Minelab is the way to go, but on which path?

[symont]

Hi every one,

I turned 40 recently and I made a small list of things that I always dreamed of and never did for a million reasons. Metal detecting is one of them and I decide that it is time to take the plunge. I am a meticoulus, patient and curious guy so this hobby should suits me very well. I read a lot of infos in the past few weeks and the project is taking shape. Minelab will probaly be the way to go. Among other things, this chart says a lot:

http://www.staffsmetaldetectors.co.uk/george_111_halfpenny.htm

My final four are these detectors. By the way, I will spend most of my time in National Parks in field, forest, fresh water front, river and sometime on salt water beach (during vacation ;-). I will look for relics, coins and jewelery.

Minelab Explorer SE pro: Why not the best since I can luckely afford it. This way, I will never think of a lost opportunity and won't look for an upgrade for a while. The learning curve is probably high but I have all my time.

Minelab Quattro: Even with a pro coil upgrade, this will be cheaper than the Explorer and will be almost be as good. It has less tweaking but I am thinking that with four personal presets, this should be more than enough.

Minelab Sovereign GT: I have a feeling that it might be more fun to tweak with real knobs and train my ears insted of playing in sub-menus and always reffer to a displays (that must be hard to read anyway in the sun).

Minelab X-Terra 70: I read quite a few times some comments about guys how upgraded to the Explorer and finally downgraded to the X-Terra because of the easy of use and the small weight. So I guess I must also not dismiss this option.

To be honest, I also consider the Garrett GTI 2500. I don't know why exactly. Maybe because the persons who like it seem to really like it. Or maybe because of the twin loop great deep dectector adaptor. I would probably never need it, but having the possibility is a great motivator for a guy in its garage ;-)

I know that this is an impossible question. But I will ask it anyway. What would you do in my place and more importantly, why. Detectorists who have or had more than one of my choices should be of great help in my dilema.

One last thing. Because I have no experience, I have difficulties to ponder the speed of a detectors. I mean, I saw a video of some guy at Minelab showing how to exclude an object. He was passing a nickel at a crawling pace over the coil while saying that he passes it at a normal sweeping speed. That makes me wonder how fast can we swing the coil back and forth on these sofisticated processing units. Maybe that is why some prefer the Tesoro for their speed. If we must move the Minelab at a crawling pace, maybe I should ponder less the discrimination and the deep of the Minelab and look elsewhere?

Thank you for reading me and for your help.

Sylvain

 

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[utah hunter]

For a beginner the xterra 70 is what I would go with. It is light, faster then the other minelabs, and has good depth and target separation. It is also VERY easy to pinpoint with the stock coil. I owned a GTI 2500 and sold it because of the weight. It was a good machine, but I have learned I like a machine with tones a lot better. My opinion, you will have several more very quickly. Welcome to tnet...Ryan

 

[eagle77]

I've had my Xterra 70 for 2 weeks now and love it. It has features that I wish my T2 had and in places the Xterra outperforms the T2. It's light weight and uses AA batteries. Overall a good machine for the price.

 

[SamsSon]

Of the machines you list I've owned the SE and GT. I would take the GT any day over the SE.

The meter thing is basically useless and all experienced THers know this. About the only thing they do is burn up batteries.

Many old timers on here know that back when Fisher was still Fisher, back before the current meter thing, Fisher warned the public that meters were useless--but the people wanted them so they got them.

You can't trust any meter. Those things have probably caused more missed finds than any other cause. And too, meters are expensive and much of the cost of a machine is paying for these useless gimmicks.

Of all the Minelabs the Sovereign GT is by a country mile the best coin/relic detector they make. I wish it were lighter but it's still within the range of acceptable weight for the average man. If you ever get a GT stay with the stock Tornado coil. It is the best coil for it.

Having said all this I need to add that if you really want a meter it's better to just go ahead and get it out of your system. You won't be happy until you do. If this is the case get the new SE Pro. You won't do as well with it as you would have done with the GT but at least you'll have your meter satisfaction fulfilled and once learned it would be a good machine.

Best to you.

 

[Keppy]

The...GT...beats them all........................

 

[Dixie Digger]

40+ years and over 100 detectors....nothing beats the GT...and for water i use the Excal ll...

 

[Shenandoah Digger]

For a TID machine, my only choice would be the 70. For a tone only machine, the GT would be it. Would definitely pass on the others. If I had to choose between the 70 and the GT, I'd go with the 70 for all of its features and ease of use. You can't go wrong either way.

 

[symont]

Thank you all for your good advise. Like SamsSon said, I guess it first comes a question: do I badly "need" a meter or not. Also, I am a bit surprise about the high praise around the X-Terra 70. Not that I know better. Simply that I had (and still have) difficulties to place this unit in the detector hierarchy. On paper, the multi frequency probing of the GT and Exp are more appealing. But I can understand that more is not always better and a no nonsence get to the point unit could be the best thing.

I guess I am a bit closer to the purchase now. I first have to answer the question about the meter. In another tread, Sandman (who seems to be one of the wise guy around here) is saying that he will drop his GT meter soon. I would really like to know his reason.

Then it will either be the GT or one of these two: 70 or Exp.

Regards

 

[Shenandoah Digger]

Don't kid yourself about the 70. It may not be the best out there, but when they're calling roll for the best, the 70 doesn't have to wait long to hear his name.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I curently have 7 detectors although one is up for sale so I may be down to 6 soon, of these 2 are Sovereign GT's, one GT is custom waterproofed for hunting in the surf. I love the Sov GT, which is why I bought the Custom one when I had a chance, I had 2 Excals at the time I bought the WP SOV and I sold one of the Excals right away, my backup for the WP Sov GT is my other Excal, that tells you how much I love the SOV when an Excal becomes a backup unit................

My Beach Machines:
Water Proofed Sov GT with WOT Coil
Excal 1000 (Backup for my WP Sov)
Another Sov GT with WOT Coil for shallow water, wet/dry sand and land hunting

Land Machines:
Whites 6000 XL PRO
Whites Classic ID (With Mr Bill Mod)
Tesoro Conquistador (For Sale)

Competition hunts
Fisher 1235 X (Also a good Beach wet/dry sand)

 

[symont]

OK, down to two choices: the Sov GT and the X70.

If I was only hunting on beaches, the GT would be a no brainer. And Nick got a really good point about the Sunray probe. My last concern now is the fact that two third of my hunting will be done on land. From all the comments and other readings, I get the feeling that the X70 could be equal if not better on land in a lighter package.

I understand now that you beach guys are totally sold to the GT. But how about using it on land Threasure_Hunter, a real GT lover, seems to beleive that there is better choice on land. Will I be able with one coil to look for relic, coin and gold with the same (or almost) efficiency than the X70?

And for X70 guys, the GT can be easely waterproof and I see this as a plus (the Sunray is another plus). But I am still all ears to read your points about the X70 being a better choice for me.

I guess I will read the two manuals while waiting for your answers. I might find the turning point in there.

Thanks again for your help,
Sylvain

 

[Shenandoah Digger]

You don't have to be convinced or swayed. Just read the information available, make your decision, and enjoy whichever one you buy. If after using it for a while, you don't like it, sell it and buy another like the rest of us have done at one time or another. It ain't like choosing a wife.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Threasure_Hunter, a real GT lover, seems to believe that there is better choice on land.

I use my non-water proofed Sov GT on land a lot, I listed it under Beach Hunting only, but I did show it is used for land hunting. ("Another Sov GT with WOT Coil for shallow water, wet/dry sand and land hunting")

I am primarily a beach hunter, I love hunting beaches, it is easy to cool off, digging is so much easier, the potential for gold is much, much higher, the sound of the surf and smell of the ocean, and of course the eye candy.

When I do go land hunting I always take at least 2 detectors with me and one of them is always a Sov GT. I just paid for a used Patriot meter for the Sovereign, a used Patriot cost more then a new Digimeter. I have been looking for a Patriot meter for my Sov for over a year. Finding one for sale is almost next to impossible....... I am looking forward to getting it and trying it out, it is lighted.

I just enjoy buying and playing with different detectors to see how they work is all. I just sold a Troy X2 Shadow I had and I have the Tesoro Conquistador up for sale not because I didn't like them, but because I wanted to finance the Whites Classic ID I just bought.

 

[Keppy]

...I have the ....Sovereign GT ....and just got a.... X-Terra 70 ....again and the ....Sovereign GT.... to me is a lot better detector than the ....X-Terra 70.......Now the .....X-Terra 70 ....is a nice and good detector but to me no detector out there is as good as the Sovereign... But i will say you sure don't need a pin pointer with the..X-Terra 70......... .....Like i say they are like cars we all have our brand & model .................

 

[Shenandoah Digger]

Sounds like Jim needs to get familiar with the Xterra he just got.

 

[utah hunter]

Sounds like Jim needs to get familiar with the Xterra he just got.

He had one before. Here is his quote:

.. I like Minelabs have been a fan from the first Sovereign was put out about 1992.......And i have my Sovereign GT love it and will never part with it........But i got rid of my X-Terra 70 it just never did any thing for me i tried it and tried to like it but it was not for me....Sooo.........I got rid of it and i am happy i did...

It was in this thread:
http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,163464.0.html

 

[Shenandoah Digger]

Hmm--must have been a reason he got another one.

 

[symont]

Sovereign GT it will be!!!

First of all, while doing this exercise, I had no doubt that any pick would be a good one and I would be happy with all of them. It is just a question of learning their possibilities and limits and... practice. My generation will remember that with our first HP programmable scientific pocket calculator, we coundn't do 1+1=2 anymore. That didn't prevent the HP to be a darn good calculator... which didn't mean that the plain vanilla simple pocket calculator was not the tool of choice for day to day calculations. Same goes for accounting calculators.

With that in mind, I read carfully your suggestions (and spent a lot of time on other treads). I am not anguishing with these choices. I simply trully think that this little research and reflexion it's part of the whole fun. I will only cherish more my unit I choose.

Maybe I will eventually develop a taste for a more specific type of search. But for now, I was looking for a good all around unit. The X-Terra 70 has probably the neatest interface where it covers all the basis in a direct easy way. But its multi coil system (which is probably very efficient if you know what you are looking for ;-) is not appealing to me at this time since I just want to dig what ever is in my path without wondering if I have the proper coil at the proper frequency. On the other hand, I was wondering how someone can be precise in its setting without a display like the GT. Also, how can we live without an ID target in this digital days? This is why I then consider the SE pro which seems the best of both world. But reading the gurus wisdom made me thinks that the better tool we have is our ears. We have to train them, but they will eventually be very realiable. Also that target ID, deep and all the orther "aids" have their limits and, in a way, could kill the fun of digging a hole with feverishness. Since I won't use it for a living, I don't "need" the extra power of the SE. The saved $600 can be wisely put on a better set of hearphone and a probe.

I pondered this for a couple of days hesitating between the 70 and the GT, seeing myself using both. Both have enough partisans, I cannot go wrong with either of them. The balance tiped when I saw myself taking extra extra care of the control box while using it in a feet or two of water. It woud be less stressfull if it could be waterproof. Hey, I use to built underwater ROV, this should be a project I can tackle. And for that matter, the GT is the easiest one to realise. So there it is. The Minelab Sovereign GT. No regrets.

I will start with a plain vanilla GT with a hip pocket. When the basics will be mastered, I may had a Sunray in-line pointer. No rush.

Thank you all for your help. See you in the Today's Finds section!!!
Sylvain

 

[fng68]

The Quest for the "Right" Detector,

That is, I have found, another fun part of this hobby.

Your short list of choices were all great, and I could be happy with any of them.

If you find that one day you would like to add a display, minelab makes one
and another outfit ( http://www.losttreasure.com/pressrelease/Patrick Electronics-23-Jun-04.cfm ) has an interesting looking design.

Many here swear by the GT, it is a fine machine.

Good Luck,
Ron

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

The Patriot meter is out of production, I talked to the maker, he is going to try to start making them next year if he can find a good supplier for the mother board.

I just found and bought a used Patriot meter from a hunter in Canada, I'm waiting for it to arrive................