A good underwater MD?

jernigan00 · Sep 3, 2009

I am looking for a mid range cost underwater machine for fresh and salt (and land) that has tone ID and discrimination to seperate out the iron from the good stuff. I've checked out the Tiger Shark but not confident in the "mono" tone, and the Excalibur is out of my $ league.

My reason for asking is I found these goodies snorkling in about 4 to 8 ft at a popular swimming spot on Lake Ontario and started fantasizing about all the stuff I didn't see thats just under that pebble or piece of moss.

On land, I'm a DFX guy, but am open to other makers. Any suggestions, advice and opinions are appreciated.

The second pic is my son in the beautiful emerald green, crystal clear, pool temp water.

By the way, pretty sure its a CZ earring. Gonna check anyways. The crescent shaped object I believe is another earring thingy, cheapy.

Sandman · Sep 4, 2009

All the water detectors that have tone ID are in the same price range of the Excal. You can sometimes pick up a nice used ID detector at a good price. But I don't recommed buying other peoples troubles. If something is wrong with one of the major brands at least you can send them in for repair and $$$, so you may as well buy new to enjoy the warranty if something fails.

In that lower class price range you have of course the Tiger Shark, Fisher 1280. Both these detectors are still fine in fresh water, but only have that single tone. But what the hay, if it beeps, I dig it. Just turn up the disc till it almost disc out hair pins and you are all set. The Tiger Shark has a ground balance and the 1280 is preset. I never had any trouble with it in freshwater in Michigan or Ohio.

Dixie Digger · Sep 4, 2009

save a little longer and get the best of both worlds.if you ever hunt salt water then the Excal ll or Fisher CZ21 is the way to go.tone ID and work well in salt water.dont bother taking a 1280X to salt beach as they wont work near the water...the Tiger Shark is a great detector but no tone ID and not as deep at salt water beach as the CZ 21 and Excal.or you could do like me and buy them all and loose a lot of money and then buy the Excal.

Treasure_Hunter · Sep 4, 2009

SM and Dixie both gave you great advice. They only thing I might add is that since Minelab changed their warranty to one year only, and no extended warranty available, the advantage to new is not as high now.

If you can pick up a good Excal from a respected member on one of the boards for $600-$700, that is still $500 to $600 less then what you will pay new, that is a lot of "repair money" if something happens.

I have bought 2 excals used, both arrived in perfect working condition, only one ever went in for repairs, and that was after 2 years of usuage, one side of headphone stop working on the first trip in, the second second trip was for a cracked coil. Both repairs cost me under $130 including shipping back to me. I furnished the replacement coil and sent it in with the Excal so that kept my cost down, it came with my Sovereign GT, but I have a WOT coil on it so the 10 inc coil had never been used.

jernigan00 · Sep 4, 2009

Thanks for the excellent advice.

The Excal might be the way to go since I do hit the beaches of Charleston, SC every year, too.

I've got enough socked away so maybe I can find a good used Excal.

That $uck$ about the waranty change though. Atleast the Tesoro is lifetime, I believe.