Hello Mikie, I guess the 1st thing you would want to do, is to take the Excal, set it to pinpoint and pretty much dig it all out there and see if you like doing that 1st, because that is what you are fixin' to be facing using the GQA2. I was not able to differentiate very well between targets using it, but nails and bobby pins would sometimes double beep, but so do broken rings, toe-rings, earrings and some chain, savvy? Of course, non-ferrous targets DO hit harder, no question, so maybe you can eventually become proficient at auditorily discriminating SOME. I would HIGHLY recommend that you order the unit from Mr.Bill with a center mounted 8" coil though, DO NOT order the 11", as it is VERY difficult to pinpoint using it AND it will not run with stability, at least here where I am at 10uS, as advertised. It DID run stable with the 8" though. The major advantage to using a GQA2 to begin with was the fact that it actually had the 10uS feature available, for the extra sensitivity to fine gold. Actually, I've found finer pieces of gold using my Excal, LOL! I dug some bobby pins that sounded pretty darn good WAY DOWN there, LOL! I don't think there is a better performer on a sumersible PI, currently available. At the time I bought mine, the option was not available to stem mount the control housing, I assume it is still the same. I would NOT recommend that you hip mount the control housing, as they suggest though, as I had an issue. Water hunting is too volatile of an environment to hip mount, imo. I ended up getting spooked one night in the surf, when I spooked a school of baitfish. When I jumped, I stepped onto the coil wire and ripped it out of the control housing, Mr.Bill repaired it at a reduced rate, but it DID cost me, as it was not a defect, but the fact remains that it is a bad idea NOT having your control housing secured to the shaft, with the coil wire wrapped and taped in place. This is not the only unit I've had issues with catastrophe taking it's toll in the surf. NOW, everyone of my units are mounted to the control housing and no more issues. The unit has been sold to a mate in Fla and the last I heard, he had already pulled enough gold to cover the cost of admission, savvy? I guess what I'm trying to say is, the unit is capable, get ready for more work out there and it is fragile, be careful. I used Garrett Mark II control housing brackets that another mate modified to mount the control housing to the stem and it was fine, no more worries.
