Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II owners....

[Bootyhunter1971]

What has been your experience with this machine? How long have you had it, what are some of your better finds and would you buy one again knowing what you know now? I am curious about this machine and may purchase one for underwater use in freshwater lakes and in the ocean. Thanks in advance for your input. HH Steve.

 

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[Sam in Florida]

Be prepared to dig lots of signals. Personally I go all metal all the time so I dig a lot of junk. I owned one several years ago (and have also had a White's PI machine) so when i needed a backup water machine for my Excal, the Garrett was on top of the list. I didn't want to go for the Infinium as the cost was to much for me right now. I'm finding that I use the Garrett as much as I do the excal, and having less problems. My opinion is that it is one heck of a machine. The only thing I changed was I replaced the stock 8" coil with a 10 X 14 for better coverage. Oh,and I have no problems finding nickles, pulltabs and pennies at 12 to 14" in wet sand and water. I never tried it in the dry sand. You just have to listen closely.

 

[Sandman]

I don't have this detector anymore as I got tired of digging deep holes for tiny bits of iron. The same goes for the Surf Pro PI that sits there unused. You will not like using it in a freshwater lake because of the lack of real disc as things take to long to rust away in freshwater. For hunting saltwater beaches were the sand covers things up with lots of sand you need a detector that gets extra deep. Even here it finds bobby pins near 2 foot. If you are older like me, you'll enjoy a detector more like the Excal that nulls on iron and still gets deep.

The Mark II is a well built PI, but the Infinium LS is lots better because it has two distinct tones to help id the targets where the Mark II only has one pitched beep.

 

[DaChief]

I can speak to the big brother Infinium. Actually I believe the two machines to be fairly identical except for a couple of features. The Infinium has the two tone ID that helps you focus only on possible gold signals. This comes in handy for me since I ignore most silver signals unless the targets are few and far between. The Infinium also has an Iron Check feature that is not on the Mark II.

That being said, if you are planning on hunting salt water, I believe you can't go wrong with the Mark II. In the water, there is not as much trash as on the dry sand or in a fresh water beach. I have hunted along side of some very good hunters who use the Mark II and they have done well with the machine.

I would watch EBAY or Craigslist for a used machine if you have the courage to buy used. You can easily ID a machine that has not been abused on EBAY by studying the reputation of the seller for honesty. Craigslist is more of a gamble but I picked up my land machine from there cheap and had no problems with it as of yet. I got my Infinium off EBAY with two coils and other extras for 725 and that included shipping. I sent it to Garrett for a computer upgrade and tune up for 60 bucks since it was one of the first to come out and I have done really well with it.

I have said many times that I don't believe that there is a bad water machine from any of the top manufacturers. I believe it is just a preference of how they operate, available accessories and customer service. I believe the Garrett Line has the best of all three of those combined. You can change coils on the spot without sending it to the factory, you can change earphones from water to land phones on the spot, it is simple to operate and you can bet that if you have a problem, Garrett will make it right if under warranty and if not under warranty, they will make it right for a resonable price.

If you have decided that the PI type is for you, I would go with your instincts. I really don't dig anymore trash in the water than my friends that use the Excal and others. I do get my share of bobby pins but that is a price I am willing to pay for this top notch gold finder. I believe you will be happy with it. One other thing is that you can always rely on getting most of your money back out of the machine if you decide to resale it as long as you take good care of it and don't beat it up. I believe if you check, you will find that most professional wreck diving treasure hunters use a PI machine. There is a reason for that I am thinking. The Garrett was the weapon of choice for Mel Fisher and his crew.

Good Luck on your decision.

DaChief

 

[davest]

be prepared to dig deep for the smallest bit of iron, like a 3/16th washer at 12 inches in the surf, be prepared to hope to get an accurate pinpoint, alot of times the item that it hits on is on the side of the hole, not the center. That little notch in the center of the coil, no that is not where you'll find things. Maybe I have a bad coil that only registers hits on one side of it, but I don't see how that could happen on a circular coil, but if I swing over a target, the left side of the coil gives me the "squawk" the right side is silent, if I go forward backward, no nothing either. But hey, I might have a bad coil, for some reason I thought quality control would be better than a problem with a 650.00 machine, maybe I was wrong. I started talking to a garrett rep about it, but got disgusted with the idea of havin to send a brand new unit back for checkout and pay shipping/handling and insurance. Would I buy another? Not on a bet. Would I recommend the unit? No. I'll sell mine for 500.00 and cover the shipping, you can send it back if you want.

 

[JP]

It's a nice machine. It will find metal if it is there. Be prepared to dig lots of iron in the wet sand. In deeper water where there is less junk it should do fine. I didn't have a chance to try mine out in deeper water. I decided to sell it because I had bought another water detector.

If you are just wanting to try out water hunting it is a fine machine to start with. I watched several, almost new machines, go for around $300 on eBay. Just check the feedback of the person, use those that accept paypal (it's more protection for you).

There was one hunter that used to post here that had a SeaHunter and he or she used to find a lot of good stuff.

 

[XT18000]

I use the 10/14 loop and it is a real killer for depth; but is somewhat harder to pinpoint with,
you just have to use it and learn it's trick. I found if you work all the way around the target you
can make sure it's at the tip of the coil and not somewhere on the side; then oush it forward
a little and put your foot all the way next to the rear of it, keep your foot there and move the coil
out of the way and put the rear of your scoop against your toe, lean the handle forward at least a
45 degree angle and push it down with your foot and pull back and sliode your hand down the shaft
close to the scoop and lift. Put your foot in the hole while you check to see if you got your target.
Repeat as needed. You will be digging deep hole's! LOL

 

[ozdrew PI dig all]

Hi Steve

I have a seahunter mkii , it a PI dig all machine.

I have had the seahunter mKII for 7 years and at one stage i was going to the beach 3 times a week.

The discrimination they talk about on the seahunter is Rubbish, You use that and you will loose heaps of depth.

With the 8" coil you can (after some time ) you can pick the sounds , bobby/ hair pins vs a good target.

New bottle caps sound like a coins, (in australia)and the rusty ones, i can tell by the sound.


My seahunter mkII finds me about $1500 a year plus bling , but i take about 500g plus of trash out of the beach each time.

The Battery i use are alkaline and last approx 20hr, I just use Vaseline on the rubber seal and never had a problem. I have been underwater with it and its had a few hard knocks and the coil is tough as rocks too. NO coil cover needed.

It has no volume control , and its loud I last about 1 hour and my head hurts, because its used under water and has to be loud. I use mine with the elimination to ZERO and the threshold to ZERO and I adjust the elimination up a little then down if it goes noisy. This runs in a silent and peaceful mode , and will go off when a metal passes unde the coil. ALso leave it on standard trash elimination never use descrete trash elimination.

In the water, when the water level raises and falls it will sound off(waves) but you can pick it. Sometimes going from wet to dry will give you intermittent sounds , by rubbing the coil in the dry sand (moving left to right) it seem to ground balance it and away you go.

I would recommend you dig every signal , and listen carefully , try and guess whats going to come out of the ground, you will develop an ear for it .

Swing speed well I normally swing left to right in .7 to 1 sec. You will cover more beach and find new drops, rings, coins and anything made of metal .
You will get about 7- 8 inches down , if you swing very slow 2-3 sec per swing you get 12 inches down . I also purchased a 14X10 coil, all the sound are same but you are looking at digging over 15" . I went from a hand digger to a shovel.




It took me over 3 months to get a handle on this beast. SO stick with it.

NUMBER ONE ADVICE go where the people go, if the beach has 700 plus people go there you will find heaps, don’t go to beach that fisherman fish from you will end up wasting your time , (I only do these beaches once to twice a year).

If you have 700 people on the beach and they stay for about 2 hours then in a day you could have had 4900 plus people on beach per day , go at 4.30 pm to 6.00pm keep clear of people on towels , and swing the empty areas , you see where the people have been (ie rubbish , drink containers ect ) if you dig every thing and take the rubbish (that u dig) the next time you came back its fairly clean .

You go in the PM due to fact all council beach cleaners start like at 4 in the morning , and most other MD Are on the beach very early.

Detecting the wet ,I have been neck deep and ankle deep the best find are low tide ankle to waist deep.

People will come up and ask you to find stuff they have lost (get a detailed description of what they are looking for you may find something good and they claim it to be theirs) . I make every effort to help out , if you spend more than 10 min trying to help I normally say you must have lost some where else, im here for an other (time ) come back and ill see if I have found it .



Ok I have crapped on for ages any way I hope your still awake.

PS the Explores miss the fine gold chains the seahunter gets them. SHHHH don’t tell any one..

If you have any more Question I would be glad to try answer them.

Andrew
HH

 

[MikeDahms]

I have tons of time using the old garrett sea hunter pi. After reading Andrew's I have to say he really knows the machine and md'ing in the water. Re-read his post its that good. Best to you, Mike.