Justajester:
As you are starting out, you should stick to the dry sand on the beaches as that is where it is easiest to learn and refine the skills that you will need to be successful.
If it rains a lot where you will be hunting and/or there is salt mist in the air. I would not purchase any detector unless it was waterproof, this way you do not have to worry about it getting wet, or frying it if you drop it in the water and you can easily clean it off under a beach or home shower/garden hose (gently).
From what I have read about where you will be hunting, there is a lot of iron in the water and on Gulf beaches. So you will need a detector with discrimination, unless you are willing to dig everything (not wise – if you are starting out).
I am surprised that no one has recommended the Garret AT Pro. It is your price range, easy to learn and use, is light for dry sand hunting (where you should start out at) is waterproof to ten feet, and is flexible (supports different coil sizes and headphones) which is great as you can use a small coil for trashy areas or a larger coil to cover more area on clean beaches in a given hunt. From everything that I have read, it is a great detector.
If you watch Metal Detecting in Hawaii, you can see Pat and an associate hunt with the AT Pro on Dry Sand, on Wet sand and in the Water (I was surprised to see him water hunt, with success – finding gold and silver jewelry. Including coins) as there is a lot of black sand, hot rocks, and mineralized sand in Hawaii, which most metal detectors cannot handle. Hopefully Looking Down who hunts Florida with an At Pro will chime in on this.
Even if Pat had to turn the sensitivity way down, sacrificing depth, I would still recommend this detector as you should be able to later purchase a Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II PI which works well in salt water, and also supports multiple coils and head phones. You could even use the same head phone (recommend Grey Ghost Amphibian which lets you control the volume – easier on the ears).
Another alternative would be to purchase a used Fisher CZ21 multifrequecy detector. It has discrimination, is waterproof, built like a tank and is not as expensive as a used Minelab Excalibur. It is hard wired like the Excalibur, on either detector I would prefer the smaller coil as they are easier to pin point with and have less drag in the water. I started off with an Excalibur with the ten inch DD coil. It took quite a while before I was able to effectively retrieve targets with it in the water.
The Tesoro sand shark (PI) detector is a good detector for shallow water hunting and wet sand.
The Tesoro tiger shark (VLF) detector is very sensitive to small gold.
However, I would not buy a used Tesoro metal detector as the lifetime warranty is not transferrable.
I hope the above helps; your progression should be Dry Sand first, and then Wet Sand at salt water beaches, then Shallow Water /diving.
Hey y'all, im a new resident to the beaches of south Texas, corpus Christi, and looking to get into metal detecting. I've been reading on this forum and a few others, trying to get some advice but it all seems a bit confusing. I was looking at a tesoro silver umax as my first detector probably but, im not sure how well it will work on the beaches here. I've read that if you are going after rings and jewelery you need a detector that will do well in wet sand and what not. I've also seen people detecting in the actual water. I'm not sure the tesoro is appropriate for either task but it seems some people are using it this way. What do you guys think? If not the tesoro, what detector would suit this purpose in a semi budget price range. I dont want to miss treasure but I also dont have a grand to spend. I'm thinking under 500 would be ideal. Any thoughts?
