Sort of a newbie, what to get?

[reach44]

I'm a bottle digger at heart, but a while back I wanted to get into detecting so I bought a Compadre and an f2 just for fun. I ended up selling them to buy bottles of course. Now I'm looking to get back into detecting and I want to purchase a slightly more expensive model. I just wanted to know thoughts on these detectors and which do you think I should go with. Thanks for your time.

Fisher F4

Minelab Xterra 305 (maybe a 505)

Teknetics Eurotek Pro..

Something with ground balance. In a perfect world I'd like to spend about 400.

 

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[digger27]

I'm a bottle digger at heart, but a while back I wanted to get into detecting so I bought a Compadre and an f2 just for fun. I ended up selling them to buy bottles of course. Now I'm looking to get back into detecting and I want to purchase a slightly more expensive model. I just wanted to know thoughts on these detectors and which do you think I should go with. Thanks for your time.

Fisher F4

Minelab Xterra 305 (maybe a 505)

Teknetics Eurotek Pro..

Something with ground balance. In a perfect world I'd like to spend about 400.

The Euro Tek has no manual GB but rumor is it works pretty good in most soil situations despite that.
The F4 has manual GB but it only works on the all metal side or when you use the pinpoint...it is still preset on the disc side.
If you are going to hunt using disc you might as well buy another F2 because not counting the DD coil it would be essentially the same.
Out of these 3 on your list the 305, (or 505), are the only ones that really meets all your requirements.
Changing coils to change frequencies is also cool, but their coils do cost a bit.

If you want to go used I see Vaqueros in the classifieds under $400 all the time and the right dealer might get you close to that $400 price new.
The Outlaw with the one single 8" coil will also be in this price range, but no screens on these two, not that they are really needed if you take time to learn the Tesoro language.
Other mid level units with screens and all these features and more might come close to that $400 mark if you watch the classifieds.

 

[crazy4coins]

The Euro Tek has no manual GB but rumor is it works pretty good in most soil situations despite that.
The F4 has manual GB but it only works on the all metal side or when you use the pinpoint...it is still preset on the disc side.
If you are going to hunt using disc you might as well buy another F2 because not counting the DD coil it would be essentially the same.
Out of these 3 on your list the 305, (or 505), are the only ones that really meets all your requirements.
Changing coils to change frequencies is also cool, but their coils do cost a bit.

If you want to go used I see Vaqueros in the classifieds under $400 all the time and the right dealer might get you close to that $400 price new.
The Outlaw with the one single 8" coil will also be in this price range, but no screens on these two, not that they are really needed if you take time to learn the Tesoro language.
Other mid level units with screens and all these features and more might come close to that $400 mark if you watch the classifieds.

You wrote exactly what I was thinking!