Cobra Beach Magnet..........A Four Day Summary

[bigscoop]

Since a recent trip up north didn't go as planned, I decided to spend a great deal of that hunting time using the Cobra Beach Magnet on both land and water instead of the higher dollar units we were carry on the trip. Here's a first hand summary of it's performance.

The cons:

Forget about using this unit in heavy currents or strong ocean surf as the thin walled shaft on my unit started showing signs of stress within a few hours. The small steel push button shaft locator also starting showing signs of corrsion and I'm certain it wouldn't last more then a few days in salt water, nor would the shaft. I didn't use this unit around black sand or a salt environmant on this trip but I did use it along the Lake Superior coast and the mineral content in the rocks rendered this unit almost completely useless because the discrimination and ground balancing features simply were not able to handle it without constant chatter. The coil adapter shaft came loose from the thin walled shaft in a matter of hours and it had to be epoxied back in place while in the field. I didn't experience any leakage but one can only assume that in time this will most likely present a problem as well, especially in a harsh environment. The coil cable on this machine is also too short to arrange any kind of a belt system, I'm only 5' 8" and I was just able to work something out but it really reduced the size of my swing pattern.

The pros: (of which there are few)

The unit hunted deep and it was able to locate heavy gold rings and even a heavy platinum band, but in doing so it required the discrimination to be set below the factory recommended setting, which also allowed for a lot of junk signals and chatter. Turning the detection depth back all the way did help but only marginally and the risk of losing detection depth simply makes this option unpractical at best as some buried coin targets will appear as broken tones. This unit was easy to pinpoint with as is often not the case on some units with 10in coils. It did function well on coins, even the deeper ones, and in fairly clean locations the unit was actually a joy to use (with rigged hip mount) as quick swing speeds didn't seem to hold an adverse effect over the unit's deeper hunting capabilities and the coil and shaft are very light weight.

Summary:

This unit is an entry level water machine that is best suited to fairly clean soils and very mild environments. As it is shipped and assembled, by design this unit is also a "short duration" hunter, it is not a unit you want to be swinging against any resistence for more then a couple of hours at a time. This is not a unit you want to purchase if you are wanting to hunt in the harsher environments as it simply isn't designed strong enough to hold up very long against those elements. Probably not a bad machine to "fool around with on occasion" but if you're planning to hunt with it a lot or in harsher environments then I'd certainly look into buying a better brand named unit. The unit will perform well if the conditions allow for it but in some high mineral regions or really trashy areas you're going to encounter problems that you just can't make adjustments for. I purchased the unit mainly for friends or visiting family members and I think that probably best describes where this unit falls among the water hunting machines, it is, "an occasional hunter for the light hearted and less serious".

[gallienus267]

I always had a Fisher 1280X untill the on off switch quit working and Fisher wanted something like 500.00 to fix it. I said no (20+ year old machine) and bought the Cobra from KellyCo. I don't like it on land as it is to heavy and awkward but it feels ok in the water. I feel it is cheaply built but it does beep so it finds things OK. The on off switch does not work so I have to place or remove a battery to turn or off. It does not leak like my Fisher always did. I also had to tweek a few minor repairs but what can I say. Bottom line is it has found enough to pay for itself and on its third year still finds things.