Which PI Machine?

[Michigan Badger]

While I wait for my new Tesoro Vaquero, I'm also thinking about a PI machine.

Early this spring I'll be hunting a Ghost Town and the targets are deep. I want to dig everything.

Do you think a PI would be an advantage over the Vaquero in this situation?

What brands, etc., would you recommend? Also, I'd like to keep the cost as low as possible.

Zeb

 

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[bakergeol]

Oh Zeb- perhaps you may want to rethink this. Certainly a PI will provide greater depth than a VLF but I don't think you would last a day digging all that iron. The amount of iron would be absolutely incredible.

But if I had to vote on a Ghost Town PI which was reasonably priced I would go with the Infinium. You would have some discrimination abilities.They have some used ones on E-Bay from time to time. I will let Willy fill you in it's discrimination abilities.

My PI could handle the iron in a Ghost Town quite well but my setup is expensive. I use a Goldscan 5/magnetometer combo. My mag sensor is placed right in the center of my GS5 coil. As mags only detect iron I just don't dig the iron. When my PI squeals and the mag Led light blinks? I know I have iron.

Actually I would rethink using a PI for Ghost Town work.


George

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

George,
How much did you pay for your magnetometer and does it pick-up small ferrous, such as nails?

Dale

 

[Willy]

Garrett Infinium. Here's why:1) AA batteries means that they're readily available and light. I don't even bother using rechargeables 'cause the alkalines have such long battery life. 2) Sealed case. Dust, water, mud.. nothing gets in and no fried electronics. 3) Ground tracking. Despite what is said about PI's ignoring ground mineralization it's NOT TRUE!! That's why the Minelab PI's have ground tracking. The Infinium has it too: slow, fixed, off. 4) Coil selection/price. It has a good selection of coils and they're CHEAP. Great build quality too. Check out the price of coils for the ML Pi's. 5) Depth. The ML PI's can get deeper.. they also have coils the size of garbage can lids. The Infinium will still go crazy-deep.. deeper than any VLF can dream of in mineralized ground. 6) Discrimination. Yea, you said you want to dig it all.. but if you get a PI you'll be digging uncounted tiny bits of trash, especially iron. The disc. is really a pulse delay control which allows some lower conductivity targets to have their eddy currents dissipate below a detectable level before the reciever turns back on. Can save a lot of fruitless digging. 7) Tone ID. This is not a gimmick. The ML PI's have something like it, but it is only effective for near-surface targets. The Infinium version works to the full depth, or pretty near to it. 8) Weight. It weighs no more than an XLT & the control box can be mounted the same to counterbalance the coil.. or totally removed & hipmounted. 9) Price. $1000, even less used & has a transferrable warranty. C'mon.. what other detector out there can boast equivalent features at that price point? ?...Willy. ?

 

[Monty]

I'm pretty sure Tesoro makes a medium priced PI unit that is designed for under water use but should work on dry land as well. (Sand Shark)? I think the reason the PIs are expensive is because they don't make near as many as the VLF units and most PI machines are designed for under water use which has to have full waterproofing. I have a Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II that is nearly new, only had it out two times. It is a PI unit and will discriminate out some trash but not very well. It ran in the $700-800 range. For deep deep targets, I don't think there is anything on the market that will surpass the Garrett GTI 2500 with the optional two box adapter. It is also a VLF unit and will have all the discrimination you will ever need ....but it is in the $1000 range, the two box unit being about $250.00 more. Monty

 

[bakergeol]

Hi Dale-Regarding your question about the magnetometer.
The cost was $489 which did not include the headphone jack mod Kevin did for me. Also did not include the LED meter i bought for it.

http://www.reevejones.com.au/about.html

Here are some of the depths for the Ferrous Hound

Quarter size paper thin rusted iron = 3"
1/4" nut = 4"
bottle cap = 5"-6 1/2"
1" dia steel washer = 6 1/2"
nail 1 3/4"longx5/16" = 9"
1/4" bolt 1" long = 11"
nail 1 3/4" long X 1/2"= 12 1/2"
can crushed = 16"
can whole = 21"
hot rock 2"X1" = 20"
Mags like this have depth limitations and are not going to have the extreme depth of a good PI. They are weak on very thin iron. As the shape of the iron object increases so does the detection depth. Note the depths for the crushed can versus the whole can.
This mag was designed to be used with PIs to offer some degree of iron ID.

There are so many issues here(feedback to mag feedback to PI etc) that space does not permit me to go on. If you are still interested send me a PM.
I use it for gold hunting with my GS5 in trash areas which has some ID ability already.

By the way I always thought that the Ferrous Hound would make a good combo for the Infinium particularly for coin hunting. Eliminate the iron on the high conductor tone would make for a killer coin PI. However, no one on the Infinium forum responded to an inquiry by me to test this with their Infinium.(Well Jim Straight was polite-he always is-did respond)I guess no Infinium users near/in Colorado.

George

 

[Michigan Badger]

Thanks all.

Thanks much for the low-down on the Garrett Infinium, Willy.

I guess that's probably the best for depth at this time.

I think most of us DREAM of a cheap PI with great discrimination

Until the dream comes true, probably the Infinium is the next best thing.