anyone have the scoop on the infinium?

[obxsabresfan]

anyone out there tell me about the infinium pro's and con's? I'm in the market for a good water for the beach here on the outer banks. I've got it narrowed down to minelab excalibur ll,white's surf pi df, garrett infinium,garrett sea hunter mark ll. I'm leaning towards the excalibur with the 15+ frequencies, but then I read that the ifinium has something like 75+ frequencies plus its a pulse is it the best of both worlds???

 

[Big Boys Hobbies]

Sent you a PM!

 

[John-Edmonton]

"The Infinium does have some discrimination characteristics. It's not like an accumulative type or notch found on VLF type detectors. In fact, the Infinium is entirely different then any other type of detector. What the Infinium can do as far as discrimination is concerned, is give a tone HIGH-LOW for iron, aluminum and gold. It also gives off a LOW-HIGH signal for silver, copper and again iron. So iron and other junk is always the wild card in both types of signals, as it is a Pulse Induction type of detector. However, the Infinium also comes with an iron check, which again helps with getting a better probability of what type (iron or not?) target it is. Now the Infinium has a bit of a learning curve, and if you are new to metal detecting and lack basic theory on how the machines operate, don't buy one. It will be a lesson in frustration for you.

Now having said that, other little techniques are on your learning curve to be discovered. For instance, the smoothness/roughness of the tone gives a hint as to whether it is an iron rusted target or not. The "Sustain" length of time that the Infinium gives after reading a target gives you a hint as to its size. The Infinium gives a double bleep on bobby pins and wire. So......if you only want to dig gold, only dig the HIGH-LOW signals. That removes a lot of signals that you can leave in the ground. Also, use the iron check, which even cuts out more targets. If you want to dig mostly coins, including old deep silver, dig only the LOW-HIGH signals. Again....use the iron check.

Is the Infinium the holy grail of detectors? No it isn't. It's a PI and loves iron, like all PI's. Iron can not be discriminated out like a VLF detector. But it goes DEEP! It must be ground balanced and a proper frequency must be picked for maxamum performance. I have pulled rings out at over 14 inches with a nice strong signal. It is one of (if not the) deepest machines available. It was designed to get gold in some of the highest mineralized soils in the world. It works in all salt water/beach environments and is water proof too.

Is it a good coin shooter? Perhaps, but only in areas where there are few targets. It's not practical for park environments, as it picks up all metals, even those that your VLF will miss. I have had some success using it in the woods, digging only the LOW-HIGH signals. It should also perform well at relic hunting too.

Where it worked best for me was in hunted out beaches where most of the targets had been removed. The best beach hunters dig ALL targets. The Infinium isn't for everyone, and is not a do it all detector. But if you give it the time it deserves to learn it properly, and use it in its proper environment, it is a killer. I have my best gold ring year ever in 15 years using this machine."

 

[obxsabresfan]

thx for the info! I live a block from the ocean and plan to be waist deep looking for rings, coins.I've been out with a friend with a excal ll and havent seen him dig alot so I'm a little concerned the beaches are picked over or sanded in ....either way seems extra depth may be important.....

nice loot by the way!

 

[Fishers Ghost]

anyone out there tell me about the infinium pro's and con's? I'm in the market for a good water for the beach here on the outer banks. I've got it narrowed down to minelab excalibur ll,white's surf pi df, garrett infinium,garrett sea hunter mark ll. I'm leaning towards the excalibur with the 15+ frequencies, but then I read that the ifinium has something like 75+ frequencies plus its a pulse is it the best of both worlds???

You have mentioned some of the top waterproof salt beach detectors on the market.
For ease of use, excellent discrimination, rock solid performance over wet or dry salt sand beaches, it is hard to go past the Excal.
All of the other detectors you listed are great and the Infinium will probably go the deepest but there is more to successful beach detecting than just going deep.

 

[Dancer]

Don't rule out the AT Pro, It can do alot of stuff, farely easy to learn, goes plenty deep. Waterproof to 10 feet, So unless your going scuba diving, it' hard to beat. Check out the AT Pro site, plus the others.

 

[Cupajo]

John has presented you with plenty of excellent answers to your questions and a wonderful picture of the proof of his knowledge.

You'll find the Garrett Infinium Forum Classroom another good source of information,

CJ

 

[John-Edmonton]

They may seem to be hunted out, but when you switch to a PI, the water comes alive again with signals.

 

[John-Edmonton]

Hunting with an Excal. And an Infinium are two very different types of hunts.

The Excalibur can be adjusted to discriminatte out iron, aluminum,etc. so you don't hear/dig them.

The Infinium lets you hear everything, including all the signals disc-ed out by the Excal. or out of reach.

You end up digging more targets, both good and bad with the Infinium then using the Excal.

It kind of depends on which type of hunter your are.

Personally speaking....I like to dig as many targets as possible, as I end up with more good targets overall, I enjoy the physical workout, and I really know my Infinium well because of I have learned it's audio well. However, doing lots of digging isn't for everyone else either, and if an area has way too much metal junk, the Infinium isn't the machine of choice for that location. That's where I will be using the AT Pro.

 

[bearkat4160]

I had both...excal and Infinium. Sold my excal last year to a guy in Italy because my Infinium did a better job at finding deeper beach gold. I did dig more crap but I dont mind...as John, its good exercise!

Alan

 

[ivanll]

anyone out there tell me about the infinium pro's and con's? I'm in the market for a good water for the beach here on the outer banks. I've got it narrowed down to minelab excalibur ll,white's surf pi df, garrett infinium,garrett sea hunter mark ll. I'm leaning towards the excalibur with the 15+ frequencies, but then I read that the ifinium has something like 75+ frequencies plus its a pulse is it the best of both worlds???

Actually 96 frequencies in each pulse, but they are not user adjustable so the knowledge is of no practical meaning.

Of the detectors in this picture the Infinium LS is the one with the fastest switch on and go function, it takes just one click and a 10 seconds wait for all the internal auto settings to take place before the coil can be lowered to the ground and searching can commence......................but the Infinium LS is also the slowest of these detector to use IF one wants to maintain it's Full Performance.
Best ways to diminish the performance of an Infinium LS is..............fast coil swing speed, coil to far of the ground, incorrect set ground balance and last but not least......Discrimination.

Use and do all of the above on salt water ocean beaches besides "Black Sand Beaches" and users of multi-frequency VLF detectors are
Even on our gold fields the Infinium LS must be used optimised at all time but if one wants to go beyond it's capability then there is another solution.

There is a way to self indulge in ones ability to use an Infinium LS, even if set-up and used incorrectly and that is to use it in a place that are used and frequented by many people over many years...........without competition from other detector users.

Early 1980ties my Garrett ADS Deep-seeker and Sea Hunter XL500 PI helped find more beach goodies than my present Garrett GTA, GTI, AT-Pro and Infinium LS will ever do in the same places................30 years later we now use better detectors but there is a lot more of them, so these days it's about working smarter.

There are no best detector, just better suited................It's the operator that make it happen.

ivanll

 

[Digger 45]

What has been said about the Infinium is all true, its a great machine with exceptional depth, but consider one thing it is very heavy and for myself it just killed my back, i used it with the hip mount all the time, this is a hassle to put on and take off but just too heavy mounted on the detector for me. Had some cable problems because of the movement from the waist to the detector shaft.

After the learning the curve it is great in wet sand and under water, i too have found rings and one fifty cent piece at 18" this was just a whisper until i had dug down about a foot then it got louder and louder.

 

[marmota.monax]

get one of these:

click here, rods by plugger...

or google "rods by plugger"

I can now swing a 14" coil all day long. Perfect balance, makes the pounds disappear!