Safari - Upgrades and a Question

[BrettCo124]

Hey all Safari users,

I’ve been toying around with purchasing the CTX quite a lot lately, which would result in me selling my Safari. My decision was really difficult because I love my Safari. As we all know, it’s one special, underrated machine. That’s why I changed my mind and decided to keep the safari. I love this machine and I keep hearing how it’s so close in performance with the ctx minus the bells and whistles.

So, the Safari stays! I may pick up the equinox though. I want a dedicated Minelab for solely relic hunting (any ideas?). I just purchased the RNB 3400 rechargeable battery for it, along with the wireless system. So now, my Safari has a bit of an upgrade to her. Really happy with that decision.

Thought I’d share something I was going through in my mind. I knew I wouldn’t let the Safari get away from me! It’s not even a question on money, it’s performance. I don’t think you can get much better than this one.

I do have a question on it though. I am experiencing a headache of rusty iron flakes, larger iron conglomerates, and small nails that set off the detector. Any suggestions? I’m solely relic hunting here. I am digging everything and I don’t want to anymore lol. Should I do anything with sensitivity? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks all.

BrettCo

 

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[clv]

You could also use the notch option to take out the things you don't want to find.

 

[BrettCo124]

Do you find adjusting the sensitivity helps in trashy areas? I also have a small sniper coil, I think it’s 5”. I never used it yet. Is that basically the best thing I could do to avoid digging all trash? Or will it ultimately not matter, and digging trash just comes with the territory?

 

[clv]

I have the 8" coil that works well around the fire rings. Notching will be your best bet. As for sensitivity, it affects depth more than anything else. If the ground is consistent in composition, manually adjusting sensitivity to the max and the machine is still stable, will get you greater depth than the auto setting would.

I have the book by andy sabisch "Quattro & Safari Handbook", IMO it will help you get the most out of the safari. Sabich sells direct and thru is ebay page? store? Only have use ebay a few times, but I did buy my copy there when it was rereleased. Next to my RNB battery, the best accessory for the Safari.

 

[BrettCo124]

Great advice, thanks! I will look in to this book. Unfortunately I did not receive a handbook for the safari, and I learned it on my own. There is probably a ton I don’t know.

 

[clv]

Here a link to minelab with the safari manual

http://www.minelab.com/__files/f/4068/4901-0070-1.1 Instruction Manual Safari_Screen.pdf

 

[BrettCo124]

Thanks clv!

 

[clv]

What wireless headphone system do you have for the Safari, how well does it work? and where did you buy it?

 

[Happa54]

Hey Brett;

It's good to hear someone is loving their Safari as much as I do.

An attitude like this is perfect as it raises the confidence level when you are behind your machine.

I see your finds and I'm impressed with what you have shared with us.

I'm getting ready for my upgrade to Etrac only as an addition but not as a replacement to my Safari.

My Safari is what I cut my teeth on and being a bit superstitious, I’ll hang on to her for life.

Our machines are FBS technology so I look to the Etrac forums in furthering my education since the Safari forums are stagnant and lack participation. I feel that the Etrac and Safari are identical in tones and in other ways so I go to the Etrac forums and videos as they are of great help in my learning curve.

This is my first year as an MD'er. I started in January 2017 to be precise. Since getting into this hobby I've gone all-out and hunt as aggressively as I can. I read MD articles and watch Etrac/Safari Youtubes almost daily to catch onto technical things.

From January to date, I'm at the 50 mark on my silvers, including a rare dig 1923-S SLQ, approx 300 wheaties, several rings, various tokens, a couple of gold pieces, vintage metal buttons, old bullet casings, and tons & tons of clad.... all these coming out of the oldest and most pounded parks in Los Angeles.

Ok enough bragging about my accomplishments with the Safari but I just want to point out what a first year MD’er can accomplish with the right attitude, dedication and the right machine.

When it comes to coins, I can tell you how I’ve overcome a TON of unnecessary digging and have increased my silver and wheat finds . But on the relic side of things, I don’t know how you can NOT dig most of the signals because the range is all over the TID scale from ferrous to non-ferrous or high conduct or low conduct. I think you pretty much have to dig it all. Relics come in all forms of metal….right? Your question makes a good thread and I hope you get more responses on it. After all, I’m just a first year MD’er and I could be blowing into the wind on this.

Now, if you are coin searching, that’s a whole different animal. I can hit a coin in conduct mode, cross check the target in AM, and majority of the time I can determine if it is iron, pull tab, screw cap, rusted metal, etc. You will get fooled by many signals because some of those screw caps and pull tabs come off as silver or high conduct target but by cross checking, it lowers the percentages of unnecessary digging.

Once you’ve mastered the tones and incorporate cross checking on your signals/targets you will find yourself digging the good targets and walking away from the ones you are not interested in.

Don’t get me wrong, I still dig high conduct screw caps and pull tabs, but now I spend very little time doing this due to cross checking from conduct to ferrous and mastering the tones.

I hunt in relic mode with conduct tones, manual sens 18, only iron disc’d out, high trash. When cross checking it is AM, zero disc, sens 18, high trash.

You will get a lot of falsing with high sens but I’m okay with this. I like hearing everything under my coil. Falsing or not, when you get over a good target, you will un-mistakenly know it.

I also hunt the super trashy spots with my Detech 8x6 Butterfly coil as it easily separates out the good targets. I thought it to be pretty amazing as it draws up the silver and wheat coin signals from amongst the trash. But, I primarily hunt with my 11” stock coil because I can cover more ground.

One more thing I want to throw out…. Go detecting with someone who is better than you. It keeps you on your toes, inspires you, raises your confidence level and most of all, it pushes you to the edge of what you already know. I continue to improve because I am inspired by an Etrac hot shot who keeps my head wrapped around in a positive way. His annual coin counts are 3X what I have in all coin categories. It’s pretty amazing what he gets with his Etrac. But on the other hand, he has years of this under his belt.

As far as the CTX goes, I’m not familiar with it but I’ve heard that it’s a completely different animal than the Safari and Etrac. The tones are not the same and I don’t think I would ever go with a machine that cannot match the tones of our machines. These tones are the key to our success in coins….IMO.

If you are gonna be a straight up relic hunter, then I guess there would be a number of good machines out there. But for the coins, the Safari and Etrac are beasts and I wouldn’t use any other.

 

[BrettCo124]

Thanks for that great response. Our machines are definitely special, no question about it. When I purchased the safari, the seller told me that, unless I want to buy an underwater machine (I did), I’d most likely never see him again. Meaning this machine does it all.

Now, my machine has the rnb 3400 battery. Couldn’t be any happier that I purchased it. Went on 2 long hunts already and didn’t even move the slightest bit on my charge.

Clv - to answer your question on what I went with for wireless, I went with the Garrett zlink system. I couldn’t double the cost for the minelab one. It just didn’t seem worth the extra money, although I’d prefer it just because it’s minelab.

My experience with wireless is, it’s awesome. I have noticed mine turning off after 10 minutes, and I’d have to reconnect. I’ve only used it once since I got it, so it very well could be me not reading directions or having a good charge on them just yet.

There is a good chance I pick up the equinox 800 as well, so I can have an underwater machine that I love. That will be my go-to beach detector, if I get it. However, once again, I took the safari to the beach last weekend, in highly mineralized sand, and it absolutely destroyed the beach. Didn’t make a peep unless I was on a target. Found some deep stuff. Found some small pieces of wire that looked like it came off a twist tie. This machine will find it all.

 

[Bigdob]

My. First FBS machine was the Safari and I used it for about a year and did well relic and coin hunting.
I found that I wanted better Target ID and Discrimanation Capabilities.
I ended up with a CTX and it fits the bill for me.
Target ID is great, Target Trace is wonderfull and Discrimanation can be almost endlessly adjusted.
Tones are all adjustable and lots of different setups, I run Combined and it works for me.
The Safari was a very good machine for me to get used to FBS and all its fury �� and helped make the CTX transition easier, it has several basic modes and then you just costomize them to your conditions or create new modes.
Safari, ETrack and CTX are all great machines , it’s just what works for you.
BT

 

[BrettCo124]

I still want to get my hands on a ctx! Those features are great to have for sure.