Garrett detector

[Mplocar]

Hello,


THis is my first post as well as my first detector aside from an old radio shack model I had as a kid. my question is how good of a deal did I get and will it be useable in a varitiety of situations. Here are the details garrett master hunter deepseeker ADS 3 metal detector and three coils a 4", 7-1/2 inch and the 12 inch deepseeker . I paid 170.00 US for the whole deal. Did I make a decent purchase and will I be able to use this for beach combing, coin shooting,and relic hunting? Any advice or technical knowledge you might have to share would be helpful..

Thanks
Michael

 

[Uncle Willy]

This detector is about 20 years old. Go to losttreasure.com and click on field tests, then on Garrett, then on your model which will be at the bottom of the list. It will pretty well explain the operation of your machine and its performance.

Bill

 

[Mplocar]

Would you say I over paid for the package? 20 years old sounds likeI mightofgotten a lemon then. Aside from going digital how much has the Tech changed?

 

[Uncle Willy]

I wouldn't say you got a lemon. It was a great machine in its day but technology has changed considerably since then. You still should be able to do quite well with it. Then later on you can move up to something else. I belive it had all metal which is a plus in any machine. That old boy may surprise you.

Bill

 

[Mplocar]

Thanks Bill I appreciate your comments I was kind of hoping the 3 differnt coils would help broaden the machines abilities and my use of it. I suppose the biggest thing for me is if it is going to be safe to do shallow saltwater dectecting with it I live in the Tidewater area of Virginia so there is a lot of that here. Now I am waiting for the chance to get out and start figuring out how to use it. Thanks again any tips on how to break it in?

Michael

 

[saika/ace250]

I bought a really old Garrett for a friend. it has a j type handle and is called a freedom something or other. well at first I was embarrased to give it to him. I taught him how to use it and was I blown away!, It has an all metal mode, an iron chekc toggle, manual GB and a very wide sweep discrimination and an audio response that is to die for!

At the end of the day it does 90 percent of what a modern machine does just not id, but you can turn your disc and get a pretty good idea.

Remember this a hunter who knows his machine and techniques will do better than an untrained hunter with a great machine....

 

[JoeR]

I used a ADS III back in the early 80`s;at the time it was a good machine.It should still do as well as most starter machines as a coin shooter and about as well as any in all metal mode.With the 7.5" coil it got 6"on dimes at normal sweep speeds and 7" if you "whipped" it a bit.It had a small(3.5")coaxial coil which had very little edge effect and could be used close to fences and lamp posts.The small coil was very thick ;your 4"may actually be this one.It is not a slow motion machine and I would not use it in the surf.Few modern single frequency detectors will do well there anyway.For relic hunting in all metal on Civil War battlefields it is as good as most machines today.

 

[Mplocar]

THanks Joe

I had really never thought of going into the surf but along the edge just worried if a small wave washed up if it would do any damage but it seems as though the surf is where the booty is. I was thinking the 12" would be good to hunt around where the sun bathers would hang out. It is my starter machine and I have been really hunting one to get camping out on Ebay for weeks trying to find and win something in my budget. This had all three coils and I kinda figured it was old I didnt realize it was that old. I figure though as much free time as I seem to have if I can hit the parks and some old farm/house sites and practice a bit and gather enough change to cover the origianl cost the first year Iwill be happy. Thanks for the info on this machine any more tips/hints you might have I would sure appreciate it.

Michael

 

[JoeR]

The coils as I recall were waterproof but the box was not so don`t risk getting it dunked.It should do fine on dry sand but wet salt sand I can`t say for sure.Most detectors will have some falsing there.The parks and schools have been pounded for decades so you will find mostly clad there but for such shallow targets it should do as well as any.Use the small coil in trashy areas.At old house sites that predate the pulltab period, you should hunt in iron discriminate.At that setting you will get more depth than the 6-7"obtainable at pulltab discriminate and also have less masking effect.I think that at low discrimination performance will be closer to a modern machine.Don`t bother with the automatic tuning;it falses too much,,just get used to fliping the toggle every so often. I think you paid a fair price for your detector and were correct in thinking that the extra coils would enhance it.

 

[JoeR]

Michael check your E-mail.