radarwill
Sr. Member
I recently rejoined the active hunters after a 7 year layoff. Having sold my Whites Spectrum XLT, I needed a detector. The XLT served me well but it never really liked overgrown cellar holes or sites with lots of old iron nails. I wanted to be equipped at least as good as I was.
I bought a used Garrett 550GTAX and played with it for two weeks in a frozen 40' stretch of my mid 90's dirt driveway. I found 14 clad coins in all, more than a few came after I had become familiar with the Garrett and was hunting in all metal mode and such. I did leave un-dug several "iffy" targets that sounded broken or like multiple close targets but was unable to diagnose further with the Garrett. Garrett becomes the wife's machine; I'm on the hunt.
I wanted a machine stable enough for mineralized ground and be able to precisely locate/ID multiple good/bad targets in close proximity to one another. Depth? Sure why not, and all for $400 or less.
Long story short:
I came across the concentric coil design and naturally this led me to Minelab. I bought a used Sovereign XS2Pro. It has the 8" 800 BBS coil and I got with it a nice set of active electronics headphones. Pinpointing took some time, but man what a machine. I dug confidently most of those "iffy" signals left by the Garrett and found 12 more clad most of which were close to other junk. I was able to work "around" the junk with the Minelabs in a way the Garrett could only imagine. Maybe the machines are for two different purposes, but wow!
I can't wait until the 5" of frost and 1' of snow goes.
Thanks for reading my rant and having me as a newbie on the site.
Thanks also for steering me to Minelab, theres a lotta good info in them ther forums.
I bought a used Garrett 550GTAX and played with it for two weeks in a frozen 40' stretch of my mid 90's dirt driveway. I found 14 clad coins in all, more than a few came after I had become familiar with the Garrett and was hunting in all metal mode and such. I did leave un-dug several "iffy" targets that sounded broken or like multiple close targets but was unable to diagnose further with the Garrett. Garrett becomes the wife's machine; I'm on the hunt.
I wanted a machine stable enough for mineralized ground and be able to precisely locate/ID multiple good/bad targets in close proximity to one another. Depth? Sure why not, and all for $400 or less.
Long story short:
I came across the concentric coil design and naturally this led me to Minelab. I bought a used Sovereign XS2Pro. It has the 8" 800 BBS coil and I got with it a nice set of active electronics headphones. Pinpointing took some time, but man what a machine. I dug confidently most of those "iffy" signals left by the Garrett and found 12 more clad most of which were close to other junk. I was able to work "around" the junk with the Minelabs in a way the Garrett could only imagine. Maybe the machines are for two different purposes, but wow!
I can't wait until the 5" of frost and 1' of snow goes.
Thanks for reading my rant and having me as a newbie on the site.
Thanks also for steering me to Minelab, theres a lotta good info in them ther forums.
