Thinking of buying an underwater detector

[diverrick]

I am thinking of picking up a good under water detector. but there are so many out there, I need some input from those that have some and tried them. Which ones are the best or the worst? I am leaning towards a PI machine.

 

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[Sandman]

We need to know if your going to use it in fresh water or salt. Are you going to dive with it or not. How do you handle frustration at digging tiny pieces of bread wrappers?

 

[ewtaylor]

I have only owned one underwater detector, and it was bought this year. I bought a used garrett infinium pi detector. PI detector are all metal machines and believe me, they pick up ALL metal. I chose this machine because I also relic hunt in fields and woods and wanted a deep seeker. Also because the kids are grown so me and the wife speND our vacation at the beach.
If you have never used a PI detector I can tell you it's a learning experience. I like the infinium has a dual tone to help differinciate some of the metals. I've been practicing at a local freshwater beach and have scooped a lot of junk, but have been getting better at guessing what the targets are.
Hope this helps,
Wayne

 

[redcobra8u]

If you are going into salt water, the excal II is the way to go.

 

[cudamark]

If you want discrimination and will be in salt water (or wet salt water sand) you're going to want a Minelab CTX (if not diving deeper than 10') The Excalibur (if you are) or a Fisher CZ20/21. PI machines work great in the salt water too, but, they don't have much in discrimination and you'll be spend time digging iron junk. Depending on how iron infested your beach is, that can be most of your time, or, not be a big deal. If money isn't an issue, I'd get the Garrett Infinium LS. If money is an issue, the Tesoro Sand Shark is a bargain and works well. The White's Dual Field is another good choice for something in the middle. Forget the Garrett AT series and the White's MX Sport. They claim to work on salt water beaches, but, they don't work well there. To get them stable, you have to turn the sensitivity way down and lose depth. Not what you want when competing for targets with other hunters. If you will be in fresh water only, the ones I mentioned will work great there too. So will the AT Pro and MX Sport, but, they're still limited to the 10' depth like the CTX. Another consideration is coil size. for large expanses of sand, the biggest coil you can get will aid in coverage. For water use, a small coil is much easier to swing. This might sway your decision on which to get, as many of these units don't have interchange coils.....at least not easily interchangeable. The CTX is easy to swap coils as is the Infinium LS. The rest are hard wired and require disassembly to swap them unless you install a waterproof coil connector (and probably void your warranty)

 

[CASPER-2]

I mainly use CZ21s since 2007- I own 3 of them - before 2007 I used Whites PI pros
https://www.flickr.com/photos/casper-1/
some of my articles might help you too
https://www.flickr.com/photos/casper-2/

 

[diverrick]

I was planning on diving the rivers to look for gold. I imagine most depths will be shallower than 30 feet for the most part

 

[bigscoop]

I was planning on diving the rivers to look for gold. I imagine most depths will be shallower than 30 feet for the most part

Either the Excal or the CZ-21.

 

[bowser]

call DENNIS at METALDETECTORS.COM , great prices and he a fun guy