Buying new detector

[huntman]

Trying to decide between a few detectors. First i will be hunting in parks, around lakes and old hm. sites. The two i was looking at was the whites mxt or m6 and the at pro. I never owned a good detector before and wanted to get a good one to start with. Any advice would help alot. Thanks

 

[homestead-hunter]

AT-Pro

 

[Terry Soloman]

Trying to decide between a few detectors. First i will be hunting in parks, around lakes and old hm. sites. The two i was looking at was the whites mxt or m6 and the at pro. I never owned a good detector before and wanted to get a good one to start with. Any advice would help alot. Thanks

Welcome! In your price range, I would also look at the Tesoro Tejon Tesoro Metal Detectors - Official company web site with metal detector models for treasure hunting land or water. ($595.00); Minelab X-terra 505 X-TERRA 505 | Minelab Adventure Metal Detectors ($550.00); and the Fisher F5 Fisher F5 Visual & Audio Target ID Metal Detector ($500.00). All three are lighter, and better values - In My Opinion. Good Luck!

 

[Stormrider51]

I don't know where you are located but, if at all possible to do, it will benefit you to go to a dealer or dealers and try out the various models you are interested in. Or, find a club and attend a meeting. You should be able to try different detectors there as well. One model or type may just feel "right" for you and you may find it easy to interpret what it is telling you. Keep in mind that all detectors work pretty much the same way. They create a magnetic field around the coil and interpret changes in that field caused by metallic objects passing through it. How they display that information will vary between different makes and models. Bottom line is that there is no "best" detector. You can literally spend thousands of dollars learning that simple lesson. Find the one that feels best and most intuitive to you and then stick with it! You are starting a relationship and it takes a while to learn what the machine is telling you. Be patient. Pay attention. Don't give in to those thoughts whispering in the back of your head (the ones that show up at about the twentieth pull tab in a row) telling you that there's something wrong with the detector and that if you buy a more expensive one things will be better. Can you get a defective detector? Sure you can. But the odds are that the detector is working fine and the problem is you. Accept from the beginning that pull tabs will give the same reading as any number of desirable targets. So will wads of aluminum foil. You can either dig the trash and have confidence you didn't leave something good in the ground or you can discriminate out most of the trash and accept not finding some good things. It's up to you.

Storm

 

[x512x]

Yupp around my area they have a place where you can rent detectors so that would be great to test out your choices. However I have the at pro its a great great machine. But find out for yourself not telling you to get the machine just putting my word in that its worth the money and it will pay for itself mine already has and I only had it for a couple of months.

 

[jffbrk]

Trying to decide between a few detectors. First i will be hunting in parks, around lakes and old hm. sites. The two i was looking at was the whites mxt or m6 and the at pro. I never owned a good detector before and wanted to get a good one to start with. Any advice would help alot. Thanks

I'm on my 2nd AT PRO ..... It's waterproof In case of rain.... The iron audio & sound tones is most important.... In trashy sites its all about what you learn to hear in your headphones

 

[Landlord Jim]

The M6 is an excellent detector and Simple. The MXT is the same platform, 15 Khz but has a few more controls. You can't go wrong with either one. Just take some time and learn what they are trying to tell you.

 

[huntman]

Thanks for the replies, there are no places around my neck of the woods to try them out or no one i know that has one. Out of the ones mentioned are one easier to run/learn for a beginner? thx

 

[Terry Soloman]

Thanks for the replies, there are no places around my neck of the woods to try them out or no one i know that has one. Out of the ones mentioned are one easier to run/learn for a beginner? thx

Check it out:

 

[liftloop]

the M 6 is analogue digital with a very fast or slow swing speed
has a lighting fast display that holds you acquired target for few seconds then reset it self
it ground balance in a snap by pumping the ground as you go
gives you different pitches for different conducting metals "tone audio I.D" with out the roll over
but i think you can turn that off and have one sound
8 aa that last for ever with head phones the better the set the happier you will be
silent search is nice it less of a hassle
they have a good resale

the white's Gt mite be sum-then to look at all so it's lighter and has all most the same information aboard
and cheaper you mite get a pin pointer out of the deal
and it's easy to cover not sure of the opperating frequence it has
hope the helps

liftloop

 

[liftloop]

8.192 khz which means it's one of white's dyno tuned frequencies
it's geared for small silver and large gold

 

[jffbrk]

There are better detectors..... to say they are all the same is like saying all cars are of equal quality & performance. My Cheaper detectors went 8-12 inches deep. My AT Pro goes 18 - 24 and deeper depending on conditions. Another big difference is the quality of tones in the earphones, which is helpful in area with trash, nails, or mineralization. I can hunt a heavily hunted area & most of my finds are 18" +

 

[Terry Soloman]

There are better detectors..... to say they are all the same is like saying all cars are of equal quality & performance. My Cheaper detectors went 8-12 inches deep. My AT Pro goes 18 - 24 and deeper depending on conditions. Another big difference is the quality of tones in the earphones, which is helpful in area with trash, nails, or mineralization. I can hunt a heavily hunted area & most of my finds are 18" +

You better hold on to that AT Pro. It is obviously a magic one, because you are getting Pulse Induction depth with it - WOW!

 

[CleenSweep]

There are better detectors..... to say they are all the same is like saying all cars are of equal quality & performance. My Cheaper detectors went 8-12 inches deep. My AT Pro goes 18 - 24 and deeper depending on conditions. Another big difference is the quality of tones in the earphones, which is helpful in area with trash, nails, or mineralization. I can hunt a heavily hunted area & most of my finds are 18" +

Holy S$&t! Is that with a stock coil? After rain or something? My AT Pro gets a decent tone in Pro Zero mode maybe 11"-12" max.....Nothing on Target ID, but I can hear good tone faintly. Im new to the MD world, but a total tweaker....Can you help me get that kind of depth from mine?

 

[jyt2017]

+1 on these. Takes a lotta research.

Welcome! In your price range, I would also look at the Tesoro Tejon Tesoro Metal Detectors - Official company web site with metal detector models for treasure hunting land or water. ($595.00); Minelab X-terra 505 X-TERRA 505 | Minelab Adventure Metal Detectors ($550.00); and the Fisher F5 Fisher F5 Visual & Audio Target ID Metal Detector ($500.00). All three are lighter, and better values - In My Opinion. Good Luck!

 

[wingmaster]

My first detector was the MXT which isn't hard to learn but like any takes time to master, with the D2 coil I can get dimes at 10"+ and some at 12"(true depth I won't lie about 18" which you could get if its a 5 gallon metal can, but I don't care to find many of those) before out of a park thats been pounded for 40yrs that alot of others won't even detect anymore as only the really deep stuff is left there. HH

 

[bigfoot1]

Gotta say I just sold an mxt.It worked very well but only one audio tone...drove me nuts and the pinpoint mode sounded like an animal being tortured.Was heavy too.My old gtax 1250 and my newer at pro are soooo much easier to swing all day(for me).As far as learning curve....my f75 and at pro were really intuitive and pretty easy to master.Maybe 25 hrs.(3 days for me).
I guess I really prefer the garretts....hard to put a finger on why....just do.