New to the game please help

[danger831]

Hello I am new to this forum and as such have a question .I am looking to get in to the metal detecting game as a hobby but need help on equipment. First of all I live close to Galveston beach but have property up in east Texas (old ranch) and would like to find a detector for both environments if at all possible but I am confused on what is better single frequency or multiple frequency PI or not PI and on and on. So as you can see I am not even sure what to ask so if you could just at least narrow it down to the best three or so detectors that would help for sure. Also I do scuba dive so a waterproof one would be a big plus. Hope you can help Thanks Danger

 

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[The Beep Goes On]

Hi Danger and welcome to the forum! I'm in Houston and am in the same situation as you...I hunt Galveston, landsites and do scuba. I have a Fisher CZ-20 and a Whites DFX. I used to have a Fisher CZ-7a Pro that did well in either situation (it had a salt-mode that could be turned on and off). A PI detector works in all metal mode all the time...there is no discrimination. A motion mode detector with discrimination can, in general, tell you something about what type of metal is under the coil. PI's are great for depth, but you pretty much dig everything (which is good, actually, but can be too much for some folks).

Land units that are single frequency will have a hard time at the beach. The muti-frequerncy units do better. A purpose-built unit made for salt can't be beat, though. An Excalibur 1000 (or 800) is your best bet.

If I had to choose a machine that would work well in both environments I would probably choose the Explorer II. I belive the DFX does OK on the beach too, but can't vouch for that.

The Excal is the only one that can be submerged (200 or 250 feet...), so this may be the machine for you if you're going to do a lot of diving. The CZ-20 is a great scuba unit, but you would have to get a used one.

In a nutshell, look at the manufacturer sites, keep reading the forum articles, read reviews and test before you buy.

HH!
TBGO

 

[Jeffro]

You probably won't get too many more replies to this, as that was excellently covered! I would suggest one more thing... when I was down in Vegas a few years ago, a shop down there allowed their customers to rent machines. Saved a lot of time and money figuring out which ones were best for your environment, and user preferences.

I would suggest getting used to detecting by getting a decent cheap detector first and trying it at the parks and such, so you have some experience, then try out a few models from a detector dealer who rents units, if you can find one in your area. A Garrett Ace 250 seems to be the prefered entry level model around here. Never tried one myself, but too many people have posted with nothing but good to say about them.

 

[danger831]

Thanks for the input I really appreciate the help I have been looking at the 1000 but also the Infinium LS can anyone tell me the pros and cons of these two machines and why one would be better than the other. Again I really appreciate any help you could give me . Danger

 

[The Beep Goes On]

I had an Infinium, but I returned it. It goes deep and finds targets, but I did not like the manner in which the tones worked. For instance, a good signal goes high-low, a bad signal goes low-high (or the other way around...I don't remember). The tones were long and drawn out forcing you to sweep slowly...it got to be pretty annoying. It is also prety heavy with the 14" DD coil (which also takes practice to pinpoint accurately). The iron discrimination worked OK, but you have to check each target individually. Personally, I would not recommend it.

HH!
TBGO

 

[danger831]

Sorry I forgot to ask .Do the multi frequency machines work better than single frequency also if you have it set to deep can you shoot past targets or will they find things from the surface down to the full depth of penetration ? Also how has the best price on these machines that you have found .Thanks Danger

 

[Sandman]

Let me add my two cents since I know PI's verses the multi-frequency machines well. I used to like the CZ-20 which is good water machine for wading or diving. However the Minelab Excal 1000 has it beat all the way around. The Excal 1000 has the larger coil over the 800 and both send out 17 freq. compared to two for the CZ-20, which by the way is out of production.

Pulse detectors are very deep and are nice to have at a coast shoreline. However I think you will recover more with a Excal because the Pulse machines don't discriminate iron very well and you soon get tired from digging deep holes for nails while the Excal guy has covered more ground and his find ratio has gone up while your digging sand. Also the Excal has a DD coil which covers more ground at depth than a PI, CZ-20 or other water unit.

Multi freq. units detect from the surface down to it's full depth and because of iron mask in the Excal, you can pick up a gold ring under a railroad spike.

 

[danger831]

Thank you sandman I have read many of your post and see how much you have helped people.I am not clear on one thing is the 1000 as versatile as the LS I would like to find railroad spikes on occasion I like the 1000 but am afraid it is to geared towards water only.Also where is the cheapest place to buy these machines.Is the 1000 made in the US?