Looking at Minelab to upgrade my Whites Dual Field PI and Tesoro Tiger Shark

[petersra]

Christmas is coming and I am looking to increase my gold finds and reduce my bobby pin finds at the beach next year. Wife thinks a new detector might be a good gift.....Soooo... I often look at the beach finds people post on the forum and what detectors they are using. Minelab seems to surface to the top of the list with the top gold producers. I see Sovereign GT, Excalibur and Explorer SE mostly. I realize that the Excalibur is waterproof and the others are not. I mostly hunt the wet sand at low tide, but I hunt the water also and things are sanded in deep here so a deep machine is mandatory. I have a feeling that a SEF butterfly coil might be a good addition to be able to cover the ground more completely. However, I realize the SEF may be too big to use in the water and it might not see the smaller gold if it is too big. I wish there was a depth comparison on different detectors and different coils with the same size gold items, since I realize that one unit or coil may see smaller items and another might see larger items but deeper. I doubt there is a perfect gold seeking beach machine out there that does it all the best. I guess it is all about trade-offs. With all that said, if you know of a chart you can direct me to that gives gold depths for different Minelab detectors or you can provide input on one of the Minelab gold seekers that you would recommend for depth of small and large gold and perhaps depth you are seeing on different size gold items. Your input would be greatly appreciated in helping me make a decision. Although cost is a consideration, it is not the only consideration. Christmas Blessing to ya, and happy hunting. Thanks, Ralph

 

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[stasys]

hello petersa my suggestion for your beach venture is any second hand explorer2 or SE with original 1050 coil or new more sensitive pro or sef 10x12, 12-15,or expensive Etrac which is the same deep because the same basic electronic but maybe a bit faster and more correct number identification. with explorer on the beach you can use max sensitivity without any problem- plus on explorer smart screen or double digit numbers to help you identify not needed targets if you want. explorer biggest minus is weight, for this you have to make or buy extention cable, look other post in this forum,I use it and other too with great success. if you want to hunt in water make your self- or buy- water proof explorer, many people do and you can found allot photos. sovereign is good too and you can put it on the belt, but explorer a bit better. look what people found in the beach with sovereign and excalibur! everything you can get with Explorer or Etrac too. good luck Stasys

 

[Dixie Digger]

for me the best wet sand detector iv owned is the Sovereign and S12 coil...Excal's are good if you think you will ever go in the water.also the Fisher CZ21 w 10" coil is good. iv found the Sovereign to be deeper than the CZ's (owned 6 of them) and Excal's (owned 6 of them also). i just sold a Explorer SE Pro and it was deep on the beach but i dont like meters and it was HEAVY! i dig by the tone's and the Sovereign's have the best disc/null on iron of all iv used.and the most accurate tone id. i now have a CZ21 10"...a CZ6a....and a Sovereign Elite with S12 coil..iv owned 4 GT's and they are good..but if i could only keep one it would be my Sovereign! good luck!

 

[Sandman]

Dixie Digger is right about the Sov GT and Treasure Hunter will back that up I believe. However the GT isn't waterproof and I think it has better depth or at least better tones than the Excal. It might also be because of the Black Widow headphones I use. Ya gotta love them wives that want you to find more gold rings for them....

My Excal and CZ-20 still find many small earring backs and studs with the 10" coils. I used the larger 10" coil on the Tiger Shark in the water too and being flat it planed but doesn't float like the White's coils. It is quite sensitive too for the small stuff, but of course the PI's are all deeper. But I felt worn out digging up small junk from the depths and wasted a lot of time doing so. If only I could get a Sov GT in a waterproof version I would buy six of them!

 

[petersra]

Thanks to each of you for your input........ Okay, what I know or have reconfirmed is that the Soverign, Excalibur, Explorer and ETrack all detect gold to "about" the same "deep" depth, although the Soverign might go a little deeper and the Explorer is heavier for some reason but handles EMI better. There are slight differences in tones and accuracy of visual signals, but they all have close to the same electronics. What I don't know yet, is how deep is "deep". How deep would you say your detector of choice would find the back of a gold earring, a 2g gold/diamond wedding ring or a 7g gold band? Since I have never used a Minelab before, your guess is better than mine. So, if you haven't actually tested your machine on different size gold in a test garden or on the salt beach, I would appreciate your guess on the depth. Thanks again to each of you for taking the time to respond to my questions. Ralph

 

[Sandman]

Hi Ralph, Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays which ever you prefer.

Reporting on max depth would be hard as maybe the targets at one place would only be shallow. Earring backs and studs are very light weight so waves could wash them around. I have scooped tiny charms from about six inches but that is hard to measure in the water when you use a scoop. The charms I've found were a little larger than earring backs and found with my CZ-20. I usually ignore the tiny signals too as being to small to use up my time with though I know in doing so I left a lot of stuff for others to find while I was sweeping for the louder signals.

 

[stasys]

FBS and BBS are deepest detectors with discrimination. i use explorer and can say what for its not good, first thin chains and tiny things, but still you can pick it up, rings and all the rest is easy, bigger object deeper you can pick up crashed bear can 45cm easy. explorer and etrac give very similar air and ground death. take small jewelry to dealer and check what is deepest on manual max sensitivity, because max sensitivity no problem to use in beach, if you will look for second hand look for pro coil its deeper compare to 1050 by inch. good luck and Christmas bells

 

[gravediggermax-vabeachva]

stasys has told the facts

i have tested and tested against GT's and Excals on the beach, none can hear what the Se Pro can hear.

i mean certain low tones that only the se pro hears, i have to remove sand for the other 2 to be able to even hear the target.

but

how many targets to u want to dig that are 10 to 14 scoops deep.......think about it, takes lots of time and lots of extra effort.

the depth is there if u want it.