What is the Best MD for Land and Water?

RadioDiver

Newbie
Jul 1, 2015
4
0
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I am a new to MD. I want to do this as an underwater activity while I am SCUBA Diving but I want to really learn how to use my detector on the surface. I have almost thought about 2 different devices but realized that one for underwater should work just as well on the surface.

I don't have alot of money but I am willing to invest and save up for a better unit.

I would like to hear thought, opions, and recommendations on starting metal dectors.

I will mostly be in fresh water and less than 60ft deep.

Thanks in advance!
 

Terry Soloman

Gold Member
May 28, 2010
19,426
30,115
White Plains, New York
🥇 Banner finds
1
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Nokta Makro Legend// Pulsedive// Minelab GPZ 7000// Vanquish 540// Minelab Pro Find 35// Dune Kraken Sandscoop// Grave Digger Tools Tombstone shovel & Sidekick digger// Bunk's Hermit Pick
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
You need at least two different machines. Scuba in fresh water and salt water requires a multi-frequency machine. If you just go fresh water you can go single-freq VLF like a Tesoro Tiger Shark. These machines are expensive. Do some more research!
 

Mach1Pilot

Silver Member
Jul 21, 2008
3,000
1,160
Bedford County, PA
🥇 Banner finds
1
Detector(s) used
Minelab, Fisher, Teknetics and more!
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
There isn't one machine that can do it all really well. Some will adapt to many situations, but in the end they will be compromised somewhere.

And Terry is right... Salt vs fresh water will dictate differences as well.

Your best bet would be to pick one machine that will work best for the areas you hunt the most, and accept its limitations should you use it outside of those conditons.
 

Treasure_Hunter

Administrator
Staff member
Jul 27, 2006
48,516
55,033
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
Both Terry and Fort Bedford are correct... Do as Fort Bedford suggests and buy detector for the type of hunting you will do most often first...
 

OP
OP
R

RadioDiver

Newbie
Jul 1, 2015
4
0
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Well I was really looking for advice on a good MD to use in fresh water and underwater with out breaking the bank.

I am almost wondering if having 2 different units would be better than one.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk
 

OP
OP
R

RadioDiver

Newbie
Jul 1, 2015
4
0
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
You need at least two different machines. Scuba in fresh water and salt water requires a multi-frequency machine. If you just go fresh water you can go single-freq VLF like a Tesoro Tiger Shark. These machines are expensive. Do some more research!
After looking at most of the underwater units that are less than $1000 I think the tiger shark is going to be the best fit. It also give some of the best options for me as mostly a freshwater finder. I wish it had a few more things like different tones for different types of metal, interchangeable headphones and coils.

I will probably start with the 8" coil.

Thanks for the advice here!

Sent from my SM-T700 using Tapatalk
 

Mach1Pilot

Silver Member
Jul 21, 2008
3,000
1,160
Bedford County, PA
🥇 Banner finds
1
Detector(s) used
Minelab, Fisher, Teknetics and more!
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
You will not find many new underwater machines with interchangeable headphones and coils.... and those that do have a much lower limit to the depth at which you can use their machines. Most manufacturers have adopted permanent connections for coils and headphones to keep them watertight. There are people who mod them, though... of course the manufacturers would not typically warrant those products post-modifications.

The Tiger Shark is a good choice for the money. :) I do have a different used machine that also may be of interest to you, check out the classifieds or PM me for more info as I don't want to post a link to it in this part of the forum.
 

Fletch88

Silver Member
Mar 7, 2013
4,841
2,367
Valdosta, GA
Detector(s) used
Garrett ATPro- 8.5x11, 5x8, CORS Fotune 5.5x9.5
Tesoro Silver microMax- 8 donut, 8x11 RSD, 3x18 Cleansweep
Minelab Excalibur ll- 10" Tornado
Minelab CTX 3030
Minelab Xterra 305
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Definitely go with the 8" coil. I've had both size coils on both type Sharks and will never have another 10.5" coil. It flops around and is to cumbersome underwater.

DetectorPro Headhunter Underwater is another option you may want to look at. It is also a single tone beep and dig, but if you are looking for gold platinum, and silver, you pretty much have to dig anything above small iron. Multiple tones are ok but not necessary. I have only used it in freshwater and love it, but they supposedly run pretty well on salt.
 

Last edited:

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Top