Dry land Excal hunting

[jackkell1963]

Im curious to know how many of you use your Excal on dry land (no where near the beach). I have an Etrac and I am sold on its dry land and dry/wet sand performance, but I want to get in the water. Its going to be hard to convince the wife to allow me to invest another grand atleast in another metal detector. So I guess my question is how much (if any) would I lose going from an Etrac to a Excal as far as dry land hunting goes.

 

[goodmore]

You would be losing a lot. The excal could very well be used in the dirt. but i think you would be giving up target separation, recovery speed, The ability to switch coils easily, not to mention the screen with many options and target identification. Do yourself a favor and look at a PI unit for the salt water.

 

[Finderskeeper]

I use my Excalibur II 1000 on dry land every once in a while. It works great! I also have had an E-trac and sold it after finding that the Excalibur worked better in the northern Ohio area as the steel mills were a prime source of backfill for many buildings back in the early part of the 20th century. That backfill had a lot of iron in it and the Excalibur performs well in iron infested areas.

I would put my ability to ID a target by sound up against an E-trac any day. I found the E-trac to be very accurate in a perfect setting but put it in highly mineralized soil, then forget about it.

The Excalibur II seems to handle iron better than the E-trac.

Recovery speed is an issue and so is target separation with the Excalibur. There the E-trac wins hands down. I loved the E-trac but wanted to familiarize myself with the Excaliburs ability so I sold it. I've owned four Excaliburs and there must be a reason why I keep going back to it. The price of gold made me realize that water hunting is where it is at right now.

You can fit an Excalibur with waterproof connectors to switch coils easily.

As far as salt water......wellllll.........I hunt in Florida in the winter in the water and all I can say is.........I see more Minelab Excaliburs than any other detector. Yeah there are a few other machines out there. But the hard core guys are using Excals.

I've tried the Garrett Infinium in the salt water and yes PI's work...too well.... I found that I was scooping more junk than I wanted to......like bobby pins......pennies........fish hooks.....and all kinds of other junk. I was wasting my time with the PI and went back to the Excalibur.

I also use the WOT coil on my Excaliburs and I recommend that coil highly. It is great for open field hunting and on the beach. I also love it in the water. Some folks hate it in the water because they cannot swing it as well as the smaller coils. To each his or her own.

If I had to do it over, I would have kept the E-trac. IT is just so good a machine that I really miss it. Not having it made me miss it even more. But I am now a dedicated water hunter. So the E-trac would have just sat in the closet.

Of course, everyone has their opinions on what is their perfect machine for this or that. The preceding was just ramblings of a MD'er with many hours of detecting under his belt.

 

[treasuresalvor]

I use my Excal on dry land alot. I have a Sovereign Elite that I should be using but I'm just more comfortable with the Excal. I have no experience with the Etrac but I would just assume that you wouldn't be losing too much performance by going to the Excal from what I've read.

 

[jackkell1963]

Hmmmmmmmmm....hoping to here more opinions based on experience with both.........my next question is how close to a sovereign is the excal, because with that information I can base my own opinion because my hunting partner uses one and I see first hand how he does on dry land.

 

[hershey1]

Get yourself an Excal and keep the E-Trac. The Excal works very well on land but it ain't no E-Trac. After learning the Excal it will find enough to pay for itself and your Excal many times over. Not to mention the jewelery box inventory will grow as well. A good detector makes money. Just my 2. HH

 

[synthnut]

E Trac for land ........Excal for Saltwater ........End of report ......

Take your wife to the Beach forums and show her what she can expect to get from the wet salt and show her what is possible with the RIGHT machine ...... You won't have to buy it ... She'll buy it for you !!..... .....Jim

 

[jackkell1963]

Thanks for the input guys!

 

[Rick(ND)]

Keep the E-Trac as it is a good detector you can do a lot with for those that know it and use it in actual hunting. Now if you want to beach hunt and go into knee deep water I would find a nice used Sovereign as there are some great deals out there on used ones at times. Now you can chest mount or even put it in a water tight box to keep the control box dry. Many do this and works good. I have seen some of the older XS series go for around $250-$300 so you wont have much invested. If you are going to go into waist high or more water then I feel you will have to get a Excalibur which is heavy to use on dry land and feel you will have to take care of it more also as I feel many of the problems we hear about with them is they are not taken care of like they should.
We have a guy in our club that has the Explorer, the Sovereign XS2 and also the Excalibur and spend his winters down in FL hunting the beaches with the Excalibur because of all the salt, but when he comes back to MN in the spring his Sovereign is used to hunt the rivers where people go down the river tubing. He says the Sovereign will work better for him as it is lighter and seem to be able to dig more gold and silver rings with it. For land hunting he uses the Explorer mostly, but has used his Sovereign is some of the trashier sites.
If it was me I would keep the E-Trac and find a used Sovereign if not going into water deeper then knee high, this way you will have a extra detector in case you wife may want to find her own finds or even if you have a Friend along.

 

[erikk]

Keep the E-Trac as it is a good detector you can do a lot with for those that know it and use it in actual hunting. Now if you want to beach hunt and go into knee deep water I would find a nice used Sovereign as there are some great deals out there on used ones at times. Now you can chest mount or even put it in a water tight box to keep the control box dry. Many do this and works good. I have seen some of the older XS series go for around $250-$300 so you wont have much invested. If you are going to go into waist high or more water then I feel you will have to get a Excalibur which is heavy to use on dry land and feel you will have to take care of it more also as I feel many of the problems we hear about with them is they are not taken care of like they should.
We have a guy in our club that has the Explorer, the Sovereign XS2 and also the Excalibur and spend his winters down in FL hunting the beaches with the Excalibur because of all the salt, but when he comes back to MN in the spring his Sovereign is used to hunt the rivers where people go down the river tubing. He says the Sovereign will work better for him as it is lighter and seem to be able to dig more gold and silver rings with it. For land hunting he uses the Explorer mostly, but has used his Sovereign is some of the trashier sites.
If it was me I would keep the E-Trac and find a used Sovereign if not going into water deeper then knee high, this way you will have a extra detector in case you wife may want to find her own finds or even if you have a Friend along.

PLANING to stay knee deep in the ocean is one thing, actually having it work out that way doesn't always happen and when the rouge wave slams you and you end up on your A$$, detector is ruined U will wish you had used a dedicated water machine. Been there, done that only I was using an excal at the time

 

[goodmore]

Oh I often tell people that I keep one eye on the waves. Being in NJ and Delaware when the tide is coming in can be challenging. You can easily be washed up with your detector up your butt. I take the Sovereign into knee high with a chest mount. That is as far as I go with a non waterproof machine. And after reading posts this winter I am going to tether my scoop. Last thing I need is brand new scoop heading for the deep.

 

[Rick(ND)]

That is correct, but this is why it has to be chest mounted and in a plastic wrap or a water proof box so a quick dip it will not hurt, but if you plan on going deeper or leaving it in water than you need a water detector. I have heard of many that will go deeper and put their Sovereign in Styrofoam container like a or cooler and float the control box that is sealed as once it is one you don't need to mess with the controls. Just a cheaper idea that works when you pay attention to what you are doing and how you are doing it.

 

[erikk]

That is correct, but this is why it has to be chest mounted and in a plastic wrap or a water proof box so a quick dip it will not hurt, but if you plan on going deeper or leaving it in water than you need a water detector. I have heard of many that will go deeper and put their Sovereign in Styrofoam container like a or cooler and float the control box that is sealed as once it is one you don't need to mess with the controls. Just a cheaper idea that works when you pay attention to what you are doing and how you are doing it.

What you say will work for fresh water with no problems ( I adapted my D-Tex for water hunting in early 60's) however the ocean is a different story-sometimes you get more than a "quick dip" Don't know how big the waves are in ND but here in FL sometimes it needs a bit more than paying attention. Sure you can waterproof a Sov but by the time you get through with the clunky waterproof box that wants to act as a life preserver and float you, and all the connections you have spent some big $$ and you still don't have the real deal. Just depends on where you are going to hunt

 

[erikk]

Oh I often tell people that I keep one eye on the waves. Being in NJ and Delaware when the tide is coming in can be challenging. You can easily be washed up with your detector up your butt. I take the Sovereign into knee high with a chest mount. That is as far as I go with a non waterproof machine. And after reading posts this winter I am going to tether my scoop. Last thing I need is brand new scoop heading for the deep.

Tether both....I put D rings on my finds bag belt, one on each side. One for detector and other for scoop (scoop also has wood floating handle) BUT.........Belt has quick release buckle in case I get in bad trouble & have to dump the gear quickly-you can always replace gear, not so if you drowned

 

[drewan29]

E Trac for land ........Excal for Saltwater ........End of report ......

Take your wife to the Beach forums and show her what she can expect to get from the wet salt and show her what is possible with the RIGHT machine ...... You won't have to buy it ... She'll buy it for you !!..... .....Jim

:
That is exactly what I did showed the wife the beach forums and was told to buy one after 5 minutes of showing her the finds and yes I did get an Excal II.
drewan

 

[synthnut]

drewan29.......WTG !!!...... ....Jim

 

[kered]

I usually carry 2 or 3 detectors depending on the beach, my way of discriminating where i hunt is my boots, if i get out the etrac or sovereign i put on my short bellow knee boots, if i choose the excal or dual field i can put on the neoprene, not much chance of going into the water very far with short boots, and you tend to keep an eye on the waves too if your close

Having said that water and non waterproof detectors don't mix, do it at your own risk.

 

[JOHNMARKHAM]

well i use my excal allot at the beach as it was designed for,now with that said,i moved back to ohio last summer and only get to the beach when im able to make the trip,ive hunted some of the local beaches here and yes i do use my excal on the dry land too,the only issues ive had is because the excal goes deep in the sand it does the same in this clay soil weve got here in ohio,so digging at times is a pain,plus having a bad back knees and just getting old pains doesnt help either..but yes an excal will work in the soil too,now im planning on getting an etrac soon too..
hope this helps
hh
john

 

[Critterhunter]

John, did you get that Excal service "issue" resolved?

 

[JOHNMARKHAM]

no resolve on the service issues...he still wont respond to any of the filed complaints..ill post more when updated..