Deep Detector under $700

[rainyday101]

Looking for a deep coin detector under $700. I am currently finding 70's quarters at 6" deep and 40's Wheaties at 7". The older stuff has gotta be deeper. Currently using a Silver uMax at almost it's depth limit. I would like multi tone but not totally necessary. My soil is very mild and I am only after silver and the clad that comes with it. Great target separation is a must as most of the areas are trashy. Not looking to relic hunt, prospect, or jewelry hunt with this detector.

Looked at Vaquero. Reviews say deep, but has a passion for deep metal. Kinda ruling that out. Same with the Tejon.

Whites M6. Has a cult following, but is it real deep? I think it is against the law for Whites users to post air test results. Never see any. Do like the multi tones.

Fisher F70 seems to be really deep but needs to be mastered. Even deep with the 5" coil. Does have multi tone.

Xterra 505. Can change frequencies, but the coils are expensive. Depth from what I have read is decent but it doesn't seem to be a depth monster. Target separation is questionable depending on who you believe.

Omega. Reviews indicate this thing can't handle EMI at all without turning the sense way down and loosing depth. With no EMI it seems deep.

Detector Pro Pirate Pro. An interesting one for silver coins as it runs at 2.5KHz. People say it is the Fisher 1280 circuit. Pretty deep from what I have read. Sven shows how to tune it for more depth as the circuit board has multi-turn pots on it. Great price on it.

Garrett AT. Not interested, tried one, poor balance, small display, sounds annoying.

Any suggestions or feedback?

 

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[Ronzie]

What I'm going to do next year is using my Outlaw in the trashy areas where I find it's amazing and has great depth. Then older areas where less trash is present I'll use the deeper Tejon. Also going to get the AT Gold (AT Pro doesn't interest me) for fresh shallow water (creeks, beaches). Finally the Tiger Shark for diving.
Holding off on the AT Gold until I find out if Tesoro's new machine is similar.

I found my Explorer SE didn't have great target separation.
For $1150 you could get both the Outlaw (3 coil package) & a Tejon. You'll see more depth with the Outlaw over your Silver UMax and even more with the Tejon.

 

[gerryk]

Rainy i have an x terra 705. I have the standard 9" concentric coil at 7.5 kHz, the 18.75 kHz dd and a coiltek 6" dd at 3 kHz. I have used the digger coil (coiltek 6" dd) and found two coins, one on top and slightly to the side of the other, but the one was till on top of the other. I slowed my swing down and got two distinct different tones for the two different coins. So I can tell you that even though I am still learning this machine separation with the right coil is not a problem, just slow he coil down. My swings are 2 to 3 seconds per sweep and slower when trying to separate targets. I have no complains about depth other than sometimes I dont dig all the targets the 705 picks up as they are too deep to dig in parks.

 

[G.A.P.metal]

You have picked out some outstanding detectors..and done the research on them...i`d say pick one and learn it the best you can.
Gary

 

[rainyday101]

Ronzie, thanks for the reply. My problem is this- the Outlaw is an excellent detector, it has decent depth, but not much more than my Silver uMax. Also because the Tesoro has a single tone I need to set disc just shy of zinc penny to cherry pick coins and find silver. The problem is I loose depth with that high disc. setting. Although there is no doubt that Tejon is deep it is high freq.- and maybe too high to be ideal for silver. I have asked and seen asked the question to Tejon users on how good it is on deep silver. Never seen anyone answer that question.

Gary, thanks I know that they would all work well, I just want to get it right the first time. Which ever one it is I will spend the time to learn it well.

Gerry I would love to get my hands on one and try it out. There is no doubt the Xterra's are great coinfinders, but from what I have read they have good depth, but are not depth demons. Try to find an air test on one, it's almost impossible.

If I want just sheer depth with no disc and only one tone, I doubt there is much that could match my Tiger Shark in all metal with threshold. This thing is crazy deep and is the only detector that can hit the 12" targets in my 1 year old test garden. Problem is that with only one tone that is a dig all situation. Multi tones would be ideal in this situation.

I am not trying to knock any brands, just try to find the deepest that will fit the needs in my first post.

 

[gerryk]

Ronzie, thanks for the reply. My problem is this- the Outlaw is an excellent detector, it has decent depth, but not much more than my Silver uMax. Also because the Tesoro has a single tone I need to set disc just shy of zinc penny to cherry pick coins and find silver. The problem is I loose depth with that high disc. setting. Although there is no doubt that Tejon is deep it is high freq.- and maybe too high to be ideal for silver. I have asked and seen asked the question to Tejon users on how good it is on deep silver. Never seen anyone answer that question. Gary, thanks I know that they would all work well, I just want to get it right the first time. Which ever one it is I will spend the time to learn it well. Gerry I would love to get my hands on one and try it out. There is no doubt the Xterra's are great coinfinders, but from what I have read they have good depth, but are not depth demons. Try to find an air test on one, it's almost impossible. If I want just sheer depth with no disc and only one tone, I doubt there is much that could match my Tiger Shark in all metal with threshold. This thing is crazy deep and is the only detector that can hit the 12" targets in my 1 year old test garden. Problem is that with only one tone that is a dig all situation. Multi tones would be ideal in this situation. I am not trying to knock any brands, just try to find the deepest that will fit the needs in my first post.

I am one of those that do not hold much as far as air tests. I can tell you personally that my machine does go deep. Not sure how deep you want to go, but i have had no problem finding stuff 9 inches down. In the local parks, I have located stuff that is deeper then Iw ant to dig in these parks. I am working on some places for next spring where I don't have to worry about using a leschee digger or making a small plug to get the object. I plan on obtaining permission to hunt i areas I can go deeper and use a 31" leschee T handle. I myself do not want to go that deep with a hand held leschee.

 

[Rusted_Iron]

Believe it or not I haven't found the multi tone detectors to be a whole lot better at avoiding deep iron. I can think of a book you might want to read...

 

[dirtscratcher]

If you watch todays finds on this and other forums patterns will show what detectors are finding deep old coin in trashy areas. Anyone that says a explorer won't find coins deep in the trashy spots does not know how to use one.

 

[Scanman]

I think you should get the Tesoro Cortes, its $21.65 over, but you would have different coils to swap out. If I were to guess its probably, an inch deeper? It would also give you more info and knobs!

 

[Ronzie]

I am one of those that do not hold much as far as air tests. I can tell you personally that my machine does go deep. Not sure how deep you want to go, but i have had no problem finding stuff 9 inches down. In the local parks, I have located stuff that is deeper then Iw ant to dig in these parks. I am working on some places for next spring where I don't have to worry about using a leschee digger or making a small plug to get the object. I plan on obtaining permission to hunt i areas I can go deeper and use a 31" leschee T handle. I myself do not want to go that deep with a hand held leschee.

I agree with air tests not being accurate. I'm really big on testing machines and do air tests, but mostly in my test garden.
I've learned the most accurate test garden is not digging a hole by scooping the dirt out but pull a block of dirt out.
Like this.


I dug 3 of these in my backyard lawn. 12" square and put the object in the middle of the hole.
With my 8" coil on my Outlaw, I picked up a quarter at 11" in the dirt and only 8 1/2" air testing. My Explorer SE could pick it up as well, but the GTI 2500 was only good to 8".
The Outlaw kicks ass in heavy trash/iron filled areas. The other 2 didn't.
One reason I like the AT Gold is from this video. The Outlaw is exactly the same except with one tone to disc out the crap and no display.

 

[Longhair]

There is no doubt the Xterra's are great coinfinders, but from what I have read they have good depth, but are not depth demons.

The depth that is obtainable is variant on a number of things as you know. A properly setup and equipped Xterra is as deep as any other detector. I've dug several coin targets that were so deep that I almost gave up on them, figuring that it was an "iffy" that wouldn't pan out.

 

[Scanman]

Rainyday101, I found this site helpful for choosing my next detector.

Name Brand Metal Detector index

 

[rainyday101]

Ronzie, that is the way to dig a test garden because the soil matrix gets disturbed very little. I wish I would have done that. Can you get those coins with disc. set past pulltab? I don't want to end up in a dig it all scenario using all metal with single tone to get the deep coins. If most of the garbage could be discriminated out and I could get that kind of depth, that would be another story.

I also wonder if a Vaq or Tejon can do what I just said.

Longhair, as you know I have a keen interest in the Xterra series. When you tell me they go deep, I believe you.

Most of the areas I hunt are sandy and mineral free. Two weekends ago I found 12 quarters at 6-7 inches deep and the oldest was a 69. I might be wrong, but common sense tells me the older ones are deeper. The thing is I want good disc. to cherry pick, or tones so that I can hunt in all metal, and possilby a display to help aid in the decision. Being a Tesoro user I am not a display watcher and have learned to dig based on tone and disc. setting. The thing is I want to get deep to find the older coins but can't afford to spend the money on a multi freq. minelab. Basically I am just looking for others experiences at depth with their detectors.

As far as air test goes, that is a mixed bag. In theory air is an excellent medium to transmit a signal through, ground is not as good, especially if it has any mineralization. Because of this you should always get better depth in the air than in the ground. So an air test in theory is the max depth a detector could get in the ground under ideal conditions. That is my two cents on air testing based on material I have read by Dankowski and some of the Fisher engineers. It makes sense to me, but I wonder about things like halo's increasing the detectable depth and also if linear alignment of the ground particles + and - alignment could possibly aid this. All this is debatable, but I have never found a coin deeper than I can air test.

I also know that deep bigger iron can fool most detectors. I can usually eliminate most of it though because when I "X" over the target it usually does not size up like a coin.

So right now I am in the looking and researching stages until tax time returns, spring, an unplanned inheritance, a winning lottery ticket, or some other unusual circumstance!

 

[Longhair]

What your air test logic doesn't take into account, is that air can't hold as much moisture as soil can, and since part of what's being detected is relative to conductivity.....
Air is a poor conductor.

 

[rainyday101]

Good Point Longhair. I still say though that I have never found anything in the ground deeper than an air test with one exception I guess and that might be with the Tiger Shark in the water, which would validate what you are saying. The truth is that it would take people smarter than me to ever put the science and physics to that one and put it to rest. Seriously though would you be a detector that could only air test a dime at 5"? I know I wouldn't.

 

[gerryk]

Rainy, I have had my 705 nearly a year and everything time I take it out I learn something. I have learned that with certain coils, if a coin is on the surface say just barely covered or only covered by that thatch from the grass, it has indicated two to four inches down, but the tone sounds different. I will normally take my pinpointer and make an x over the surface with it.

 

[Scanman]

Looks like a nice operating Detector, but I am afraid I could never get used to those horrible tones.

 

[Longhair]

Good Point Longhair. I still say though that I have never found anything in the ground deeper than an air test with one exception I guess and that might be with the Tiger Shark in the water, which would validate what you are saying. The truth is that it would take people smarter than me to ever put the science and physics to that one and put it to rest. Seriously though would you be a detector that could only air test a dime at 5"? I know I wouldn't.

JUST FOR YOU, I did an air test on a silver dime.
I had the 6" 3kHz Coiltek "Digger" coil on, with sensitivity set to a nominal 20. I usually hunt with that coil with the SENS set somewhere between 18-26, so 20 isn't unrealistic at all.
I got an honest solid hit out to 6". I can also assure you that it does detect deeper than that in moderate moist soil. And obviously the machine will hit deeper with a larger coil.

So if it matters to anyone, there it is. I personally only care what it does in reality, and find air tests to be a waste of time and batteries that would be better spent in the field where it counts.

 

[Rusted_Iron]

JUST FOR YOU, I did an air test on a silver dime.
I had the 6" 3kHz Coiltek "Digger" coil on, with sensitivity set to a nominal 20. I usually hunt with that coil with the SENS set somewhere between 18-26, so 20 isn't unrealistic at all.
I got an honest solid hit out to 6". I can also assure you that it does detect deeper than that in moderate moist soil. And obviously the machine will hit deeper with a larger coil.

So if it matters to anyone, there it is. I personally only care what it does in reality, and find air tests to be a waste of time and batteries that would be better spent in the field where it counts.

That's about right for that coil size on a dime. And I agree, you can probably get some depth beyond that if the coin has been in undisturbed ground for a long time. Sometimes a surprising amount more.

 

[Rusted_Iron]

Thought I hit the "edit post" button but it double posted.

I have asked and seen asked the question to Tejon users on how good it is on deep silver. Never seen anyone answer that question.

Rainyday, it's actually really good if you get to know the machine well... and I don't use all-metal, usually. Put it this way, if you are already good w/ a Tesoro, I think you could do very well w/ a Tejon for that purpose.