Old whites user thats had a timeout for 7 yrs. Help PlZ!

[piratejoe]

New here and really like the forum. A lot of great minds here.
I live in Key West, Fl. Alot of beach here and also some great old sites in Key West. Kinda small though.

Need a recommendation on a older Whites unit that will help me. Wet Sand/Dry Sand. Not so much totally in the water/underwater.
Maybe up to knees to start.
My head is spinning from all the new models. Whites/Fisher/Garrett/Minelab?? Even the old ones of those makers.

Sure I would love to go get a new Whites underwater rig. Or even a Minelab Excalibur 2. Maybe even a Garrett At Pro.

But I am kinda partial to Whites, used old Gold rigs up in the mountains of Oregon back in the early 90"s.
Been to Sweet Home and visited the biz. Customer service is #1.

Problem is I have been out of it for awhile. Never been in a Home Base where I have Ocean all around.

What do you think? Tell me old models and new models. Prefer old models due to cost right now.

Then maybe a spanking new one in a year when I get my feet wet Ha Ha
Thx Joey in Key West.

[BISMARCK]

Hi just got a whites beachunter 300 only been out 3 times hitting the beach here on long island n y in the water about 2 ft deep and also on wet and dry sand. great ground balance easy set up no big finds yet but i ll tell you im finding pennys and dimes over 12 inches down i just put the whole thing in the shower when i get home to wash off the salt so far best machine ive ever owned a little pricey ( just under $1000 ) but with the price of gold these days it wont take much to pay for itself good luck

[Sandman]

Welcome Piratejoe and BISMARCH.
There are many detectors that you can chose from nowdays. Not all of them are good for the wet sand at a saltwater beach. The BHID 300 is a decent beach detector but the thing I found at fault was the coil floats like a cork and you had to constantly try to hold it down. Some place a sand filled sock on the shaft or coil for weight and then take that off for dry sand searching, best of both worlds.
For max depth a Pulse unit is the deepest but it has hardly any disc regardless what the advertisments say. This means you could spend a lot of time digging deep holes for a hair pin but there are those that say you can id those with a trained ear. I just got tired of all that digging. Some like the White's Dual Field but I prefer the Tesoro Sand Shark for a PI.
The Excal is very good and so is the Fisher CZ-21. An excellent beach detector is the Minelab Sov GT but you can't get the box wet. Works well in the wet and dry sand as it is much like the Excal, but better.

[piratejoe]

Thx Guys,
Any more ideas, Plz.
Thx Joey

[George (MN)]

Considering that you like White's & want to save money buying used, you might want to find a White's Surfmaster II. They show up on eBay occasionally and almost never on the forums. I guess most who own them are not willing to sell. Best wishes, George (MN)

[George (MN)]

I think the Surfmaster II is also known as Amphibian II? There's an Amphibian II on eBay right now (it's not mine). It needs to be sent in for some wire repair, Think the bench fee (repair price) is fixed at $45(?) & you pay the shipping both ways. Just in case you're interested. Best regards, George (MN)