3030 compared to a Excalibur

[Howard Snell]

As my excalibur is dying a slow death I'm considering upgrading to a 3030. Beach detecting wise what improvements would I see with the 3030 over a minelab Excalibur? I know some people here have both machines and could prob give me a good comparison.

 

[Reeseb]

I purchased my CTX3030 for the following reasons:

1) To obtain a better land machine than my E-Trac
2) To have a land machine with better balance over the E-Trac
3) To find deeper targets in the water than my Excal II
4) Because I could almost pay for the CTX3030 by selling my E-Trac and Excall II.

If either of reasons 1 or 2 hadn't panned out well for me, I would have been very disappointed - but they did pan out very well.

Reason 3 didn't pan out, but the CTX is every bit as good in water as the Excal II - it just hasn't shown itself to be any better. My advice is to stay with the Excal II if you only plan to only hunt in water. If you want to improve your land finds (including wet sand) and also have a water machine that is as good as the Excal II, then go for the CTX3030.

 

[Buried Crap NJ]

Reeseb Has pointed out everything one could possibly want in a detector. The 3030 is just a killer in the dirt hunting hands down. The beach and wet sand it is starting to deserve some respect as far a a water machine goes. Like any other machine purchassed you and it need time to become one. I had a tought time at first coming over from an Excal. and GT but now I have it in hand most of the time. All these machines pay for them self in a short time. This may take a few months longer, but in the end you'll have the best of both worlds. One thing you should concider is the accept/reject feature. While all machines have discrimination and notch systems. Not all have the advantages of 4 hunting modes in a easy push of a button. So you can hunt wide open, have a screen with discrimination and another 2 with a differnt pattern. I have found rejecting coroaded zincs out while still being able to make sure its not a large HS ring is a Big advantage! I have dug some deep targets but none that impressed me yet.
BCNJ

 

[Reeseb]

BC NJ reminded me of a great water hunting feature of the CTX3030: you have the open screen for analyzing targets before deciding to dig. You don't have that with the Excal II and it has helped me to avoid iron targets in many cases. Because I don't completely trust any detector, I dig several target where the open screen revealed iron that was falsing positive and have yet to prove the CTX wrong. Seeing the screen and TID's on the CTX in the water is a big plus.

 

[hershey1]

I have both the CTX3030 and an Excallibur II. There is not a better dirt machine IMO out there. No other machine comes close at seperating good targets from trash or has the accurate TID at depth. The CTX 3030 will win over some of the hard core relic hunters this fall. The 3030 was not intended to replace the Excall. If someone has no experience with an Excallibur the CTX will serve you greatly. I also have the other two leading relic machines and while depth is close the noise makes that choice an easy one. BCinNJ is a soldier on a mission and has not caved in to the proven sucess of his Excall while I still grab mine if I am going beyond knee deep. I guess it is a confidence thing. The CTX gives the same tone if the target is 2 inchs or 20 which is fine in shallow water or in the sand but I prefer the Excalls tones in deeper water. But I am still learning. HH

 

[Jason in TN]

A lot of guys have decided the Excal is better for every day beach hunting. I my self have had both and there is no way I would go back to the excal at the beach and give up my CTX.
Better ID dont have to dig coins any more.
For me worked just as good in the water. Some say it does not.
Bottle cap ID is much better.
Can set tones up any way I want?
Can set disc up any way I want.
For me on the beach it is a keeper will post all my gold finds for the year before I sell them.

I say go for it.


Jason.

 

[Howard Snell]

Can someone tell me if the 3030 can size a target, and to what degree?

 

[grouser]

using PP in sizing mode does a great job of telling you how big it is,,,

 

[Howard Snell]

Thanks everybody for your imput