What detector for Asian terrain and how deep?

[Faraz]

Hi,

I am brand new to metal detecting and I am about to buy my first detector. I have been doing online research for over 2 months but I still have a few unanswered questions which I am hoping you guys on here can answer.

I am about to travel to Asia in 2 months (India and Pakistan) both countries. I will have access to areas which are completely untouched and are said to have hidden buried treasure caches such as old coins from Mughal era.

1- My question here to you guys is that which detector would be best for Asian terrain. India and Pakistan?

2 - And if I am trying to hit some old coins buried together at a depth of 2 to 3 feet in a container or in a clay pot, will these regular metal detectors such as Garrett AT pro, Minelab e-trac or Fisher F75 be able to find that kind of cache or hoard

3 - Or will I have to buy a pulse induction detector?

Thank you
Any help with answers appreciated...

 

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[CincinnatiKid]

Hello and welcome Faraz.
Before any questions can be answered, I must ask two...
1. How are you traveling? If by air, have you checked with airline ✈ concerning transportation of metal detectors?
2. Do you have knowledge of sites/countries to be detected and the laws therein?
Peace ✌

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

India is a BIG place. Mountains, beaches and everything in between.




When are you leaving? What you desire will take practice in knowing how to set up, ground balance and interpret the detector - any of them.

Pulse induction will work, but will unfortunately go off for every scrap of junk iron or any other metal in the soil.

 

[Terry Soloman]

Pulse Induction, no doubt about it.

 

[Faraz]

Hello and welcome Faraz.
Before any questions can be answered, I must ask two...
1. How are you traveling? If by air, have you checked with airline ✈ concerning transportation of metal detectors?
2. Do you have knowledge of sites/countries to be detected and the laws therein?
Peace ✌

Traveling by air and i dont think it Will be a problem as long as i dont take it in my hand baggage But I can double check it with the airline.

The law there does not concern me so much as I will be in rural areas around small villages where my family owns most of the land so I am ok on that front.

 

[Faraz]

India is a BIG place. Mountains, beaches and everything in between.

View attachment 1111657


When are you leaving? What you desire will take practice in knowing how to set up, ground balance and interpret the detector - any of them.

Pulse induction will work, but will unfortunately go off for every scrap of junk iron or any other metal in the soil.

I will be mainly in Punjab so looking at that map it will be the red loamy soil area mostly.

And learning the detector, ground balance and setting it up etc.. I guess that will be different from detector to detector. I will have to decide on 1 and then buy it before I can ask questions about it and try and look at some tutorials.

 

[Faraz]

Right now I am looking at Fisher F75 Ltd which I can get at a fair price. But I am not sure if that will be good enough for the job.

Also pulse induction ones are a bit out if my price range. And the ones that are in my price range such as Golden Mask deep hunter. I don't know how good they are coz I cannot seem to find any decent information and reviews on them apart from a couple of reviews and videos which seem like coming from the guys who sell them.

 

[Terry Soloman]

Minelab SD or GPX machines are what you want.

 

[Faraz]

Minelab SD or GPX machines are what you want.

Those machines are way out of my budget. I am looking for something under 1500$. Minelab SD or GPX are probably the best detectors out there but way out of range..

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

The F75 will do well in red soil. I have one and it is a great machine - for what you describe as your target if it has the later Cache mode (later SE and LTD models) a slow search will find it to a pretty good depth.

 

[Faraz]

The F75 will do well in red soil. I have one and it is a great machine - for what you describe as your target if it has the later Cache mode (later SE and LTD models) a slow search will find it to a pretty good depth.

What about alluvial soil? Do you think it will do well in that type of soil too?

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

That's what I hunt in here in Upstate NY. River silt and glacial deposits. Some mineralization. No problem at all.

 

[Faraz]

That's what I hunt in here in Upstate NY. River silt and glacial deposits. Some mineralization. No problem at all.

Thank you, that's the terrain issue solved. Now onto next one.

If there are 20 to 30 gold/silver coins buried 2-3 feet deep in a jar or clay pot, do you think a fisher F75 Ltd will be able to pick them up?

Anyone who can answer that??

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

I'd like to give it a try.

I found an aluminum pie plate at two feet and a horse drawn cultivator at three feet - no problem!

I have pulled silver dimes at 8", clad dimes at 10", and the next gold coin I find will be my first so I'm no help there. I don't think gold coins were used or carried much in this part of NY.

 

[Faraz]

I'd like to give it a try.

I found an aluminum pie plate at two feet and a horse drawn cultivator at three feet - no problem!

I have pulled silver dimes at 8", clad dimes at 10", and the next gold coin I find will be my first so I'm no help there. I don't think gold coins were used or carried much in this part of NY.

Thanks again. Aluminum pie plate gives me encouragement that a hoard of coins can be detected 2-3 feet but horse drawn cultivator is much bigger then a small coin cache. I think I will get F75 Ltd and take it down to have a go. Else will have to try it with pulse induction ones next time.

 

[CA Gold Hunter]

There's the whites tdi sl that's $1299 on Kellyco and it's a pi. It's more designed for nugget hunting but it's a pi in the price range you have.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Faraz, I see you've gotten much input so far. But I want to add my .02 c to your questions:

a) I know you're sincere. And I know the people who tell you the fabulous stories of hidden wealth are sincere. I know they all sound "bullet proof and sure-fired certain". But let me save you some time: Treasure lore there in parts of Asia is a "dime-a-dozen". The culture there is steeped in legend, stories, etc.... And when you listen to them, they're all iron-clad true (of course). I'm of the opinion that they're all fanciful legends, camp-fire stories and "he said she said" type stuff.

b) But to answer your question on which is the best/deepest detector (since caches are your primary goal), Do NOT get any of the standard detectors recommended to you in this thread so far. Even though it's true that various standard coin and beach machines can find toaster and jar sized items as deeply as they're saying, you're going to have ONE GIANT BUGABOO when you to use any of those type machines : You will also pick up any other coin-sized items too. Doh!

And no matter HOW HARD you mentally try to ignore all the small signals and *only* dig the "big" signals, you're going to perpetually digging a bunch "just to be sure". Doh! You'll spend all your time, all day long, second guessing big versus small, blah blah blah. Trust me.

So if your goal is truly the big ticket cache-type items do NOT get any standard machine like those. EVEN though it can find cache sized items to respectable depths. Instead, get yourself a 2-box unit. Like a TM-808. Even though it will probably get a toaster to no-deeper than various beach or nugget pulse machines, or various coin machines (which can get the toaster to just as deep), yet the advantage of a 2-box, is you won't be bothered with any item smaller than a soda can! Presto, the perfect "discriminator" to tune out tabs, foil, nails, solo coins, and other junk. You *only* find the larger items you're after.

 

[CincinnatiKid]

F75s are powerful machines. The 2-3' range is hopeful at best, unless locating very large objects as Charlie P. states.
I too, have yet to find a gold coin. For now, I can only imagine how 20-30 in one location would sound.
Your adventure sounds great. Please keep us posted.
Best of luck ��!
Peace ✌

 

[Faraz]

Thank you for your replies.

From what I gather so far, I should either get a PI or a 2 box detector. They will be best for the task I need them for.

So keeping the price range in mind, the few choices I have so far are:

Whites TDI SL. (Pulse induction. Definitely goes deeper)
Any 2 box such as TM808. ( Not pulse induction but designed for larger items, caches and hoards)
Golden Mask Deep Hunter Pro ( Pulse induction and a few very convincing videos online)
Garrett GTI 2500 + Hound

Before writing here on the forum, I was thinking of
Garrett Gti 2500 + Hound. ( Goes deep and can be used as a regular detector too) but I dropped that idea coz I read everywhere that it's very heavy and taxing to use. Also it is not supposed to be very good for smaller items. I figured if it's not good for smaller items then why not buy something that is specifically designed for larger items for example 2 box detectors.

The reason I was gonna buy a F75 Ltd was coz I can get a brand new for a decent price and they claim that it has an all metal deep mode which can go up to 2m depth. Off course I don't believe it goes down to 2m but I was thinking even if it goes down half of that then I am still ok.
I do not live in USA. I live in Europe and a guy on my local website is selling it and if it does not get sold by Friday then he has agreed to sell it to me for 750$.


Still confused on which one to get ........but again I really appreciate you guys sharing your opinions...

 

[Faraz]

Does anyone know anything about Golden Mask detectors?? Are they as good as the manufacturers claim them to be?