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Excal II or White's Surfmaster PI?

Y

YOHOHO

New member
I've been researching water machines quite a bit and have come down to the the Minelab Excal II and White's Surfmaster PI. I know they are very different machines but I am drawn to both.

I'll be doing my searching in some fairly heavy surf in Southern California, so I would prefer a machine that handles well in those choppy and loud conditions. I don't mind digging so is the PI the obvious choice? Or not?

Do the dual field surfmasters outperform the older version?

I'm truly at a standstill in my internal debate...I think I've got a case of analysis to paralysis... Any thoughts? Should I consider something else?

Thanks so much.
 
Yoho, I just ordered a Excal., I had the same decision as you. I toyed with Whites Surfmaster knowing how great their service is, I really like my MXT so really felt a loyalty to the brand. I asked numerous well thought out people who have hunted with all sorts of brands and without doubt everyone said the Excal to a person. One fellow in our local club has 8 M / detectors mainly Whites and Minelabs and he was adamant that the Excal was the machine as he had the jewellery to prove it. I emailed Clive Clynick the author of "Water Hunting: secrets and has used both machines and he stated Excal.......
The only issue I heard from a # of people was to get a different shaft (straight) and a knob guard. Old Beech Nut recommended getting the DVD on how to use the Excal along with Clive Clynicks books on beech hunting specifically to the EXcal. which i plan on doing. I ordered mine from Kellyco as their is not a Minelab dealer within 200 miles from where i live, I prefer to buy local but was unable. I got what I think to be a good buy from Kellyco and bought through Wanda who water detects, she uses the Excal and said she would not reco anything else for Water detecting. I toyed with getting the 8 in or 10 in coil and went for ten inch even though the 8 in had been recommended with some valid reasons. what pushed me to the ten inch was Clive and the water guy in our club said there was little diff. in swinging the 8 - 10 in coil, Wanda at Kellyco is 5ft 2in. and uses the 10in. she was most helpful.
I would love to keep in touch and hear what you bought and how you are doing, I feel either brand is a great product its a matter of making a decision and swinging. I have found 3 gold, 3 silver and 4 junk rings with my MXT so can't knock Whites, I wanted to get into the water and the MXT wouldn't do it for me.
Gooooooood luck with your decision and great hunting.
Gerry Birch Bay WA.
 
I've had the Excal and all three versions of the Surfmaster (PI, PI Pro, and now the Dual Field) and I can tell you point blank that I have dug stuff with the Surfmaster that I never even heard with the Excal. Don't get me wrong, its a great machine if you need discrimination, but I know that with the PI nothing that I walk over gets left behind. Besides, I'm an avid relic hunter and I want to dig in all metal anyway. Good Luck!

"Get Your Swag On"
 
Hey, YOHOHO,

I'm in So. Cal also and I'm trying to find people interested in hitting some of the beaches day or night. Let me know if you are interested in meeting up with some of us. I'm in Torrance.

Good luck in your decision, have you held either of these machines?


BCB
 
Horsesoldier said:
I've had the Excal and all three versions of the Surfmaster (PI, PI Pro, and now the Dual Field) and I can tell you point blank that I have dug stuff with the Surfmaster that I never even heard with the Excal. Don't get me wrong, its a great machine if you need discrimination, but I know that with the PI nothing that I walk over gets left behind. Besides, I'm an avid relic hunter and I want to dig in all metal anyway. Good Luck!

"Get Your Swag On"
Click to expand...

Even when you use the Excal in AM sens 10?
 
I'm in Garden Grove which is you guys's neck of the woods. I'd love to meet up somewhere also. I hunt with a Tesoro Sand Shark. Maybe we could exchange machines for awhile just to get a little taste of some different equipment.

Harvdog
 
I have used an Excal... and it is a great discriminating detector but it is not as deep as a PI ... I know I will find that deep gold the Excal just can't see... I agree with Horsesoldier here... ;) We each have our own favorites and for me its a PI its as simple as that :)
 
Some great thoughts and insight. I truly appreciate it. I'm still a bit unsure of which direction I'll go....so I may let price play more of a role.

I currently use a DFX on the sand, and I've played with a few water machines, but not long enough to form a bond.

I'm in Redondo Beach and would definitely be up for a meet.

Is there a noticeable performance difference between the Surfmaster PI, PI Pro, & Dual Field?
 
Hi guy , surfmaster PI very good detector ,butThe Infinuim LSwill go deeper . I hunt with people with surfmasters and I clean there clocks.So if you can spend more money ,you will find deeper targets. And this is only my thoughts on the matter.
 
If you are thinking PI go with the Dual Field over those other two... my hunting partner has the Surfmaster and I'm deeper than he is... use a PI wide open sure it will be noisy but you won't miss the deep stuff... if you want discrimination go with the Excalibur but buy a straight shaft for it...
 
Are deeper targets all that they are cracked up to be? If I can dig four shallow targets to your one deeper target, who has the advantage?

Harvdog
 
It depends on what you are looking for... my hunting partners and myself are after old gold... we will take new stuff but we prefer the older stuff over new drops... my last old find was a 1892 wedding band and personally I prefer that over anything new even if the new stuff has more value... we all use PI's so we are looking for the deepest stuff :) I guess its personal preference :)
 
i have a bit of advice - go in as deep water as you can and dig as deep as yu can, your 4 digs could all be ring pulls my deep targets wont,
 
Deep is good to a point. Deep at the cost of time is not good.

I run my Excalibur in all metal. My friend has a Surfmaster PI. It is a great machine. But I usually find more goodies than he because he is digging all kinds of garbage. Yeah he can adjust it to almost eliminate foil and tabs to a point, at the cost of depth. So he runs it full out to get as deep as possible.

Metal detectors should be time management machines. My friend is digging and digging but he usually is digging trash. While he digs trash I move on and find the good finds.

I can tell if it is trash or not and so I don't need to dig the trash. I can tell a ring from a foil ketchup container. He digs tons of those. And tons of pull tabs. I dig pull tabs too because they are so close to gold rings. Darn those stupid tabs! But all the other junk in the ground I don't need to dig because I know it is junk.

Deep is great but deep at the cost of time is not. So I find things that he missed because he was busy digging foil, hair pins and rusted iron.

If I was to get a pulse machine, which will happen, I will get the Surfmaster PI. But I really love the Excalibur for beach hunting and water hunting. I hate digging trash in the water. What a pain in the butt.
 
Gerry said:
Yoho, I just ordered a Excal., I had the same decision as you. I toyed with Whites Surfmaster knowing how great their service is, I really like my MXT so really felt a loyalty to the brand. I asked numerous well thought out people who have hunted with all sorts of brands and without doubt everyone said the Excal to a person. One fellow in our local club has 8 M / detectors mainly Whites and Minelabs and he was adamant that the Excal was the machine as he had the jewellery to prove it. I emailed Clive Clynick the author of "Water Hunting: secrets and has used both machines and he stated Excal.......
The only issue I heard from a # of people was to get a different shaft (straight) and a knob guard. Old Beech Nut recommended getting the DVD on how to use the Excal along with Clive Clynicks books on beech hunting specifically to the EXcal. which i plan on doing. I ordered mine from Kellyco as their is not a Minelab dealer within 200 miles from where i live, I prefer to buy local but was unable. I got what I think to be a good buy from Kellyco and bought through Wanda who water detects, she uses the Excal and said she would not reco anything else for Water detecting. I toyed with getting the 8 in or 10 in coil and went for ten inch even though the 8 in had been recommended with some valid reasons. what pushed me to the ten inch was Clive and the water guy in our club said there was little diff. in swinging the 8 - 10 in coil, Wanda at Kellyco is 5ft 2in. and uses the 10in. she was most helpful.
I would love to keep in touch and hear what you bought and how you are doing, I feel either brand is a great product its a matter of making a decision and swinging. I have found 3 gold, 3 silver and 4 junk rings with my MXT so can't knock Whites, I wanted to get into the water and the MXT wouldn't do it for me.
Gooooooood luck with your decision and great hunting.
Gerry Birch Bay WA.
Click to expand...

Gerry,
Clive is big on PI units also so he might have advised you the Excal because of where YOU are, not because one is better than the other. He is supposed to be coming out with a PI book soon. If your happy with your Excal than you made the right purchase:thumbup:

Neil
 
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