Love my Excalibur 2!

[banjonyc]

I have been using my new Excalibur 2 for a few weeks now and love it.

I primarily hunt east coast beaches in NY. I have two machines prior to the Ex. The Whites Beach Hunter ID and the AT Pro. The AT Pro works well on the dry sand, but man, I just could not get it to do much of anything in wet sand and water. It constantly falsed, and I basically had to put the sensitivity level down to almost 1 or 2. Its a nice machine, and i use it when I do get on dry land, but for beach hunting, it just could not cut the mustard for me. The Whites on the other hand, is a great machine. I can skim the sand without falsing and it is pretty solid. Its OK in the water, but I just didnt love it. The machine was also pretty heavy, so I started using either a sling buddy or sometimes a hip mount. In addition, ground balancing was a bear often. No matter how much I pumped the coil, I just could not get a great balance. That is what really led me to the Excalibur 2. The auto ground balance is a life saver. You can go from dry to wet without having to balance at all. I usually don't do this, but it is a nice perk

Targets have been coming up much more often than with the Whites. In addition, I know I am getting deeper targets as I passed over a section of beach that i saw another detectorist on and I got a nice gold earring that his machine missed.

I replaced the shaft with an anderson straight shaft immediately for better balance.

The only down side is an issue many have complained about. The knobs on the Excalibur are fairly unreliable. My Discrim/PP know broke in the first week. I ordered a set of Anderson Knobs and they are a marked improvement.

Just my 2 Cents

 

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[Terry Soloman]

Shame you have to put more money into a $1,500.00 machine to balance it and replace knobs right off the bat.

 

[banjonyc]

The shaft replacement is a really a personal preference , so nothing you can blame minelab on....the knobs are an issue that they should address. But, its really worth it. This machine really makes hunting fun

 

[OBN]

Shame you have to put more money into a $1,500.00 machine to balance it and replace knobs right off the bat.

Terry remember when you were young and got your first car, I could not wait to start changing stuff. Wheels, tires, 8 track....Excal lovers still feel the urge cause...... "We Are Hot Rodders Baby!!"

 

[Terry Soloman]

I hear you OBN.

But I still get a kick out of following Excalibur's with huge coils on the beach, and pissing them off with my 8" Sand Shark.

 

[OBN]

I hear you OBN.

But I still get a kick out of following Excalibur's with huge coils on the beach, and pissing them off with my 8" Sand Shark.

I fully understand...as you can see below......he-he

 

[ChaseJax]

I hear you OBN.

But I still get a kick out of following Excalibur's with huge coils on the beach, and pissing them off with my 8" Sand Shark.

Are u saying the Excalibur misses a lot of stuff because it has the discrimination on?
Forgive me I'm a noob and am trying to learn as I go... the sand shark from my understanding is a pi system? How much trash are you really picking up you think compared to other people using machines with discrimination? I am trying to pick between the Excalibur and a pi. Wish I had one I could try or someone I could go with and watch. I live close to the beach and hear the most stuff is found in the surf so I think that's going to be my primary location (2-3 feet deep max cause water is nowhere near see through).
Anyways, thx for any reply...

 

[SocalJim]

Are u saying the Excalibur misses a lot of stuff because it has the discrimination on?
Forgive me I'm a noob and am trying to learn as I go... the sand shark from my understanding is a pi system? How much trash are you really picking up you think compared to other people using machines with discrimination? I am trying to pick between the Excalibur and a pi. Wish I had one I could try or someone I could go with and watch. I live close to the beach and hear the most stuff is found in the surf so I think that's going to be my primary location (2-3 feet deep max cause water is nowhere near see through).
Anyways, thx for any reply...

Maybe the Excalibur user smiles more knowing that sand shark owner is digging the iron signal that just nulled on his machine?
Ordinarily in stock modes the Sand Shark is a deeper machine it's debatable with a larger coil on the Excalibur. On my beach there are plenty of hair pins and bottle caps in the wet sand and water, you'd dig them all with a sand shark very few with an Excalibur that's the only difference.
Lets say there's 3 targets per yard and 1/3rd are ferrous . The Excal user covers a third more ground digging the same amount of targets and eliminates the trash while doing so. After lots of practice you'll hear the difference between a coin a ring and a nail but not nearly all so the Excal will always cover more ground effectively.

 

[Sandman]

Time spent digging up junk iron is time wasted.

 

[CASPER-2]

I hear you OBN.

But I still get a kick out of following Excalibur's with huge coils on the beach, and pissing them off with my 8" Sand Shark.

90% of the guys I follow use excals

 

[TwoYewts]

I'm right there with Casper. When out hunting, I'm usually competing with the Excals. My hunting buddy uses a Sovereign that he waterproofed which is basically an Excal equivalent. We are always comparing finds, find depths etc. In the end, the CZ tends to beat out the Excal in the deep/small finds (still get amazed at how deep the smallest earring, etc pops up with the CZ). In regards to total finds, the Excal and CZ are pretty even...we do a good job of cleaning up the beach
Comes down to me knowing what my CZ is telling me and him knowing what his Sovereign is telling him.

Happy Holidays everyone and best of luck in the new year!
TwoYewts