Best coin / clad detector?

[Critterhunter]

I stick by my statement. None of the Minelabs are the best clad hunters. Too slow. They are also heavy and not as well balanced as other machines, which comes in to play when doing a lot of fast clad hunting.There are many lower cost machines that can be swept fast, and are well balanced and light, which adds to the fun factor, and will make a much better clad hunter.

However, when it comes to deep old coins or hunting mineralized ground that shuts other detectors down then that's the major strength of a Minelab. I'll put up with them being heavier and not balanced well because I know of the performance they have for those kinds of situations. Well, I couldn't put up with it. I dropped almost a pound and a half off my machine by building a custom light weight shaft and running a lipo battery in it.

Can Minelabs hunt clad just fine? Sure, not saying that, but IMHO there are much better options out there for people who primarily clad hunt. Doesn't seem very logical either to spend $1000 or more on a machine that you mainly want to clad hunt with. For that kind of money you could buy two or three (maybe even four!) different machines that would be killer for clad hunting and much more enjoyable for that purpose. Depth isn't an issue so there are many low cost machines that will do a fine job.

As much as I love Minelabs there are pros and cons to every detector. Minelabs are strong in many ares, it's just that IMO they aren't the most ideal clad hunters. That's not to say that I don't clad hunt, but to be honest I'd much rather do it with one of my previous machines such as the QXT Pro.

Also, as much as pinpointing has improved on the newer Minelabs there are many other machines out there that will pinpoint like a laser with much less effort...Which makes it real easy to fastly pop your shallow clads with a screwdriver. Again, not impossible with a Minelab, but not as easy compared to some other machines.

 

[Woodchuck]

Troy X2
Fisher 1270

Have been best two coin getters detector wise that I have used

 

[Critterhunter]

By the way, if I still had my QXT Pro I'd grab that for any clad hunting. I also would use it to hunt shallow gold rings in sports fields. Primarily because I can zero in on targets easier and pop them fast with a screwdriver with far less effort. It's not a good idea to be digging a bunch of holes in some sports fields in the hopes of a gold ring, since gold ring hunting means digging it all of course. Again, can I do it with my GT? Yes, I have. it's just a little harder/takes more time to zero in on the target to pop with my screwdriver. That's where my ProPointer comes into play on this shallow stuff to figure out where I need to stick the screwdriver in the ground, but with my Whites I could zero in so good that there was no need to use a pinpointer to figure out where to jab into the ground for the target.

A friend I hunt with has an Etrac, but he still uses his 6000 Pro XL for clad hunting or for hunting shallow rings in sports fields for the same reason. It's a far easier and more "fun" detector to use for these kinds of situations, but of course when it comes to deep old coins the 6000 Pro XL stays home and out comes the Etrac.

There are also some low cost machines with very fast recovery speeds that are useful for finding shallow old coins mixed in trash. The slow recovery speed of Minelabs can of course be compensated for by slowing down your sweep speed, but with a fast recovery machine you can still sweep fairly fast and still have good target seperation. Some people just can't seem to keep their sweep speed slow, so that kind of detector can be useful for them in those situations.

It is of course the right tool for the right job. Some machines are better than others for various types of hunting. I'm the biggest Minelab fan there is but I have to admit that for certain situations they aren't always the best choice.

 

[Critterhunter]

The one guy brought up a good point....You might also want to base you decision on a machine that has the ability to recognize various coins from each other. Most machines can seperate out zinc pennies. Some can also do copper pennies. But only a few have the ability to tell between a dime and a quarter. That can be useful when you are in the mood to only quarter hunt and avoid everything else. Also, at least to have the ability to tell copper pennies from dimes and quarters is useful when you don't want to dig copper pennies at all. Fortunately, those kinds of pennies are vanishing and as said many machines can tell new zinc pennies from dimes/quarters.

 

[Mtnmn]

The Minelabs may not be the fastest detectors on the market, but it is possible to rack up some impressive numbers with them anyhow. On the last "two" times out to a totally new site using the Safari with its 11" Pro coil, I found 256 coins incl. 4 silver and 39 nickels, plus a silver locket. A few days later I went back to the same location for a 3rd time using the XT-70 with the 10.5" DD MF coil and still found 119 more coins including 6 silvers and 15 nickels, plus a silver & gold ring. Some guys say you should concentrate on only using one detector, but I couldn't disagree more. Especially if they are like the Safari and XT-70, where one uses FBS technology while the other uses a VLF. They are an awesome combination when used together on a site and the XT-70 (705) can be swung quite fast and has no problem what-so-ever telling dimes from quarters. Can't say the same for the Safari, but it is definitely deeper.

 

[gilfordberry]

An MXT, DFX, or XLT - even an IDX Pro....any of the older whites machines.....IF YOU CAN FIND a bigfoot coil to run with it. FMDAC didn't outlaw the coil at some of their competition hunts because it was ineffective. They felt those coils were an unfair advantage to the user. For near surface clad - anything down to four inches or so - you can sweep the thing like a sythe in a wheat field and cover ground three or four times faster than with a round coil and with my XLT it's pretty easy to separate the zinc pennies from the copper ones and the dimes from the quarters... My finds more than doubled once I began using the bigfoot.

A second choice would be one of the Tesoros.....they are fast and light. Good combination. Also a friend has a new Fisher Gold Bug (Pro I think) that seems to be very fast and light. I also did quite well with a Minelab - but hunted much slower, and got the deeper stuff (used a WOT coil at the beach). Always is a choice between depth and speed....but for modern clad....I'd go with speed.

 

[thump7]

I would like to tell you people that any tesoro with a threshold based All-metal is one of the best top notch clad hunting machines out there.
BUT, I can't tell you how to run it, so maybe it isn't the best
I will say this though, I can go into some pretty trashy areas and dig almost exclusively clad and little or no trash. I don't dig pennies, pulltabs or bottlecaps but still find silver and clad. I found just under $200.00 in a week. That is all I'm gonna say.