Well, here is my input on cheaper detectors. I never had a BH, but had and still have an old coinmaster 3. Bought it used, and it still cost a lot, for me at least. Anyway, bought it for a project, and cracked the coil, so had to buy a new one, but I have used it for many years, and learned about detecting, digging, where to detect, and everything that goes with detecting. A friend had an Excalibur, and we hunted the same beaches, in Thailand. He found a few more coins than me, but not much. Now I also have an Excalibur, but finding even less coins than I did before. Of course most of the problem is I havent learned to use it properly yet, but with the coinmaster, I just dug every signal, in the dry sand, so found more, now im
trying not to dig every bottle cap on the beach. The coinmaster went down to about 4", so easy to dig, the Excalibur, goes down Forever, so I find myself digging in hard packed wet sand, down to 50cm, and then its a screw cap! The end result is being very tired, and sometimes cutting my hunting time in half. I am finding some older coins now with the Excal, they are not valuable, but give me a clue, that I am finding stuff deeper, that others have missed.
If my first machine would have been an Excal, I might have given up, so a cheaper and easier to use machine is the only way to start this hobby. As with any hobby, those wanting to start out with only the best, usually give it up, fast. When someone says they dont have the tools to do a job, it usually means they dont have the know-how. I just wish I knew about Wallys and BH, years ago, it would have been a lot more successful start. Its just natural that if your in a cheap store, and you see a metal detector in a cheap box, then it much be cheap!!
I look forward to it every wknd. I get to hang out with my kids....most of the time.
