Yup there it is once again.
Folks will bash every machine because $$$ more important than their $$ machine, and that's fine.
But seriously the ergonomics, and the separation abilities are not even in the same book.
If recouping the investment is first, and foremost, then I think they'd better get into another money making adventure. (it would suck having that achy/nagging thought of swinging a $1500 machine digging only a silver)
I have no idea if I actually paid for my investments - probably back in 80's when it was easy to gleam gold/silvers still out of the ground.
Now for the comments of digging everything at a homesite....



Get frigging real, what a thought.
I can produce sites where you would be digging from morning to sunset, and not make it to the end of the site in one row.
You'd be better off screening it, than detecting and retrieving it.
But yes the low end machines will detect to a limit, hell some have great depth capabilities.
Yet out in the real world it has been proven that certain machine are just better-period.
Garrett Ace 250 (yellow) a buddy really thought it was a pretty good machine. (Which it was-in it's own ranks)
So we met up in High Park Toronto, went out onto the trails, and ravines of the 400 acre park.
Time after time, I'd detect a target with the Minlab Explorer SE.
He'd try, and get a minor little chirp, a non-diggable signal.
10" down a IH Penny, 14" a LC, 6" a Fishscale-those are keepers, in the pouch recoveries.
Sure not "BANNERS" as some rant about-but quality items that make up an array of targets that make any day a good day of hunting.
He went out the very next day and bought a SE, and his recovery rate shot up.
Now if a person has more time on their hands than a horse has hair.
They dig every signal, because it's important to dig every signal regardless because it's just a target, then fill the boots.
When a person has a few hours, or a day of hunting squeezed in, they only want to cherry pick the non-ferrous out of the iron.
Time trumps $$$ in the book, well no low end machine is going to fill that need fully.
From swinging the White's GoldMaster, non discrimination machine, metal/mineral setting, 14 AA batteries, slug of a machine, 2" depth in dry sand, relic hunting use the mineral setting.
It would hum/buzz till it went over a target then we dug like a dog digging a bone out.
Never knowing what it was, iron, or a hot rock, or something that one would keep, but the depth was great.(So we thought)
Still these machines were over $300-400 back in the early 70's.
Give me a $ Bounty Hunter Discovery today, and it would blow the early machines out of the water.
It really comes down to what a person can justify in life for a hobby/sport cost, or anything else.
My arse feels pretty good sitting on the $6K down-filled cushion couch,($100 online estate auction) but I prefer my office chair for a sit as well.
Some justify the $10's of thousands of dollars tied up in the hunting/fishing equipment.
$100K bass boat with 300 hp and it fly almost from one end of a lake to the other.
But I have seen more fish caught from the dock, and the $50 fishing pole set up.
Just because Joe Blow needs that $80K pick up-doesn't mean I need one.
Sure it might be nice to have a new 4x4, but the 14 yr old Tundra does the job, scratch it-

I really don't even care.
I want to drive through the Prickly Ash/Hawthorn trails to get closer to a site, no problem.
Hearing the scrapping of the thorns going down the paint job, really don't matter.
One can justify just about anything in life-twist it-turn it-till it sits real comfy on their thinking mind.
Want to dig metal, don't care if it's a sq. nail, or a button, or anything else-then the $$$$ machine isn't going to fill that need.
I prefer to dig something that goes into the keeper section of the pouch.
I can fill 45 gallon drums with steel-but that's not my objective when digging. I want to put something on the shelf.
Time trumps all $$$$ in my books, as I age I still hold this close to the chest.
Being 20/30/40/50s is a lot different than it is today.
But that my thinking behind the hobby.
I'll swing a high end machine-just because it's free-no smoke-no fast food-no drink-no gambling-I sleep on my own front pouch-so this is a pretty cheap hobby.
Go out no matter how bad life is at that moment, and totally forget all about the outside world.
I put it this way to folks that just don't get what this hobby is about,
I can have my house burn down this morning-and right here now digging things up in the dirt-alone-I'm good, as I wouldn't even really think about it.
I see the tad bit of envy creeping in-because where/what can take a person away like that?
Yes a $150 or a $1500 machine can certainly do that.
