How does the Omega handle the beach?

[NickT]

I am new to this hobby. Wanted to detect since I was a kid growing up near the Jersey Shore.

I have been coinshooting the parks here in Illinois and having fun. But I would really like to hit the Florida coast.

Does anyone have any experience using the Omega at the beach? Any tips?

Thanks,

Nick

 

[shawnrmartin]

I haven't tried my Delta in salt water yet, so The only thing I can tell you from experience, (admittedly a long time ago) is that unless you are using pulse induction, almost every vlf machine is going to have SOME issues with salt water. Some handle it better than others.

I have an old AT$ from Garrett, (think 198 that has absolutely no problem with wet salty beaches. (It was actually made for beach hunting.)

I just sold a Garrett GTA 1000, which was awful around salt water. (Go figure, the GTA was 7 years newer than the AT4, and several hundred dollars more expensive.)

I too am interested in the possible replies.

 

[NickT]

Thanks for the reply. I've only had the omega a couple of weeks. Should have the other tomorrow. I also have a CZ 70 pro that I hear is a good beach detector. But I was hoping to sell it to help pay for the 8000's. Hoping to learn more about the Omegas before we head down the end of the month.

Any info is appreciated!

Thanks,

Nick

 

[Furious T]

I've taken my Omega to saltwater beaches a couple times, and it works well in dry sand, even dry sand that is quite damp. Good depth and VID is accurate. I did not try it in the wet sand as I had my saltwater detector with me and could not see the point wasting time with a single frequency detector when I know the depth would not be as good. However, I wouldn't hesitate to take the Omega to the beach again, and if I had to use it in the wet sand, then I would be happy to give it a try, going on its performance in the dry/damp sand.

 

[NickT]

Thanks furious t.

Is that the main difference? Multiple-freqs vs single? I know the CZ has 2 freqs and a saltwater setting. Maybe I'll bring all 3 just for testing.
thanks again,
Nick

 

[Furious T]

I dont own a CZ, but from what I've read, I would expect it to perform better in the wet than the Omega would, given that it has a saltwater mode. I was referring more to my pulse machine and my multi frequency machine which both perfrom very well in salt water and wet sand on saltwater beaches...they are designed especially for that purpose, so I would expect them to perform better than a single frequency machine such as the Omega. That's all I meant. Good luck, give the Omega a try and see how you go. That's really the only way you'll find out. HH

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

Hi Nick.
I'm not familiar with how the Omega will go at a beach, but a trick I found with reducing falsing on my Ace in wet sand is to reduce the sensitivity and knock out a few of the lower notches. The Omega has a ground balance feature that the Ace doesn't which will help it enormously. All VLF machines lose half their depth in wet so don't let that put you off when you notice it. It's perfectly normal.
Mick Evans.

 

[NickT]

Thanks for the tip Mick. I'll post the results when I get done trying.

Nick

 

[NickT]

My wife and I hunted the treasure coast with our Omega's. We tried the stock coil and 11" DD. Things I found out:

• It's is very hard to get a Grnd Balance with either coil
• Manual balance is very important to getting good readings.
• people that go to the beach are pigs!
• Detectors acted better in the dry sand than wet.
• We did get some positives that we could not find the target.
• My confidence level never really reached a comfortable level.
• Tried in Desc and AT modes. AT worked a little better for me.
• Did not find much of anything worth the time.

Conclusion: The Omega is not a great beach machine.

Nick

 

[chaddy]

Yeh all that's quite normal for a single frequency machine.