Pinpointer?

[BareBones]

I've been using the $12 harbor freight pinpointer and it's not bad, the problem I'm having with it is I find myself digging in the hole with it and when I put pressure on the probe it sounds off. It's kind of annoying, but other then that I'm not dissatisfied with it.

I have been looking at the Garrett Propointer and the Vibraprobe which are both comparably over priced. What are the experts thoughts on those pinpointers?

Thanks.........

 

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[G.I.B.]

I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination but...

Would not leave home without my Garrett Pro-pointer. It's water resistant (rinse off under the tap and use in the rain) along with being fairly sturdy.

 

[Tank69]

Garrett Propointer

 

[vondrewvious]

I have owned both and they are both good pinpointers. The Garrett is the one I have stuck with however. It is small, strong, and works well. I personally can't scrape up a single complaint about it and that is saying alot.

 

[arizonaames]

Sun-Ray! Is there any other?

 

[George (MN)]

I use the Centech pinpointer and am quite satisfied. I don't use it to dig. If it sounds off on soil when pressed lightly against it, the sensitivity needs to be turned down. I just use a 6" blade screwdriver for probing/digging, which works OK for coins not deeper than that.

Different people like different tools. So what I'm trying to say is spend more if you want to, but I probably will stick with Centech. Just like detectors, some are happy with a $100 unit & some will pay many times that for a slightly better unit. HH, George (MN)

 

[alkoz]

BAreBones, thanks for the heads up on the Harborfreight pinpointer. My son(mattkoz) and I are both on a low budget. We're going to both get one until we can get enough for a nicer model.

 

[extractor]

The Garrett Pro Pointer. !!!! Well I Now own 2 of them. The reason is, Every time I go metal detecting with one of my buddys, I had to keep giving them my Garrett Pro Pointer so they could locate the target.
Xtra back and fourth , up and down for hours, and usally I would finish end up finishing the hunt with their crappy pinpointer. Now for my Buddys that dont have a Garrett Pro Pointer YET I let them use my xtra one . HH Extractor

 

[BareBones]

BAreBones, thanks for the heads up on the Harborfreight pinpointer. My son(mattkoz) and I are both on a low budget. We're going to both get one until we can get enough for a nicer model.

The regular price at HF is if I remember $14.99 if you use a 20% off coupon it brings it to right around $12.00

For the money you can't beat the HF pin pointer and it is far better then having no pin pointer at all if a higher end one is not in the budget.

I did notice that turning down the sensitivity does make it less susceptible to false sounding off when digging with the probe, but at max sensitivity you only get about 2" of depth which seems pretty standard to pin pointers except the pistol probe. I really don't want to give up any depth and really want more then the max 2" I can get so turning down the sensitivity to me does not seem like a workable solution.

I do like the form factor and holster of the pro pointer and an LED light is a bonus for night fishing IMO. I just can't get past the $129 sticker shock. I saw someone post on one of the forums where they could be had for $89 but don't remember where I saw that and $89 is still steep in my opinion for what it is and does.

I watched some video of the Pro Pointer in action and I understand it vibrates too, but can you toggle between the audible tone and vibrate or are both enabled all the time, non selectable?

 

[extractor]

Both enabled all the time and increase, the closer to the target you get. My recovery time has been cut by 80 % by using it.

 

[Xraywolf]

Will repost this for posterity.. And BTW, its debatable whether you really want much more than 2 inches to alert for a coin sized object.
Reason being that your pinpointing from the detector should get you fairly close, certainly closer than 4 inches.
The pinpointer lets you know when your getting close to a small metal object [hopefully a coin or ring] ,,, And if it alerted you at 5 inches, that wouldn't be telling you a whole lot. If you can't pinpoint with your detector within 4 inches, you need t work on that 1st.
2 inches alert, then you know you are very close, and had better dig carefully.


Heres the pinpointer I use

Great little unit, had it through some fairly rough field work going on 3 years, still going strong.
Very well made, runs forever on a 9 volt, adjustable sensitivity and a built in LED light that comes in handy
for lighting dark holes.
Audio & visual alert - No vibration though.
Lightweight and small, not much bigger than a deck of cards.
Some may view its snubby little nose as a down side, I like it, because the one I used before, Wizard vibe probe [shaped like a gun] ,,, Was a great unit, loved it ,,, But its long PVC neck snapped at the drop of the hat.
I went through 3 of them in less than 2 years before giving up and trying this.
Love it, and have no need to try anything else.
Only thing that I didn't like about it was that there is no way to clip it on to anything.
I use one of those retractable key chains when hunting, just clip it on a pocket.
So I installed a little screw in O ring screw right in the corner, works like a charm.

I would highly advise anyone to consider this before buying one for 2 or 3 X the price, and are not even as good as this one.

Fairly priced, in my opinion, at around $50 shipped, these are only available from Europe.
Mine took less than 1 week to arrive.
Don't mean to sound like a Sherlock salesman here, or steal any thunder from local forum sponsors, none of whom carry this unit - But I was sold on this little baby a long time ago, and am passing on my high opinion of this great little gadget.

http://tinyurl.com/moox7q

BTW, "Harbor Freight" & "works pretty good" are almost always oxymorons, as you are probably aware.

 

[BareBones]

Will repost this for posterity.. And BTW, its debatable whether you really want much more than 2 inches to alert for a coin sized object.
Reason being that your pinpointing from the detector should get you fairly close, certainly closer than 4 inches.
The pinpointer lets you know when your getting close to a small metal object [hopefully a coin or ring] ,,, And if it alerted you at 5 inches, that wouldn't be telling you a whole lot. If you can't pinpoint with your detector within 4 inches, you need t work on that 1st.
2 inches alert, then you know you are very close, and had better dig carefully.

I've pondered this before. The issue I have is not pinpointing the hole, it's pinpointing the target in the hole. Even a 4" wide hole is a lot of ground to cover for a penny or even a smaller target. If I have a hole that is 8"+ deep and the target is still in the hole but my pinpointer is not picking up anything, I don't know where in the bottom of the hole to concentrate on.

I guess I'm just wanting to cut down on the amount of overburden I have to move. It is nice when you have the target out of the hole and you can scrub the backfill with a pinpointer if you don't see the target. If you get a signal you know it's close to the probe so that is the other side of the coin, if you had more depth that would not necessarily be the case I suppose, unless you had a pinpointer that got louder the closer you got to the target.

I guess if the pro pointer had maybe 5 inches of depth and the ability to toggle audio and vibrate it would be absolutely awesome.

 

[Xraywolf]

Well, speaking for myself, I wouldn't want 5 inches of detection range from a hand held pinpointer, that would be useless to me.
3 max.

If you have dug an 8 inch hole for a target the Ace 250 has found, and still have found nothing, no sense digging down any further - The target, if it is a coin, is in the walls, probably a few inches up ,,, This is where pinpointers pay for themselves, and make life easier.
If it is still at the bottom of an 8 inch hole, you can be absolutely certain it is not a small metal object, such as a ring or coin.
The 250 doesn't detect that deep.

 

[BareBones]

Yeah, I'm still in that dig everything phase from my Surf PI.

 

[GPS53]

I also have a Centec pinpointer, it`s great and it`s cheap. Like others here have said, I want to know when I am very close to a target.
My detector tells me that there is something there.
I prefer a pinpointer that only sounds off at about 1 inch, then I know to be very, very careful,
just like hunting those rascally rabbits,
Good hunting,
Greg

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I have the vibraprobe, but never use it. At the beach i just scoop and scann with my excal.

On land I use the Detectorpro uniprobe. I don't think you can find a better probe IMO, It locates 4-6 inches deep I use it to locate the exact target position and combined with the Ez-Dig-R recover system I use, I do not leave any signs of digging when I am finished. I do not cut plugs 99% of the time, I pry the sod side to side, locate target with uniprobe, and recover it with the Ez-Dig-R 1.5 inch shovel.

http://www.detectorpro.com/cyberstore/cyberstore4.htm

You don't have to pay full price, If you look you can fine the uniprobe used for a good price. I got mine uses $200, sold my pocket uniprobe I bought used for what I paid for it ($140) and added $60 to get the $200 for the Uniprobe.

The uniprobe allows me to hunt in places I can't swing a coil, like under metal bleachers and play equipment on playgrounds where there is so many metal legs supporting you can't swing the coil, or equipment is too low to get detector to swing comfortably.

 

[spartacus53]

I use the Bullseye II and have no problems with it. I may go over to the Garrett which I have heard many good things about.