Which machine has the most accurate target ID (VID, TID, etc)?

[Lash]

I'm an old man and way behind on my chores. Don't have time to be digging lots of trash.

Much obliged,

Lash

 

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[BuckleBoy]

Depends on what you qualify as "trash."


My Target ID has Seldom failed.



-Buckles

 

[Sandman]

One man's trash is another man's treasure applies here. Many a gold ring will read as a pull tab on any screen.

 

[Coin Digger]

I can only speak for the Fisher F2, it can ID a copper penny/dime down to the 4" to 6" mark in good soil.

What type of hunting will you be doing?

 

[Lash]

When I was in college we treasured pull-tabs. Had chains of them strung all over the dorm.

Are there certain machines with reputations for good or poor ID accuracy?

 

[Lash]

I can only speak for the Fisher F2, it can ID a copper penny/dime down to the 4" to 6" mark in good soil.

What type of hunting will you be doing?

Saltwater beaches, old homesites, gold country for nuggets.

 

[vondrewvious]

x30
x50
x70
m6
dfx
xlt
mxt
f2
f4
f5
f70
f75
gti1500
gti2500
explorer
quattro
safari
e-trac
to name a few

 

[TORRERO]

When I was in college we treasured pull-tabs. Had chains of them strung all over the dorm.

Are there certain machines with reputations for good or poor ID accuracy?

The reality is that I (hhmm we) seldom dig those types of pulltabs anymore... the ones you could make chains out of.
we do still dig some of the newer "pushback" tabs but not near as many as the earlier type.

Beer cans are the only ones I know of that still have the chain link style tabs, and most people are not allowed to have
a "Bud" in a public park...

All soda bottle use the plastic screw tops now, and only the beer and hard liqueur still use the old metal screwtop lids..

There are still a lot of "Aluminum foil" signals though....
that's when a soda can gets shredded by that mower....
ha ha ha

My two cents worth...

 

[Coin Digger]

I sometimes wonder if people register under a new name just so they can post so they can pull someones chain?

 

[Shortstack]

There's a minimum of 5 answers to that question. Tesoro, Whites, Fisher, and Garrett. Now, if you break each of those down, you'll have doubled that number. So, visit the manufacturers forums and ask around for opinions. You'll have BUNCHES of opinions.

Good luck and good hunting.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Lash, you say you'll be hunting @ "Saltwater beaches, old homesites, gold country for nuggets". It's very doubtful you'll find a single good cross-over machine to do all of those tasks. Yes, "cross-over" machines have been made that both can do coin/relics, and then, with the flip of a few switches, can be made to find teensy pinhead sized nuggets. But believe me: they excell in neither arena. The goals of each type of hunting are just too opposed. A coin/relic guy DOESN'T want to find and/or hear every single piece of birdshot, staple, etc... But a nugget guy does. So the electronics to make a machine excell in each task are difficult to morph together. There will be much better coin/relic machines, and there will be much better nugget machines, than trying to have a machine capable of both. The few that can do both certainly will not have a good target ID (at least when compared with dedicated coin/relic machines).

You may want to explore getting more than 1 machine. As for the most accurate target ID, when it comes to coins, the Explorer has a good reputation of retaining good IDs at depth, good iron disc, etc.... But no, it will not find teensy nuggets, since that's not what it was designed for.

 

[Lash]

Thanks, all, for your generosity in sharing your expertise. Makes sense to me.

 

[vondrewvious]

Lash, you say you'll be hunting @ "Saltwater beaches, old homesites, gold country for nuggets". It's very doubtful you'll find a single good cross-over machine to do all of those tasks. Yes, "cross-over" machines have been made that both can do coin/relics, and then, with the flip of a few switches, can be made to find teensy pinhead sized nuggets. But believe me: they excell in neither arena. The goals of each type of hunting are just too opposed. A coin/relic guy DOESN'T want to find and/or hear every single piece of birdshot, staple, etc... But a nugget guy does. So the electronics to make a machine excell in each task are difficult to morph together. There will be much better coin/relic machines, and there will be much better nugget machines, than trying to have a machine capable of both. The few that can do both certainly will not have a good target ID (at least when compared with dedicated coin/relic machines).

You may want to explore getting more than 1 machine. As for the most accurate target ID, when it comes to coins, the Explorer has a good reputation of retaining good IDs at depth, good iron disc, etc.... But no, it will not find teensy nuggets, since that's not what it was designed for.

I don't know about the x70's prospetinng capabilities but it is an excecllent coin shooter. Just because it has a prospecting mode doesn't mean that coin shooting abilities are reduced.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

vondrewvious, yes: various coin/relic machines have a "prospecting mode", and no, that doesn't reduce their coin/relic ability. The XLT and Spectrum would be an example of this. They too have an ability for persons to "swap over to nugget mode". But believe me, they'd have no comparison in ability to dedicated nugget machines, made only for finding nuggets. No serious full-time nugget hunter would be out there with an XLT, while his buddies are out there with dedicated nugget machines. By the end of the day, he'd be out-done by the others. Is that to say that he (with his XLT) can't find nuggets? no. But which is the better machine for the task?

 

[littletwig]

You might want to take a close look at Whites M6. Does a good job in all the areas you want to hunt.

 

[vondrewvious]

vondrewvious, yes: various coin/relic machines have a "prospecting mode", and no, that doesn't reduce their coin/relic ability. The XLT and Spectrum would be an example of this. They too have an ability for persons to "swap over to nugget mode". But believe me, they'd have no comparison in ability to dedicated nugget machines, made only for finding nuggets. No serious full-time nugget hunter would be out there with an XLT, while his buddies are out there with dedicated nugget machines. By the end of the day, he'd be out-done by the others. Is that to say that he (with his XLT) can't find nuggets? no. But which is the better machine for the task?

I hear ya Tom. I guess I took your post as saying that combo machines are compromised coin/relic hunters. I looked at the original post as he would be hunting beaches, homesteads and nuggets. Two of which are coin/relic territory. I think if you are occasionally nugget hunting, a combo might do you fine. Seems that the dedicated gold machines are big bucks and not to very useful at two of the three places lash mentioned.

 

[Duane B]

If you haven't got time to dig lots of trash then stay in the local park and dig modern coins. There is not a machine made that will tell you the difference between trash and treasure. The only way you can do that is to dig the target and see it in your hands.

 

[Nick A]

Almost all newer machines have very accurate target id in a way. If all you want to dig are coins, just dig all the things your detector clearly signals as coins. You will be amazed how accurate it is.

However, when you want jewelry, gold and old coins... the target id is not very useful. Deep items and gold jewelry can come in anywhere. Also depends on how close a metal item is to something else. Target separation is important too.

If it were easy to just dig the good stuff and never dig any junk... everyone would be out doing it.

My suggestion is to buy the best detector you can afford and learn it. Skilled hunters typically don't use the meter or care what it says too much... they go by the sound. The meter helps by giving some additional info, but I do not hunt by the meter alone. The only way to learn that is to know your machine well.

Someone else said it best, and I always remember this... "the best discriminator is a shovel." Closely followed by, "it don't cost nothin to dig it."