether you can trust the display. And then dig everything thereafter.

 

[syclone0252]

if you are wanting a tesoro dejeon, there is one on e-bay buy it now for 479.00 + 15.00 S&H
it gets you under the 500.00 mark.
go here
http://search.ebay.com/tesoro_Metal...rtZ1QQftrvZ1QQsacatZ58054QQsaprchiZQQsaprcloZ

 

[rumme]

well, I decided to go with the Bounty Hunter Time Ranger. Ive read mostly all good reviews on it and it had most of the features I was gonna need for the mineral rich Arkansas soil and it came with a 5 year warranty and a extra sniper coil, headphones, digging tools,etc,etc all for $379.99. My 2nd choice was gonna be the Tesoro Valquero but it was more expensive and did not seem to have all the features of the Time ranger although it did seem to be a simplier more user friendly unit and had a lifetime warranty. But im happy with a 5 year warranty on the Time ranger and I realzied that no matter what detector I purchased, almost everyone told me that its better to be safe then sorry and just take the time to dig up most of the hits your detctor makes because that one hit you decide to not dig up, could be that silver or gold coin. :}

 

[warsawdaddy]

I don't know which model of the Time Ranger you got,they have modified it 3 or 4 times since it came out,but it should be just fine for you.I know you are anxious to get it 'on'.Let's see some pics of your finds soon.HH

 

[rumme]

Its the latest model..takes 2 - 9volt batteries and has the extra sniper coil and 4 different funstions...3 presets and the 4th is a programmable preset with manual ground balancing feature { I think..im new to all this and trying to learn as quickly as possible} ...I think its a step up from something like the Garret 250 but not as comparable to some of the Tesoro models I was gonna buy. I think for $379.99 I will have a detector that performs nicely with a 5 year warranty that I wont get bored with in 6 months if I really like the hobby. This is what was important to me....not to spend to much, but not to purchase a bottom of the barrel detector. So for less then $400, I will have a new hobby to try out...a hobby that may very well pay for itself in a year or so if I find just one piece of gold jewelry or coinage. :} ...

 

[wyrnut]

Thanks for the replys...So something with a target ID is gonna help filter out some of the crap and help give a better identification of possible gold/silver hits? The Vaquero doesnt have that feature so it may be worth it to spend another $50 and step up to the Tesoro Deleon ? Im liking the idea of sticking with a unit from the Tesoro company. They offer the lifetime warranty and their detectors look to be user friendly along with getting soldi reviews/

i dont think the deleon has ground balancing , a guy on u-tube shows you how easy it is to know what your hitting on the vaquero by turning down the disc. now Im barley a novice at this stuff. but it makes sence to dig everything untill you know 1st hand what your detectors saying to you ,even if you have a display.

 

[bbells]

IMHO, take your requirements and compare all the detectors for under $600. Then, check this site for suggestions on where to buy your new detector. You can get some great savings and maybe bump up to the AT-pro vs the Ace 250, etc. FYI: We only know the detectors we use so all of us will suggest the ones we use. As long as you get one of the better name brands and search the site to get reviews and suggestions about those particular machines from owners, then you should easily be able to cut down your list to a manageable 2 or 3.