I have several beach/water detectors ( HH Wader, HH Pulse, Excal, DFX, CZ6a...I listed the DFX and CZ6a since they are multifrequency machines and do very well in the wet salt sand, but I dont' take them in the water !!). Whenever I am in for a nice, relaxing hunt where I don't want strain on my shoulder, mess with hip mounts or have to fiddle with knobs, ground balance, programs, etc. I reach for the Wader.
It may not be that hot on small gold, but mine is plenty hot on silver and dimes. It hits dimes at 7-8 inches consistently, and always finds me a piece of silver, whether it's a chain, ring or coin. It discriminates very well on iron, and with the discrim set at 2, sens at 9, you can tell the nails and small iron from the better targets. The nails and small iron break up or have a scratchy sound. It pin points right on, can hunt all day, rain or shine and it's easy on the arm.
It does very well here on the NJ beaches, on dry sand, wet sand and in the water. It is also a very good park machine. Swing and if it sounds solid, dig it. There have been stories about the headphones leaking, but since I don't dive, I did not have that problem.
Like the others state, if you need target ID based on tone, lights or screens, obviously the Wader is not the detector. For anything else, it's a very good machine on land or water.
Now, the new BHID 300 seems to be a keeper as well, but I think it weighs about 5 pounds. The good thing about the Wader is, you never have to hip mount it !
JC
