Well that depends. I have the Explorer II and have used it for 10 years, the machine and I are one. But this was not the case for the first month or so. Your friend must realize that the Explorer is not a beep and dig detector (it can be though). I takes a lot of practice, patience, and persistence to really understand what the machine is telling you. I have used the Explorer all over the US to include beaches. No problems at all with stability. The Minelabs generally run a little on the heavy side (with the exception of the X-terra 305,505,705 which are around 2.9 lbs). My Explorer with rechargeable batteries, stock coil, and mounted Sunray X-1 pinpointer weighs about 5 pounds. I do not care what anyone tells you, after swinging for 4-5 hours a day you are eventually going to feel it. I am talking everyday hunting of course. If just a weekend warrior then he should be fine. Overall I would recommend the detector but maybe because I am a little biased. There may be another equivalent in some other brand but I do not know of one. The Explorer II was my 3rd detector and I still have it. I recently put it in the closet and have been using a much lighter Tesoro Golden uMax. I instantly noticed the lack of depth but also instantly noticed how feather light it is. Tesoro has deep detecting machines but I am not familiar with them. You may be better posting this under Metal Detecting forum. This way you will get recommendations from all areas instead of Minelab. You posted in Minelab Explorer forum and I really doubt many are going to tell you or your friend to go another route. Another suggestion is post on multiple detecting forums. What ever your friend decides, in the end the only way to find the good stuff is to get out there. Good luck and I hope you and your friend will be hunting together soon.
