Treasurenet Newbie asks your advice on Excalibur II test garden ??

[cathexis]

Greetings All,

My name is Andrew & I own no Minelab - yet. I'm a White's guy & thinkin' hard about "crossing over."

I'm very interested in the Excaliber II 10" coil. I would use it for Land, Beach Dry & Wet, and hope to
begin snorkeling at some point. I know some would say get a CTX 3030 if land is in the plan but I really
have ZERO interest in Geo-Hunts, GPS, networking with my PC, etc. I do have two daughters who are
Archaeologists and they would love the abilities of the CTX 3030 but it seems like, well,... a lot of purty
stuff I maybe don't need to pay an addt'l grand for. No offense to anyone! As for a Ex II on land I can
only say it IS sort of a waterproof Sovereign ain't it?

But regardless of all that, if I do buy an Excalibur II what research I've found on the 'net suggests that
learning tones is key to mastery (Agree?). But I am currently too far from the ocean for freq. real-life testing.
So I thought I'd take a chance and ask if there are Test Garden possibilities to help me learn tones? I
do have access to dry land, freshwater creek, and lots of mineralized ground in No. Va. where I live.
I have managed to pan a few flakes of AU around here and the black sands you end up with are huge.

What if I were to plant coins, rings, etc. in a shallow local creek and wade-hunt it? Would this be helpful or not?
If ridiculous please say so but I now have come to respect the potential of minelab and feel ready to
move on from White's. I have a DFX, V3, and Dual Field. Just got back from O.C./Rehoboth and the Dual
Field went deep but I got tired of digging iron and the beach made hell of my VLF rigs. The CTX 3030 may
be good for "10 feet" but the surf was rough after Hermine and I can't imaging it would hold up to getting
whacked by an 6 foot wave and dragged around as Eastern Surf can do to you. BTW, I found zip on Coin
Beach but no surprise there.

Thanks for reading!

-Andrew

 

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[Sandman]

To bad the GT isn't waterproof as its better than Excal. Planting coins and rings in the creek is a no-no as sound would be the same if on top of ground.
Basically since if won't beep on iron, scoop all else.

 

[cathexis]

Why better, sandman?

Was it because some Sovereigns had a notch filter?
I'm curious as they do show up on Ebay from time
to time and aren't too pricey for good(old) detectors.

Andrew

 

[adamBomb]

But I am currently too far from the ocean for freq. real-life testing.
So I thought I'd take a chance and ask if there are Test Garden possibilities to help me learn tones?

You can air test to learn the tones...in fact do it when you first get the machine so you learn what it sounds like on various types/sizes of targets. A test garden is nice too but remember each type of soil/sand is going to respond differently than your test garden.

Why better

Being able to change the coil/headphones makes it a whole different machine. To do that on the Excal you need to mod it...

 

[cathexis]

That makes sense.

Andrew

 

[penzfan]

I know some would say get a CTX 3030 if land is in the plan but I really
have ZERO interest in Geo-Hunts, GPS, networking with my PC, etc. I do have two daughters who are
Archaeologists and they would love the abilities of the CTX 3030 but it seems like, well,... a lot of purty
stuff I maybe don't need to pay an addt'l grand for. The CTX 3030 may
be good for "10 feet" but the surf was rough after Hermine and I can't imaging it would hold up to getting
whacked by an 6 foot wave and dragged around as Eastern Surf can do to you.

-Andrew

Besides the ability of the CTX to read/separate valuable targets sitting under iron, the Geo-Hunt and GPS features are also invaluable. What other machine has the ability to show you where you have hunted IN the water or on wet sand in an Ocean environment? What other machine has the ability to save the exact locations of your BEST deep finds and bring you back to that exact spot weeks or months later? As far as Eastern Surf hunting, that's an everyday occurrence for my CTX and it made it through Hermine just fine. Just saying the CTX exceeds my needs for surf hunting Florida beaches so far.
p.s. the Excalibur II is another excellent choice...

 

[cathexis]

I'm no expert but I could guess that Minelab (or maybe just Minelab Marketing) would like the CTX 3030
to be the wave of the future. By that I mean that it's many fancy multi-media/IT tech features will slowly
migrate across the other Minelab machines with a corresponding up-bump in prices to boot. I don't think
there will ever be one do-it-all machine because I'm skeptical and think why sell you only one machine
when I can sell you a line of similarly featured but purpose-specialized units.

From what I've seen on You-Tube the CTX is an exciting machine but it ain't waterproof (enough).
Plus I think sea water is the most challenging environment for sensitive electronics in general this
side of the planet Mars. So even though I'm not a diver(yet) I would not see the CTX at its' current
price to be worth buying that AND an Excal. II just for underwater. I'm sure some here have both
or even more but that is my reality. Congrats! on your CTX & I hope it's all you hope it will be.

Thx.! for replying,

Andrew

 

[adamBomb]

I'm no expert but I could guess that Minelab (or maybe just Minelab Marketing) would like the CTX 3030
to be the wave of the future. By that I mean that it's many fancy multi-media/IT tech features will slowly
migrate across the other Minelab machines with a corresponding up-bump in prices to boot. I don't think
there will ever be one do-it-all machine because I'm skeptical and think why sell you only one machine
when I can sell you a line of similarly featured but purpose-specialized units.

From what I've seen on You-Tube the CTX is an exciting machine but it ain't waterproof (enough).
Plus I think sea water is the most challenging environment for sensitive electronics in general this
side of the planet Mars. So even though I'm not a diver(yet) I would not see the CTX at its' current
price to be worth buying that AND an Excal. II just for underwater. I'm sure some here have both
or even more but that is my reality. Congrats! on your CTX & I hope it's all you hope it will be.

Thx.! for replying,

Andrew

If you have other machines like a DF then I would get a land/beach detector and use the DF for the water/diving. The Excal is rather heavy for a land based machine and it won't hit on small gold that the land based detectors would. I have the CTX for land and the beach and an excal for the water. Not sure I would take my excal on land for any reason...

 

[DeepseekerADS]

I've used my Excal on land and it works fine, but I do absolutely prefer the CTX on land for about 10,000 reasons! I don't really see a future where I'll submerse the CTX. Frogmaster had a lengthy thread a year ago on improving the waterproofing the CTX and he had successfully taken his down to 200 ft if I recall correctly. Frogmaster is harder core than I am! I've the Excal, so I won't risk it. My CTX is out of warranty and repairs would be expensive. I'd left my Etrac in a very humid area for about a month - just wasn't thinking. The tab for fixing it was right at $700.

 

[ARC]

 

[cudamark]

I'd definitely pick a different machine for land than the Excalibur. It will detect just fine, but, it's just too cumbersome on land and doesn't give me all the info I would want before I would cut a plug. If you're going to have just one machine to do it all, I'd pick the CTX. Nothing else on the market today will do all that it does, and does well. If you have the same approximate budget, you might think about getting the Excalibur and a good land machine. Maybe a Safari, Deus, or just keep one of your Whites machines.

 

[ARC]

Excal works fine on land... even on smalls... just gotta set right and listen right.
Btw...
That was a test garden and sifter.
I have tested many... many detectors.
All are different but the same - IF that makes sense. :P

 

[cathexis]

AARC,

I figured it was a test garden but,... When I saw that walker I wondered if this was a Stephen King story!
"Detector Cemetery." Yikes!

Andrew