Who has a detector they DO NOT like???

[dirtscratcher]

Tesoro Vaq was a huge dissapointment at $450. Tracker IV gives more target info for $100.

 

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[Daedalus]

I have the Minelab X-Terra 705 and I like it very much . It goes deep and is easy to learn . Also it is very light and easy to swing .

I started years ago with a Nautilus just after the name change , it worked very well ,
but was heavy and ate battery's like candy . Most brands did as battery's were not as good as today's are .

And it was costly for the time , but that was all they had in my town , no internet so you got
what was local , at least I did.

 

[Phillip_in_NM]

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading what others have had to say about various machines - so I'll add my two cents for the ones I've had experience with:

Garrett GTI2500: My first quality machine - Heavy, very adaptable with the various coils - even used it with the 5x10 coil in competition hunts. I found enough pocket change with it to pay for it in the first six months. Great park hunter. Poor ghost town hunter. Recommend (with limitations).

Fisher F75: I've seen it in the hands of experts and it is an amazing machine. I felt like I gave it the "old college try" but never could make myself like it. Don't recommend.

Minelab Explorer and Explorer SE: Like the F75, these can be awesome machines in the hands of people that are willing to take the time to learn them. The 'calliope' music that these things produce drive me smooth up the wall. Since a big part of the hobby for me is to relax and enjoy myself, these went by the wayside - too much signal overload. Don't recommend.

Garrett Ace 250: Had a whole lot of fun with this machine. IMHO, this is a very good park/playground/tot-lot hunter. Not very good in heavy trash. Great backup machine. Recommend.

White's BeachHunter ID: Hated it. Coil floats. Don't recommend.

White's DFX: Probably a good machine in the hands of someone willing to set the almost infinite number of settings. This was my only machine for about two years. In that time, I never dug a single silver coin (I did find silver rings) and never dug a coin beyond about 5-6 inches deep. All the time I was using it, I was wondering if I had all the settings right. That took away from the enjoyment for me. Don't recommend.

White's M6 Matrix: Hands down, my favorite machine of all time. I'm quite sure this will be the last land detector I will ever purchase. With all the detectors I've ever owned previously, I only found two gold rings, both with the Garrett GTI2500. In the three years I've had the M6, I've found an additional six gold rings, a trade token, about 25 silver rings, about 20 silver coins and a mountain of pocket change. I found a gold ring with it less than an hour after I had taken it out of the box!!! (It turned out to be my cousin's wedding ring which he had lost eight years earlier! Crazy story!) I use the 4x6 DD coil almost exclusively and still find coins down to about eight inches. Target separation is awesome and I'm not overwhelmed by the 7 tones. I only have two adjustments to make (after ground balancing) - discrimination level and sensitivity. I think it's what the DFX should have been. This is truly an awesome machine! Highly Recommend!!!

 

[birdman]

Search scan 450 water machine(co out of business) it was very noisy.
Whites silver eagle- great machine but heavy
whites 6000 di pro, Liked it good machine
Fisher CZ5 liked it a lot but it loved deep nails (paid for it's self)
Fisher ID excel- not much depth,mine broke in 6 hours of use.
Tesoro cibola - awesome machine for the money(paid for it's self)
Tesoro Vaquero- great all around machine for the money (paid for it's self)
Tesoro Tejon-did not like it( mine did not seem to get good depth)
Fisher 1280x- good machine but not good in salt water
ace 250- great little back up well worth the money
Minelab excal 1000 -fantastic beach machine.(paid for it's self in the first week)
Minelab etrac - Just got it/need to learn it. So far I really like it.
Bounty hunter pin pointer-gave it away.

 

[tumbleinn2]

You get what you pay for. If you spend a couple hundred bucks it a bottom line detector. If you want a good detector get your wallet out. That's the way to get a good detector. As far as I'm concerned there are pattents out there. And company's have them in place. There is such a limit on what can come on to the market due to these patents. Today it seems that Minelab & whites have it together on top rated detectors putting the other in the dust on tec stuff.
If you want a good all around unit I would look at the Whites v3i & and the Minelab etrac. these two toys are your best bet.

 

[Coinstriking Michigan]

Whites Classic III-Good for what it was I guess, didn't seem as enjoyable having no screen to look at
.
Tesoro Cibola-Liked it, best pinpoint I've ever used...average depth.

Whites XLT-Loved the screen, vdi numbers-Hated making adjustments-over complicated.

Minelab Xterra 50-Worst machine I have ever used,never found any silver with it..EVER-very comfortable to swing though.

Fisher Coinstrike-Found older and deeper coins with this machine than any machine I have ever owned. Poor battery placement though.

Minelab Quattro-Seems to get great depth, finding old stuff in spots I've hunted before,Heavy though and tones overwhelm me.

 

[Dr.Jones]

I have only had the Quattro. Its a love/hate relationship. Let me say that it sounds like a flute whistle some times. Drives me nuts. The display readings are useless. never correct. Had it for about 6 yrs. I will say that it is amazing at the beach. I mean i pulled a quarter about 15 inches in the sand. I am upgrading to the Etrac soon. My goal is a machine that can decipher trash as I hunt parks and trashy areas alot.

 

[triplehooked]

F2- Did not like it. Poor depth, poor pinpoint...best bang for the buck for a tid machine tho.
Ace 150-Hated it. The bong tones drove me nuts. Poor disc, poor depth...blah

Classic Id- Dated but nice. Nickel killer. Not very deep.
Cibola-Sweet machine. Killer pinpoint.
Vaquero-Same language as the Cibola but pinpoints different. Deeper. Learn the tones, it's a keeper.
MXT- Owned two of these. Nice machines, heavy but balanced well. Tons of coil options, good depth.

 

[Detector Wars]

Explorer se: Walks right over shallow coins. Picks up deep silver and deep rubbish. Good discriminator, but very slow response.

Excalibur 2: Excellent all round water detector, if it's not faulty. Audio from headphones is very muffled though, may discriminate on large rings and smaller rings close to the surface, pp mode is good.

GMT: Very good all round small nugget detector. Small gold only.

Infinium: wrote about it here: http://www.treasurequestxlt.com/community/showthread.php?t=53271

 

[cz70pro]

The only machine I had trouble with, was the origional sea search coil Excalibur. It was so heavy,I could only swing it for an hour.(I didn't have a hip mount adaptor) the shaft wobbled excessivley.The shaft would always "freeze" even after fresh water rinses. The threshold always needed adjusting,I hated the tones,and the way they "ramped" up and down and sounded "echo-like". The funny thing is, other water hunters are now paying top dollar for these because they say they are more sensitive to gold than the new Excal's. Happy hunting.

 

[fwcrawford]

I currently have a Vaquero, X-Terra 50 (my first detector), Musketeer Advantage, and Sovereign GT.
The one that has impressed me the most is the Sovereign GT.
If you have the patience and can sweep slow, this is a very capable detector for those "HUNTED OUT" sites out there that everyone else has given up on and moved on.
I didn't realize how many coins could be masked by iron until I got this machine and it sees the coins right next to iron without any problems!!
I use this machine mostly for hunting sites that have been pounded with other machines and it still finds goodies at these locations.
As far as the other detectors I have, I also love them for the purpose that I got them for.
Can't vouch for any other machines as I have only used one or two others, but did not have any complaints on them, just didn't use them that much.
Only other machine I am interested in now is a waterproof machine for the saltwater beaches and then my collection will be complete.
Just my opinion,
Felix

 

[CoilFisher]

You can get a pretty good feel for a detector before purchasing it by reading the manuals listed on the manufactuter's websites.
From that you can see if a detector is too "techy" and what to expect.
Sure does beat trial and error.
I was considering 3 or 4 different types for a future purchase next year maybe.
After reading the manuals and the posts here, I have narrowed it down to one.
Alot of it for me is "User-Interface" and if that is not clear and straightforward I dont want it.

I do have one I didnt like, but I am not going to mention it. I ended up sending it back 2 days after purchase and got 80% of my money back.

 

[Olegrumpy]

Hi

I sold the detectors I didn't like.

To be honest, most of them were OK, just not good for beach hunting (bad choice) or too complicated for my brains.

I did not like fishers (like the 1212X) because they disc out Ring pulls before pulltabs, because of your "nickels". That just does not match EU conditions...I want to get rid of current square tabs and still chance on a heavy gold ring. (and it works once in a while... ) Too chatty too, but good machines;

Anyway i ever had a GTA100 that drove me crazy that thing ate bot telcaps like there were no tomorrows, IDing them as quarters.

In more recent time, I have developed a quite special "love/hate" relationship wilt my ML Quattro. I like the features and the capacities of the machines, but i HATE it's weight, or should I say it's odd balance.

BUT, every time i grab it thinking "last outing before I sell you", it amazes me with some stupendous finds.

So now, if I want to buy the next one, and that will be either a Goldbug or an MXT/VX3 (<-----they lose points on the weight too, alas...), well I will keep it.

One never knows...

HH

Grumpy

 

[underarock]

BH tracker IV - best detector under 100 bucks.
BH Landstar - Lightweight easy to use and understand but its still a bounty hunter so depth was always lacking.
Ace 250 - easy machine to learn and was always fun to use. avg depth. pinpoint was iffy sometimes
AT pro - Loved the pro audio but only got average depth no matter how the ground balance was set. You have to use garrett's ridiculous headphones or rig up your own if you wanted to use your favorite set, Miss that VDI though and the ability to notch out segments in very small increments. Just too many technical issues with it for me to want it to be my main machine. Never would feel completely comfortable putting that thing underwater. Always felt like I was just waiting for it to break on me. wouldn't recommend until they work out all the kinks. I won't be buying a garrett again for awhile to be honest. Customer service was great but honestly the less I know about a companies customer service the better.
F2 - Extremely user friendly and big giant VDI. Above average depth for the price. wish i didn't sell it.
Tesoro compadre - someone sold me one for 40 bucks so it paid for itself in a week. 5 inch coil got deeper than I thought too. One knob wonder. Light as a feather but still capable.
CZ-70 pro - Current detector and by far my favorite. 4 tones, has a volume control on the unit, very simple id screen, has a backlight for night hunting but rarely need to use it, after a 100 hours on it you rarely look at the screen or use the pinpoint which translates into faster recoveries, rain/splashproof, one of the deepest detector using a concentric 8 inch coil, hip or chest mountable, dual frequencies 5khz and 15khz, Nickels read as a high tones and not as mid tones, saves your setting even if you remove the batteries. Built solid. Doesn't feel like a toy feels like an industrial tool. Easy ground balancing.
Downsides are loves deep rusty nails and can only change the sensitivity and volume settings by increments of 2's.
I'll have this machine for as long as I'm able to metal detect.

 

[ArnieTX]

Garrett GMH CXII - Poor depth - maybe it was me but I could never get this thing to go deep. 1992 - VA dirt
Fisher 1265/1266 - Good detector , better depth than my the Garrett. 1993 VA Dirt
White's Eagle Spectrum - Heavy and decent depth. Nothing spectatular. Hunted in and out of stock modes. 1994 Korea and Texas dirt
Tesoro Tejon - Deepest detector compared to the others I have had. Bought it for relic hunting. Goes forever on batteries. Light - Not flashy but confident in it. Slow down and listen, you will pull deep targets. 2008 to present - Texas Dirt
Tesoro Tigershark - Not impressed at all with the depth of this machine. If Tesoro could put the depth of the Tejon in the Tigershark I would own another. Cranked sensitivity up and hits dime at 6" air test. Results in water the same. I expect more after using the Tejon. Primary freshwater machine. Maybe it was a lemon. 2008 - Texas freshwater streams
Tesoro Cortez - Nice machine, decent depth, plenty of features, good coin hunter, not as deep as the Tejon but good depth, better depth than the Garretts and Whites, par with the Fishers. Doesn't blow you away though reaching deep. 2008 Texas dirt
Tesoro Compadre - Great little machine for the money. Depth was better than the Garrett and Tigershark. Turn it on and go, good disc, light, goes forever on batteries. Trunk machine for opportunistic type hunts while out and about. - 2008 Texas dirt
Bounty Hunter XXXX(blue machine with 2 or 3 knobs and meter) - Bought when I was 14 in 1984. First real detector owned. Found some silver and lots of clad. Max depth probably 4" -5" in Texas dirt. Hunted the crap out of Randolph AFB in the summers and stayed outa trouble . Record 5 mercs at the officers club swimming pool in a 10x10 area adjacent. Good kid memories. 1984
Compass lower end machine - Borrowed from someone when I was a kid hunting with the BH. Much deeper than the BH as I went back to my cleaned out yards and found more. Compass seemed like a great product to me as a kid. 1984 Texas Dirt

In the market for a water machine again. Leaning towards a CZ21 over an Excal. Worried about Excal quality.

 

[TabWhisperer]

Etrac. Love the machine. Absolutely hate the coil cable routing. And the cost of Minleab shafts. I guess that's why they call them shafts...

 

[BLB878]

I agree with alot of the posts. GTI2500 too heavy not very impressive depth especially for that size of coil. Ace 250 loved the machine. Just needed a little more depth and a few more bells and whistles. X-terra 505. Did not want to spend too much either. Wants were pretty much the same. light-weight, easy to learn. Mostly hunt old homesteads or abonded houses, coinshooting. Great machine easy to use but you can tweak it a little to get more id info etc.. two complaints about it, although one i fixed the other is not that big of a deal. It's top heavy. Set it down to check your handfuls of dirt and it will fall over. Fixed that by making a stand out of pvc pipe. (seen one similar on ebay) Also where the control unit attaches to the handle there is a "protrusion" that rubs on my finger. Not a big deal. Sooo, 2500 hated it, ace 250 liked it but wanted a little more, 505 love it dont know if ill ever own another detector again.

 

[amxfred]

Bought a Garrett Ace 150 so I could use it a week a year while visiting relatives in Oregon so I did not have to haul my E-Trac back and forth. It rang up 8 coins on the Coin mode and I dug 8 nails. What a waste of money.

 

[Razr]

I have a chinese made detector that does everything very good but it has a slow processor that makes for a very slow sweep speed, so i would have to say i don't prefer that brand.

 

[Sandman]

I've reread all the posts and I now have a detector that I simply don't like and this is the AT PRO. I like to learn detectors for the fun of it and this one from Garrett is the worst I've ever used in all the years I've been detecting. I know many of you think this is the best since sliced bread, but you haven't used as many as I have. All of us have preferences as to what we like or don't like. I just find the AT PRO inconsistent in its responses to targets with numbers not locking on. What I mean by this is even after the coin is out of the ground it will read different numbers and depths while the coil is waved over the coin. The sounds are the most accurate for disc purposes. The weight is OK, but prefer the Tejon or Sov GT as my go to detector for dry land. Guess I just don't care for screens.