Are all detectors pretty much the same?

Frankn

Gold Member
Mar 21, 2010
8,711
2,988
Maryland
Detector(s) used
XLT , surfmaster PI , HAYS 2Box , VIBRA-TECTOR
OK, I will tell you what I use and you can make your own judgement from that.
My three main detectors are all over 15 years old.

My general purpose Whites XLT will show all targets on the bar graph and give ID#. It pinpoints exactly. It has gone down 2' for a large target. It has found #6 shot size targets.

My beach detector is a Whites Surfmaster PI. The version with pulse delay. ( There are 3 versions) it has found a boat anchor at 4' and it will find fine gold chains.

My cache detector Is an old Hays 2 box. It has found a target at 6'. It will also pick up sideways to scan stone walls. It will not pick up an object smaller than a baseball so you don't have to dig a ton of junk while searching for a large cache.

You don't have to spend a bundle to get quality, you just have to know what you are looking for. Just thoughts from my experience. Frank
Gold hand.jpg
 

slider66

Supporting Vendor
Supporting Vendor
Nov 14, 2013
1,481
1,987
Treasure Coast Of Florida
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
3
Detector(s) used
Minelab Equinox 800
Minelab CTX 3030
Garrett AT Pro
Minelab Excalibur 1000 with SEF 10x12 coil
3 Minelab Excalibur II 10 inch
Deus II
EQuinox 900
Manticore
Primary Interest:
Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
It your at the beach and a water guy like me the Excalibur 1000 or II are the way to go. In my humble opinion.


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penzfan

Bronze Member
Apr 12, 2014
1,417
994
Detector(s) used
CTX 3030 - Excal 1000 - Excal II - Sovereign GT - RTG/Oleg Scoops - XPointer
Primary Interest:
Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
05-09-16 a.m. Ft Laud6.png Excal totally modified 9-14-15.png

Two GREAT beach machines...
 

Slingshot

Bronze Member
Apr 3, 2004
1,074
1,204
Southern Appalachia
Detector(s) used
Whites CM2 BFO, Harbor Freight 9 function, BH Pioneer 202, Fisher F22
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Detectors are all different, even the same models will vary from machine to machine. Components change values with time, and how it has been stored can affect it's components in a dramatic way if it has spent a lot of time in the hot trunk of a car or attic of a building. Some are just naturally "HOT" when they leave the assembly line, others of the same model can be on the "DUD" side.

Deep machines get the deep treasures, but also get a lot of deep trash, digging time and your objectives must be taken into consideration. Beaches are huge and need lots of depth, along with large coils, PI's tend to trump on beaches. Relics can also be very deep, and VLF's tend to be the preferred machines. In iron infested sites a good old TR is hard to beat, and on and on...

Keep trying them out and keep the one's you really like that actually match your own style of digging. There are lots of good machines out there, life is short, so try to taste as many as possible. You might already own the best machine for you, but you won't know until you try out some more.

Good luck & enjoy yourself!
 

against the wind

Gold Member
Jul 27, 2015
24,797
24,976
Port Allegheny, Pennsylvania
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
E-trac, Excalibur, XP Deus, & CTX 3030.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I ordered a Beep & Dig machine in 1970.
Wish I still had it. I would hang it on the wall and tell some stories.
 

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