Fellow beach hunters ........I need your help........

[Ivan]

I'm thinking if getting a Whites PI Dual Field for primarily dry sand hunting. The beaches in my area have been pounded by hunters, all with VLF units and dual frequency detectors. I thought that maybe the dual field might pick up where they all have left off...........so I can get those deeper signals.Whites claims that the unit is designed to hit hard on gold. Someone told me that the design of the dual field coil is by Eric Foster..........any truth to this?Is anyone out there using the dual field in dry sand .....any tips?? Is it hard to pinpoint with this coil? Will the 12" coil be ok on smaller rings??Anyone on this forum using the Dual Field? I'm open to suggestions and value your opinions......thank you.

 

[goodmore]

I never used a Dual field, but i do have the HH PI. I was told that all PI units have Eric foster built into them. You fail to mention if your beach is fresh or salt water. In my opinion the PI units really shine on salt water beaches. The salt helps get rid of the small iron like bobby pins. Of course places like Atlantic City have large iron problems that become a headache for PI users. I have heard wonderful things about the Dual Field. it is deep. It is light. Great on batteries. I did hear that pinpointing with that monster size coil takes some practice. People have compensated by getting bigger scoops. It also helps getting to the deep stuff. You will not find a deeper detector. If your beach is not polluted with iron go for it.

I'm not in the detector selling business, but the Headhunter PI is a fine detector. The 8" coil is easy to pinpoint with. You can change it out to an 11" coil. Those of us who have one call it the best kept secret of beach hunting.

Talk to Mr. Bill of Surfscanner Detectors. One of the best when it comes to talking about PI units.

 

[VBDave]

I've been using my DF for about 2 months. It is definitely a deep machine. The good: Batteries last forever. It's well balanced and easy to swing. The coil handles very well in the surf, with no tendency to flip or drag. The bad: Although it pinpoints easily, there's a good chance you'll miss a deep target on first scoop. The large coil is hard to get into the hole to recheck it. You'll need a big scoop with small holes and a magnet or else you'll chase small junk all over the ocean. That can get old quick. Here in Va Beach, the pulse delay doesn't seen to have any effect on smoothness of the threshold, so I just turn it off.

 

[S.S.Tupperware]

Had mine for over a year, great, if ya don't have a lot of iron go for it... it does like bottle caps though.

 

[GONGA]

I had mine for a couple of months now ,at first I thought it was a dud machine but It took a few days to work out and I have been using it on flogged beaches and you definitely will pickup what others detectors dont see.I have used it in the wet and dry sand ,it is definitely the deepest machine I have seen .You will need the largest sand scoop you can get because it really goes deep and I assure you there will be targets so deep that you will say to yourself stuff it its to deep to keep digging.I found a 2cm bronze or copper im not too sure button the other day at around a foot deep and I am sure it has been sitting there for around 120 years.Everything you find is just deep.You cant go wrong with your choice.
I'd like to hear from anyone that has you used it for gold detecting in the goldfileds.

 

[kered]

To help you make the decision, take any resonable detector and run the dry in all metal only and see how many targets you pick up, i would then double it(due to the extra depth you'll get) and you will get an idea of how much digging your gona do, not for the faint hearted. If the guys that pound the beach are taking all the trash home together with the finds you may be ok but try my suggestion and see

 

[weswadebum]

I've had my Dual Field since July 17 2008, almost since they first came out. I traded off my Beachhunter 300 prototype (I installed the coil not factory 8 months before it was a new model) and my main reason for going to the DF was because I had the joy if trying the TDI before most people and the depth was spectacular. I went with the DF because I water hunt alot and am starting to kayak to intercoastal islands in the rivers and digging targets.. so far I have 51lbs of iron in a bucket in my truck, but I purposely hunt the most trashy areas because most detectorsts here get away from those areas as quick as possible. 22 rings, 3 necklaces, dozens of earrings and dozens of silver coins, as wells has plenty of just change.. and I only get to detect maybe 10 hours a month. My opinion you can't get a better PI machine, unless you go for a Aquapulse, but from a few people I've talked to who've used both say for the price difference stick with the DF. I run the gain almost full, pulse delay near minumum and I turn the threshhold to silent, eventhough I can lose some depth with silent search I haven't noticed it enough to stop using silent search. Pinpointing took some time to master so I started with a bigger scoop. I've dug so many targets with the DF that it is easy to distinguish a nail most of the time, but I still dig them. I play the game of guess what the target is by the length of the tone and if it has a double beep or not. First day out with it I found a 14k 1mm boxlink chain with a small #1mom heart pend that was 6 inches down...


One final idea, if you're only planning on detecting in soft sand, see if someone around you has a white's GMZ. I tried one here and it would find a 1.7 gram birdcage style anklet at 8 inches in the soft sand. Its the only detector within a reasonable price that Ive seen that detects chains and bracelets ($499.99 msrp). thats the next detector I'm adding to my collection when its too cold to water hunt..