fisher cz21 vs minelab excallibur 1000 help

[kansasdog]

help me decide which one to go with , will be diving freshwater swimming holes in the midwest mostly quarries and such
I have spent hours reading reviews and forums on both machines but most of the info involves beaches and salt water
i want a machine that works in both fresh and salt

 

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[Marty-Graw]

depends on what you are gonna be looking for....if you want coins and jewelry then the excal is the way to go........works great in fresh water, salt water or old homesites while bypassing bobby pins and nails

 

[gamiller]

help me decide which one to go with , will be diving freshwater swimming holes in the midwest mostly quarries and such
I have spent hours reading reviews and forums on both machines but most of the info involves beaches and salt water
i want a machine that works in both fresh and salt

The reason you have spent hours reading reviews and most of the info involves beaches and salt water is because that usually is a bit more demanding of the detector, it usually a harsher environment. Perhaps you need to talk to one of this sites sponsors

 

[FLauthor]

Here is a test that sold me on the Excalibur. Take a 16 penny nail and a gold ring. Pass the gold ring and nail under a Fisher or any detector leaving the Minelab for last. Most detectorist set their detectors to discriminate iron. Hence when the nail with the gold ring passes under the coil, the detector will discriminate the nail and ring as one. An Excalibur doesn't recognize iron but is HOT on gold. Pass the nail and ring under the coil, the Excalibur ignores the iron and hits the ring. I had a Fisher 1280-X and sold it and have used the Excalibur since 1990. Its paid for itself many times over.

 

[phillipsreid]

Agree....Had a Fisher CZ21, good detector but not in same league with Excalibur II. When transmitting on 17 freq simultaneously you know its better than 2 or 3 freq. I've been detecting almost 30 years and do deep and shallow water detecting....Excalibur II is the way to go.

 

[cdv1]

Here is a test that sold me on the Excalibur. Take a 16 penny nail and a gold ring. Pass the gold ring and nail under a Fisher or any detector leaving the Minelab for last. Most detectorist set their detectors to discriminate iron. Hence when the nail with the gold ring passes under the coil, the detector will discriminate the nail and ring as one. An Excalibur doesn't recognize iron but is HOT on gold. Pass the nail and ring under the coil, the Excalibur ignores the iron and hits the ring. I had a Fisher 1280-X and sold it and have used the Excalibur since 1990. Its paid for itself many times over.

I'm not about to try to make an argument one way or another on the above test, especially since I didn't see how the test was run nor do I just happen to have a 16 penny nail but since I do have both detectors in the house, it made me curious IF indeed it was true... so since I didn't have a 16 penny nail, I opted for two rusty bobby pins and also two steel rivets (sized to use for spare shovel handle attachment). On the CZ-21, I set the discrimination to 0 which doesn't disc out iron, but allows the iron sound.... I used 6 rings 9k-18k various sizes and also used a white gold ring. At a 0 setting, all rings sounded off with and without the rusty bobbie pins, then I set the disc up some to eliminate the iron in the bobby pins and the rings still sounded off. Then I tried using the two rivets and only then did I find the rings would not all sound off and the ones that did were erratic sounding.

So, still being curious, I tested my excal on Discrimination set at 0 with the same rings and found that I had very similar results. Using two bobby pins, the excal II tried to null but would give a burp of a tone that would have made me dig.... with the two rivets, it nulled out and there were no tones breaking through that would make me want to dig....

Personally, I am more comfortable with my Excal but don't see a great difference in ability between the two. I don't think you could go wrong with either detector and if buying new, would save money with the CZ-21.

Cliff

 

[bigscoop]

I have a lot of experience with both machines in both fresh and saltwater, and for what you plan to do I don't think you can really go wrong with either one. I will say this though, since using the Excal exclusively my chain count has gone way up compared to what it use to be so I do think it is a bit more sensitive to finer gold. On the other hand, and straight out of the box, the stock CZ's may be a bit deeper then the stock Excals, especially on coins/silver. But, you can modify the Excal to improve upon its performance quite a bit which you really can't do with the CZ.

 

[Sandman]

Here is a test that sold me on the Excalibur. Take a 16 penny nail and a gold ring. Pass the gold ring and nail under a Fisher or any detector leaving the Minelab for last. Most detectorist set their detectors to discriminate iron. Hence when the nail with the gold ring passes under the coil, the detector will discriminate the nail and ring as one. An Excalibur doesn't recognize iron but is HOT on gold. Pass the nail and ring under the coil, the Excalibur ignores the iron and hits the ring. I had a Fisher 1280-X and sold it and have used the Excalibur since 1990. Its paid for itself many times over.

This is the reason the EXCAL is the choice and I have dove with both. I thought they were equal in depth.

Sent by SANDMAN

 

[Sleepy]

I use a CZ 21 so far in fresh water only. Mine performs well and I love it. I have to mention that I first purchased the 10 inch coil detector and my friend got the 8 inch coil detector. There was such a difference to me that I sold mine and purchased another one with the 8 inch coil. But, I've had four back surgeries and will be hunting fresh water lakes 99% of the time. If I lived on the coast that two inches in coil size might make a huge difference to me. As is the 8 inch coil has plenty of depth. I did a lot of research and have always purchased another brand detectors for my land hunting but the
CZ 21 has worked out great for my water hunting. It's supposed to perform very well in salt water also.

 

[bear2442]

I use both and think either is a good choice. One thing of late I am noticing, the excalibur finds old rings that are broken at the solder joint, the CZ 21 seems to have an issue with this.

 

[dewcon4414]

I think a lot has to do with popularity not performance. The Xcal is just a nice design with no box to open or 9V batteries to replace. We do a lot of mods to the Xcal to make it perform better or to adjust for comfort/balance..... not that we couldnt do the same with the CZ. I think in certain conditions the CZ might even have an edge with the concentric coil. I do have to say the Xcal just surprises me on how many nickels i find even in the dry sand where single freq machine must pass over them.

Dew