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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[Michigan Badger]

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

All these sellers will sell you a "sample."

The only thing is they usually require money wired direct.

The "sample" price is usually very very good.

A couple years ago, I requested a "sample" price once on a large Chinese detector that's not sold in the US but is popular in parts of Europe. Anyway the price quote postpaid was about half what the machine was selling for on the open market.

I'm betting this coil is so low in cost one could import 3 or 4 to justify the postage costs.

 

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[CarolinaTiger]

Looks like the connection for the coil is the push-on kind like Larry's 1016; therefore not "easily" compatible on the 1030. I'm all for Michigan Badger ordering a "sample" from Shanghai and giving us a review!

 

[Michigan Badger]

Looks like the connection for the coil is the push-on kind like Larry's 1016; therefore not "easily" compatible on the 1030. I'm all for Michigan Badger ordering a "sample" from Shanghai and giving us a review!

Here's the stuff from the exporter:
"Adaptable to our metal detector GC1023, GC1025, GC1026 as an optional coil"

Evidently it's not for the GC1030 or 1016.

Now if I ordered 100 at $8.37 each...using the markup of KellyCo plus some for being the Badger....hum? that would be about $186.50 each to youse guys

 

[olegoat]

Now if I ordered 100 at $8.37 each...using the markup of KellyCo plus some for being the Badger....hum? that would be about $186.50 each to youse guys
[/quote]


now cut that out mb, we know you are snowbound but no reason to try to get enough heat from us to melt you out---
let me know if you are really thinking about ordering some china junk, i am sure nancy would love to have one to fit her 1023, hell she needs to really skunk me.

 

[Michigan Badger]

now cut that out mb, we know you are snowbound but no reason to try to get enough heat from us to melt you out---
let me know if you are really thinking about ordering some china junk, i am sure nancy would love to have one to fit her 1023, hell she needs to really skunk me.

Well, maybe I can sell some of my food stamps and get one. We'll see.

Right now I'm trying to locate a vendor this side of the big pond.

But again, probably for what a local person would charge one could import 3 of these buggers.

I'll look into it if a deal falls through I'm working on now. I know someone with a mint new Minelab Explorer and he's considering an embarrassingly low offer I made him. If that doesn't fly I may look into these coils.

 

[Michigan Badger]

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

A couple months back I bought the 1030 from a seller in Canada. It was a piece of junk and I returned it.

The guy's a crook and it took PayPal about 3 weeks to get my money back. I still lost $38 on postage returning the detector to Canada.

He sells lots of Chinese imported junk.

Maybe my 1030 was just defective but I hated it. In the air tests it worked great but outside it went nuts. Right out of the box it needed the coil plug repaired.

One thing to remember with those ebay comments is most people post positive feedback even before they use the item. Once I took care of the coil plug problem I loved the 1030 in my air tests. Once in the field the controls wouldn't function correctly and it was absolutely the worst detector I've owned in 41 years.

Beware!

Badger

 

[CarolinaTiger]

Maybe my 1030 was just defective but I hated it. In the air tests it worked great but outside it went nuts. Right out of the box it needed the coil plug repaired.

Uggh, that's not good.

Larry, I'm assuming you haven't had a similar experience with your HP-1030?

 

[LuckyLarry]

No CT, but of course mine is the AH 1030 model not the GC 1030 one.

I didn't like the coil weight of the AH 1030 at first, but after using it awhile I got used to it. I read somewhere on a forum that a different coil for it is now being produced that is lighter in weight. So far the detector has been well-constructed and flawless in operation. The controls are a bit odd at first, but after using it 3 or 4 times it all comes together quite well, especially after swinging that long thing like a scythe cutting field grasses.

I'm usually pretty suspicious about trying new things but this 1030 one worked really well for $159. I wouldn't chose it over the model 1016 for a cherry-picker because the 1030 is more of a wide open beach or open field machine and is sort of cr--py at cherry-picking. The 1016 is a real hot cherry picker though. The coil on the AH 1030 is larger at 8.5 inches and matches and (sometimes) outdid the 10" coil on my (ex) Sovereign or Explorer by an inch or so for depth - on a salt/high-iron beach.

The 12'er on the GC model may work ok on either brand as long as it's a 5-pin crescent configuration, the right diameter (1/2"), and has a resistance of less than 1 ohm.

LL

 

[Suckerpunched]

I've been using the BH quick silver for the past few months just to see if I would enjoy this hobby and for a $100 detector it has done well.....I think. Anyway,,,,,I am hooked After many questions and research on this forum I have purchased a Tesoro Silver U=max and hope to receive it in the next few days. I'm lookin forward to learning to detect by sound instead of display. (I like a challenge) It was a toss up between this and the Ace 250(both under $250) so we'll see how it goes.........
Happy Hunting..............

 

[silvercop]

check out the garrett ace