Best Tool for the Job???

[seahunter34]

I travel to hunt shallow saltwater and have tried many detectors. I've had best overall success with the Excalibur 800 and 1000. I've also had very good success with an Infinium. Obviously while on a short vacation, one has to make the most of one's time. So I'm always looking for a better detector tool or an edge over other machines. The problem is no 1 detector is best at everything and taking 3 or more machines along is not practical. At some beaches the ground is nearly mineral free, yet at others black sand! Even the Mighty Excalibur falters in Black Sand. The Infinium with mono barely does better.

But, the majority of my detecting takes place in light mineralization and lots of area to cover in protected waters. I search for gold and platinum jewelry in the sea. In general my opinions are... The Infinium with 14 mono coil hits gold rings very deep! Deeper than the Excalibur II. It also picks up small gold better. But I've found the most gold with Excaliburs, perhaps because I've used them the most? When I use a straight/single tone PI, I find less gold and recover a ton of junk!

I also have a CTX3030 to try/compare and based on all I read should be fantastic in the sea, perhaps as deep as my Infinium and as good as or better than my Excalibur on gold? But here is the thing and the reason for my post... All 3 of the above machines are slow machines. I mean a slower recovery. That's fine and dandy, but perhaps not when there is little time to search and lots of ground to cover?

So, what would be the best detector tool for covering ground while saltwater shallow water hunting, in the least amount of time? A faster responding machine? Such as Whites BHID 300? I believe both the BHID and their Dual Field PI are very fast responding machines? I'm interested in the BHID 300 because I think I'll be able to cover more ground and quicker playing the odds, pinpoint/recover targets faster and dig less iron? Thus making more gold finds? I may lose some depth on the deeper stuff going faster, but find more fresh drops because of the extra coverage? After all, one has to put the coil over the target! If you watch the BHID video at the Whites site, the guy is flying down the beach, about 3 times+ as fast as when I use an Excalibur!

Excaliburs love gold, but from my research so does the BHID. Plus the BHID may go pretty deep too on larger pieces? But it has a 12 inch concentric coil which in theory may cover less ground than a DD? And one has to keep on top of the manual GB. And the Whites water phones do pinch my ears a bit.

So what do you guys think. Would a faster responding detector be a better tool to use in certain shallow water situations? Or would a slower responding detector find about the same by using a faster coil sweep? It just seems to me that when in the surf/water a faster machine might just hit targets a slower machine misses while getting pushed around a bit, or with sloppy underwater coil control?

 

[Water wizard]

Wow! You have lots of detectors! I can only speak as I've found, and my Excalibur is doing a great job! You seem to know a lot about detectors and detecting, I think that the machine you are most comfortable with I'll be best for you. There is no right or wrong answer. If you were to get a formula 1 car you wouldn't be able to drive it very well because it would be to fast, so you would be able to drive a normal car faster even though on paper it was much worse. Stick to what you gave had the best results with, and try new stuff when you've got ime to spare. Good luck

 

[therover]

Have you included a CZ21 ( or older CZ20 ) with 10.5 inch coil as part of your research ?

Reason I am asking is, if you are gong to try to cherry pick for gold, hunting with a CZ and only digging mid tone targets is a great method. Especially if one is pressed for time and wants to cover a lot of ground and only dig potential gold targets. The 10.5 coil is a cool coil and can separate well and hits targets on edge really well. It's not too big where you start to lose control and can be swept quicker than the Minelabs.

I had BHID 300 and coil control was my main issue with that. It's a BIG coil, and I had a hard time later in the hunts, maintaining good control. It does hit well on shallower gold and lower conductive targets, but is not a good unit when black sand conditions occur.

You are correct with your statement about an Infinium and 10x14 mono coil....great deep hunting unit that can really hit on all types of gold but yup, its a PI so lots of junk will also be dug. After trying all kinds of PI's, I have found the Infinium with the 10x14 mono is the best for me. It's found me lots of great gold targets.

My opinion is if you have the CTX3030, then you really need to use that and experiment with it for a while. It may be all you need. I assume based on what I read, you can set it up to cherry pick gold and it does have a faster recovery speed than all the other FBS units.

 

[seahunter34]

Yes on paper the CTX is very promising and most likely will unseat The Excalibur King. I'm talking for my use... the CTX should find more gold in the sea. BUT, I do not trust the CTX yet. As a waterproofed land machine it is not as robust as an Excalibur, CZ21, Infinium/Sea Hunter, Sand Shark, Dual Field. I'll be in shallow water 7 hours a day and have seen stories of the CTX battery compartment leaking! I'll feel better once my CTX has passed the test. The Target Trace on the CTX seems very interesting, as it almost draws a picture of what in under the coil! If it has real use in shallow water we shall see.

I left the CZ 21 out on purpose. I think the 21 is a great machine and is a strong contender for if you could only have 1 machine for everything, machine! It seems to be built like a tank, but when I compared an older CZ 20 8 inch to my Excalibur, as well as a borrowed 12 inch, the 8 inch falsed a lot in the sea unless sensitivity was set around 4 and it would not GB in white sand? The 12 inch seemed tough to pinpoint with, but I really did not use it enough. I do not want to sell the 21 short and I really like it's design. I read it's a fast responding machine. Fast enough to report 2 targets under the coil! To me the 21 design is much better than the BHID 300.

As far as factory original machines go, in a way the CZ 21 10 inch is a direct competitor to the BHID 300. I would love to test them side-by-side on a wet salt beach for depth on gold rings and recovery speed. I was leaning more towards the 300 because I believe CZs like iron? Also the 300 has a larger coil which might better fit my coverage idea? By researching the BHID 300 on line it becomes clear the BHID loves gold! Lots of BHID gold find photos, and you can't fake that! I know the Excalibur likes gold. So too the Infinium. That's what drew me to the 300, even though I prefer the CZ box. Plus with the 300 one can hunt in AM and glance at the lights, then dig only yellow and or blue/green. Skip the red iron.

Now I know detecting fast is frowned upon. But with a faster machine, one should be able to detect faster? I know for a fact to hit the deep gold with Excaliburs one has to slow way down. Same with the Infinium and most likely CTX. Slow is good. But I've experimented a few times detecting like a madman with an 800 Excalibur. I covered as much ground randomly in shallow water at a particular beach as possible and way too fast to hit the deep stuff. I have to say, I found more gold and on more than 1 occasion. By covering more ground I found more. That with an smaller than 8 inch coil! Hey, it's more fun and relaxing to hunt slower, but this got me to thinking about faster machines. I just have to wonder if the BHID 300 would make more finds by covering more ground in the same time.

I understand that the 300 is no slouch in the depth department, and when covering ground I would not expect max depth anyway, but if the sensitivity on the 300 has to be turned way down like on the CZ in the salt, that might be the deal breaker? Perhaps the only way to find out is to try, because a few gold finds will easily pay for a new machine these days.

 

[icurabeachguy]

I left the CZ 21 out on purpose. I think the 21 is a great machine and is a strong contender for if you could only have 1 machine for everything, machine! It seems to be built like a tank, but when I compared an older CZ 20 8 inch to my Excalibur, as well as a borrowed 12 inch, the 8 inch falsed a lot in the sea unless sensitivity was set around 4 and it would not GB in white sand? The 12 inch seemed tough to pinpoint with, but I really did not use it enough. I do not want to sell the 21 short and I really like it's design. I read it's a fast responding machine. Fast enough to report 2 targets under the coil! To me the 21 design is much better than the BHID 300.

a properly tuned CZ should be set at 4.8 sensitivity for salt water use , per Tom D. most white sand beaches will have no mineralization and will appear to have problems groundbalancing, but just set GB at 10 when there is no mineralization (white sand).

for what you want, I'd say try using an Excal with a Sunray S-12 coil hard-wired in. Other popular coils for coverage on the excal are the SEF 10x12 and WOT. You will get great coverage, decent depth (Infinium will still beat it) and it'll be a familiar platform.

I've used a Fisher CZ20/21 8", Excal S-12, and CTX (~200 hours) all with enough hours to learn my respective machines and I sold the CTX for my beach hunting (submerged in 6ft water for 8 hours per session). I use the CZ 8" for trashy beaches and the Excal S-12 for coverage on my vast beaches.

 

[jyt2017]

There is probably a dive version in works. Prolly gonna cost like 3k, just guessing by its likely there phasing out bbs. As for the 3030 itself. I wouldn'nt mind trying it, but would never dunk it. Waste deep max. There are a few ball fields I can only imagine hunting them with it after learning it lol. Anyway. I think the machines your using are the best of the best for now, just a matter of picking one and going with it. hh an gl -Joe

Yes on paper the CTX is very promising and most likely will unseat The Excalibur King. I'm talking for my use... the CTX should find more gold in the sea. BUT, I do not trust the CTX yet. As a waterproofed land machine it is not as robust as an Excalibur, CZ21, Infinium/Sea Hunter, Sand Shark, Dual Field. I'll be in shallow water 7 hours a day and have seen stories of the CTX battery compartment leaking! I'll feel better once my CTX has passed the test. The Target Trace on the CTX seems very interesting, as it almost draws a picture of what in under the coil! If it has real use in shallow water we shall see.

I left the CZ 21 out on purpose. I think the 21 is a great machine and is a strong contender for if you could only have 1 machine for everything, machine! It seems to be built like a tank, but when I compared an older CZ 20 8 inch to my Excalibur, as well as a borrowed 12 inch, the 8 inch falsed a lot in the sea unless sensitivity was set around 4 and it would not GB in white sand? The 12 inch seemed tough to pinpoint with, but I really did not use it enough. I do not want to sell the 21 short and I really like it's design. I read it's a fast responding machine. Fast enough to report 2 targets under the coil! To me the 21 design is much better than the BHID 300.

As far as factory original machines go, in a way the CZ 21 10 inch is a direct competitor to the BHID 300. I would love to test them side-by-side on a wet salt beach for depth on gold rings and recovery speed. I was leaning more towards the 300 because I believe CZs like iron? Also the 300 has a larger coil which might better fit my coverage idea? By researching the BHID 300 on line it becomes clear the BHID loves gold! Lots of BHID gold find photos, and you can't fake that! I know the Excalibur likes gold. So too the Infinium. That's what drew me to the 300, even though I prefer the CZ box. Plus with the 300 one can hunt in AM and glance at the lights, then dig only yellow and or blue/green. Skip the red iron.

Now I know detecting fast is frowned upon. But with a faster machine, one should be able to detect faster? I know for a fact to hit the deep gold with Excaliburs one has to slow way down. Same with the Infinium and most likely CTX. Slow is good. But I've experimented a few times detecting like a madman with an 800 Excalibur. I covered as much ground randomly in shallow water at a particular beach as possible and way too fast to hit the deep stuff. I have to say, I found more gold and on more than 1 occasion. By covering more ground I found more. That with an smaller than 8 inch coil! Hey, it's more fun and relaxing to hunt slower, but this got me to thinking about faster machines. I just have to wonder if the BHID 300 would make more finds by covering more ground in the same time.

I understand that the 300 is no slouch in the depth department, and when covering ground I would not expect max depth anyway, but if the sensitivity on the 300 has to be turned way down like on the CZ in the salt, that might be the deal breaker? Perhaps the only way to find out is to try, because a few gold finds will easily pay for a new machine these days.

 

[PowerDetecting]

the sensitivity on the cz-21 only goes about 4 or 5 in wet sand and sea BUT... It is VERY DEEP! Do not let that sensitivity lvl fool you. It is a very good detector. I still like the disc on the excal better but I am glad I bought a cz-21.