Truth in advertising?

texasred777

Bronze Member
Nov 21, 2013
1,729
1,461
Mountain Home, Idaho
Detector(s) used
BH Lone Star, BH Tracker IV, BH Tracker 2-D/707, Harbor Freight MD-3005, and 2 BH 840
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I don't know about other detectors. I've only used one brand. I've been over ground that many, many other people have searched with a lot of different brands of detectors. One school that started going to had been searched a lot over a period of several months. I had seen one, two, and once 3 people at the same school with different brands of detectors. I found a lot of coins that had been missed and in the same location that I had seen others covering. I have several silver dimes and quarters that I found there. I didn't have the 'best' detector either! I had an 840 Bounty Hunter. I bought it in 1980 and used it for about a year and a half. It paid for itself at least twice during that time. I still have it. My health keeps me from using it much if any.
Since I haven't used other brands, I can't say that mine is 'best', 'better', 'good', or even a 'piece of junk'. But I believe any detector can pay for itself if the owner will use it and become familiar with it.
I wonder if a person that is knows the fundamentals of detectors, was given several brands of detectors in a test plot to see if the person could find the same items with each detector. 'Course, each item would have to relocated between each brand of detector, and yes, there would be other factors involved. But if I was in the market for the 'best' detector money could buy, I think this would be a great way to try each one before choosing.
 

Tom_in_CA

Gold Member
Mar 23, 2007
13,837
10,360
Salinas, CA
🥇 Banner finds
2
Detector(s) used
Explorer II, Compass 77b, Tesoro shadow X2
sckimbershot, there is an inherent problem in your idea: The notion of "skilled users" in each type of machine, is subjective. And there's also much subconscious psychological inducing going on, the second any of us is shown a flagged signal. It's WAY too easy to sincerely say "yeah I hear it" and "yes I'd dig it", etc.... when we are shown a flagged spot. Or to to the extent that each machine hears a signal, opinions will differ as to reliability of TID at depth.

Add to this, that the type hunt conditions/objectives are infinate. I mean for example: if you are at a relicky site, you may grasp for whispers, regardless of any notion of TID (as long as you suspect it might be conductive). Whereas at turfed parks, you may have to be a little more .... uh .... "selective". Or, heck, at the beach or nugget hunting, you may even chase iron signals too.

I wish it were as simple as what you're saying, but it's not.

However, I applaud you for not making the mistake another dreamer made on this subject, in a post awhile back: He thought it would be grand to do a sort of "consumer reviews" with air tests. In the same fashion they compare cars, stereos, cell-phones, etc.... Ie.: graphed charts where the consumer simply looks down the columns to compare. Presto, eh? Oh but if only it were that easy. Because can you imagine for a second the utter subjectiveness of what constitutes "still hearing it" versus not? I mean, to some people a one-way signal constitutes no longer hearing it, while.... to another, "I still heard a grunt or warble!!". Or what about Sens. level? You can certainly "max each one for the test", but what the h*ll bearing does that have on the real world, where you can never set it that high anywhere?

Anyhow, your idea is one of those "devil in the details" type things. Sorry.
 

Treasure_Hunter

Administrator
Staff member
Jul 27, 2006
48,504
55,012
Florida
Detector(s) used
Minelab_Equinox_ 800 Minelab_CTX-3030 Minelab_Excal_1000 Minelab_Sovereign_GT Minelab_Safari Minelab_ETrac Whites_Beach_Hunter_ID Fisher_1235_X
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Good luck getting multiple brand companies agreeing in sending reps to test with other manufacturers. You would have a better chance getting every country in the middle east signing a single peace treaty with Israel...



Posted From My $50 Tablet....




“A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
― James Madison
The Constitution of the United States of America
 

Charlie P. (NY)

Gold Member
Feb 3, 2006
13,005
17,113
South Central Upstate NY in the foothills of the h
Detector(s) used
Minelab Musketeer Advantage Pro w/8" & 10" DD coils/Fisher F75se(Upgraded to LTD2) w/11" DD, 6.5" concentric & 9.5" NEL Sharpshooter DD coils/Sunray FX-1 Probe & F-Point/Black Widows/Rattler headphone
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
That would be fun. Mark out a 10 ft x 10 ft plot with an undisclosed quantity and description of metallic objects and have representatives search the site and document what they think is buried there. Then give points for all the correct interpretations/finds and penalize missed targets. Zero points if it is incorrectly identified.

But an awful lot depends on familiarity with a given machine, so it's hard to have people with different abilities "race" detectors. Is it technology or technique that made the difference?

I seem to recall a dealer or hunter in the UK did a series of tests on a controlled test garden using various detectors. That seemed to be close to a fair way to compare.
 

Jason in Enid

Gold Member
Oct 10, 2009
9,593
9,229
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
There is a guy on YouTube who has some pretty good vids. They are sort of a "worst case" scenario testing. He has a big wooden box with pvc tubes running through it at 1 inch intervals. He filled it with the worst soil from his area to test settings and machines.

So it has real soil (really bad soil) to detect through and known depths, but the targets aren't married to that soil and they have an air space around them.... like I said, worst case scenario.

Is it a good test? sure. Is its info universal? Of course not.
 

Tom_in_CA

Gold Member
Mar 23, 2007
13,837
10,360
Salinas, CA
🥇 Banner finds
2
Detector(s) used
Explorer II, Compass 77b, Tesoro shadow X2
reply

That would be fun. Mark out a 10 ft x 10 ft plot with an undisclosed quantity and description of metallic objects and have representatives search the site and document what they think is buried there. .....

Sounds good, but you can almost smell what would happen next: If/when "brand X" fails to correctly call a given object ahead of time, then the proponents of that particular machine, would merely say "he wasn't qualified".

Or to the extent the tester can only venture "it's conductive" (without a clue as to TID), then you'll have no shortage of hunters who say "so what?" (since they tend to be the relic types to whom TID isn't as important).

Also: freshly buried objects don't sound/react the same as targets naturally occurring. I suppose you could overcome that, by staking out native targets in a known old-coin-producing region. Then have various users make their guesses. And THEN dig them up for the reveal. eh? But again, you'd still have the problem of subjectiveness of users, and the subconscious effect of grade-inflation of being shown flagged spots (versus targets you found on your own, with no one pointing to you to "try at this x")
 

bigfoot1

Silver Member
Nov 1, 2011
3,765
3,399
so.cal.mtns.
🥇 Banner finds
1
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
garrett,minelab,fisher,,,atp current weapon of choice
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
woohoo !!! I win !!!mine is better and it seems no one can accurately disproove it.neener neener.Seriously if my hunting buddy is correct its all luck anyways.That what he claims everytime I outhunt him.The funniest thing of all is when he had sent his mxt in for repairs(whites treated him exceptionally well)he used my wifes f2..he had two of his three best hunts ever.

Another friend only has ever used a bh tracker4...he has that baby down and holds his own against our high end stuff.I pitty the fool who discounts my wife with her f2...she speaks f2 fluently and is as hard core a hunter as any of us.She has kicked our butts more than once and has the find of the year amoung us all for 2014.Its a honker 11.5g 14k mens ring.3 super clear matching diamonds,1/3/ct.ea. and get this..the high end jewler is from st.tropez..she turned down $1250.00 offer already.

I said it before...get a name brand mid to high end machine that you like the sounds it makes,you gonna have hear it alot.
 

Desertphile

Full Member
Feb 17, 2013
146
42
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
That makes me wonder.... how long does it take for someone to find enough metallics (gold, silver, rings, coins, etc.) to recover what she or he has spent on a metal detector? Some of these devices cost nearly two thousands USA dollars.
 

Jason in Enid

Gold Member
Oct 10, 2009
9,593
9,229
Primary Interest:
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That makes me wonder.... how long does it take for someone to find enough metallics (gold, silver, rings, coins, etc.) to recover what she or he has spent on a metal detector? Some of these devices cost nearly two thousands USA dollars.

That's the wrong frame of thinking right there! Sure, some people pay off their equipment very fast, some never pay it off, but you shouldn't be looking at this like a business with expenses and returns. It's a hobby. You buy what fits your version of the hobby the best for you. You enjoy using it and don't worry about the expense (because if you are buying hobby items that you can't really afford in the first place.....:BangHead: ).

Golfers don't think about recovering the cost of clubs.
Fishermen don't worry about paying off their lures and reels and line.
Hunters don't wonder how long to pay off that new tree-stand.
Why should we worry about paying off our hobby? If you do, then you're doing great.
 

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NeoTokyo

Bronze Member
Aug 27, 2012
1,803
1,580
Redding
🥇 Banner finds
1
Detector(s) used
Eyes - Nokta FORS Gold - Fisher Gold Bug II
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Well said Jason.
I wouldn't pay him any mind, he just got banned for being a passive aggressive troll wishing death upon people because we had a big dredging win.
 

G.A.P.metal

Gold Member
Jul 5, 2010
6,468
7,387
"Kan-a-we-o-la" Head on a Pole N.Y. Seneca Territo
🥇 Banner finds
1
Detector(s) used
Deus, 11" Low Freq. , 9" X35 Coils, MI 6 Pointer...
Land or Sea Pointer
King Of Spades 40" KS-D SA and 40" KS-S-SA
L
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
So the closest " thing" to this test that we have...is the.... "Grand National Relic Shootout" .
We all know which Company won that the last two years in a row First Texas...and i`ll bet they win it again this yr.
Gary
 

Jason in Enid

Gold Member
Oct 10, 2009
9,593
9,229
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Well said Jason.
I wouldn't pay him any mind, he just got banned for being a passive aggressive troll wishing death upon people because we had a big dredging win.

HA! I figured that he was a greenie troll from his first posts. Thanks for the info!
 

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