Excalibur VS Sea Hunter

[ArmyDiver]

I'm about to take the dive and purchase my first detector. I won't want to waste money on a "starter" detector and then have to spend that all over again when I get something better. I live 3 minutes from the beach and am also an avid diver. I want to get a detector that will work well on the beach and the surf after hurricanes and bigger storms as well as something I can use in the water. I set a 1200 dollar limit but ideally I would like to keep it closer to 800. I've seen many suggestions for the Excalibur II and people are saying it pays for itself but the Garrett Sea Hunter doesn't look bad either and is a little more reasonably priced. I'm open to suggestions and reasons why each is better as well as additional brand/model suggestions.

Thanks!

 

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[miser]

Hello and Welcome.

From what I have gleaned on this issue over the past months comes down to one critical difference:

The Sea Hunter is a PI detector (the discrimination is basically useless) and you will be digging iron and junk targets.

The Excalibur will mask out the iron which tends to be a big help to most detectorists.

However, there are some who prefer to dig every target anyway, in which case the Sea Hunter would be fine and is less expensive.

 

[architecad]

Miser

Excalibur

I know many people that own the Excalibur that many time, they had been very frustrated for many issues with this metal detector. This detector has many fixture that could help you to find treasure in the water but in the other side of the coin, this detector produce some "head ache", one of the issues is with the battery. Other issues is you're not able to switch a different coil because the coil attached is permanent from manufacturer. Another issue I had seen from Excalibur's user is the bad service received form customer service in some cases.

Garrett

To spend $1200.00 buying an Excalibur, I prefer to spend $1,062.00 in a Garrett infinium LS which had been proved superior in performance and discrimination into the most mineralization condition than the Excalibur.

When you're underwater detecting, you don't want to use discrimination because you don't have to dig too much to see what you find, just shake your hand, so, for that reason, the Sea Hunter Mark II is a powerful machine underwater.

Arch

 

[BareBones]

First off let me say that you have the right idea to buy the best you can afford right from the start, but what is the best detector is about as muddied a question as the age old debate of which is a better car, the Ford or a Chevy.

Let me give you the best piece of advice I can.

There is no BEST or PERFECT all around detector. They all have strengths and weaknesses and as such if you are really serious about treasure hunting you will need more then one detector and recovery aid because some items are better suited for different conditions.

Conditions: You might think that going to the beach to look for treasure is, well just going to the beach. But it's not quite that simple as it first may seem. There are what I would call three different contact zones for locating treasure.

• In the water - Best
• The wet sand - Better
• The dry sand - Good

If you want to hunt in the water, buy a machine to hunt just in the water. My first go to choice for a water machine is a PI machine. Reason being is you can't beat the depth and if you are really serious about recovering gold, you are going to dig everything anyway. That is just a fact of life. I'm partial to Whites water machines, but that is just my opinion and just like @55 holes, everyone has one.

Now having said that, there are areas with so much trash that using a PI machine is not feasible and that is where a machine with discrimination can really be useful. The Excalibur is probably the most favored machine in this category and definitely King, but there are other alternatives out there.

Even guys with the Excalibur hunt in all metal mode, they just switch to discriminate after they locate a target to try and determine whether to dig or not.

If you are going to hunt on the dry land, I would suggest a whole different machine. Something with target ID and discrimination is nice, but after a while you will most likely look at the target ID less often. I set my land machine up for jewelry and dig all targets so I really don't care what the target ID is telling me other then sometimes I like to see if what the machine says the target is and what I think it is are the same as what comes out of the hole. I would say that neither one of us are reliable bets in that regard and even the Spectra V3 does not get it right every time.

I have found the Ace 250 to be more then adequate for dry beach sand hunting and it is very reasonably priced for what you get in a detector. I don't think anyone who has ever owned one would tell you otherwise. However I will tell you that it is not very useful in the wet sand no mater who much you turn down the sensitivity. I own 2 of these, I keep one in my truck all the time. You never know when opportunity will present it's self. Plus they are great loaner machines.

So if you are wanting to hunt the wet sand and you should, make sure you have a machine that can handle the mineralization. I use my water machine for the wet sand, but truth be told you will find a lot of trash at the waters edge as this is where a lot of light trash material will congregate, so a machine with discrimination would be nice sometimes.

Get yourself a good scoop! I whole hardheartedly recommend the Sunspot scoop for the water and get the biggest one you can handle. You might turn your nose up at the wood handle as I did at first, but let me tell you, it is the way to go. The wood handle is buoyant and darn strong! If you let go of the scoop the handle floats straight up in the surf making it easy to locate. Also the fact that it is removable makes it useful for travel and you can buy a handle in any HomeDepot or Lowes. I take the handle off if I am flying just because it is so long and I don't have a good way of securing it. I would rather pay around $10 for a new handle where I am traveling then to take a chance of loosing a $200 scoop. I just pack a 7/16" wrench with me.

Some guys use their water scoops on land, I do for the wet, but for dry sand hunting I prefer something with more holes in it that will sift the sand really fast. I use a hand held scoop because I don't mind bending over and I figure I need the exercise anyway, and two it's much lighter and smaller to carry around. Often I will be digging right around beach goers and you have to sift your sand very close to the ground so you don't get sand on the people around you. They do not like that.

Bottom line is you have to use the right tool for the right job. Sure you could drive a nail with a pair of pliers, but the task is better suited to using a hammer. Same goes for what type of ground conditions you are working and what detector to use.

I could expound on this further but by this point you should have the basic idea and besides, everyone has their own opinion about what machine is better. What is closer to the truth is what machine works best for them and their area so the second best advice I could give you is to see what the guys are using in your area. Since we are geographically not that far apart and on the same coast, all the information I have given you is very relevant.

Try and think hard about what zone you want to hunt the most or would prefer to hunt. Also keep in mind that you can't hunt in the water all the time even if you want to. Sometimes the surf conditions just will not permit it no matter how much you want to get in the water.

I also noticed that you are a diver and if you have any desire to take your machine over one atmosphere this will narrow your detector options immensely.

Hope you found this useful and best of luck.

 

[John (west central FL)]

I have experience with both PI detectors and VLF units like the Excalibur and the CZ-20. I no longer own a PI and there is a good reason for it. I spent too much time digging iron targets. That time could have been used swinging the coil over good targets. Here in Florida we don't have a problem with mineralized sand so there really isn't that much of a depth advantage with a PI here. Many of my detecting buddies have purchased PI machines only to sell them after a year or two. We are all using Excaliburs and CZ-20s now.

Yesterday, I was hunting one of the popular local beaches and there was a guy there using a White's Surfmaster PI. He told me that he was ready to give up because of the multitude of iron targets he was having to dig. This beach is loaded with rust flakes that came from a pier that was removed last year. It was concrete but the re-bar was rusty. Another source of iron is rust flakes that come off of steel pipes used for beach renourishment projects. There are very few beaches left in our area that have not been renourished. The bottom line yesterday was that the guy with the PI went home without gold and I was able to dig a nice 14K gold ring while passing up all of the iron signals.

 

[Sandman]

There is not much I can add to BareBones excellent post. I am a diver and use different detectors in the water for dives, or wading. All except the White's water detectors as they can't be taken below 25 foot and the coils float anyway.

The dry sand can be hunted with any land detector you choose that is comfortable. Most water machines have the coils and head phones hard wired to be idiot proof and to lessen accidents. Once you have a coil on your water machine there is not much reason to change it.

I like the Excal best for wading in the water, hunting the wet sand or dry because I can move from one area to the other.

But depending on where you dive, when you have to reach through a lot of sand for depth the Pulse is the way to go. However the Infinium LS is a much better detector than the Sea Hunter Mark II only because of the two different tones to help ID the target. Iron, most trash is still in the same sound tones as gold rings.

 

[OBN]

PI's are good for certain locations, and are hard to beat...But the excal and CZ20/21's work at almost all Beach's on the east coast of the US, and west coast of Florida......... Because they are very easily adjusted for different hunting conditions. What it all boils down to is, where are you going to hunt, and is there traffic there dropping the Gold & Silver...You will find it with a Sea Hunter, LS, Ex cal and the CZ's if you get the coil over it.....
Short Video of a friend {Chuck} in Miami hunting underwater, with a new Excal..he hunted in discrimination for awhile, when targets got less, he switched to hunting in Almetal/PP..................Good Luck.....Joe

 

[BareBones]

There is not much I can add to BareBones excellent post. I am a diver and use different detectors in the water for dives, or wading. All except the White's water detectors as they can't be taken below 25 foot and the coils float anyway.

Hi Sandman, thanks for the kind words.

I would just like to point out that the Surf PI machines have an operational max depth of 100-125 feet depending on the model. Not to be confused with the Beach Hunter ID which is not a PI machine and only has a max depth of 25 feet. Also there is a factory weighted neutral buoyancy coil for the older surf machines which is what I use.

The new Surf PI Dual Field which is Whites newest PI machine does not have a weighted coil. It is listed as a near neutral buoyancy coil, but it does float and is the only complaint I have really heard about this machine. I called Whites and was told the problem with them making an epoxy weighted coil like they did for their other models in the past is when the epoxy dries it destroys the windings in the coil. Until they can come up with a process to address this problem they will not be offering a weighted coil which is the only reason I don't already own that machine.

 

[digum smacks]

i would say excal but i have a problem with the headphones they refuse to stay on your head underwater.first thing im going to do is get after market phones .minelab put brand new ones on and they are terrible the cord is so short when i turn my head it pulls the phones off even above water.for diving my money is on the infinium. i just finished a test with the dual field and the excalibur 2.on the same beach i did this, hunted the dog snot out of a small area, marked it off and hunted the same area with the dual field.i found more items on the second try with the dual field than the first time with the excal.

 

[architecad]

First off let me say that you have the right idea to buy the best you can afford right from the start, but what is the best detector is about as muddied a question as the age old debate of which is a better car, the Ford or a Chevy.

Let me give you the best piece of advice I can.

There is no BEST or PERFECT all around detector. They all have strengths and weaknesses and as such if you are really serious about treasure hunting you will need more then one detector and recovery aid because some items are better suited for different conditions.

Conditions: You might think that going to the beach to look for treasure is, well just going to the beach. But it's not quite that simple as it first may seem. There are what I would call three different contact zones for locating treasure.

• In the water - Best
• The wet sand - Better
• The dry sand - Good

If you want to hunt in the water, buy a machine to hunt just in the water. My first go to choice for a water machine is a PI machine. Reason being is you can't beat the depth and if you are really serious about recovering gold, you are going to dig everything anyway. That is just a fact of life. I'm partial to Whites water machines, but that is just my opinion and just like @55 holes, everyone has one.

Now having said that, there are areas with so much trash that using a PI machine is not feasible and that is where a machine with discrimination can really be useful. The Excalibur is probably the most favored machine in this category and definitely King, but there are other alternatives out there.

Even guys with the Excalibur hunt in all metal mode, they just switch to discriminate after they locate a target to try and determine whether to dig or not.

If you are going to hunt on the dry land, I would suggest a whole different machine. Something with target ID and discrimination is nice, but after a while you will most likely look at the target ID less often. I set my land machine up for jewelry and dig all targets so I really don't care what the target ID is telling me other then sometimes I like to see if what the machine says the target is and what I think it is are the same as what comes out of the hole. I would say that neither one of us are reliable bets in that regard and even the Spectra V3 does not get it right every time.

I have found the Ace 250 to be more then adequate for dry beach sand hunting and it is very reasonably priced for what you get in a detector. I don't think anyone who has ever owned one would tell you otherwise. However I will tell you that it is not very useful in the wet sand no mater who much you turn down the sensitivity. I own 2 of these, I keep one in my truck all the time. You never know when opportunity will present it's self. Plus they are great loaner machines.

So if you are wanting to hunt the wet sand and you should, make sure you have a machine that can handle the mineralization. I use my water machine for the wet sand, but truth be told you will find a lot of trash at the waters edge as this is where a lot of light trash material will congregate, so a machine with discrimination would be nice sometimes.

Get yourself a good scoop! I whole hardheartedly recommend the Sunspot scoop for the water and get the biggest one you can handle. You might turn your nose up at the wood handle as I did at first, but let me tell you, it is the way to go. The wood handle is buoyant and darn strong! If you let go of the scoop the handle floats straight up in the surf making it easy to locate. Also the fact that it is removable makes it useful for travel and you can buy a handle in any HomeDepot or Lowes. I take the handle off if I am flying just because it is so long and I don't have a good way of securing it. I would rather pay around $10 for a new handle where I am traveling then to take a chance of loosing a $200 scoop. I just pack a 7/16" wrench with me.

Some guys use their water scoops on land, I do for the wet, but for dry sand hunting I prefer something with more holes in it that will sift the sand really fast. I use a hand held scoop because I don't mind bending over and I figure I need the exercise anyway, and two it's much lighter and smaller to carry around. Often I will be digging right around beach goers and you have to sift your sand very close to the ground so you don't get sand on the people around you. They do not like that.

Bottom line is you have to use the right tool for the right job. Sure you could drive a nail with a pair of pliers, but the task is better suited to using a hammer. Same goes for what type of ground conditions you are working and what detector to use.

I could expound on this further but by this point you should have the basic idea and besides, everyone has their own opinion about what machine is better. What is closer to the truth is what machine works best for them and their area so the second best advice I could give you is to see what the guys are using in your area. Since we are geographically not that far apart and on the same coast, all the information I have given you is very relevant.

Try and think hard about what zone you want to hunt the most or would prefer to hunt. Also keep in mind that you can't hunt in the water all the time even if you want to. Sometimes the surf conditions just will not permit it no matter how much you want to get in the water.

I also noticed that you are a diver and if you have any desire to take your machine over one atmosphere this will narrow your detector options immensely.

Hope you found this useful and best of luck.

Bare

Nobody here is arguing which one is better or not. Only we're in talking about advantage and disadvantages of Garrett and Excalibur.

Arch

 

[Sandman]

I wonder why White's can not make a coil with epoxy resin in the coil that doesn't destroy the windings. Seems everyone else uses resin and don't have trouble with damaged windings. I think they just want light weight coils for the people that search the dry sand. They advertise the coil on the BHID 300 as being "Near-Neutral Buoyant" and they float, not hang where you leave them in the water.

They do however make a weighted coil for the PI's that I like to use on my PI Pro. But this old Geezer doesn't like to dig all them holes anymore.

 

[Indasurf]

i would say excal but i have a problem with the headphones they refuse to stay on your head underwater.first thing im going to do is get after market phones .minelab put brand new ones on and they are terrible the cord is so short when i turn my head it pulls the phones off even above water.for diving my money is on the infinium. i just finished a test with the dual field and the excalibur 2.on the same beach i did this, hunted the dog snot out of a small area, marked it off and hunted the same area with the dual field.i found more items on the second try with the dual field than the first time with the excal.

Yeah, my Infinium is the deepest machine I've ever used on the beach! If I take my time and follow along the tracks of hunters using the "best rated" machines, I'm usually able to pick up good missed targets! A pulse will just find deeper jewelry and you can't beat them with so much heavy competition out there.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I have hunted with several partners in the past when I first started who used PI's, they spent a lot of time digging targets that turned out to be Iron, time that I did not ever spend digging iron with my Excal.

I currently use an Excal with a WOT coil I custom spliced on and a new pair of Orcasound headphones that I also spliced on. The Excal with the WOT coil goes deep, I constantly dig targets that are over 12 inches....I waste none of my time at the beach digging iron...EVER! If you buy new, then you can't customized the Excal till warranty expires in one year, if you buy used then you can. Currently Minelabs warranty is good for 12 months, so if you can pick one up for $400-$700 used, your saving a lot of money and can afford to customize it.....

I bought my last used excal for $475, (worked perfectly on arrival) I added a used WOT coil for $90 and custom made straight shaft for $25...Grand total in it is $590 at that point. With that Excal I can cover a LOT of beach area, go real deep and dig NO iron ever..........

The Orcasound headphones comes with a long cord, and since I spliced it a foot below the Excal controls, it is even longer....and the headphones are very comfortable...

No matter what you choose good luck hunting...

 

[architecad]

For better understanding

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,317617.0.html

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I know a hunter who owns both the Infinium LS and an Excal with WOT coil, he is a long time and very experienced hunter both with the Infinium LS and the Excal and he says he perfers the Excal with the WOT coil over the Infinium............

I was going to buy the Infinium from him, he said he would sell it to me, but since we were friends he felt obligated to tell me he found the Excal with WOT to be just as deep, but he did not have to dig any iron. ......I have dug small targets that were well over 12 inches deep using mine....

 

[Indasurf]

That's ok, The Infinium can get chains and small gold earrings with some of the mono coils.

Oh yeah, able to change different coils on the fly and a fine relic hunter too. Yep, deep relics in red hot dirt

You can switch out the headphones on the spot for land or water........can be setup for different brands.

Garrett service is better than most!!!

Built like a tank, yep really tough!

Oh yeah, I forgot, it's also designed to find small gold nuggets.....hhmmmm, a very versatile machine

It's definitely not for all, not for beginners....every machine has its pros and cons, I guess everyone just needs to decide what works best for them!

Happy Hunting

 

[halfstep]

I thought the original post was about the excal and sea hunter. This has turned into a "my detector is better than yours" thread.

 

[architecad]

I know a hunter who owns both the Infinium LS and an Excal with WOT coil, he is a long time and very experienced hunter both with the Infinium LS and the Excal and he says he perfers the Excal with the WOT coil over the Infinium............

I was going to buy the Infinium from him, he said he would sell it to me, but since we were friends he felt obligated to tell me he found the Excal with WOT to be just as deep, but he did not have to dig any iron. ......I have dug small targets that were well over 12 inches deep using mine....

What happens is many Excalibur user live in Florida(not all) and Florida beaches you can find many iron because there is a lots of retirement water front condo and during the construction of those building, many labor used to dump to the water those irons. I don't have any problem with my Sea hunter because I don't detect in Florida and it discriminate good enough. I used to detect in Jupiter inlet where I found a lots of old iron probably from some old shipwreck.

I remember in 2004, I met with a guy in Palm Beach where he was using an Excalibur and I was using my GTI2500. When we begun to detect, I was detecting behind him. Soon I detected a tiny gold ring right after where he wiped the coil with the excalibur. This story is not the only one I know about excalibur detectors.


Arch

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Not trying to say Excal is better then Infinium, only saying an Excal with WOT coil is extremely deep and the combination will give any PI detector a run for the money, water or land....I used my Excal on land for well over a year and it was an excellent land detector....I have found tiny gold earrings with it as well as tiny gold rings. True, have found no tiny gold chains and could care less, very little gold in tiny chains, any chain that has a large clasp, or pendent will be found.

I personally have no reason to change to different coils on my Excal, but I could if I wish to by using water proof connectors, my back up Excal has a Sunray 12 inch Intruder coil installed with a waterproof connector, so can change coils if I wish.

When hunting the beaches the key to success is to cover as much beach as possible and recover as many targets as possible. No reason to change out the headphone either, have one of the best headphones on it now, but if I wished to change it, it is an easy mod to do....

Oh, and did I mention I dig no bobby pins, fish hooks, nails, screws, nuts, bolts or tiny pieces of iron ever.........

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

What happens is many Excalibur user live in Florida(not all) and Florida beaches you can find many iron because there is a lots of retirement water front condo and during the construction of those building, many labor used to dump to the water those irons. I don't have any problem with my Sea hunter because I don't detect in Florida and it discriminate good enough. I used to detect in Jupiter inlet where I found a lots of old iron probably from some old shipwreck.

I remember in 2004, I met with a guy in Palm Beach where he was using an Excalibur and I was using my GTI2500. When we begun to detect, I was detecting behind him. Soon I detected a tiny gold ring right after where he wiped the coil with the excalibur. This story is not the only one I know about excalibur detectors.


Arch

Arch,

No offense meant, but I could do the same thing following you or anyone else. It isn't the detector that is missing the targets, it is the person using it and it isn't that they are bad hunters, it is usually because of the sweep, it is not overlapping, and they are missing areas between the sweeps. This is the reason I have no concerns about following another hunter, it is next to impossible to cover every square inch when your swinging a small 8 or 10 inch coil, you have to concentrate very hard to not miss any area, and you have to go slow, with the 15 inch WOT coil you get a LOT more coverage, and it is a lot easier to not miss any areas between sweeps............When I use my Sov GT with the SEF 15"x18" Butterfly coil it is amazing how much coverage and depth it gets..