which is the best detector for under $200?

PAmike

Sr. Member
Feb 20, 2005
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Reynoldsville, PA
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what others do you have in around that you can check out ?
have you checked out ebay? .I have test driven some of the whites I liked them but too pricey for me .my brother is now looking at the tesoro cibola it's around 340.00 no read out but good detector.The garrett is real easy to use also turn on and go. ;D
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I test drove a whites prizm IV yestreday, I wasn't impressed. I also tried all of radio shack's BH models and I only liked the 3300. I will go with the garrett ace 250.

mike
 

stoney56

the bounty hunter is a good starter. I use a garrett now but I still have my bounty hunter for a backup or if some one wants to go along and try out detecting for the first time . 8)
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PAmike

? ? ? ? ? I think you will be happy with the ace. Keep me posted on it.
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mike,
I didn't make it out yet but I am going out sunday. Like I said my brother was getting the garrett, well it came today so we will be out there early sunday morning so I will be back on line to tell you about the comparison between the garrett 250 and the prizm ll.
But he took it out and he seems to really like it, he found around 1.20 in clad. He alson found an old magnet off of a speaker [ or it seems to be ] in about 9 or 10 inches.
Like I said we both are newbies at this cool hobby, but I guess I know enough to give you an honest opinion on each detector. I am excited to go out tomarrow because the place we are going to dig , was a old school house around the 1920's.
IF YOU WANT TO CHECK BACK SUNDAY NIGHT I SHOULD BE UPDATING THE FORUM........
WODD....
 

MIKE,
Hi, I finally made it out today [sunday] and we went to a old house that use to be a school,church, and now is a home of someone we know. The building was built in the 1920's. Oh well back to the comparison of the garretts 250 and the whites prizm ll . Today we didn't find any coins [that was surprizing] so at that time we couldn't compare each others detector on coins. But he found a old chevy relic that he found out to be pretty valuable [found it around 5 or 6 inches down]. As for the rest of the morning not much but alot of trash.
My opinion of the garrett and of my brothers opinion the detector looks and feels good, the easy to use buttons were nice. Plus you get alot for the money like deph screen, the selection of modes you can use, over all I was pretty empressed with it.
Now for the negatives and I am comparing it to the prizms. The screen I.D. was smaller than the prizms, which my brother said made it a little hard for him to see[ he had to take a longer look at the screen to see the identifing symbols. The tone i.d. was more like a door bell sound [more or a high pitch than the prizms].
Then later on in the evening we headed out to our moms house to find some coins and we detected for about 2 hours. He found a few coins [few pennies.and a dime] and some other interesting objects. I found my first silver looking ring not sure of how much its worth. So what we did was to see how each other detectors would detect on things we put in the ground. First we put a gold necklace about 6 or 7 inches in the ground my prizm picked it up in the all metal mode but the garrett didn't pick it up with a repeatable beep. Then we put in the siver ring it did fine as with the quarter.
So wrapping it up,the garretts 250 seemed like you get alot of bells and whistles for the money, but the bigger I.D. of the prizm ll and the fact that it pick up a necklace that the garrett couldn't .
SO IN MY OPINION I THINK THE PRIZM DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR COULD BE A SLIGHTLY BETTER MACHINE.
But whichever machine you buy you can't go wrong with either of them.... GOOD LUCK AND HAPPY HUNTING.....
WODD....
 

my wife ordered me the garrett ace 250 it was dropped of today to be shipped by ups. it's coming from cali so it should be here within the week. we are both really excited and can't wait for it to get here. i'll let ya all know when i start and what good finds i make.
mike
 

I'm sure the garrett will give you many hours of enjoyment. I've had two garretts and they were solid machines. But the minerals here in calif. really hurt the depth on them. Not sure how the soil is in PA. I tried to stay loyal but eventually i broke down and bought a whites. What a difference, much deeper and smoother operating. More enjoyable to use. I'f you decide you don't like the garrett, then i would highly recommend the whites. Also you might like to check out this site. www.metal detector reviews.net All the reviews are left by multiple owners of their respective brand and model of detector. Not paid employees. All the major brands and all the models of each are listed on the site. Happy hunting and make the first coin a gold one.
 

That is one mighty good detector your wife got you. I really like those inexpensive garretts. They beat BOUNTY HUNTER every time.
 

I picked up a Radio Shack Discovery 1000 & 3000 (Bounty Hunter) at the local swap meet for $10.00 and $40.00. The Discovery 1000 was so easy to use, turn on and go. I have found lots of coins, some silver, jewelry, etc. with it. It has been used for playgrounds, campgrounds - at lakes in and out of the water - all types of soil. Never breaks and keeps on running. I bought a Prizm II and yesterday took it out to use over the same area I had covered before with the Discovery 1000. I found it finds coins deeper. I will start using it more and then start to use the Discovery 3000 which has more settings. Joan Allen - one of the largest metal detector dealers in England has good field tests of the Bounty Hunters. I have purchased a Bounty Hunter 4 inch coil from eBay that I am going to try on my machines when the snow melts to hunt for gold nuggets - I am in gold country. I notice that some of the people that buy the expensive metal detectors with all the whistles and bells end up selling them or putting them away in the closet. P.S. I have used the Discovery 1000 for relic hunting with no discrimination. Start cheap. Gretchen.
 

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