excalibur vs surf PI

[cesarnono13]

Ok so I have an opportunity to buy an Excal II or Surf PI. now I want to use the machine to prospect/detect for gold so im guessing the PI would be the better bet. I would also detect in the surf and chest deep water so i guess either one would be ok. but what about depth? which goes deeper, and which is more sensitive? anyone have benchtests on either machines? thank you in advance for any input.

 

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[Iron Patch]

When the question is PI vs another detector the main question is about what area you will be hunting. Either you can get away with digging all targets, or you can't. Just thinking you can, without being sure, could be a major mistake. For the beaches here my choice would definitely be an Excal because it would find me a ton more good targets being able to make much better use of my time.

 

[Sandman]

Iron Patch is right about wasting time. The PI while being deeper also has you digging deep holes for bobby pins or any long some iron object. All this digging for deep iron wastes your time while the Excal is just a little shallower it ignores iron unless it is a large piece. If you were a Charter Member here you can use the Search feature which will give you all the posts made about the Excal vs a Pulse.

 

[Iron Patch]

Iron Patch is right about wasting time. The PI while being deeper also has you digging deep holes for bobby pins or any long some iron object. All this digging for deep iron wastes your time while the Excal is just a little shallower it ignores iron unless it is a large piece. If you were a Charter Member here you can use the Search feature which will give you all the posts made about the Excal vs a Pulse.

You can use the search without being a Charter member.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

IP and Sandman have given you excellent answers. I will add that it was a little confusing when you said that you would like to use the machine for "prospecting", since that term is normally associated with nuggets in their natural state, not coin/jewelry hunting. So I'm assuming (seeing as how you're on coastal CA, and you're also referencing "surf") that you are not asking for a unit that can do both natural nuggets, and crossover to beach/jewelry, right?

With that said, a pulse will far-&-away go "deeper" and "be more sensitive" (to answer your questions). But as was cited, you will pay a price of having no ability to discern iron. Well .... some would argue that you can tell nails/iron somewhat by tone (ie.; double vs single beeps, etc...). But even those who have become proficient at such tone guessing, will no doubt dig quite a bunch of them "just to make sure", as nagging doubts will always have you wondering And things like bent nails (verses straight ones) can fool you. And I wonder if an elongated gold item (stretched out chain, or gold stick pin, etc...) might not mimick the tone of a straight nail? It's a guessing and odds game that does indeed pan out for those who are proficient with them. But no doubt, you will see them leave for "greener grounds" (beaches with less nails), if storm erosion has left the beach riddled in some nail rich areas (around burned down piers, places with lots of beach bonfires, etc....)

And as long as we're not talking about tinsel thin earing studs or whatever, the excaliber can get pretty darn deep when you put it in all-metal mode (when conditions allow). So for example, I bet for a standard class ring or gold band, the pulse and the excaliber would be at about the same depth anyhow, once you put the excal into all metal (which gets an inch or so deeper than disc.). So if you were in an area where that last umph of depth really mattered, then you can still simply get it by going to all-metal, and being on par with the depth of the pulse anyhow (unless, as I say, we were talking about tinsel thin chains or something, in which case the pulse would get them, while a standard coin machine wouldn't hear it).

Another factor is mineralization. There are some beaches where you simply have no choice but to use a pulse, even if there were lots of nails. If the beaches where you want to hunt are gunpowder grey in color, then maybe they'll be too mineralized for the excaliber?

In my area, our beaches had a lot of industrial/commercial history (wharves, shipping, fishing, etc.....), and are less "touristy" (except for a few) than your "baywatch" style of beaches in So. CA. So when we get good storm erosion, there can be way to many nails on our beaches to use a pulse. It's all just in taste and the conditions of your beaches, your goals, etc....

 

[W6PEA]

Ok so I have an opportunity to buy an Excal II or Surf PI. now I want to use the machine to prospect/detect for gold so im guessing the PI would be the better bet. I would also detect in the surf and chest deep water so i guess either one would be ok. but what about depth? which goes deeper, and which is more sensitive? anyone have benchtests on either machines? thank you in advance for any input.

I would stay with Minelab......JMHO

 

[spez401]

go check the beach and shallow water section... there are tons of posts asking (and answering) essentially the same question.

I've had both machines...PI = NO DISCRIMINATION... so if you plan on digging everything, not a big deal. If you don't like digging 18" holes and finding a screw/nail/bobby pin... get a vlf (or non-pi) machine.

Also... if its going to be specifically for the beach, in the surf... the excal is the way to go (in my opinion). If you're going to be doing dry sand only and more inland hunting... i wouldn't recommend dropping a thousand bucks. the excal shines IN the water. Other machines are more suited for dry land
steve

 

[U.K. Brian]

A couple of other things not mentioned are that all P.I.'s are not equal. There's some eastern block/Chinese that don't really deserve the name "pulse induction". You mention a Surf P.I. I assume you mean the Whites Surfmaster. If so you need to get the right version as the Pro model had its pulse delay removed and gain control fitted which on my beaches really mucked things up as it could not cope as well with blacksand.

There's also the uS factor with the Surfmasters at 25 uS and the latest Pro version at 15. The deeper you go in the water the higher the us needs to be but for sensitivity to small gold (and small items in general) you need to go as low as possible. Eric Foster manages 10uS with his Goldscan 5c (I don't think you can get much lower as the field starts to collapse).

I really think you need to have two machines. If your on land with the Excaliber you won't have the best headphones or the best coil. With the P.I., pulse doesn't automatically mean great performance. In many areas a ground balance control will be essential. When Dave finally gets his Pulse Devils on the market you should be able to tackle both jobs. He considered that mineralisation is so low in the U.K. that ground balance was not needed but it made all the difference even in my back garden.

Sorry not to be of much help but I think you need to pick one (don't forget the Excaliber is like a lump of lead compared to the P.I.) and use it until you make enough finds to get a second machine.