[attachment 43634 MVC-001S.JPG][attachment 43635 MVC-002S.JPG][attachment 43636 MVC-003S.JPG][attachment 43637 MVC-004S.JPG][attachment 43638 MVC-005S.JPG][attachment 43639 MVC-007S.JPG]Recently took a pile of metal detectors to the beach for head to head comparisons on the NASTY purple/black sand strip that shows up after a good blow. Machines were Fisher 1280-x Fisher cz-20 and Minelab Excaliber and X-terra 70. Results are only for the black sand strip and don't represent results that can be translated to imply the whole beach. For example,although it sucks in the black sand, the best machine for Salisbury beach is the 1280-x hands down because of it's great ability to run in an area literally PEPPERED with iron debris, large and small, super fast swing speed with no problem on the trash as far as recovering from a disced out signal,excellent audio disc for iron, etc.
Anyway, target was a medium size thin 14k band buried 7 inches and covered with pure black sand. The natural layers of this awful stuff can be from 1 to 4 inches thick, but we tamped down the hole with pure balck sand. All metal detectors were set with the lowest disc possible at the highest sens. possible. The only machine able to pick up the ring (with a couple of inches to spare) was the cz-20.Also the X-terra could find it IF you ground balanced it well and ran in PINPOINT MODE. You could also detect it in prospect and all metal mode BUT you could not hunt in those modes, too many spurious signals. Pinpoint mode was noisy but you could work effectively in this mode.Naturally this is an all metal mode and the meter tells you nothing, if it beeps, you dig. Modes 1-2-3 you could not pick up the target, in fact the X-terra nulled out over the ring. The cz-20 was fairly quiet and pleasant to use. The 1280-x was quiet but failed to pick up the ring. The Excaliber was overwhelmed by the mineralization and nulled out about a foot from the ground and was totally unable to find the ring.Placing the ring at one inch depth, and testing the two machines that could not find the ring at depth, gave the folowing results: 1280-x about 2-3 inches with bad scratchy audio, the excaliber nulled out on the black sand and could not "see" the ring until the coil almost touched it! Totally degraded audio signal too.Finally, I took a photo of my water hunting scores for this fall,all from fresh water with the Excaliber and a Wot coil. When is winter coming, I need to put this info to use after a three day Nor'easter!!!
Anyway, target was a medium size thin 14k band buried 7 inches and covered with pure black sand. The natural layers of this awful stuff can be from 1 to 4 inches thick, but we tamped down the hole with pure balck sand. All metal detectors were set with the lowest disc possible at the highest sens. possible. The only machine able to pick up the ring (with a couple of inches to spare) was the cz-20.Also the X-terra could find it IF you ground balanced it well and ran in PINPOINT MODE. You could also detect it in prospect and all metal mode BUT you could not hunt in those modes, too many spurious signals. Pinpoint mode was noisy but you could work effectively in this mode.Naturally this is an all metal mode and the meter tells you nothing, if it beeps, you dig. Modes 1-2-3 you could not pick up the target, in fact the X-terra nulled out over the ring. The cz-20 was fairly quiet and pleasant to use. The 1280-x was quiet but failed to pick up the ring. The Excaliber was overwhelmed by the mineralization and nulled out about a foot from the ground and was totally unable to find the ring.Placing the ring at one inch depth, and testing the two machines that could not find the ring at depth, gave the folowing results: 1280-x about 2-3 inches with bad scratchy audio, the excaliber nulled out on the black sand and could not "see" the ring until the coil almost touched it! Totally degraded audio signal too.Finally, I took a photo of my water hunting scores for this fall,all from fresh water with the Excaliber and a Wot coil. When is winter coming, I need to put this info to use after a three day Nor'easter!!!