Best water detector:shrug:

[C.J.M.]

Have seen many detectors come and go was wondering some of you guys have been at it for a long time.So if you were to choose an all-around top water submersible or non submersible basic detector which one were you chooseThank you guys.cjm

 

[Dancer]

Depends mostly on the makeup of the beaches you hunt. Lots of machines can handle fresh / mild salt water. Hot / Black sand is another animal.
I've heard.

 

[Mark kus]

I like my Equinox on the beach from a seasoned guy who hunts beaches and seeing his gold finds I was sold
Its lightweight waterproof and finds gold I hit two gold rings this week with mine is it the best machine?
Well for me it does what I want ..
Mark

 

[therover]

Depends on the water, depends on the beach.

 

[Fishers Ghost]

If you want discrimination and waterproof and to be able to work the dry and wet sand and also scuba then go Excalibre. If you don't need discrimination then go for a Water proof TDI.
If you want to be able to find small deep gold chains and jewellery then try a Fisher Gold Bug DP with the 11 inch DD. This detector will ground balance salt sand to the water line and still detect deep.

The Equinox 800 is all the rage these days but I do not know how well it performs on the small chains and very small gold jewellery.

Just an opinion not gospel.

 

[Nauti]

I hunted saltwater beaches exclusively for 7 years and used many detectors including minelabs.My personal choice and the one i had huge success with was a whites beachunter 300.If i was to return to beach hunting now i would get a...............whites beachunter 300.

 

[mike k.]

YOU HAVE TO GET BACK TO BASICS excalibur 1 OR excalibur 2 STILL IN A LEAGUE OF THEYRE OWN .

 

[dewcon4414]

Personally, im finding the Nox very hard to beat. I think its proving to excellent choice as an ALL-AROUND machine at a crazy good price..... and WARRANTY. How many can hunt a trashy park with an Xcal (twice the price, repairs, and slow recovery).... then go to the gold fields with a CTX (3 times the price and it may leak)? No mods needed that just jack up that price. ML has been excellent with their repairs as well. In the water.... everything changes.... it can be chatty which makes it a bit more work because of its sensitivity..... but it will find smaller gold even in the water and it seems to like high K gold as well. It offers blue tooth as well. I got 6 gold chains last year with it.... not all small. So i dont know if it was just an unusual year. But if you are buying it to just find gold chains.....dont. Along with sensitivity comes the requirement to dig even MORE tiny targets... you get enough with this machine. Its a good travel machine and there have been very few repairs because of water leaks. A water machine really depends on you and your style of hunting..... and of course your beaches. Anyone looking for an Xcal of CTX .... contact me.

 

[Mark kus]

Personally, im finding the Nox very hard to beat. I think its proving to excellent choice as an ALL-AROUND machine at a crazy good price..... and WARRANTY. How many can hunt a trashy park with an Xcal (twice the price, repairs, and slow recovery).... then go to the gold fields with a CTX (3 times the price and it may leak)? No mods needed that just jack up that price. ML has been excellent with their repairs as well. In the water.... everything changes.... it can be chatty which makes it a bit more work because of its sensitivity..... but it will find smaller gold even in the water and it seems to like high K gold as well. It offers blue tooth as well. I got 6 gold chains last year with it.... not all small. So i dont know if it was just an unusual year. But if you are buying it to just find gold chains.....dont. Along with sensitivity comes the requirement to dig even MORE tiny targets... you get enough with this machine. Its a good travel machine and there have been very few repairs because of water leaks. A water machine really depends on you and your style of hunting..... and of course your beaches. Anyone looking for an Xcal of CTX .... contact me.

Exactly it does everything well I want a machine I can go from beach to field that works well and heck yeah its a great all around machine Its like owning 3 machines in one IMHO..

 

[pasttom]

I've gotta go with the Equinox vote. I have 3 Excals and a CTX gathering dust. I've had TDIs and a couple Headhunter PIs as well as several Explorers and CZs, but the Equinox is much better on the beach and it is strong on the grass and dirt IMHO. I have a Tarsacci MDT 8000 that is as good or better on the beach. It is lighter and a touch deeper, but also $1500 plus. The price difference would give you an 800, custom waterproof headphones and both the 6 and 15 inch coils (which I have as well as a custom cf shaft). Even so, I'd rate them pretty even. Neither is rated/suitable for scuba diving, but as I don't dive, that's not an issue for me.

 

[OldBeechnut]

I'm hardcore excalibur pirate but if your looking for a good machine at a good price I don't think there is a better one out there then the Nox. The 3 year warranty is a winner also. One note, when it gets down to the nitty gritty, it boils down to the hunter themselves, how well they know the machine and the beach's they are hunting.

 

[*Fred*]

I hunted saltwater beaches exclusively for 7 years and used many detectors including minelabs.My personal choice and the one i had huge success with was a whites beachunter 300.If i was to return to beach hunting now i would get a...............whites beachunter 300.

Same for me ! After 10 years the beachhunter is still number one. I've used 2 exca, 1 sov Gt, deus, TDI, surf pi, and today i have 2 beachhunter id and a sovereign as backup machine. They are modified whith detech coils and bucaneers ip68 connectors. And always used in all metal mode.
Don't know Equinox yet, but for me TDI (pulsescan) is the best for sand and beachhunter id for water.

I hope Fisher Manta will change my point of view...


Sorry for my english, I'm French (nobody's perfect)

 

[Nauti]

Nothing wrong with being French "Fred".......i did a tour of Normandy a couple of years back and didn't want to go home (to England).......i found the French people and the country to be most agreeable.

 

[LawrencetheMDer]

Well, doesn't look like a CTX 3030 guy hasn't spoken up so here I am. Hunted for yrs w my Excal, that I love, but my go to water and beach detector for the past 2 yrs has been the CTX. With 17" coil, I cover more ground and find about 11% more things and coins than the CTX w 11" standard coil or Excal w 10" standard coil. Found 13 gold items (11 rings, 2 dental gold) in 4 months in Florida in 2018 and thus far in 2019 have found 4 gold items (3 rings, 1 dental gold). I hunt in salt water and in mild to heavy black sand and both Excal and CTX handle it very well. The CTX moves ahead with discrimination - with the CTX I hardly ever dig bottle caps anymore...they use to drive me crazy with the Excal. Personally, I find the Nox 800 to be over-hyped; the new updated program is giving users fits and many return to the pre-updated software. Also, the 15" NOX coil that just came out is also having issues...I'll be interested in the NOX 800 when they iron all the bugs out with the hardware and software, but until then I'll stick with the CTX 3030.
[attachment 364913 WhiteGoldEngagementRing.jpg]

 

[pulltaber]

My favorite of all time for fresh water would be the original Tesoro Sting-ray I have had mine one since 1992 .I have found over 500 gold and silver rings ,piles of tiny gold gold chains and thousands of hours of fun.It may not go that deep but still hit a gold ring at 8 inch

P.S. I also have a Equinox it is fantastic but not my favorite

 

[Kieth-Tx]

Like others have mentioned...it is location location location.
My experience with the following units is just that...my experience.

If you are ONLY hunting freshwater...an old Tesoro Stingray 2 or Tiger Shark just cannot be beat. But get it near salt water and it's a worthless stick.
Excal : gets great depth, awesome in salt water. Have had coil wire issues/failures.
CTX : put the 6” coil on this and it is awesome! Handles salt water with no issues and very good depth. But take it out of the water and it goes from water neutral weight to a HEAVY unit on land.
Equinox 800 : I truly like this unit, handles salt water easily, good tones, very good depth. Don’t like the small window of signal numbers...extremely rare to get a number above 30. So all numbers are concentrated.
CZ-21 & CZ-20: actually my “go-to” water units. Easy to use....3 tones. Good depth. Handles salt water great. Extremely lightweight when hip mounted and have had mine for 15 years with not one failure. Built like a tank.
Have never used a Whites or Garrett water units.

 

[RichW]

n/t

 

[zac]

I have an Equinox 800 and love it! I had a Fisher CZ20 but it died on me. I got the 15” coil but so far haven’t had luck with it. I switched back to the stock coil. I wish the NOX went deeper than three meters. I don’t scuba but I freedive and Would like to go deeper. I’m thinking of picking up an older Tesoro water machine for going deeper.

 

[treasurewize]

nothing can come close to the Excal /cz20/21 under water.but wet sand/dry sand the Nox 800 is hard to beat!

 

[treasurewize]

iv owned a lot of them and the Excal is my fav