Small wife needs her own detector

[old_mikee]

Hi All

I would like to buy my wife a metal detector of her own and would like to ask your opinion on which would be my best choice given the following criteria.

Currently I have the MXT (thanks to this forum) with a 5" oval and love it. Unfortunately it is the only detector I have operated, so I have nothing to compare it to. We have had the MXT a little over a year now and we like to search at the beach, the occasional park, and we have done two prospecting trips in that time. This last time we went up to the Klamath River, on the Califorian/Oregon border, where we spent one day nugget hunting.

As it turns out the detector is a little I too heavy for my wife. After 10 minutes, she is holding on to it with both hands, and has had enough. She is small in stature, older in age than she would like to be and arthritis has left her with not much strength in her hands or wrists. It is simply not fun for her and I would like to change that.

So, here's my question. Is there a decent, inexpensive lightweight detector that I should look into that is good for beach, parks, and the occasional prospecting trip that we might take? I realize it will not be on par with the MXT, but as long as she can find treasures with it and enjoys it is all that I am after.

I know I am going to get many different answers, but if you have experience similar to ours, I would appreciate hearing what you bought and how it works.....Please remember that lightweight has highest priority. (if it is too heavy, no matter how good it is or how much it costs, it simply wont get used, and at the same time if she finds nothing with it, it wont get used either)

Thanks in advance

mikee

 

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[BamaBill]

I'm in a very similiar situation and our solution was the F70, but its not a cheap machine and I got it by trading a few of mine and some cash for it (about $649 retail). If Target ID is not a priority I have an easy solution. A Tesoro Vaquero (about $420) or a used Tesoro Eldorado uMax. All three of these can be ground balanced and are about 1/2 the weight of an MXT. I have an MXT and my wife is 5'2", so I do know what you're looking at. The Tesoros are very easy to use and will find good stuff as well as have a lifetime warranty if new and Tesoro has some of the best customer service in the business (had experience with that as well). Guess it all depends on her interest level and if she will only cherry pick (F70 good for this) or if she has the patience to learn the machine and its sounds (Tesoro machines in general) and is willing to dig almost everything at the beginning. Just my experience and two cents worth. Take it for what its worth. I'm afraid Target ID machines (good ones) are not cheap.

 

[The Hunter]

Maybe a hip mount model would work for her.

 

[Slingshot]

How about one of those Pirate Detectors? All the electronics are in the headphones, with just a wand and coil to hold in the hands.

 

[al-nm]

yes best bet is to check on ones that can be hip mounted then all she has to swing and carry is the coil and shaft. also good for folks with bad backs etc.

 

[RON (PA)]

I swing a Tesoro Compadre and it's about as light a stick as you'll find. Not super deep, but that's probably good for your wife as she won't want to do heavy digging. Because of small coil you can "X" the spot darn well and that's less frustrating too. No Target ID though, but good iron discrimination. The discriminator is very accurate in air overall; the deeper the object, the less accurate discrimination will be, but the iron stays pretty accurate. I usually just knock out iron. Occasionally I knock out through pulltabs and that was quite accurate also. The price is good at about $150.

Speaking of digging, it's the digging that punishes my wrist the most, in hard packed ground. Beach hunting is a dream for your body, that's where she'll be most comfortable. Get her to a nice beach with a cool breeze and what's not to love? With those special basket scoops, not so much knee work either.

Compadre has my vote too. Great little machine.

 

[jimmatt_43]

I have never used anything but the ace 250 so can't give a lot of advice on other machines.It is light and easy to use ,and I have found a great deal with it.
Also,in W&E Treasure magazine ,I saw an advertisement for a harness type detector holder.It was called the swingy thingy.It looked like it would take most of the weight off of the hands and shoulders.This might give her more options on heavier machines.
You may be able to just punch it in on google and get a good description of it.
Happy Hunting,
Jim

 

[aladdin]

Can we talk ? My wife loves the Garrett Ace 250 she has!! Her little "treasure hornet" she call's it/ it is a great unit to start with!

 

[old_mikee]

Wow, am I on a Tesoro sponsored site?

Thanks for all your replies... It does seem the Tesoro has the most votes at this time. I looked briefly at them before, but kind of discounted them as they did not have a visual meter. I will check out the suggested models in more detail, thanks. While looking around, I found this inexpensive unit on Amazon and was wondering what you all thought of it ?

http://www.amazon.com/High-Performance-Explorer-Headphone-Waterproof/dp/B000ZQA8WY

I know it cant be much, but the beauty is that at 1 1/2 pounds its really light and if you took the time to read the reviews, they are the best reviews I have ever read. So, I'm thinking that if it works only half as good as claimed, and for $80 delivered, we will both know of she is really going to enjoy treasure hunting. If she likes the hobby, and can deal with the rigors of swinging a stick for a few hours, we will buy her a much better unit.

Thats my plan for now, until you all talk me out of it

BTW, while searching for the "swingy thingy" Jim talked about, I found this little gem... turn up your speakers

hope you all enjoy, and thanks again for all the suggestions

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu2z4rj2_tQ

 

[Mat in MA]

Remember ... You get what you pay for.

This metal detector looks similar to the old Radio Shack Micronta series. They will find a few coins an inch or two deep, but that's about it. They are more of a toy than a serious detector.

My recomendation would be either DetectorPro's HeadHunter Wader, HeadHunter Pirate or Tesoro Silver µMax. HeadHunter series has all the controls and batteries in the headsets.

Good luck on your choice.

 

[coshokie]

I can tell you a little about the American Hawk detector listed above. I have one but I got mine from a different place http://www.gold-century.com/products.asp?cat=1845&pg=2 (Pretty sure these are the same detectors and I believe I found another location to buy them from when I was looking but I'm not sure)

Keep in mind, this is my only experience with a detector, but you can see what I have found in my profile on the left. I have found coins at least 4 - 5"s deep in this mineralized soil of Colorado. I really haven't measured that much but I know a few were at least that deep. See my other post here thats titled "New to the board and detecting with a few questions" for a little more info.

I took it to Indian Rocks Beach, FL for a week on vacation and it did very well in the dry sand. In the wet sand I had to turn the sens back a lot to get it to calm down and even then everything the coil touched caused a beep. I did find a couple of things in the wet sand but I pretty much gave up on the wet sand and stuck with the dry sand. Don't even try it in the edge of the water. Just touching the water causes it to go crazy.

So far I think this is a very good detector to determine whether you want to continue with the hobby and invest in better equip or whether the hobby's not for you.

It's definitely not built with the quality of the more expensive detectors but it seems to me that it does a much better than expected job for the price.

 

[coshokie]

I would say most of my coins have been in the 2-3" range (parks/schools from the late 60's to mid 70's), I know a couple have been at least 4" but I won't swear to 5". I did get a great hit on a pop can that was at least 8" and in all metal mode I got a strong hit on something that turned out to be some sort of water dept cap in my front yard and it was a good 6+ inched deep.

 

[rsc]

Forget all the above...GARRETT 250, You will not regret it. HH Gayle

 

[old_mikee]

So........... I ordered the American Hawk online and FedX brought it two days later. I put it together and all seems well, but I must admit it is definitely a little cheesy and pretty much what I expected for the price... I must say that partially due to its cheesiness, it is definitely lightweight at 1 1/2 pounds, and if not accidently abused should hold together long enough for my purpose.

I air tested a 5, 10, 25 coin 4-5" from the coil, and then hid a penny and a nickel just slightly under the roots of grass in a small patch of lawn in the front of our house. My wife found those with ease, along with two old roofing nails that I did not place there.

Tomorrow we are going to the beach, her with her little hawk, and me with the MXT and we will see how she does. After finding the coins on the lawn she seems more enthused and is already endearingly calling it "her little hawk" so I'm optimistic that she really will enjoy it. I'll let you all know how we did.

thanks again for your recommendations,

mikee

 

[old_mikee]

Well we got the American Hawk Explorer and took it to the beach on Sunday... I wrote a mini review on it and included some pictures of the finds..... see this post
http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php?topic=170148.new;topicseen#new

 

[sniffer]

you could have looked into the White's Prizm series, lightweight, easy to use and has a screen

 

[Keppy]

Well we got the American Hawk Explorer and took it to the beach on Sunday... I wrote a mini review on it and included some pictures of the finds..... see this post
http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php?topic=170148.new;topicseen#new

American hawk has that water detector the deep blue for $199.00 and it is a good detector................................... www.onemetaldetector.com .....Jim

 

[hollowpointred]

Tesoro silver umax is what i would get.

 

[sniper19612003]

Check on Kellyco for a chest/shoulder harness. Takes alot of weight off the arm. For the price, you can't beat it. JMHO

Sniper

 

[EasyMoney]

The American Hawk should get 8" on a quarter in an air test and 7" on a dime, penny, or nickel. If not it has been damaged somehow. I bought one for my daughter and she L-O-V-E-S it. I bought an Ace 250 for my oldest daughter and she H-A-T-E-S it.

Bama has the right idea, and because the Silver uMax can get as much as 4" on a BB sized nugget and the Tesoros use a tank circuit, and most handle bad ground in the west so well, and they are so lightweight, I would also consider the Silver uMax too. Forget about the Ace 150 through Ace 500 and also forget about the F-2 and F-4 too, none of those can find a BB sized nugget at 2" in air but the American Hawk can, or should.

Have a good 'un tweaking your circuitboard in case you ever get a chance to retune any IF transformers in one. (just kidding).

EasyMoney