Menu
What's new
Find's Treasure Forums

Welcome to Find's Treasure Forums, Guests!

You are viewing this forums as a guest which limits you to read only status.

Only registered members may post stories, questions, classifieds, reply to other posts, contact other members using built in messaging and use many other features found on these forums.

Why not register and join us today? It's free! (We don't share your email addresses with anyone.) We keep email addresses of our users to protect them and others from bad people posting things they shouldn't.

Click here to register!

Need Support Help?

Cannot log in?, click here to have new password emailed to you

Changed email? Forgot to update your account with new email address? Need assistance with something else?, click here to go to Find's Support Form and fill out the form.

Buying new detector

G

Gramps

New member
I've been thinking about buying a new detector. Have read a lot of good comments about Minelab Sovereign GT, Whites MXT and M6. Have previously used a Tesoro and am currently using an Ace 250. Most of my detecting is around town looking for coins but may use for beach detecting also. Quite often in posts people say you have to learn what your detector is saying to you. Which detectors do you think have the best or most useful language? If anyone has used all these detectors which did you like best and why. Thanks in advance for your opinions. HH, Glenn
 
Guess I'll just try to figure it out on my own. Thanks anyway. Hope you all have a nice Thanksgiving. God bless ya, Glenn
 
So many to choose from, where do you begin? From my personal experience, for coin hunting land machines, I like the XLT and the Xterra 70. These are the machines I've personally used and have had great results with. I like the Xterra's ability to use numerous coils and coil types from concentric to DD and 6" to 10". The XLT is very light weight and has very fast recovery speed. These are 2 fantastic machines and I would recommend either one! Good luck Gramps
 
You mentions the M6. My Brother In Law has one and loves it for coin hunting. I believe it has a black sand mode, but not sure.
I hear a lot of people love the M6 for it's turn on and go simplicity.

Dan
 
Thanks. One of the things I've read about Sovereign GT is it's very slow sweep speed. Probably matches my sweep speed fairly well :geek: Weight for me is a consideration since hurting my shoulder a year ago. I like the idea of hip mounting the GT or a light machine. Seems like a lot of people like XLT. My guess is once you get past the entry level price range most machines will be fairly decent. And I can't really complain about the Ace 250, have found quite a few coins that detector. Thanks again.
 
Thanks, Ralph at Sun Ray recommended the M6 but I can't seem to get the MXT or Sov GT out of my mind. Don't think I've read any negative things about M6. Not very likely I'll be prospecting for gold in Iowa. :) The turn on and go would be good for me since I get a 1/2 hour to go out occassionally, retired but still running the locksmith shop and short term trading in the stock market, doesn't leave much time. Thanks Dano, HH, Glenn
 
Hey Gramp's. I started out last year with a XLT but soon sold it and bought a GT and I haven't looked back since. I absolutely love it. But if you are only interested in finding new coinage then one of the other machines you mentioned would be a better choice. In my opinion if new coin's are what you are after then I wouldn't spend more than $300 on a machine. On the other hand if you want to putter along swinging your machine at your speed (which you mentioned would be slower) with a good chance at some older and deeper coin's then for sure the GT would fit the bill. It does take a little time to learn the tones, but after you figured it out you will say to yourself everytime you go out "Wow this is easy and I'm glad I got the GT". Also if you go with a GT I would also get a 180 meter to go with it,some people will disagree with me on this but it will shorten the learning curve by weeks and those tones will have a number attached to it which will help you make sense of the tones the machine is giving you. It is a little heavy so I hip mount mine and it is comfortable and the knob's are easy to reach,a real pleasure to use.
Good luck with your decision,Gary
 
Hey Gramps,
My Brother In Law lives in Iowa. LeMars. He has been killing the parks with his M6. Finding lots of coins and jewelry with it. I was just there the first of October and tried it out. I really liked it, but I am used to the analog meter, but I'm sure I would get used to the LCD in no time. There are definetly lighter machines out there though. I have been looking at the Minelab Xterra's as I want a super light weight Metered Machine.

Dan
 
Gramps depending on how old you are maybe you should think of a light detector. You have a ace 250 a light, easy to use detector. I had a ace 250 when I came back to detecting but soon wanted to up grade. I came back to detecting, this is my 4th summer and I had a number of the 4 pound detectors and they are hard to swing for hours at a time. I could only get a few hours and had to quit and go home, sometimes I would push my self and end up not going the next few days because I was tired. I am almost 69 and love detecting. I have through trial and error got the detector that works great for me. My only requirements now are light, easy to use, good coil selection, detect the beaches, and dig those deep targets.
I do mostly beach hunting and tot lots. I coin hunt mostly.
Hope this helps.... Happy Trails.....Z
 
This spring I graduated to the MXT after using the XLT a few summers back (kept it )
I was frustrating at first using the MXT but the single tone and VDI numbers really helped in finding lots of clad and gold rings (low VDI numbers.)
Very enjoyable detector to use and well balanced. I used the coin- jewelry program and next summer I'll use the relic program which has tone differences.
 
I own a couple tesoros and had a 250, picked up a fisher F5 which I have about 10-12 hrs on. I am impressed with the F5 for coin shooting and the salt beach so far, you might want to give it a look, lots of detector for the money, good tones and GB. Its not as deep as my Vaquero, but if your looking for coins and jewelry and don't need a lot of depth(max so far w/F5 about 6-7 inches) it might work for you.
 
Hi Gramps,i've used the sovereign GT and the M6 and they are both capable machines.I would find it difficult to say which was the better machine but here are a couple of pointers for you.Both machines will do a good job on the beach,the beach mode on the M6 works well.If most of my hunting was on the beach i would choose the GT though.....minelab machines are awesome on the wet sand and can only be beaten by dedicated beach machines.Inland things tend to get more complicated.The GT will beat the M6 on depth but is not so good in amongst the trash due to it's slower recovery speed.Both machines cope well with varying soil conditions and both are stable in areas of high interference.I found the M6 a little tiring to use after a long hunt due to it's weight but this is due to the whites having some of the best build quality you will find in a detector.If somebody said that i had to choose between the two i would probably go with the M6.This is because i detect mainly inland and prefer the quicker response time of the M6.It also performs well on the beach and is one of the easiest detectors to set up....an excellent overall package.
 
Hey Gary sounds like you've found the machine that works for you! Some nice finds you've made. Good advice on the meter shortening the learning curve. Most places around here have been hunted quite a bit. My idea is that to get much now is going to take a deep detector which most seem to think the Sov GT would be. Hip mount would be the way to go for me. Thanks again, Glenn
 
Thanks for the input Zeekeys! I'm 63 still bicycle about 1500 miles a year in fair shape but I see your point on swinging a heavy unit for hours. For me it''s about 1/2 hour at a time. Sure would be nice to get out to some nice beach to detect in the winter since the windchill around here gets down to -30 fairly often, a challenge on the bicycle or opening cars for people that are locked out. Thanks again, Glenn
 
MXT is the first one I was considering. Read all the archives on it and condensed them down to 3 sheets of legal paper. But then was advised to try the M6 because of not needing prospecting. I really do wonder if I'd like the belltones better or not. Going to try and get over to see the various detectors at Sun Ray one of these weekends. Glad you found the unit for you. HH, Glenn
 
As one person put it, so many detectors where do you start! Reckon it's going to take some hands on experience to narrow the field down. Had not thought about Fisher but will also include them, F5. Thanks again, Glenn
 
Thank you for that reply Neil, That helps a lot to hear from someone that has used both machines. Most of the areas I will be using it are heavy trash! Thanks again, Glenn
 
Gramps, I have an M6 and love it as I think most M6 owners do, I have never used an MXT but my understanding is they are basically the same machine other than the MXT has prospecting mode and is a threshold machine so you always here the threshold hum and it can be a little chattery if not set properly. The M6 is silent and I personally like the tones, they are just a little more help with IDing targets. The M6 is simple to use and has more than enough depth for most people, just hard to beat for the price. I run a 5.3 eclipse coil most of the time and can pick my way through the trash, it really loves coins but turn the disc down and it is a fine relic machine too. I plan on keeping mine for a long time.
 
Gramps! Something else to consider. Since you only get about a half hour at a shot, digging the target and locating the target is equally important as is the choice of machine you decide to get. If you have grass or fairly soft earth to dig in, look at the Gator made by Predator/Lesche. It is so much easier and faster than the ones that look like a bayonet. However, if the ground is rock hard they are not too useful.
No matter what the soil is like, you need a good pinpointer. Hands down the probes made by Sunray for the various machines are by far the best bet. They are just like a 1" coil. They operate off the electronics inside your detector and you can hear what the probe is doing in the headphones you have on. Sunray makes them for a lot of different manufacturers. Probably the next best pipointer is the Garrett Pro Pointer. It vibrates so you don't need to hear it in your headphones. It's detects at pretty good depths and is contstucted really well. So there is more to it than just having a good detector. That's a start but consider some of the other things and evaluate them like you have the detectors and you'll be happy when you choose. Jim
 
Dont count out the X-terra 705.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top