Detector for wet sand and shallow water

[diggertim]

Hi Everyone,
I currently have a Whites XLT. I think I used it maybe 4 times. I'm more interested in hunting the beach and have read that this machine is not good for that. I'm looking at purchasing a machine better suited for the sand and water. I see alot of good information on the Minelab Excalibur. Any thoughts on this or any other "water" type machine will be greatly appreciated. Also, if anyone has one and is interested in a trade of some kind for the XLT, I'd be open to that too. Thanks, and happy holidays and hunting to all!

Tim

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!

[Treasure_Hunter]

Are you talking fresh water or salt water? One of the best if not the best beach detector is the Minelab Sovereign GT and even more so when you add the WOT coil to it....

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Tim, I see from looking at a map of where your city in PA is, that you are far from the ocean coast. So I assume you are referring to fresh-water beach hunting? In any case, it is not entirely true that the XLT is a poor beach hunter. Yes there are better beach hunters, but the XLT, with correct settings, can be made to do so-so on the wet salt beach. As minerals progress, there will be other makes/models that might do better. And if you're talking dainty tiny tinsel thin chains, yes there are models that do better. But if you're someone who just gets out now and then to putt around (as evidenced by you've only used your XLT "4 times"), then you may find that a full-blown expensive bells & whistles machine, may also just end up sitting in the closet too.

For average conditions, the XLT can be made to work on the beach. For example, if you're talking conditions of coins in the 1" to 7" range, and moderate minerals, and you're not fanatical about tinsel thin gold chains (because there are drawbacks to machines too, that can find stuff that dainty y'know), then you would simply accomplish nothing by moving to another machine. Like: both machines would find a quarter, or a given ring, at 3" deep, on a normal beach. So what have you gained by spending $1000 for an excaliber? But if you're going to be hardcore, and go out in the rain and potentially dunking the machine underwater, and want to work back and forth through more varied conditions, and plan on actually md'ing a lot, then sure, spend more $$. And be aware that even the excaliber reaches a point where it fails in mineralized sand. Like the jet black cr*p in gully washes where creeks empty out into the ocean. In those extreme situations, you'd have to reach for a pulse machine.

So you'll need to be specific on where you intend to hunt, what your goals are (junk tolerance level, for example), etc... Try the beaches you have in mind first, with your XLT, and only THEN if it, for some reason, wasn't performing, then explore other options. If you were, for example, to be hunting with others, who were simply kicking your b*tt, then yes, you've got an area where perhaps another machine is better suited. Like, have them flag deep signals they hear (not loud shallow gimmees) and then you swing over them and see if you can bring in the same signals. If you can, then what's the need to switch?

 

[diggertim]

Thanks for the quick replies!!! I would actually be searching on salt water beaches. I have no plans of submersing the machine in the water. I have been using my Whites 6000 di pro for quite a number of years for most of my md'ing. I'll admit, because of my older Whites, I just haven't invested the time into the XLT. I can certainly try the XLT on the beach, but I've read that there are machines out there better suited.

Tim

 

[Tom_in_CA]

If you want my honest opinion, the 6000 di pro. is just as good (and some would argue better) than the XLT on the beach. There are some guys here, that all these years later, will not part with their 6000 di pro's for the wet salt beach, and do just as good as excaliber guys. The XLT though needs a little TLC in the settings, to mimic the same results. Some would say that's better ('cuz you have more user controls), but for something as simple as wide open beach hunting on run-of-the-mill wet salt sand, the 6000 di pro is a great machine. Sure, not as deep as a pulse (or able to find as tinsel-thin-dangly stuff), and sure maybe not the same tone ID's as a few newer discriminators of various brands, but a time-proven good machine on the wet-salt beach discriminator class none-the-less. If you are satisfied, and proficient, with the 6000d, then I don't think you'll make much improvement (well, maybe a little more on depth) when moving to the Excaliber. The excaliber can handle minerals no better or worse, than the 6000 di pro.