Are New Metal Detectors Really any better than the old ones

[jhen999]

I was wondering what you really think about the new metal detectors of today compared to the older ones of years gone by. I have used the old Whites 5000D of the 1980,s and the Whites Classic 3 of the 1990,s and have recently bought a x-terra 705 and to be honest with you I don't fined the new one any better than an old ones, the newer ones have a lot of bells and whistles and they are a lot lighter to swing, but as far as doing any more than the older models I just don't see it, I was digging up coins back in the 1980,s 6" to 8" just the same as I do today...but really all I can see is the new models are lighter and a lot more hard to learn, I am just talking about machines that cost under $1000....I have never used the higher end models so I cant talk about what they can or can not do.

 

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[el padron]

Your funny too! On another thread I see you complaining your finds did not improve when you bought your etrac and then admit you did not take time to learn it. So you go from a detector that you are used to and get a new one that you really never learn and your surprised? I'm not even defended minelab as for the last year and a half all I use is my t2. To blame any detector that you run to much disc or do not learn for your lack of finds is silly.

There is usually a reason for all the technology i.e. bells and whistles that exist on today's modern flagship metal detectors.


Unfortunately that reason is more often than not purely to lure prospects that don't know any better nto spending a lot more than really needs to be spent.
For the vast majority of metal detectorrists a GPS feature is simply something that realistically they will never use.


It costs very little to add one to a metal detector and itt helps justify the enormous price of something that features relatively outdated underpowered technology that should cost much much less.


Modern discrimination technology on the other hand seems to have come along way, and is often worth every penny

 

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[dirtscratcher]

Except for the umpteenth time my issues with the ET weren't with the performance (although it never showed brilliance right off the bat like other detectors I had have done). The R2D2 being gang raped by an ice-cream trucks sounds emitting from the speakers and the ungodly balance had something to do with it though. I've admitted time and time again, it's great machine. I great machine I hate.

I completely understand you do not like it after reading your replies after almost every mention of the etrac over the last year and a half. I think we all get it. Funny thing is I used a atp for about half an hour and thought wow this thing is built cheap and flimsy feeling and balanced poorly. The head phone cable slapping my arm and the silly noises it made and I knew it was not for me but I do not feel the need to tell everyone when every time the atp is mentioned.

 

[Hot zone]

Your funny too! On another thread I see you complaining your finds did not improve when you bought your etrac and then admit you did not take time to learn it. So you go from a detector that you are used to and get a new one that you really never learn and your surprised? I'm not even defended minelab as for the last year and a half all I use is my t2. To blame any detector that you run to much disc or do not learn for your lack of finds is silly.

you are funny too! Fella made up his mind too fast and I took too long... I guess you and goldilocks can get it just right!

 

[fella]

lol

 

[dirtscratcher]

you are funny too! Fella made up his mind too fast and I took too long... I guess you and goldilocks can get it just right!

Good luck with your tesoro, just remember if you set disc to high it will miss gold also.

 

[fella]

I completely understand you do not like it after reading your replies after almost every mention of the etrac over the last year and a half. I think we all get it.

Other than two threads this week, you'd have to go back pretty far to find where I beat on the ET too hard. Go ahead..look!

Funny thing is I used a atp for about half an hour and thought wow this thing is built cheap and flimsy feeling and balanced poorly. The head phone cable slapping my arm and the silly noises it made and I knew it was not for me but I do not feel the need to tell everyone when every time the atp is mentioned.

And I wouldn't disagree with ya on the build quality and layout. It's definitely NOT on par w/$1000+ detectors. But then again…oh yeah, it's not a thousand dollar detector.

 

[dirtscratcher]

Other than two threads this week, you'd have to go back pretty far to find where I beat on the ET too hard. Go ahead..look!


And I wouldn't disagree with ya on the build quality and layout. It's definitely NOT on par w/$1000+ detectors. But then again…oh yeah, it's not a thousand dollar detector.

I do not need to look you know and I know it is true. I was not comparing the atp with any detector just was not for me.

 

[fella]

I do not need to look you know and I know it is true. I was not comparing the atp with any detector just was not for me.

1) Well no! 2) Same w/me on the ET.

 

[dirtscratcher]

1) Well no! 2) Same w/me on the ET.

1) Come on now 2) Cool

 

[fella]

Well at least you have a sense of humor about it.

 

[roaddust66]

I'm not going to name any brand but somebody mentioned a detector sounding like a flute. LOL My first hunt in 18 years was last fall. The two guys with me , hunting a c.w. camp got hot and pulled off their head phones. I never heard such a mess in all my life. It was dueling slide whistles. I dont want to hear all of that. I will eventually buy one but not looking forward to all that mess even though i do want a vdi machine. And getting back on topic... you ever dug deep relics ? Its not fun if everything is deep. dig .58s all day at 18" in hard ground ! That gets old fast !

 

[dirtscratcher]

I'm not going to name any brand but somebody mentioned a detector sounding like a flute. LOL My first hunt in 18 years was last fall. The two guys with me , hunting a c.w. camp got hot and pulled off their head phones. I never heard such a mess in all my life. It was dueling slide whistles. I dont want to hear all of that. I will eventually buy one but not looking forward to all that mess even though i do want a vdi machine. And getting back on topic... you ever dug deep relics ? Its not fun if everything is deep. dig .58s all day at 18" in hard ground ! That gets old fast !

Check out a t2, never mind if you do not like digging deep.

 

[BC1969]

I'll take the old versus new challenge at any park local to me! Already have several times since joining Tnet. My old fisher think it was 81' when I got it, does just as well if not better than any of the new machines I've run it next to, even high end detectors, sure it can't see good next to trash like the explorer can or any in that brand, but that does not matter, for I dig the crud out of my way anyway, sure I dig a ton of trash, but I don't have to worry about something being masked either.

As for batteries and weight ? Bleh! I get a couple weeks run time out of the fisher per set, on my explorer on a good day I get about 7 hours per set, chop it way down if using the backlight.

As for weight..pftt the fisher is a feather, built like a tank, still going! The explorer..well built like a tank and weighs as much as a tank lol /cry.
Reason I guess is because aluminum ate into the profits to much is my guess, so just make the plastic really thick..bleh.
So somebody already make a new detector out of all carbon fiber and aluminum..and I'll be happy as a bug.

Mike

 

[Tom_in_CA]

no no no

ok,you made my point better than I... All the disc bells whistles ID are really not needed... I can lower the disc on my Tejon, a good low conductor machine or use my Tigershark at the lake, both old school technology... I bought into the hype with minelab, read the book, practiced hundreds of hours and frankly I am not impressed...

hotzone, well yes and no. Yes I "made your point" if getting gold rings and jewelry from junky parks is your goal, then yes, a chincy older machine, or any two-filter machine will do it as well (or better) than the "power-house" machines.

But if deep silver in turf, or deep targets on beach or anywhere is your goal, then No, you will do better off with the power-house bells & whistles machines.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

..... It was like using a two box detector inside a motorhome......

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Hey guys, I see this thread slid into a discussion of the tooty-fluty orchestra of minelab explorer series (ET, etc...) versus simpler machines .

I want to add in my own experience of that, for what it's worth:

A guy in my area was amongst the first to get the very first original XS's (the first explorer) back when it first came out (~15 yrs. ago). He'd read on internet forums that this was the next-best-greatest-deepest, etc... and had to go out and try it. He let me borrow it for a day. I took it out to a particular 1920s elementary school turf, and flagged some deeper 7 to 8" type wheatie signals to cross-compare over against my then-Whites Eagle SL90 II. I HATED this stoopid Explorer. Made absolutely no sense, despite that I could sit there a fiddle with controls over known targets. Everything sounded the same, like an ice-cream truck gone awry. I returned it to the fellow who loaned it to me, and that was that.

About a year later (the II was out by this time), a fellow in CA was posting on our local forum about silver he was digging from parks in his area. When he'd casually mention the names of the parks, I recognized them as being parks that all the easy 4-star silver turf was long-since harvested from. I knew you had to be one-tough skilled hunter to pull more silver from these parks, as they got hit very hard in the late 1970s and through the '80s. I learned that this guy was using the Exp. II. I talked him into meeting with me in SF, CA, where I had a particular park that was giving up silver too, but .... at depths that were very hard to reach (even at 8"+ you were still only reaching the '40s stuff).

We met up there, and he immediately started digging silver and wheaties "at will". By the end of that hunt, I think he had 7 or 8 silver, to my paltry 1 or 2 He would repeatedly show me flagged signals, and it was all my Whites Eagle could do to bring them in. While his exp. II seemed to have "room to spare".

So I ran out and got my own Exp. II. Woohoo. BUT AGAIN hated it. AGAIN made no sense. And believe me I was trying. So again I asked this cross-state hunter to meet me in the same SF park for round-two, this time with me swinging an explorer as well. And again he flagged signals for cross-comparison. Conversely I too would flag signals and ask his analysis. He might say "shallow zinc, I'd pass" or "nail false", or clad dime at 6", and so forth. After about 7 or 9 such comparisons, the LIGHTS WENT ON. All of the sudden it made perfect sense, and I was off and running

Thus it's one of those machines that's SO "sound specific", that no amount of reading printed instructions can ever convey the proper way to do it. Because "sounds", afterall, can not be learned from printed text. They have to be heard. And by "heard", I mean side-by-side "here's what you want" and "here's what you pass" type analysis.

Sure you can do that by hard knocks digging 1000 targets. Or you can speed it up by hooking up with proficient turf hunters who routinely bring in the silver. Or another way is to start with everything blacked out but copper pennies and up. Go to a spot prolific with easy clad. Then the next day lower than mask down to where you accept zinc, and repeat. The next day lower that down to where you accept corroded zincs. The next day down to square tabs. Then to round tabs, etc.... Each day going to a spot prolific with easy clad and signals.

Eventually you'll have you screen all the way down to "smart screen" or whatever (with only iron blacked out, or ferrous with iron accepted). This way your brain will learn the various coords one at a time to start to make sense. Beats the heck out of trying to learn the machine with all those sounds accepted at the first day.

 

[BC1969]

Thanks for that story about your explorer II Tom!
I've been having a rough time since I got mine last year, even with the book from Andy sabish I am still having a hard time, and I think I know why. I have X amount of hearing loss in both ears and well high pitch tones I can barely hear, which from what I've figured out so far, that silver and other good targets scream a high pitch.

I think there is a way to make iron a high pitch and silver a very low tone but I just cannot figure it all out.
I do appreciate your advice to the other poster about blacking out everything except for higher conductive targets, I'll try that since the flute thing is making me crazy.

Mike

 

[Fletch88]

Great advice on the descending disc pattern Tom in Cal, also for all the flute Minelab haters you can simply select 2,4 or combined audio(CTX only) if multiple tones overwhelms your auditory channels. You could even select single tone which is not much better than swinging a Tesoro IMO. I hated the Etrac the first time I assembled one and swung through my yard that is laden with bits if iron, canslaw and solder nuggets. But after studying the manual along with A.S. book it all fell into place after a few months. I will say the CTX is quite easier to navigate around in once you learn that most of the buttons have double functions, depending on whether you give it a quick press or hold it down.

 

[jhen999]

I am having a hard time as well with all the sounds on the x 705...I try the 4 sounds mode but within 20 mins. I have it down to the 1 sound...still trying to figure that out to, I get good solid sounds and then solid sounds with a little chatter with it, most of the time its a pull tab but sometimes its a penny....listen and dig...but I do like the idea of sitting the dis. to just pick up the penny's and up and then start lower it after awhile....I found myself digging a lot of solid sounds with a little chatter....and after awhile walking on by and not digging and always wondering what I left behind....time is a great teacher...

 

[Keppy]

hotzone, well yes and no. Yes I "made your point" if getting gold rings and jewelry from junky parks is your goal, then yes, a chincy older machine, or any two-filter machine will do it as well (or better) than the "power-house" machines.

But if deep silver in turf, or deep targets on beach or anywhere is your goal, then No, you will do better off with the power-house bells & whistles machines.

I do not think you need bells & whistles at a beach ..All you do there is get a beep and dig..