How many still use this Beep and Dig?

[Sven]

The Minelab Musketeer had an excellent following for a long time as a very deep machine for the price. You don't see many come up for sale, owners really liked them and rather part with them they were stored in the closet.
Occasionally brought out to play, these days occasionally one is found for sale. And selling price has remained constant.

The Musketeer was-is a pretty basic Beep and Dig detector, single tone, single frequency, analog, get to the point metal detector. They get the job done.

I have revisited the Musketeer every several years, picking up another model or same, just to see what I have missed. Too bad Minelab never micro sized the large control box like Tesoro did.
A number of years back I ran the Yahoo Group "The Minelab Musketeers", it was packed with all the Musketeer info from its early Sterling-Tribube-Musky X, Colt, Musky XS, to the Musky Advantage.
I still have all the info on my computer that I could resurrect at any time into a new site or add a webpage to my website.

Anyways, I picked up another Musketeer, price was just too good to pass up. Will give it another go just to get away now and then from the modern digital target ID screen machines.

 

[Mega]

Yep,i still have one,that i modified for shallow fresh water detecting,with the small coil to reduce water resistance,and it does work exceptionally well,the weight for me was the biggest problems but got around that by having the control box which when in it carry case can be hung around my neck,so that no only does this take the weight off the shaft but also gives me a few additional feet wading depth in the few river/ford crossing that i do.

Was a member of the Yahoo Musky owner group for a few years,not sure if its still going,but i think it folded or close down,but still a very good deep pasture site machine especially when using a bigger coil,as it runs a very low khz its possibly deeper than alot of modern machines,its a proven machine and very very underrated.

The discrimination was superb and out of the 2 factory coil options i still preferred the small 7.25'' coil,found the 10'' option although deeper was alot heavier.

 

[Bugar In. USA]

Yeah, i’m Here, read daily, just don’t post often, had couple colts, couple advantages, liked them real well, just like Tesoro better, lighter, they both work real good, but Vaquero is my main machine now.

 

[Sven]

 

[Dang]

Had the Colt and Advantage when I first started detecting again back in 03. I didnt care much for the tones myself. Had a 50ft coil wrapped around em too!

 

[Sven]

Had the Colt and Advantage when I first started detecting again back in 03. I didnt care much for the tones myself. Had a 50ft coil wrapped around em too!

LOL......yeah search coil cable was rather long, meant for those that were going to hip mount. Audio not like a Tesoro or other US brands but very similar to several other European brands.

There are still some mods that can be done with it, like shortening the search coil cable.
An audio frequency change that I will be working on, should make it more pleasing to listening to.
Swap out the battery system for a lighter weight Lithium-ion rechargeable battery pack.
I do have a carbon fiber straight shaft sitting here that it can be rear mounted on.
In the end it may be worth taking another look at seeing what the Musketeer can do in the present day.

 

[fwcrawford]

I still have the one I bought back in 2007.
I don't use it a great deal, but when I do decide to take it out for some searching, I realize why I still have it.
I have some red clay areas in my area and this detector performs great in these areas.
I have dug deep silver and copper coins with this machine even when the ground was bone dry.
Like some have said, it is heavy, buy you can cover lots of ground with this detector.
I have been surprised at the finds I have made with this detector in sites that have been pounded by lots of other detectors.,
Don't plan on getting rid of mine anytime soon.. I sure don't see many for sale either.. other folks must have the same plan as me.
I was up at Gettysburg last year and the detector dealer up there was having a going out of business sale and I bought a bunch of posters from him for $2.00.
The one in the photo is the only one in the bunch, but all of the rest of them were Minelab machines.

 

[Sven]

Just finished repairing the search coil cable and mounted the box on a carbon fiber straight shaft I made up a year ago.
Feels as light as a Tesoro Tejon, balances perfectly. Operates nicely and air tests are crazy for the 7.25" coil.
Its ready to rock'n roll.

 

[John (Ma)]

Tejon, silver umax and tiger shark