I'm About To Buy A Whites Beach Hunter ID, Any Comments?

[piggman1]

I would like to hear from some people that have and use this machine. Any comments welcomed.

[TonyinCT]

Where will you be using it mostly ?

[piggman1]

At the coast, salt water.

[TonyinCT]

Although it is a decent salt water hunter it isn't the best. I would save some money and get the Tesoro Tiger Shark instead. This will give you some extra money for a scoop if you desire. If you need any more help please let me know.

[NC_Horn]

I have a BHID that I really enjoy hunting with. Sure there are better detectors out there, the Excal is the main one but there is a big difference in price that I can not justify with the time I get to spend hunting with it. And you can't beat the Whites relyability. I would put the BHID up against the PI machines, I looked at them before I purchased this detector. The Dealer I purchased from has some PIs in stock but the BHID will allow you to bypass that iron. I get good depth hunting in all metal also. My favorite way to hunt is in the all metal mode. Ground balance as instructed in the manual and go. The ID lights are still available in all metal so again, you can ignore the iron. One suggestion I have found and been using is, after setting the ground balance, turn the sensitivity to full. The detector will squeal at this point. Use the toggle to reset the detector and re-balance the detector. This gives you a finer balance. I have been getting excellent depth using this method. One complaint you will hear is that the detector falses in the edge of the surf at times. I do not see this happening when hunting in all metal. My only complaint is that the coil does float and also acts as a wing in the edge of the surf as the water moves in and out. If hunting out in the water, there are a number of ways to add weight to the coil, sand bags, or pvc pipes filled with sand can be strapped to the coil or shaft. Most of my hunting has been in the wet sand and shallow surf and the detector has performed great

[piggman1]

The Minelabs Excal is supposed to be the best, but I have read a lot of negative things when it comes to knobs rusting or coming loose, very high cost of batteries, and slow repair times when they malfuntion. I have read quite a few complaints of them down for repair. I haven't found too many complaints about the Beach Hunter other than the coil bouyancy and falsing in the shallow waves. Dependability seems to be excellent, and I know that White's service is fast. I have read way more positive things on the Whites than any of the others.

[Sandman]

NC_Horn made some true statements about the Beach Hunter ID. As for the falsing at the waters edge, it depends not so much on the salt water but the amount of black sand at the location. Many VLF's will have the same trouble here. I had a BHID and gave it to my brother in law mainly because of the floating coil and the fact that I dive and this detector only goes down to 25 feet.

The Tiger Shark is a great detector and is the only factory shipped one where you may change coils. With it's lifetime warranty it's even better.

The Excal does not have any more problems with the knobs coming off nor do they rust being plastic. Battery usage is fantastic too since they are rechargable packs. I use a NIMH pak from Coiltech myself and it lasts days on a charge. Service is excellent too and never had any trouble with service. I only had to send in my one 5 year old Excals once for service and had it back in two weeks. Fixed free even though it was out of warranty. Try that with anything other than a Tesoro.

[piggman1]

NC_Horn made some true statements about the Beach Hunter ID. As for the falsing at the waters edge, it depends not so much on the salt water but the amount of black sand at the location. Many VLF's will have the same trouble here. I had a BHID and gave it to my brother in law mainly because of the floating coil and the fact that I dive and this detector only goes down to 25 feet.

The Tiger Shark is a great detector and is the only factory shipped one where you may change coils. With it's lifetime warranty it's even better.

The Excal does not have any more problems with the knobs coming off nor do they rust being plastic. Battery usage is fantastic too since they are rechargable packs. I use a NIMH pak from Coiltech myself and it lasts days on a charge. Service is excellent too and never had any trouble with service. I only had to send in my one 5 year old Excals once for service and had it back in two weeks. Fixed free even though it was out of warranty. Try that with anything other than a Tesoro.

Other than the floating coil,and you diving, what do you think of the Whites? I don't dive and would only be out maybe chest deep. I know Minelabs are supposed to be the best, but they are a little out of my price range right now, and I was only going on what I had read on reviews of different detectors where they said the steel shafts for the knobs rust, and the batteries were the most expesive rechargeable pack of all. They also said the knobs had a tendecy to slip around the shafts, but that could be cure by lightly sanding the shaft and replacing the knob. Have you had any of these problems?