Something I dont understand..

[Detecto]

Something I don't understand..

My first Metal Detector was a White's Eagle II SL Black Box with the stock concentric 950 coil.

I hunted my neighbors yard, which had never been hunted before. None of the people who ever lived in this house, built in the 1870's, ever had children, parties outside, etc.

It was a very surprising yard, because I found little to no clad, or pop tabs. Probably the best yard I will ever hunt.

I pulled over 60 pre 1900 coins from this yard at different depths. I found a few Indian cents from the 1860's (thick style) at over 7" deep. My best find was an AU barber dime.


Now stop and remember that this detector was made in 1989...


A couple years later, I went and purchased an XLT, I spent a lot of time reading up on all the various functions, and how to "peak it".

Don't get me wrong, the XLT is a good machine, but deeper than the Eagle 2 SL.


So back to the yard I went, the same yard I hunted last year, I found a whopping 3 more coins.


I can't figure out why people will swing $1300-$1500 on a new v3i when a DFX/XLT can be had for around 450 used.


Is the V3i deeper than the DFX, of course, but how deep do you want to go?


An XLT/DFX will find 90% of all coins buried if you learn how to program it. Even if you sell your DFX for $400 and spend $1350 on a new V3i, how long will it take to make up that extra $900?

 

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[Loco-Digger]

The same reason why some will lease a car for over $400 a month.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Depends on what you are hunting for. I'm a beach hunter, I want the depth and the ability to skip digging all iron, which is why I swing Excals and CTX3030 when I am hunting and my back ups are an ETrac and Sov GT.....

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Depends on what you are hunting for. I'm a beach hunter, I want the depth and the ability to skip digging all iron, which is why I swing Excals and CTX3030 when I am hunting and my back ups are an ETrac and Sov GT..... All of my detectors have paid for theirselves except my 3030 and that is because it is my newest detector and haven't hunted as much with it...

As far as cost of detector, I figure the cost of what I paid for a detector minus what I can sell it for used as the true cost to me.

 

[Carolina Tom]

I am jealous of your 60+ pre-1900 coins.

This might not sound nice, but here it is: The world is full of people that have money, maybe not tons of money, but enough, so that a $1500 metal detector is not a big deal to them. Look out the car window, there are a bunch of people driving $70K vehicles around. These people would put a CTX on their credit cards in about 15 seconds... no biggee.

I work hard and make a good honest living. If I want something, I buy it... within reason. This is my hobby, I enjoy it, so I buy what I want and go have fun. I hope this does not come off as crass or insensitive.

Some people just like toys!

 

[kcm]

You're right Tom, not everyone has the luxury of getting the top-of-the-line equipment. I used to do that in woodworking. Then my skills developed to where I was making my own equipment for increased accuracy and better production times. Now? Now I don't think about it much. I no longer lust for money; never did want to be rich-and-famous!! But I think I've gone a bit too far, in that now I try to design and build everything myself. ...When it don't work right, I don't have to worry with calling Customer or Tech Support; I just look in the mirror!!

 

[Detecto]

Well my financial logic is a bit different, I always look at returns.
I know a lot of people live by "if you have it, spend it", but I think differently.
A new 70,000 dollar car will ride better than a new 25,000 dollar car, it will be more well built, and have more bells and whistles..but at the end of the day, both vehicles will still get you to the place you are going to.
So if you buy the 70,000 dollar car over the 25,000 dollar one, that is an extra 45,000 that is no longer yours, it's in the form of an asset, a very depreciative asset.
Vehicles are never an investment, unless we are talking about classic ones, the minute you drive it off the lot as new, it will immediately loose 10% of it's value. Ouch!
Better set aside, that 45,000 could easily be turned into 70,000 if done wisely and correctly.
But of course people usually are very short-sighted with their finances and when they turn 70, they go "huh, how come I don't have any money for retirement?"
I see it a lot, too much, sadly. I've personally witnessed several people drop an extra 10,000 dollars on a truck with more payload, and they never even use it, they just think it impresses people, I could care less..
At the end of the day, I look at the $733B in total US Credit Card Debt, and think to myself..."People sure do like spending a lot of money they don't have, to impress people who could care less".

But like I said, other people's finances are not my business or concern, I just try to always get the "most bang for my buck".

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Sounds like the extra "features" didn't exactly apply to THAT yard....

This ^^^

I also had a Whites Eagle SLII black box with 950 and loved it. And then, like you, moved up to the XLT. Didn't see much imrpovement. HOWEVER: I can tell you for a fact that there are machines today that spank either one of those for turf-hunting. Each of those is a little ... uh .... "dated" when compared to the Explorers, for instance.

 

[ScubaDetector]

I had a Whites Eagle SL2 and LOVED it. I have been searching for another. I used it in Utah and it was deep. I now use an E-trac in Michigan and I want to compare them. I really think I was deadly with that Eagle.

I know Michigan has different soil but I really want to try an Eagle here. I bought a Spectrum and an XLT and truthfully drowned both of them in lake Huron. Gave the Spectrum to my daughter, got the XLT repaired and sold it and have used water machines mainly till last year. I really think the Eagle was the best machine I ever had.

 

[Detecto]

Well maybe you guys are onto something. I'd much rather spend time digging gold rings out of parks then a million frickin pull tabs.

I called a dealer in my area (too far to drive) and they said they could give me 5% off on a phone in order on the V3i.

 

[Frankn]

This ^^^

I also had a Whites Eagle SLII black box with 950 and loved it. And then, like you, moved up to the XLT. Didn't see much imrpovement. HOWEVER: I can tell you for a fact that there are machines today that spank either one of those for turf-hunting. Each of those is a little ... uh .... "dated" when compared to the Explorers, for instance.

The main difference between the Eagle and the XLT was the display .

XLT dated ? Would you mind explaining ?
My XLT is 16 years old. It has never been repaired. It has found many thousands of dollars worth of jewelry and coins. It pinpoints exactly. It can display multiple targets on each pass. The target ID is as accurate as any.

Now I admit that I use my 16 year old Surfmaster on the beach because it is extremely sensitive to fine gold chains. I scoop all signals on a beach.

Frrank

 

[Detecto]

Don't forget the Eagle Spectrum and the Silver Eagle, which I think later became the QXT..

 

[Frankn]

The original Eagle that I used had a vertical display screen. I have had 2 XLT's. Lost the first in a fire. I now have the last or 3rd version of the XLT. I also have the adjustment manual to tweek the computer settings. It bottoms out at 2' for large items like license plates. Frank

 

[Tom_in_CA]

.... I'd much rather spend time digging gold rings out of parks then a million frickin pull tabs....

Not sure I understand what you mean by this. There is no machine that will tell the difference between aluminum and gold. Unless you're referring to some sort of notching or "ring-enhancement" programs ? If so, that's not really telling the difference between aluminum and gold. That's merely knocking out commonly recurring types of aluminum. Eg.: round tabs, etc... And you will indeed miss some types of gold rings doing this (granted, a small percentage). And you will indeed still dig a lot of aluminum (especially if there's can-slaw in your choice of park).

So if gold rings are your goal, skip the junky blighted parks in the first place. Go to swim beaches instead

 

[Tom_in_CA]

.... XLT dated ? Would you mind explaining ? ....

Meaning there are now better machines out there. For turf, land, wet-salt, etc...

The XLT had an annoyingly slow sweep to TID time. Ie.: when you swept over the target, you had to wait second for the TID to appear on the screen. Versus the Eagle where the flicker of the signal TID was instantaneous. So a lot of guys preferred the earlier Eagle's. The last incarnation in particular: The SL II black bock. Lot of fun. Fast recovery speed. But lacking by today's depth standards unfortunately.

 

[Jason in Enid]

But like I said, other people's finances are not my business or concern, I just try to always get the "most bang for my buck".

So why did you spend the money on that detector? You could have bought $50 detector that will still get you everything in the top few inches of soil. That's a far better "bang for your buck". Or maybe the truth is that you really do want to dig some of those older, deeper coins. Maybe someone else wants to make sure they can dig the oldest, deepest coins possible and they can afford the detector that does it.

Always keep in mind, this metal detecting thing we do is a HOBBY. If you are calculating ROI and profits, you are here for the completely wrong reason and you won't last long. Not saying that YOU PERSONALLY are in it for that, but some are.

 

[FreeBirdTim]

Unless you're looking for gold, there's little difference between a $200 machine and a $2,000 machine. I'm currently hunting a trashy park full of foil and pennies. The simple solution was to notch out everything to the left of the dime signal. I've dug $35.00 in clad dimes and quarters over the last week, as well as a couple of silver rosies and a 1943 merc. I still dig a few pennies (only the older ones), but overall it's a blast with almost no trash dug.

It's like the guy who thinks he'll be a better golfer if he buys the most expensive clubs. They might help a little, but if you're not a good golfer in the first place, the extra money spent won't do jack squat to improve your game.

The same rule applies to metal detectors. I run into a lot of guys with 2k detectors and they never seem to find anything when I'm around. They go too fast and all they can think about is finding big silver or gold in an hour or less. If they strikeout in the first hour, they run along to the next spot.

Bottom line, skill and patience will trump wads of cash spent on a detector every time. Buy a decent machine and learn that machine and stop "upgrading" your detector every few months. It won't help you one bit.

 

[victhedog]

Well maybe you guys are onto something. I'd much rather spend time digging gold rings out of parks then a million frickin pull tabs.

I called a dealer in my area (too far to drive) and they said they could give me 5% off on a phone in order on the V3i.

Have a V3i and will never go back

 

[Frankn]

Meaning there are now better machines out there. For turf, land, wet-salt, etc...

The XLT had an annoyingly slow sweep to TID time. Ie.: when you swept over the target, you had to wait second for the TID to appear on the screen. Versus the Eagle where the flicker of the signal TID was instantaneous. So a lot of guys preferred the earlier Eagle's. The last incarnation in particular: The SL II black bock. Lot of fun. Fast recovery speed. But lacking by today's depth standards unfortunately.

I use the bar graph rather then the TID#. I can fast swing and instantly see several types of targets at once. Also, the XLT pinpoints a target better than a lot of other newer models of other brands.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

I use the bar graph rather then the TID#. I can fast swing and instantly see several types of targets at once. Also, the XLT pinpoints a target better than a lot of other newer models of other brands.

Frankn, it's just a "feel" issue I guess. Did you ever use the Eagle SLII with black-box 950 ? If you did, and then switched to the XLT, you'd see what I am referring to. On the other hand, I grant you that some people simply like the XLT. And didn't have a problem with the micro-second the info took to appear on the screen. To each his own

Also the XLT was better on the wet salt beach than the Eagle. The Eagle had auto-track, for for some reason, wasn't worth a darn. I STILL found myself having to re-balance all the time, when walking closer to, or further away from the water's edge. Whereas the XLT was better on the wet salt.

And there was another difference with the Eagle (on mine anyhow, not sure if it was a "fluke"): If you clicked the toggle while over a target, it would detune, and stay detuned to that level of metal. Not sure if that's clear or not. In other words, if you wanted to re-tune, you'd have to be sure to hold your coil in the air, away from all metal, lest you be tuned to whatever amount of metal you clicked next to. I found that to actually be a benefit. It allowed you to "size down" to your target instantly, like for pin-pointing. Or when ghost-townsy/demolition hunting, it was as if you could switch to a small coil (de-tuning to see less) with the click of the trigger instantaneously .