Water Detector - Whats the best for salt water

[piggman1]

I am concidering buying a water detector to be used in salt water and know absolutly nothing about them. What are some good ones? Do they have discrimination? Any info would be of great help. Thanks,
Dave

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

Some questions: 1) do you intend to just do the wet beach, only in the ebb & flow of the waves, or do you intend to fully submerse it? 2) do you want one that can disc. out nails, or do you intend to "dig all" including the potential for nails?

If you don't care about nails (or think you can second guess them by sounds and such), then any number of pulse machines brands and types are good.

But if you want be able to loose nails, and even foil & such (whatever you choose), then the Excaliber is a good choice. But, while it does go deep, and while it can disc, its drawbacks are that it won't work well in extremely black sand. Also it won't find teensy tinsel thin chains, or earing studs, etc.... that a pulse can find.

So while it may seem that a pulse is a no-brainer, I have seen many pulse guys get chased off junky beaches (under piers after storm erosion, for instance) because they get driven mad by endless nails, paper clips, bobby pins, etc .... But if you're working clean touristy (non-industrial history) beaches, a pulse might be the way to go.

 

[Sandman]

Tom covered some good points in choosing which type detector for beach use. I suggest you visit the web sites of the major manufactures and read what they have to say about their water detectors, including the field tests.

As he stated, PI detectors are very deep and with the sifting sands of a saltwater beach these are very useful. However with the lack of any good discrimination you could be wasting time digging deep holes for small pieces of iron, like small nails, hairpins, etc when you could be using a Minelab to cover area faster and almost as deep as a PI. It's been said that Excals have trouble finding thin good chains an this means it won't sound off on them like it would on a silver bar, but will still make a sound. It will find earring backs and studs, at least mine will. You need to play with the sensitivity without turning it up too high. You have to remember that if your detector always finds this small stuff you will also waste time trying to retrieve tiny things that fall through the scoop holes. Tiny chains have very little weight value too.

As it stands now, I use an Excal 1000 for my main detector in the water with the Tesoro Tiger Shark as a runner up. I like the way the coils can be changed on the Tesoro water machines right from the factory. If I was lots younger with a stronger back I would use the Sand Shark or Whites Surf Pro PI.

 

[finderzzs]

Are you getting tired of seeing all that found gold piggmann? I saw where you said your gonna move to Corpus Christi You ol' gold digger you.. There's gold in them sports fields and ya don't have to get wet!

 

[piggman1]

I'm thinking about one that can be completely submersible. Like I said, I don't know much about them. You all have given me some usefull info which I entend on checking out. Yea, Finderzzz, I know there's gold in them thar fields, but every so often I move back down there untill I get tired of the humidity and sand. I have lots of friends there, and I allways have a house when I go back. I just want to try my luck with something new for awhile, you know how us gold diggers are. I'm not even thinking about it untill after the first of the year, got too much going on here. Thanks all for the info and I'll be doing some research.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

One word.....

E-X-C-A-L-I-B-U-R

I have also chased the backs of earrings with my Excal, as well as just a tiny lobster claw clasp for a TINY gold chain. Never did find the chain, just the clasp.

I love my Excal so much I bought another Excal as a backup for my first one.