Need some advise please.

[Guitarman]

Hi all. First time poster here.

I'm new to MD'ing. The wife bought me a BH EX for less than $100 at Wal-Mart for my birthday about a year ago. I took it to a local beach and the first time I found a 41 mercury dime along with about $2 in change. I thought, hey, this is allright!

Next trip to the same spot I found a 36 silver quarter. The next time, again same general spot, I found a 38 Silver Half Dollar (almost wet my pants with that one). Now I'm hooked.

I know this has been asked over and over, but your information is really helpful to those of us who are very new at this. I want to upgrade to another machine. I feel like I may be missing lots of other stuff.

I don't want to drop $600 or $800 on a MD, but I would like something that I can grow in to (maybe in the $200 - $500 range). I will go more if I have to. I like versatility but also like simplicity (can't see myself pouring over thick manuals).

Since I live so close to the beach (Alabama Gulf Coast), I like to hunt saltwater beaches. I have only hunted in dry sand so far, but could see where I might want to take it to the water's edge and try it in wet sand. I don't ever see myself wading knee-deep in water. I like hunting for coins and jewelry. I also want something that is good on dry land as well.

Can you all make some suggestions for me? Any information would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

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[urbss]

Well, I will tell you that I really love my Ace 250, but I don't think that will help you. I've used mine at the beach and it does a great job in the dry sand.

I didn't do much in the wet sand only because I've heard too many times on this forum (from very experienced users) that the Ace doesn't perform well on the wet salt water sand. So, I didn't even bother trying since I only had limited amounts of time to detect when I was at the beach.

I'm sure that you will get some great advice from people on here though - there is so much knowledgeable, kind and helpful people on this site, it just amazes me!!

Tom

 

[RON (PA)]

Welcome aboard Guitarman,

Glad to have you with us. If you are hunting the wet sand beaches, I would suggest a pulse induction machine. With a pulse induction, it will cancel out the "chatter" from the salt and other minerals in the water/sand. PI machines also will detect a little bit deeper than VLF machines from what I understand.

 

[drver]

Man you found all that with a BH EX?? And on salt water sand WOW.

I use an Ace 250 at the beach, wet and dry sand. Wet sand takes a little practice, because of the lack of manual ground balance there is some falsing but it’s not too hard to tell a good target from falsing. Falsing doesn’t repeat and if it’s shallow salt water you can see it move.

The biggest issues I have with a PI is the price tags and the fact they love iron and the beaches, on the east cost anyway, are full of iron.

Being accustom to the BH you will find the Ace as a step up and it’s also a turn on and go detector but for the money you indicated you should at least look at detectors with a manual ground balance, that’ll be many steps up.

 

[urbss]

Oh yeah, one other thing GuitarMan- and this has nothing to do with your question..... what kind of guitar? Do you play in a band or anything?

Just curious. I play in a band called "Beyond Reason". I play rythm guitar and sometimes fill in for the drummer (if he can't make the gig). The avitar I have for my username is our band's logo.

I was just curious.

Good Luck!!!

 

[Sandman]

Welcome to the addiction Guitarman. The Garrett Ace 250 has many followers for coin or beach hunting. It is easy to operate and runs less than $200.00 from some dealers. It can have some problems with wet saltwater sand, but works fine on dry sand. By overlapping your sweeps, you'll recover more targets.

Some of the beach hunters use the more expensive waterproof detectors since we either wade in the water or dive. The Minelab Excal is the king of the beach hunting in my opinion, but it costs $$$$. There is also the Tesoro Tiger Shark and Whites Beach Hunter ID, both run near $600. The Tesoro is the only manufacture offering a lifetime warranty which might come in handy in ten years.

To learn more about beach hunting, visit thegoldenolde.com/

Keep us up to date on your luck,

Sandman

 

[Willy]

For the amount of money you want to spend, I'd suggest buying used. Also, if you don't intend to swim with it or go underwater, you can save money (and get more features) by NOT getting a waterproof detector. Personally, I like the CZ detectors over the BBS (sov./excal.) due to thier being more sensitive to smaller targets. Depthwise, I'd say there's no real difference, even though proponents of either brand constantly scrap over the issue. There are a few other detectors that are supposed to hunt well on saltwater beaches; Coinstrike, Vari-filter (with GB) Compass detectors, PI's (well DUH!!), White's DFX. Probably more, but I'm lazy. ..Willy.

 

[sendin]

I can't improve on the advice given so far, but I can say that if you are patient and careful and willing to wait you can do VERY well buying a used detector. The savings can be significant because there seems to be a quite few people out there who buy nice detectors or get them as gifts and then discover later that they don't make the time for it and then just want to sell. If you move fast and offer cash they can stop messing with tire kickers and answering inquiries from those that aren't serious. I was able to get a White's XLT with about 10 hours on it after looking for about a month on craigslist.org for $390. Best of luck.

 

[Willy]

If you're getting a used detector off the net (forums) check out previous posts by the seller. This way you can get an idea regarding his/her honesty and how past transactions went. If I sell anything I always tell people to do a search of my posts. This helps weed out the bad apples. ..Willy. BTW, I picked up a near new Coinstrike for, essentially, 1/2 price.

 

[Guitarman]

Thanks for the all advise!!! I think it was just dumb luck my first few times out because I have only found clad since then (and some wheat pennies). But that doesn't dampen my enthusiam.

As far as the MD goes, sounds like I need something with ground balance. I will also check into some used machines.

Hey urbss, I play a 70's modded Fender Strat. Me and the guys have a classic rock band going. We like to think we're rock stars!

Thanks again everyone for all the comments.