I'm not sure what you've got, is it this?
http://www.detecting.com/products/product.cmdl?c=a7cc4f5a2c3c4020
Our BH Quicksilver is very similar to the Pioneer EX.
The PEX/Quicksilver platform was introduced in spring of 2003, and the products typically retail in the $90-130 range. They are very light weight and easy to use and will typically detect coin-size objects out to about 6 inches or so in the air, and in an air test coins do fall in the correct category out to about 5 inches or better. Targets (or the searchcoil) must be in motion for target to be detected. Cans, being much larger, give a much stronger signal, and will usually fall in the zinc and higher regions the same as they do on other detectors. A given target on a single sweep past the searchcoil gives a single beep with a single pitch indicative of the target ID. In most ground the depth and ID performance will come close to what you get in the air, but in highly mineralized ground the ID will bounce around and there will usually be a reduction in depth as well. Highly mineralized ground also reduces the performance of other metal detectors, this limitation is not peculiar to the Quicksilver.
To say that the BH Quicksilver is a good target ID machine in its price range misses the point that it's the only target ID machine in its price range made in the USA, unless you count our somewhat similar "1000 series" products which have been sold under several different trademarks though usually at a slightly higher price. I'm not aware of any imports which offer comparable performance and features at the Quicksilver's price tag.
Most Quicksilver owners are quite happy with it. It is of course an entry level machine, and its performance and features do not match those of the $150-and-up target ID models which use entirely different circuit and software platforms.
--Dave Johnson
Chief Designer, FTP-Fisher
