Best metal detector for beach

[panos]

Hello from Greece and sorry for any mistakes as english is not my first language
I'm looking for a metal detector for use 80% at salty beach (dry and wet sand), and 20% to search inside some abandoned houses and other areas.
I don't need the detector to be waterproof as I am not planning to use it inside the sea, but i suppose it won't harm anyone if it is. My budget is 3000$ so I suppose there are plenty of choices.
Thank you for the help

 

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[saltwaterminer]

My experience is biased towards Minelab.

If on a budget... a used Sovereign GT is a good choice.
Unlimited budget... CTX 3030.
If you ever see the day the siren call of mermaids and gold fever lead you into the water... then an Excalibur 2.

 

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[southern gent]

After over 20 years and thousands of dollars in mistakes I can say without any reservations Minelab.
I use Minelab on the beach, in the woods, in the water, I would use one on the moon!
You do not need to spend a great deal of money on a good detector either.
If you do PI figure around $1000. If you get a Minelab figure $800-$1500
As always, no matter what you get, be ready to learn. Every detector takes time to firgure out.

 

[Brooklynhunter]

I use an excal2 for my beach hunting. It functions great. Probably the best beach/ salt water detector out there.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I love the excals, I have 2 excals, both are customized with the custom mod for remote/ pinpoint for reverse discrimination, 15 inch coils hard wired to motherboard and the new Grey Ghost Amphibian headphones.

:thumbup:



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[saltwaterminer]

If I could turn back the clock on the CTX purchase, I would have been better off for the same amount of money with an Excal 2 and a Sov-GT and covered a lot of bases including a backup.

I would like to add... MY CTX has had leaking issues, wont update the latest firmware, and has screen sunspot issues (best way I can describe it), is heavy, and not ergonomic for the surf. It's boxed up and headed shortly for a service call.

However, understanding the limitations of the CTX, and filtering out the howls of pain and frustration it is a fantastic machine for the beach up to about shin deep!

I use a Minelab harness and it does the trick and allows me to hunt almost unlimited hours.

Another local makes fun of me with his ancient Excal 1 version. He's crushing it to the tune of over 50 rings and the sole reason is he understands the ground he hunts and he is in tune with his machine.

When he passes, I quite honestly criss cross his line and have found gold on two of the five or so occasions I've had the chance to speak with him.

There are certain add-ons that can make life easier. A T-Rex scoop and harness are the two best investments that I have made.

I don't think there are "best" machines but the are "best" hunters.

Still, our beaches and surf is huge and cover many miles. They can't find it all (though it seems they do)! Learn from them and invest the time and the machine likely will not matter.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

If I could turn back the clock on the CTX purchase, I would have been better off for the same amount of money with an Excal 2 and a Sov-GT and covered a lot of bases including a backup.

I would like to add... MY CTX has had leaking issues, wont update the latest firmware, and has screen sunspot issues (best way I can describe it), is heavy, and not ergonomic for the surf. It's boxed up and headed shortly for a service call.

However, understanding the limitations of the CTX, and filtering out the howls of pain and frustration it is a fantastic machine for the beach up to about shin deep!

I use a Minelab harness and it does the trick and allows me to hunt almost unlimited hours.

Another local makes fun of me with his ancient Excal 1 version. He's crushing it to the tune of over 50 rings and the sole reason is he understands the ground he hunts and he is in tune with his machine.

When he passes, I quite honestly criss cross his line and have found gold on two of the five or so occasions I've had the chance to speak with him.

There are certain add-ons that can make life easier. A T-Rex scoop and harness are the two best investments that I have made.

I don't think there are "best" machines but the are "best" hunters.

Still, our beaches and surf is huge and cover many miles. They can't find it all (though it seems they do)! Learn from them and invest the time and the machine likely will not matter.

If he is using the stock 8 or 10 inch coils it is easy to miss gold. I much prefer the 15 inch coils on the excals..

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[panos]

Thank you all for your answers. Maybe an option would be to get 2 detectors, so I have a question.
Is there any detector that can perform better at salty beach than a Sovereign GT with the 15" coil?
(just beach wet/dry, not inside the sea)

 

[Brooklynhunter]

Indeed. An excal2 with a 10 or 8 inch coil

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Indeed. An excal2 with a 10 or 8 inch coil

I disagree, I have 2 excals both 15 inch coils and a SOV GT with both 15"and 15x18" coils.... The SOV GT will out perform any Excal with 8 or 10 inch coil in wet sand or in the water up to knee deep.

I use to have a custom waterproofed Sov GT with 15 inch coil, it out performed the Excals up to Chest deep......

Since they do not make a water proof SOV GT, after knee dep the excal is way to go, but I only use 15" coils on my 2 excals and I hunt in the water with them, both East West and South beaches of Florida.


There are other members here using same setup that can vouch for this. BigScoop uses same setup I do as do others, especially when hunting in reverse descrimination using the remote piinpoint mod....

 

[bigscoop]

Don't forget, "confidence & comfort". When you look at all the successful beach hunters in these forums you'll notice that they all prefer different machines for different reasons, but the one thing they all have in common is that they have a great deal of comfort and confidence in the machines they choose to use. Sure, much of this has come with a lot of time using a particular machine, but when you're eyeing that first beach machine you also want to consider your personal comfort preferences. Once you reach a certain level of machine performance they are all capable of performing well, but they will perform even better if you are personally comfortable with that machine because that's what allows you to spend enough time behind the wheel of the machine you're driving. Nothing worse then spending your time behind the wheel of a great beach machine you're just not comfortable with or that you have no confidence in. Been there, done that!

To add, what I mean is simply this....look each machine over very well, study the functions and features, make note of your personal likes and dislikes. Do you desire all those added features or do you want something a bit simpler? Do you want the ability to swap coil sizes or would a standard 8 to 10 inch suffice for all your expected needs. These forums and our individual preferences can only do just so much for you. At some point you really need to be conscious of your own needs, requirements, and expectations as well. The guy who has the most confidence in his machine and his abilities wins most of the time in this hobby.

 

[DewGuru]

Tesoro Sand Shark, 10" coil. Best $600 I ever spent. Lifetime warranty to boot.

 

[MexGT]

There is NO way I would ever use a 15" coil in an Xcal in a trashy beach, the Xcal doesn't have the technology to discriminate iron properly when a good target is beside an Iron target in the coil area, I've tested it many times with my 10" Xcal2 I can't imagine a 15" coil, and comparing Iron disc and unmasking, the 3030 blows away the Xcal2 in any possible way... not to mention the increased drag a bigger coil will create in a Xcal2.

And for the hassle of getting a 15" working in an Xcal, just get a MD with detachable coils and still keep warranty, a NEW Xcal2 has only 1 year warranty which it sucks hardcore, I'm 90% sure you will have a loose knob in less than 2 months of use! the CTX-3030 can have it own issues just like the Xcal2 has too, but it has 3 years warranty, much better technology and you feel you recieve a much complete MD for your money.

 

[bigscoop]

I eventually bought any older blue Excal with the 8" coil, cost $600.00. Since then I've added a straight shaft, the remote switch, upgraded the headphones, and I also added the ability to swap coils and I switch from 8" to 15" on a regular basis, and I still don't have $1500.00 in the entire setup and it has paid for itself several times over. Having said all this, this setup was designed around my personal comforts and hunting requirements and I have the utmost confidence that can handle just about any beach and water hunting situation I'm going to encounter with the best, "personal performance preferences possible". Now if I could just get out there as often as I'd like to.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

There is NO way I would ever use a 15" coil in an Xcal in a trashy beach, the Xcal doesn't have the technology to discriminate iron properly when a good target is beside an Iron target in the coil area, I've tested it many times with my 10" Xcal2 I can't imagine a 15" coil, and comparing Iron disc and unmasking, the 3030 blows away the Xcal2 in any possible way... not to mention the increased drag a bigger coil will create in a Xcal2.

And for the hassle of getting a 15" working in an Xcal, just get a MD with detachable coils and still keep warranty, a NEW Xcal2 has only 1 year warranty which it sucks hardcore, I'm 90% sure you will have a loose knob in less than 2 months of use! the CTX-3030 can have it own issues just like the Xcal2 has too, but it has 3 years warranty, much better technology and you feel you recieve a much complete MD for your money.

You cant imagine using a 15" coil and that is all i have used for over 5 years now.

I have worked beaches all over Florida, east, west, north and south with lots of iron, lots of can slaw and never been a problem, I have pulled up gold with pieces of iron in same scoop as the gold. Null one direction, tone different direction.

Either there is problem with your excal or your doing it wrong. Any time you get a null you need to rotate 90 degrees and re-sweep null.

Null sweeping north to south, rotate and sweep null from east to west.

I can take an iron nail put it in middle of gold ring and excals nulls on first sweep, rotate 90 degrees and re-sweep and I get tone.

Daytona beach is loaded with pieces of iron as is Cocoa beach and most of the east coast beaches....

Cost me $50.00 plus the coil to have coil put on by professional...

As far as drag in water, no problem but maybe I'm younger. I will be 65 next week.

Seriously, I have learned how to let the currents and waves work for me in water.....


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[Fletch88]

Yes the 3030 is in a whole other class of detectors. BBS vs FBS2, color screen, hundreds of different setups if you like. But for the most part the Excal is a workhorse in beach detecting.

 

[Brooklynhunter]

Its nice having a full tool box. Expensive but nice none the less.

 

[sponge]

I will go upstairs to get something, forgot what I was up there for and have to go back downstairs to remember.:banghead:

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How about when u cant find the other sock only to realize it on your foot already. Arrrrrrrrr

 

[locater]

Just a word about Brooklynhunter's comment that "The mine lab detectors are made in Asia and the quality reflects that" To the best of my knowledge no Minelab CTX has been made in Asia. They announced that "it 'will' move some low level manufacturing to Malaysia". As far as I know, the current manufacturing facilities are located in Europe and Australia.

I am not aware of any serious "quality issues" at this time, other than some problems with water intrusion in some cases. I DO AGREE the design of the battery pack seal could be better, but no other quality issues than any other detector.

If panos is looking at heavy, fully submerged detecting, a dedicated water machine should be considered. I believe he is interested in "dry and wet sand" detecting only, along with usual land applications. Lots of quality machines out there for that purpose. (

My mistake Brooklynhunter!! I wasn't aware they had already moved so much mfg to Malaysia.)

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Just a word about Brooklynhunter's comment that "The mine lab detectors are made in Asia and the quality reflects that" To the best of
my knowledge no Minelab CTX has been made in Asia. They recently announced on Aug. 23, 2013 that "it 'will' move some low level manufacturing to Malaysia". As far as I know, the current manufacturing facilities are located in Europe and Australia. What models or components WILL be made in Malaysia I don't believe is known at this time.

I am not aware of any serious "quality issues" at this time, other than some problems with water intrusion in some cases. I DO AGREE the design of the battery pack seal could be better, but no other quality issues than any other detector.

If panos is looking at heavy, fully submerged detecting, a dedicated water machine should be considered. I believe he is interested in "dry and wet sand" detecting only, along with usual land applications. Lots of quality machines out there for that purpose.

Most minelabs are built in Malaysia and have been for about 3 years now.

Quality of first 9 months was bad sometimes but that has been worked out.

There will always be a small amount of quality control in any product, even brand new $40k have issues sometime.

I would have no concerns about buying another Minelab at all if I needed it, I own 4 right now, 2 excals that are custom modified, a Sovereign GT and an Etrac...



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[locater]

Thanks for the info Treasure Hunter. Their website makes no mention of Malaysion mfg. Are all current models made in Malaysia? What is currently made in Australia and Europe, if anything?