A bit of help if you could...

[Sticky]

Short story, tired of playing on the beach and want to play in the water and am asking for a little help deciding on a new detector.
I have got it narrowed down to 4 but looking for some input,
its going to be used in fresh water.
chest deep, no diving.

Minelab Excalibur II
Garrett Infinium LS
Fisher CZ-21
Surf PI Pro Dual Field

Hope your all having a great weekend.... Brian

 

[bigscoop]

Pick any one of them, learn to use it well.....that's the key to the whole thing anyway.

 

[Sticky]

Thanks bigscoop, I have only been doing this for two years and decided it's time for a new one.
Thought I had decided on the PI Pro till I noticed the headphones are hard wired to the unit, that's the only thing i don't like about it.
I'm off to play at the beach, have a great day all, Brian

 

[ron lord]

Infinium LS in fresh water can't be beatin.Ron Lord Naples , Fla.

 

[time4me]

Hi Sticky,

Bigscoop is right. Most of your success will come down to learning your machine well, and persistence even when you are having a slump. It's all a numbers game really. That and going to places that have been and/or still are heavily used for swimming. By a numbers game I mean the number of hours you hunt and the number of targets you are digging. I've heard people say that they average a gold ring for every 5 hours they hunt. I've also hears people say they average a gold ring for every 100 coins they scoop. I think there's some truth to these averages, but I personally believe it comes down to how much area you cover with your coil. I try to take as wide a swing as I can as I'm walking through the water, to cover as much surface as possible.

I use an Excalibur II and an Excalibur 800 with WOT coil. I hunt with a friend many days, and he uses both an infinium LS and an Excalibur. He gets out way more often than I do, and he hunts year round, while i pretty much just hunt the summer months. While his gold ring count is more than double than mine for the year ( I think he's at 35 or so), I've been getting more gold than he has when we've been hunting together and he uses his infinium. When we hunt together, he usually uses his infinium so that there's less interference between our machines - especially when we are hunting a freshwater pond and are in close proximity of one another.

Now, why am I beating him on gold when we hunt together? It is probably just luck that I went over the spot where the gold was sitting rather than he. If he had gone over that spot with his infinium, he certainly would have heard the signal and dug it. However, he does end up spending more time than I do digging Bobby pins and fish hooks - time that could otherwise be spent covering more ground with the coil. I also notice that he walks through the water faster than i do, taking much shorter swings with his coil. I guess over the course of a hunt we may end up covering the same amount of surface - me swinging wider, and he walking further, but I feel like I'm covering more surface with my slower walk and wider swing.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to being lucky enough to walk over gold and have your coil hit it at the right depth and angle so that you get a signal that you believe is worth digging.

Good luck in the water, and let us know what you end up getting.

Jim

 

[Sandman]

There is no doubt about it the PI's will go deeper, but I got tired of digging hairpins and never got the ear for knowing when they were under the coil like others claimed by the sound so I use the Excal, CZ-20 or Tiger Shark in fresh water. If I was at a saltwater beach again I would use either the Excal or Infinium with the mono coil.

Once you learn your machine well it really makes no difference which one you use as you get the coil over it and it will beep.

Good Luck,
Sandman

 

[Mat in MA]

Since you're only doing fresh water I'd suggest the DetectorPro Headhunter Wader. It's a VLF machine that is good for 12 feet deep. Since you say your not going deep this machine will save you big bucks over a couple of those brands you already mentioned. The big plus is that your not going to pick up every bobbie pin in the water like you will with a PI machine.

I've had my Wader for a few years now and love using it in fresh and salt water beaches. It's very lightweight and you can detect with it all day long with no arm fatigue. All the controls and batteries are in the headset, not on the shaft. It's a great all around machine, even for hunting on dry land.

Good luck and Happy Hunting!!!

 

[Sticky]

ron... thanks for the input

time4me... I have a few rings but I think your right with the numbers game, be it time or targets you have to dig them all to find the good stuff.
thanks much

sandman... I got tired of digging hairpins seems to be a common phrase in association with the pi but its still good to hear from a person that's has used one and just not bad mouthing it because of the mines better complex.
thank you for the advice

mat in ma... Glad it works good for you but take no offense, everything build into the headphones just doesn't seem right to me, call me old or stupid it just seems odd. Now the idea of saving money is great!
Thank you Sir

 

[Silver Surfer]

Thanks bigscoop, I have only been doing this for two years and decided it's time for a new one.
Thought I had decided on the PI Pro till I noticed the headphones are hard wired to the unit, that's the only thing i don't like about it.
I'm off to play at the beach, have a great day all, Brian

Same with the Excal... That doesnt stop a lot of guys from putting on GG though.. I really think the headphone quality on the PI Dual is very good.. Don't care much for the ones on my Excal, first thing being changed when the warranty is out..
Good luck!

 

[Sticky]

silver surfer.... I fear your right and its going to be one of those things i have to live with, worse case is I have to tear something apart and wire in some new ones. wont be the first time I had to tear open something new to fix it right.

still researching and thanks for the input everyone.

 

[spez401]

The first machine I ever bough was a whites surfmaster PI machine. It paid for itself MANY times over... enough to fund a DFX and also my first Excal... and neither of those machines were cheap.

I had Bill do an upgrade to mine, and I routinely pulled coins and gold from holes that were 18" deep (from the tip of my finger to past the crook of my elbow). The downside was I pulled a lot more pop tops, nails and screws from that depth as well. Deep is right, but I'm with Sandman... I'd rather not dig bobbie pins at 18".

Of your list... i'd go with the Excal. It's the only detector I still own. Just learn how to use it well.

steve

 

[Silver Surfer]

But as no one has stated so far, bobby pins, nails, hair clips, etc., MOST of the time give a "double blip" that identifies them... I am new enough to the machine that I am still digging those double blips, but I havent found one thing yet that made that sound that WASNT a nail, bobby pin, or hair clip.. Even a paper clip I found gave that double blip..
But the book I am reading states that if it double blips in both directions, it can be a gold ring with large face, standing on end... SO I dig them..

 

[Smudge]

There is no doubt about it the PI's will go deeper, but I got tired of digging hairpins and never got the ear for knowing when they were under the coil like others claimed by the sound so I use the Excal, CZ-20 or Tiger Shark in fresh water. If I was at a saltwater beach again I would use either the Excal or Infinium with the mono coil.

Once you learn your machine well it really makes no difference which one you use as you get the coil over it and it will beep.

Good Luck,
Sandman

Hey Sandman,

Is the discrimination knob on the Infinium any good at knocking out bobby pins and iron with killing the gold too?

 

[Sticky]

spez.. the PI machine still looks good to me as a mater of fact I stopped at my local Whites dealer and talked to them a bit, having them as close as they are has me leaning that way but still reading.

Silver surfer.. sounds like your getting the hang of it, thanks for the input

Smudge.. from all the reading i have been doing there's always a chance of loosing some good targets, granted it's just what i was reading and not personal experience so .....

have a great one ..... Brian

 

[Silver Surfer]

If you get a PI, the very first thing you should do is place a BIG magnet in the back of your scoop... I did just recently, and cant count the number of times just a tiny piece of iron is found on the magnet... I had been driving myself nuts trying to get those little "pass thru" diamond studs, but now I know that they are just little flakes of iron or bits of old nail...
Saves a LOT of digging... I did manage a beautiful small 14k hoop earring yesterday though...

 

[Sticky]

Thanks for the input everyone,
Off work for the next week and rented a Surf PI Pro Dual Field till next sat. So it will be a good chance to see how well I like it and how it performs at the local beaches, if I want to buy one he said I get my rental fee put toward the cost of a new one.
Have a great weekend
Still reading and researching..... Brian

 

[gravediggermax-vabeachva]

tesoro tiger shark

i always heard it was the best for fresh water

m h o................never hunted fresh..............just what i have heard