Best detector under $300?

[scavenger]

Ok heres the scoop, I have a tesoro compadre, while it is a good machine I feel I am sweeping over a lot of stuff. I have hunted some nice virgin homesites and have unearthed nothing but trash. I have found no silver coins or any gold yet and it's becoming kund of frustrating because I know the spots I have went to have never been hunted and dated back to the mid 1800's. It's good on schoolgrounds but I think that i'm missing a lot of deeper stuff, most of my finds range 4-5" unless they are quite large. I'd like to have a whites XLT but i'm not sure I want to spend quite that much on a machine since i'm not able to get out a lot. I'd mostly be hunting parks, schoolgrounds, old homesites/schoolhouses and maybe a few cornfields near a CW battle site, what would be the best bang for my buck preferebly under $300? My main targets are coins and jewelery and a relic hunt here and there. Something with a screen would be nice that displays depth and the like, lets hear your opinions.

 

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[olegoat]

great posts,, now shame on you badger, giving away our secrets about the 1023 chinese junk (i own 2). nancy usually skunks me when we go out to hunt, makes no difference which machine i use.

 

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[CarolinaTiger]

There is not a better detector for the money than a Tesoro Silver uMax. It can produce good-to-excellent success in every soil in the USA, including beach hunting, and an extra large coil can oftentimes outdo a White's, Garrett, or Minelab using the same size coil.

Thanks a lot for the detailed post. I am going to get the Tesoro. On eBay it is $239, so if anyone knows a cheaper source...

The $69 "Explorer" metal detector found online in various places goes almost as deep as the Tesoro Compadre at $140 - and it has suspiciously-similar circuitry. It also has been fine-tuned in China to be particularily fond of silver, copper, and brass. It runs on a very low freq, around 6 Khz, if I remember the readings correctly. Yes, it likes gold but gold is not it's forte. It will however find a teardrop sized gold nugget at 3", something that some VERY expensive Garretts and Minelabs cannot do in a thousand light years.

This sounds perfect for my son, and it sounds like the price is perfect. Is this "Explorer" the same MD that Michigan Badger mentions above (1023)? I am not finding either of these under $100. Can you nudge me in the right direction?

Thanks again,
CarolinaTiger

 

[deathhare]

There is not a better detector for the money than a Tesoro Silver uMax. It can produce good-to-excellent success in every soil in the USA, including beach hunting, and an extra large coil can oftentimes outdo a White's, Garrett, or Minelab using the same size coil.

Thanks a lot for the detailed post. I am going to get the Tesoro. On eBay it is $239, so if anyone knows a cheaper source...

The $69 "Explorer" metal detector found online in various places goes almost as deep as the Tesoro Compadre at $140 - and it has suspiciously-similar circuitry. It also has been fine-tuned in China to be particularily fond of silver, copper, and brass. It runs on a very low freq, around 6 Khz, if I remember the readings correctly. Yes, it likes gold but gold is not it's forte. It will however find a teardrop sized gold nugget at 3", something that some VERY expensive Garretts and Minelabs cannot do in a thousand light years.

This sounds perfect for my son, and it sounds like the price is perfect. Is this "Explorer" the same MD that Michigan Badger mentions above (1023)? I am not finding either of these under $100. Can you nudge me in the right direction?

Thanks again,
CarolinaTiger

I recently bought the Silver uMax on ebay for 239 shipped.
I couldnt find it anywhere for less.
Im real happy with it but still have a lot to learn about it and detecting in general.

 

[Michigan Badger]

There is not a better detector for the money than a Tesoro Silver uMax. It can produce good-to-excellent success in every soil in the USA, including beach hunting, and an extra large coil can oftentimes outdo a White's, Garrett, or Minelab using the same size coil.

Thanks a lot for the detailed post. I am going to get the Tesoro. On eBay it is $239, so if anyone knows a cheaper source...

The $69 "Explorer" metal detector found online in various places goes almost as deep as the Tesoro Compadre at $140 - and it has suspiciously-similar circuitry. It also has been fine-tuned in China to be particularily fond of silver, copper, and brass. It runs on a very low freq, around 6 Khz, if I remember the readings correctly. Yes, it likes gold but gold is not it's forte. It will however find a teardrop sized gold nugget at 3", something that some VERY expensive Garretts and Minelabs cannot do in a thousand light years.

This sounds perfect for my son, and it sounds like the price is perfect. Is this "Explorer" the same MD that Michigan Badger mentions above (1023)? I am not finding either of these under $100. Can you nudge me in the right direction?

Thanks again,
CarolinaTiger

For the benefit of the readers I'll post the link I PMed to you already:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Gold-Century-Time-S...Metal_Detectors?_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116

The Gold Century 1023 is the best deal in the 1023 model. I wouldn't pay over $80 postpaid for it. It looks kind of like it came out of a gumball machine but it delivers. It's probably the only detector out of China that's any good.

Make dealers offers on ebay because many are really hurting right now due to the bad economy.

If you look around and keep asking you may get the 1023 for $60 shipped.

I use one myself sometimes and love it. It's deeper than the Tesoro Compadre and Silver uMax fitted with stock coil. The Silver with the 12x10 coil is much deeper than the 1023. I'm sorry to say they don't make bigger coils for the 1023.

The Explorer is made by Minelab and is a supreme quality machine that costs $$$$. None of the above machines even come near it's class.

 

[CarolinaTiger]

Michigan Badger,

Thanks again for the information.

The Explorer is made by Minelab and is a supreme quality machine that costs $$$$. None of the above machines even come near it's class.

Larry mentions a $69 Explorer, which obviously is not the Minelab. If its the American Hawks Explorer found here, it seems similar to the 1023?:

http://www.amazon.com/American-Expl...e=UTF8&s=sporting-goods&qid=1231557490&sr=1-1

 

[Michigan Badger]

Michigan Badger,

Thanks again for the information.

The Explorer is made by Minelab and is a supreme quality machine that costs $$$$. None of the above machines even come near it's class.

Larry mentions a $69 Explorer, which obviously is not the Minelab. If its the American Hawks Explorer found here, it seems similar to the 1023?:

http://www.amazon.com/American-Expl...e=UTF8&s=sporting-goods&qid=1231557490&sr=1-1

Negative, here's a picture of the Gold Century 1023

This one has the option of tones.

The one on Amazon (your link) is the GC1016A (called the Explorer). It's $69.99 on ebay shipped. It has a volume knob located where the mode switch is located on the 1023 for mode selection. It's a cheaper model than the 1023.

 

[CarolinaTiger]

I noticed the meters looked very similar and the knob placements. I thought maybe it was packaged in a slightly different case and under a different name.

 

[Michigan Badger]

I noticed the meters looked very similar and the knob placements. I thought maybe it was packaged in a slightly different case and under a different name.

It's made by the same company and probably gets the same depth but you lose the extra feature of tones. The tones option is well worth the extra $10 or so.

Correction: I just checked and the company says the 1016 (Called Explorer at Amazon) gets 1 inch less depth than the 1023.

Just go online and look up the GC1023 and GC1016 specs and compare them.

Badger

 

[CarolinaTiger]

Yeah, I see your point. I was just trying to determine if that's the "Explorer" that Larry was referring to above.

 

[LuckyLarry]

The American Hawks "Explorer" metal detector I refer to is the one on Amazon.com made in China.

American Hawks is who markets it, and it also goes by the name of model HP-1016.

The two above detectors that Badger and I speak of are similar in appearance and depth, operation, etc, although the HP-1016 has single tone audio disc. It gets 7" on a penny or nickel and 8" on a quarter in air. It does appear that both GC and AH are the same company in China. The higher-priced $209.00 GC "Super Eagle" seems to have the surface blanker that the equal $189 AH does. Right now it can be bought for $149.95 at Practicalsports.com. They both get the same depth according to their manufacurer. Except for layout and exterior design, they appear to be the same detector underneath.

The higher priced $189.00 (now on sale at $149.95) model HP-1030 from American Hawks is a really good all-metal beach machine with a surface target blanker. It is very stable and smooth-sounding. It's air depth is a bit over 10" on a coin, just like the GC Super Eagle. It has a VERY long searchrod, the longest I've ever seen (60.2") and (almost) keeps up with my cz and Compass in salt beach hunting depth, both in all-metal AND disc. It is coil heavy though and could use a bit more speaker volume if one prefers that method. Most people use headphones on ocean beaches though.

Note: Most of their detectors run on a variable 5 Khz to 6.7 Khz - either company. This is an ideal silver finding and copper finding freq. 10 Khz is the ideal frequency for most all around use though.

Oh, and BTW I own both models of the above (HP-1016 and HP-1030). If the circuitry is compared to other detectors it is similar to Tesoro's and Fisher's.

EZ Larry

 

[CarolinaTiger]

Thanks for the great info. I'm thinking seriously about grabbing that 1030.

 

[ParkHunter61]

I saw a site in Australia that has the Gold Snoop pro
which is the same as a GC 1023 and has an optional
12 inch coil...
The site is ( Gold Hunters Detectors )
Don't know if they ship to us..
Bill

 

[LuckyLarry]

I checked out their site. It seems that the 12" coil may be prone to interference problems, or at least they give instructions on how to deal with it, or else switch back to the 8" coil.

http://www.goldhunterdetectors.com/

LuckyLarry

 

[Michigan Badger]

I saw a site in Australia that has the Gold Snoop pro
which is the same as a GC 1023 and has an optional
12 inch coil...
The site is ( Gold Hunters Detectors )
Don't know if they ship to us..
Bill

WOW! Thanks!

These Chinese units have been big in Australia for several years. The first time I saw the model was on an Australian website but they wouldn't ship to the U.S.

The 12 inch would be a killer on the 1023. I'll bet it would match in depth most everything else in the VLF lineup.

The larger the coil diameter, the more sensitive it will be to electrical emissions from powerlines. This is the biggest problem with the Nautilus machines and their larger coils. They're great out in the wild but can give a lot of trouble in the city.

If the 12 inch coil is matched to the 1023, I'll get one and build a new search rod/box assembly that's balanced. As far as the electronics go, I'd say it's as good as most anything else.

Badger

 

[Michigan Badger]

I checked out their site. It seems that the 12" coil may be prone to interference problems, or at least they give instructions on how to deal with it, or else switch back to the 8" coil.

http://www.goldhunterdetectors.com/

LuckyLarry

Thanks for the link, Larry.

I emailed them to see if they'll ship the coil to the US. I rather doubt it.

I probably could order it direct from China which would probably be a lot cheaper anyway.

 

[CarolinaTiger]

I probably could order it direct from China which would probably be a lot cheaper anyway.

I wonder if you could order it from here or would they require a large quantity?

http://gcm.manufacturer.globalsources.com/si/6008801348106/pdtl/Tool-bag/1005538657/Search-Coil.htm

 

[CarolinaTiger]

Larry,

Do the coils for your HP-1016 and HP-1030 appear to be the same? If you notice on that Shanghai exporter page that I posted above, it says the 12" coil is for the GC1023, GC1025, and GC1026. I am wondering that if I buy the 1030, will I have the option to get a 12" coil for it. What do you all think?

 

[LuckyLarry]

Hey if anybody finds a USA outlet I'd buy one of those 12 inchers in a heartbeat!! Another inch or so puts things right up there with the rest of the cars in the Volkswagon race. I'm sure I could find a way to deal with the extra sensitivity too.

LL

 

[ParkHunter61]

I'm sure if someone with some extra cash bought
100-1023 units and 100-12in. coils they would be
able to sell them at a nice profit..
I would like my name on the waiting list
for that 12 in coil....

 

[LuckyLarry]

Mine are the AH detectors. Badger has the HP model. They do appear to be made by the same people but that does not mean that the circuit configurations are (exactly) the same. For awhile both Fisher and Tesoro were making another brand but the circuitry was not exactly the same with any of them, just similar. The Tejon is a watered down, lighter version of the Fisher 1270, but the circuitry is not precisely the same.

The 1016 uses a 4-pin crescent configuration which is pushed onto the connector - and the 1030 uses a 5-pin w metal screw-on. The 1030 coil is probably not compatable with the 1016 coil, and the 1016 or 1023 coil (may) be the same coils, we do not know for sure, but I don't either since I have both the AH models - not the GC models to compare with..

Note* Sometimes things can really heat up when swapping wrong coils though. Much like using the wrong antennae length on a 2-way or multi-band radio - when sending. Wattage (power and heat) goes up considerally when transmitting. The wrong resistance (impedence) has caused antennaes to visually melt from the top down to the bottom where it mounts. Similar yet smaller things can happen with coil windings too. Be careful when trying any of that. Test first to match for resistance and if possible test for magnetic field size too.

LL