Looking to buy an Underwater Metal Detector (help!)

[BrettCo124]

Hey all,

I am looking to buy an underwater metal detector. My question is:

How does the Whites Beachhunter 300 hold up against the Minelab Excalibur 2000?

I'd love to own Minelab, as I enjoy their products very much....but does anybody have any advice
on a model that can compare to it, but not its price? I am looking to spend 1000 or under.

Thanks friends!

 

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[Treasure_Hunter]

lol but ONE of these three detectors has to be more effective for me. Whites beachmaster 300, whites surf pi, or garrett seahunter mark ii. If there is no difference, I'll go with garrett for the price...that is unless the whites detectors do something better than the garrett. I'm told the garrett wont discriminate. There has to be a preference other than weight, appearance, things like that. Hoping to make a final decision by tomorrow afternoon based off of all of your professional opinions. If there is no opinions on the three, I'll go with the Garrett seahunter mark ii. I cant afford the minelab. Thanks everyone.

I would buy a used excal over a new Seahunter Mark II...

 

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[BadM0nkey]

There is never a clear answer. It always "depends".

I have already responded that my personal preference is for a PI machine in salt water, especially in the surf. I owned a Garrett Infinium for years that was fantastic and would buy another PI if I moved back to the beach. While I am probably talking out of my monkey butt, if you want to buy new AND want to actually dive vs. wading into the surf AND are only considering the 3 machines listed above you should consider:

The Surf PI (100 feet) and Sea Hunter Mark II (200 feet) are considerably more waterproof than the Beach Hunter (25 feet). If you are going to actually dive you should weigh this more heavily.
The Beach Hunter will likely give you better discrimination, especially in dry sand. If discrimination is really important you should weigh this more heavily.
If you will be hunting mostly out of the water, weight becomes an issue. Beach Hunter and Sea Hunter Mark II are 5.7 lbs, Surf PI is 8.4 lbs (yikes!!)

Of the three, my suggestion would be the Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II with the 8" coil and waterproof headphones, but not because is supposedly can provide some discrimination. It is because of my experience with the Infinium + weight + waterproof level + PI. In my experience PI machines are at their best without discrimination because they are not really good at it.

While the Sea Hunter Mark II has a setting to reduce response to foil and pull tabs, I don't think it will help at all with iron or bottlecaps, which is probably what you are looking for it to eliminate. Jewelry frequently ends up in the foil, and some coins in the pull-tab range and I usually dig these anyway. With a PI machine you should be prepared to dig all signals, especially at the beach. The good news is that if you get yourself a good aluminum sand scoop, digging every signal is not a problem. It is scoop, shake and look.

I'm done.

 

[BrettCo124]

Perfect response. Thank you very much. I will not be diving, only wading plus searching on the dry sand beaches. If anybody else has their last thoughts, I'd be happy to hear them. If not, thank you very much for all of your time and I will report back with finds in the future

 

[BVI Hunter]

I have the SH-2 and although I dive often with it, when on the beach the control box can be belt / hip mounted so all you need to swing is a coil and the alloy shaft!

Good luck and please let us know what you chose!!

HH

 

[BadM0nkey]

Perfect response. Thank you very much. I will not be diving, only wading plus searching on the dry sand beaches. If anybody else has their last thoughts, I'd be happy to hear them. If not, thank you very much for all of your time and I will report back with finds in the future

Dude. If you don't really need to go under water as you started out by saying and expect to be mostly in dry areas or along the surf, why not look at something like an AT Pro? It will not do as well in the salt surf as a PI but will certainly give you a lot more discrimination and other features. There are lots of videos on setting it up for salt water and managing the ground balance. You can rinse it off with fresh water when you get home plus it will be a lot more friendly in parks and yards. Best of all it only weighs 3 pounds which will pretty much eliminate the need for Advil when you get home.

 

[SouthFLdigger]

I did the PI thing and it drove me crazy, digging 12" for a nail, iron screw, bobby pins...= no fun. I now use a CZ-20, Beach Hunter ID with the 9.5" coil.By the way the depth is equal on these when the BHID is ran in all metal, maximum sensitivity. The CZ-20 discriminates better but it is one heavy beast reserved for water use. For general wet salty sand and dry sand work without going in the water i use my Whites DFX, goes down 10"-11" on a coin in salty wet sand.

 

[BrettCo124]

I know this thread is old now but I thought I'd say that I went with a Tesoro Sand Shark brand new. I needed something that won't break the bank and has a great warranty since I'm dealing with water. If it's important to dig all the signals, then I don't see much use in anything more expensive.

Thanks for everybody's help. I don't know how this thread became lost on my end, but anyhow, that was what I ended up going with. I haven't used it yet, but will be chest high in Aruba using it in a couple of months.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Anyone know a way I could rent a Tesoro Sand Shark for a week when I go to the Dominican Republic in a few weeks?

 

[Metal Detecting Stuff]

Kevin, I have a Used Garrett Seahunter for sale at $399.

Www.metaldetectingstuff.com

 

[Top]

lol I should have seen that one coming! But would you find one of those two machines to be better than the other, mainly to discriminate iron and trash from better finds? If it wasn't going to change my finds in any way, why wouldn't I go for the Garrett Sea Hunter Mark ii, which is a lot cheaper? Just trying to wrap my head around this all, lol. Thanks for the continued help!

Okay, this advice is worth what you are paying for it.
I too have been researching a salt water / wet sand machine.

I spent 3+ month asking on multiple forums, collecting data from posts and deciding the value of those posts by looking at the general bias of the author in all/many of their posts.

Your results may vary. But for me, I decided a used (2 y/o) Fisher CZ 21 is the best bang for the buck. Considering price and reliability.
Interestingly the CZ 21 users are seldom seen 'pushing' their machine like some of the other models user do.

Good luck with your research.

EDIT: Well, I see now that I made this post that a decision was made. But, I'll just leave this here in case someone in the future happens to find some value in it.