Worst detector ever used and why?

[PullTabSlayer]

I have no complaints with any that I have

 

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[smokeythecat]

I'm with you alienlifeform. I went back to the Tesoro Cibola and now have a Deus. I like the light weight of each. The Cibola has found over 300 minie balls, two gold coins, 100 Civil War buttons, 100 marked Rev War buttons, with it's older brother the original Lobo and on and on and on. I'm just getting the Deus dirty at this point.

 

[Daryn]

People aren’t going to like this but my ATP. Just not user friendly at all and I’ve given it 2+ years. I take out my ACE350 instead and find it is much more accurate.

 

[jeff of pa]

it's a Tie.

Both Relco

the 12t Trailblazer. it had to me Built.
parts Soldered, the coil came as a spool of wire that you had to Wrap.
and you had to mount an am radio in a wire basket, on the handle & tune it to a particular unused channel
to get a tone.



a year later they contacted me and offered me a trade in.
Which probably amounted to shipping costs
I don't remember.
But I got the Relco Frontiersman



Both were BFO's & it sounded like a Theremin




when over Metal & hot Ground.
which with all the Iron Ore in NE PA were useless to find anything but my parents car.

 

[pepperj]

Heath GD-48. Couldn't find its way out of a paper bag..........

Now that's not totally true it found a penny under the paper bag.

I see it didn't ruin your enthusiasm for detecting.

 

[oldwormwood]

What a great advertisement. What year was that from? I wonder if you also had to wind the coil if you bought the optional "micro coil search head".

 

[jeff of pa]

What a great advertisement. What year was that from? I wonder if you also had to wind the coil if you bought the optional "micro coil search head".

had to be late 60's or very early 70's.
and yea I'm sure either way it was a kit.

If not for my Grandmother getting me started by lending me a TR detector.
before my Experiences , I probably would have been Turned off Detecting.
But somewhere in the Late 60's my First find ever was a 1919 Cent with hers.
seemed like it was a foot deep, in hard ground, took forever.
but I was very young & dug it out an old Mining Road behind my house.
so it may have been an inch or so
After that I asked for a detector for Christmas which turned out to be the Do it Yourself one. next year the Upgrade to Frontiersman .

My first Good detector that I bought with my money was a Whites 6000-D series 2

 

[pepperj]

My brother and myself saved to buy a Heath Kit detecting kit. Had to do the circuit board, wind the coil, had to build the wand out of stuff we scrounged, piece of plywood to hold the circuit board, we used the plastic lids off ice cream pails later on for coil covers before they were affordable in our area. Then Dad stepped up and traded his 30-06 and a $150.00 for a brand new White's Gold Master Detector. 14 batteries huge difference in quality and the obsession was even worse.

 

[RustyGold]

AT Pro was my worst one. The screen had a rainbow effect out in the sun. Also was a beast after a few hours swinging by being a tad noseheavy. I did find gold with it and silver coins but for me the ergonomics just weren't there.

 

[pepperj]

AT Pro was my worst one. The screen had a rainbow effect out in the sun. Also was a beast after a few hours swinging by being a tad noseheavy. I did find gold with it and silver coins but for me the ergonomics just weren't there.

Ever swing a Minelab? Seriously think they were in cahoots with the medical replacement industry for arm parts, and swing thingy supports.

 

[FreeBirdTim]

get the after market performance coil for the 250 and it helps immensely

That's the key. Never found anything decent with the stock coil, but I found a lot of 1700's coins and relics with the larger DD coil. The biggest negative with the Ace 250 was steel bottle caps. They always rang up as a quarter signal. Drove me crazy!

The At Pro is an awesome machine, if you have the skill and patience to learn it. If you can figure out how to hunt in pro zero mode with zero discrimination, you will find some amazing coins and relics hidden in spots full of iron signals.

 

[RustyGold]

Ever swing a Minelab? Seriously think they were in cahoots with the medical replacement industry for arm parts, and swing thingy supports.

Oh yeah. I've had two CTX's and two Excaliburs and still have the Sovereign GT. All were easier for me to swing because they were better balanced.

 

[chub]

when over Metal & hot Ground.
which with all the Iron Ore in NE PA were useless to find anything but my parents car.[/QUOTE]

Your parents must have been thrilled! How deep was the car?

Chub

 

[creskol]

Heath GD-48. Couldn't find its way out of a paper bag..........

Really? I had one that was a killer machine!

 

[SusanMN]

Early 80’s Bounty Hunter. Depth was maybe an inch.

 

[Honest Samuel]

Not good.

 

[fyrffytr1]

When I started out the Whites 4500 was the best I could afford even though I didn't pay a dime for it. It was a hand me down from my brother. I found a lot with it and gradually updated to a 5900, 6000, XLT and finally the DFX I have now. All of the machines were and are smarter than me but I didn't dislike any of them.

 

[fistfulladirt]

1973 Jetco Mustang. My first detector, one knob, I don't think I could even find my folk's car.

1977 Coinmaster II, I was 14 and needed a pilots license to operate that thing. And own a battery factory.

2009 DFX. Over-priced bells n whistle machine that had a max depth of about 5". The 'grunting' it made over hits was really annoying.

 

[Mzjavert]

I'm not going to dis my two radio shack machines, the first I got as a kid.

Back in the day I had a Whites Quantum XT, I loved it for everything except contestants. The prediction on the display was deadly accurate. But the ads in the magazines kept telling me to upgrade to the Whites Spectrum XLT. I started in the stock mode...and HATED IT. Sold it and kept my Tesoro Sidewinder that I bought for contests (my all time favorite machine).

Tied for worst was thr Ace 250. One of my first machines was an entry level green Garrett machine. Hated it, but looking back, I didn't put enough time in with it. A few years ago I wanted once again to add a display machine to my toys. Based on reviews on TN I got a 250. This time I gave it a good workout. But the fact it would constantly read pull tabs as nickels drove me bug f---.

Surprisingly I loved my Ace 350 within an hour while still air testing it. I found out very quickly that nickels that had been in and the ground for at least a few months give an ugly, but distinct sound. Steel bottle caps bounce from quarter to dollar.