Looking Whites TM 808

TheGreenBoy

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The 808 was a good detector- once pools ware made rigid. You will not find simmilar any more, the Garrett GTI has a two box option, but performance is not even near the 808. I guess a two box technology is a bit obsolete, replaced manly with PI and other technicks.
You should still be able to get a new TM808 unit at different MD wendors, though.
 

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Tom_in_CA

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The 808 was a good detector- once pools ware made rigid. You will not find simmilar any more, the Garrett GTI has a two box option, but performance is not even near the 808. I guess a two box technology is a bit obsolete, replaced manly with PI and other technicks.
You should still be able to get a new TM808 unit at different MD wendors, though.

How do you figure that PI made 2-box machines obsolete ?

If it's strictly a matter of "raw depth" on a given -sized-target, I'd agree. Eg.: a microwave-oven-sized object, at 4 or 5 ft. deep, YES: Varieties of pulse units (like some nugget hunters, etc...) can indeed get the same depth as a 2-box machine OR EVEN MORE !

Thus some people have mused "why even use a 2 box then, when you can have the "best of both worlds', by having the pulse ? I mean, the pulse can ALSO find individual coins , AND the big lunch-box sized objects, to insane depths. What's not to love, eh ?

If that's what you meant by "obsolete", then sure. HOWEVER: The devil is in the details :

The cache hunter (the O.P. in this case) DOES NOT WANT the bells of Notre Dame to ring on every pushpin, nail, pinhead, etc.... And actually, he doesn't even want individual coins. Or the nuisance tabs, nails, etc... that the pulse will ring on every time.

This is where the 2-box machine excels. It simply doesn't even see any object smaller than a soda can. Hence the perfect discriminator for small junk (coins, nails, foil wads, etc....)

I have tried cache hunting with a standard machine, thinking I would just mentally ignore all smaller signals. We were in a farm yard (where the next-of-kin was told their deceased family member had stashed various jars of stuff). And it was just one giant pain-in-the-#ss. Perpetual 2nd-guessing as to what's big vs what's small, deep vs shallow, etc....

So we gave up and brought a 2-box machine. IMMEDIATELY we ONLY got sounds on larger items (orange or soda can sized, or larger). And then presto: Found 5 or 6 jars of coins. And the only farmyard trash we had to contend with, was some larger cast-iron junk, some crushed soda cans, etc.... Everything else was silenced. AND THAT'S what a cache-hunter wants.
 

signal_line

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I've heard bad things about the volcanic sand. Any time you put a big coil on a VLF machine it does very poorly in mineralized ground.
 

TheGreenBoy

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Yeah, Tom, if you want to advocate for certain tech, shure you can. Try to get a decent two box similar to TM808 on the marcet these days and you'll see what i wanted to say.
And yes a decent PI can discriminate small objects out, i am doing it all the time, no problem. Analoge ones could be set to ignore small items with large coils, such as 1m x 1m, digital ones are employing algoritms to do so, and are effective by using any coil larger than 50cm. I have both.
 

Tom_in_CA

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Yeah, Tom, if you want to advocate for certain tech, shure you can. Try to get a decent two box similar to TM808 on the marcet these days and you'll see what i wanted to say.
And yes a decent PI can discriminate small objects out, i am doing it all the time, no problem. Analoge ones could be set to ignore small items with large coils, such as 1m x 1m, digital ones are employing algoritms to do so, and are effective by using any coil larger than 50cm. I have both.
Yes: If someone opts to put a hoola-hoop sized coil on their standard machine (whether it be PI or VLF), then sure: You become desensitized to small coin-sized stuff. Agreed. But wow, is it really practical to try to walk around and swing a 3+ diameter coil ? I guess it can be done. Good point.
 

Zincoln Miner

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I am Jake and i am from Philippines. I am currently engaged in treasure hunting for world war 2 loots here in the Philippines. My whites tm 808 broke down and cannot be repaired. I am looking for replacement.

Jake
In the past I have seen TM 808 clones, but I do not remember the manufacturer/model names.

I would look at the Fisher Gemini-3 for a possible replacement.
 

Tom_in_CA

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Which PI did you have, Tom?
Hey there greenboy, it doesn't matter what PI's I've used. I already acknowledge that if you put a big enough loop on a standard machine (whether PI or VLF), that yes, there comes a point where you can no longer get coin-sized stuff. Yet still get large objects. Hence mimicking the 2-box (where a user might NOT want to be bothered with anything small).

I have never used a PI with a 3+ ft. diameter hoola-hoop loop. If I'm wrong, and they can still get coin-sized targets with loops that big (as opposed to VLF of that size, do not), then : I would say that this is not a good cache-hunter. EVEN IF IT GOES SUPER DEEP ON LUNCH BOXES. And if even if the depth exceeds 2-box units.

Because balls-to-the-walls depth (on lunchbox sized targets) is only a portion of the "recipe" for a machine to make a good cache-hunter. The other portion of the recipe, is that you want a machine that simply will not pick up an item smaller than a soda can.

Heck, to be honest with you, if someone is hell-bent on thinking that the treasure-they-seek for is massive (refrigerator sized), then .... heck ... I'd take a 2-box unit, and simply detune and desensitize it, so that it WON'T find soda can sized objects. And while that means that you're loosing depth, yet you won't be bothered with soda cans at shallower depths.

An example of this is the cache hunt I did, for 5 or 6 jars of silver in a junky farm yard : At first, we super-tuned the 2-box, and held it as close to the ground as possible. So as to "not miss anything". And we actually could find objects as small as dominos, for example. Eg.: smaller than soda cans. After about 10 such targets, it began to annoy us. So we held the unit higher off the ground. And did not worry or chase any small flutters. Because, trust me, when the cookie-jar of silver coins was there, there was no mistaking that we had an object "bigger than a soda can". If we had knocked ourselves silly digging the domino sized stuff, we'd have wasted a lot of time, and not achieved our objective.

If someone changes their mind, and decides to coin-hunt for whatever reason (coins that spilled out of their cache), they can always have a standard detector with them, to go back and forth between objectives.

JMHO
 

Treasure_Hunter

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Member is looking for a replacement for his 808, not a debate on PI vs 2 box units.

Jake do a search for TM808 for sale, just keep in mind Whites went out of business.
 

TheGreenBoy

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Indeed. I appologise. I use to have the 808 and i liked it very much. Even though Whites is out of business, the TM 808 is still available by warious vendors, the Garrett took over the customer service and repair, so this should not be a problem. I worked with GTI 2500 two box add on for few days, and first impression was not any good, but i might be wrong. It was too short to really tell. Another option is Fisher Gemini 3, i never ownd this unit so i cannot comment. Then, there is a few of rather (over)expenieve and exotic machines, such as MP10, i cannot comment either, and that would pretty much deplet the marcet of two box machines.
I hope i helped a bit.
 

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