Infinium and Sea Hunter 2 Question

[Lake Hunter]

I have an Infinium and use it in the saltwater surf at times, but mainly use it for freshwater and prospecting. I notice it falses occasionally in the surf. I am thinking of getting a Sea Hunter 2 as long as it doesn't false just for the surf. Does anyone have a Sea Hunter they use in the surf that could tell me ? Are the depths comparable also ?

Thanks, Darryl

 

[diggindirt]

You can get the Infinium to run pretty smooth in the salt but it takes some practice to do it successfully. There's many old posts (tips & tricks) on this forum on how to fine tune and adjust it for salt conditions. It does take some effort though and it's just part of the learning curve. If you want a turn on and go machine, the Sea Hunter or another PI might be your best bet.

I've heard that many hunters really like the Sea Hunter and do quite well with them. It's built with the same type of case as the Infinium so you know it's tough. It also uses different but the same size coils and the same headphones. I hear that it's a deep machine but just a tad less than the Infinium. Many great finds have been found with the Sea Hunter.

Thanks!

 

[OldBeechnut]

Got both, the infinium falses alot At OC Maryland because of the strong mineral build up on the slopes, further out in the water it does get alittle better. I've turned the discrimination up to 3 and in the lane that helped alot...and still get gold..............In the waters of the Bay, the infiniun purr's like a kitten. The Ls has the 10x14 mono.........
The Sea hunter does do better at OC as far as the falsing, but it does have the 8 inch mono..so I think that makes a big difference....

Just got back from Oc, took the gang down to see how each would compare to each other, strengths, weaknesses...............this is what I got

Size 13 Mans 14k, 7.5 grams ............16 inch's........none.......................14 inchs.... Garrett Infinium PI, Amped excal..........rest came in between 10 & 12 inch's
Size 6 1.5 gram 10k women's ring......14 inch's....... none.........................6 inch's......Garrett Sea Hunter PI, rest of the pack started hitting at 4 inch's

So the Ls has the depth on the larger rings (10x14), the SeaHunter does better on the smaller ladies ring, small (8 inch) coil hit mans ring at 10 inchs

 

[Lake Hunter]

n/t

 

[diggindirt]

Got both, the infinium falses alot At OC Maryland because of the strong mineral build up on the slopes, further out in the water it does get alittle better. I've turned the discrimination up to 3 and in the lane that helped alot...and still get gold..............In the waters of the Bay, the infiniun purr's like a kitten. The Ls has the 10x14 mono.........
The Sea hunter does do better at OC as far as the falsing, but it does have the 8 inch mono..so I think that makes a big difference....

Just got back from Oc, took the gang down to see how each would compare to each other, strengths, weaknesses...............this is what I got

Size 13 Mans 14k, 7.5 grams ............16 inch's........none.......................14 inchs.... Garrett Infinium PI, Amped excal..........rest came in between 10 & 12 inch's
Size 6 1.5 gram 10k women's ring......14 inch's....... none.........................6 inch's......Garrett Sea Hunter PI, rest of the pack started hitting at 4 inch's

So the Ls has the depth on the larger rings (10x14), the SeaHunter does better on the smaller ladies ring, small (8 inch) coil hit mans ring at 10 inchs

Nice post! I haven't used my 8" mono on the Infinium in quite some time. If I'm remembering correctly, using the 8" coil on my Infinium did seem to hit lower karat small gold a little better but with less depth compared to the 10x14" mono. I also have bad black sand in my area and sometimes run my disc up to around 3 with no real noticeable depth loss.

I'm going to have to do some of my own tests again as it was a long time ago (memory seems a bit fuzzy at my age) Thanks!

 

[southernexplorer]

How would the Infinium do with the small ladies ring with the 8" coil? Did you test the PI Pro on these same targets?

 

[ivanll]

I have an Infinium and use it in the saltwater surf at times, but mainly use it for freshwater and prospecting. I notice it falses occasionally in the surf. I am thinking of getting a Sea Hunter 2 as long as it doesn't false just for the surf. Does anyone have a Sea Hunter they use in the surf that could tell me ? Are the depths comparable also ?
Thanks, Darryl

I have an older Garrett Sea Hunter PI I prefer using in rivers and swimming holes, for ocean beaches and prospecting I go for my Infinium LS but the settings differs a lot between the two locations.

ivanll

 

[OldBeechnut]

My guess is the infinium would have got the smaller ring with the 8 inch coil but would I lose my depth?.......smaller the coil the bigger the target, likewise bigger the coil smaller the target.....the other PI was a Dual field,The DF would not touch the mans ring that deep, but it could be my lack of using it...only out 4 times...but I was running with hott settings.....they say the df has a drop in the threshold when hitting a deep target..so I am use to the rise like on the LS, or sea hunter..and the excal in almetal mode. All were very close in there depth detecting range. Just the 2 that stood out were the Garretts.........One interesting thing, the Little 94-96 Gary Storm Excalibur did very well, better then the excal II...I would almost bet that over the years, Minelabs has detuned the Newer excals, to stabilize them near the saltwater.

 

[southernexplorer]

n/t

 

[therover]

When you set up your Infinium, do you end up hunting in LOCK after it gets ground balanced, or do you run it in SLOW or FAST.

I have found once it gets acclimated to the salt sand, I switch to LOCK and never have any issues.

JC

 

[diggindirt]

When you set up your Infinium, do you end up hunting in LOCK after it gets ground balanced, or do you run it in SLOW or FAST.

I have found once it gets acclimated to the salt sand, I switch to LOCK and never have any issues.

JC

Yep, I set mine that way too! The biggest and most important thing to a smoother running Infinium is the initial ground balance procedure!

Spend the extra time getting it smooth in the wet sand, water, ....etc (wherever you're hunting). Take the time in slow and fast modes until it's quiet and lock and load!

Oh, and don't forget to get the frequency setting done first and make sure to gb with disc off too!

 

[ivanll]

When you set up your Infinium, do you end up hunting in LOCK after it gets ground balanced, or do you run it in SLOW or FAST.
I have found once it gets acclimated to the salt sand, I switch to LOCK and never have any issues.
JC

When Beach hunting I never use Discrimination or run in the resource draining Auto Ground Track, but use FAST to minimise GB, then switch into LOCK to maximise depth in combination with a stable low Pulse Frequency, this enables a ZERO Discrimination setting and maximum sensitivity to small items.

If on a noisy or black-sand beach I switch to a smaller or a DD coil.

Guess it's a matter of using a set-up that make sense and one is comfortable with.

ivanll

 

[therover]

Diggin,

What you pointed out are the necessary steps needed to make the Infinium run smooth. I think a fellow Infinium user needs to make sure they take their time with the ground balance and ALWAYS go through the frequency adjustments. Ya never know when EMI is lurking and how it can affect the unit. Gotta also insure the GB is in the LOCK position when going through the frequency adjustments ( at least that is what I take from all the posts and help on the forum).

Lastly, minimum adjustments to the discrimination and threshold controls can help as well.

One more thing. I am not sure if others have noticed this, but sometimes I find it easier to distinguish small, deep targets on the Infinium vs. falsing via the tone ID, better than I can on straight away single tone units. A repeatable hi/lo or lo/hi that is a tad stronger ( but still very faint) than the normal, faint warlbly one way falses is always a sign to dig....at least for me it is.

It is a tricky unit to run sometimes on some of the beaches I hunt, but once you get the hang of it, it's an outstanding unit.

JC

 

[diggindirt]

therover, 100% correct

It took some time in the beginning to really learn how to tame the beast. I almost gave up many times while learning the Infinium's
temperament over various conditions!

I've hunted in many states and over all types of water. While some locations had high mineral content, others did not.
Some of the beaches had terrible black sand deposits and others were a real breeze to work.

What I've learned to make it run quiet and stable was to really spend the initial time getting the settings correctly configured.

If you're going to hunt from the sand and then into the shallow water, you need to gb the machine again in the water if needed (most hunters I believe, don't do this)!

Yes it can be a pain, it's not a turn on a go machine, not for a beginner by any means! Sometimes (but not most) I've had to run it with a little noise. This really hasn't been an issue to me because of the excellent audio of the machine (I can tell a good target when running it like that).

It's just the nature of the beast, some locations require more tweaking, but I've found (sniffed out) some really deep gold that's been missed by every other top machine out there.

The Infinium in experienced hands seems to vacuum gold out of pounded out locations!

 

[Cupajo]

Hi diggin,

Which coil do you prefer?

Where I hunt the EMI is everywhere!!

Trains, planes and boats all pass close enough to wreak havock with a quiet afternoon's detecting.

Even so I have had excellent results with the LS,

CJ

 

[diggindirt]

Hey Cupajo, Great to hear from you!!!

I've been swinging the 10x14" mono with much success lately!

I still like the 8" mono but haven't used it recently. The bigger mono has nice coverage and depth.

I've been thinking about the interference issue you've had with the 8" mono in your area. It might be an issue with the coil? Perhaps something with the shielding
like on the older cables before Garrett updated them? Do you still get the same interference with the big DD? Maybe Garrett should take a look at the control box just to rule out any
possible issues. I remember reading some posts back in the past about an experienced hunter using the Infinium successfully but it being real noisy at times.

He didn't think anything was wrong with the machine but reluctantly sent it to Garrett for a checkup. When he got it back he said it wasn't like the same machine, still ran good and deep
but it was now real quiet too (just a thought).

Always good to hear from you friend!!!

 

[Cupajo]

Since I was able to tune out the disturbance most of the time I'm pretty sure the LS is working as designed.

I still did well with it once I understood how to get the most performance out of it.

I got tired of adjusting constantly just to get in a hunt.

There were a few times, on early Sunday mornings usually, when I caught calm water and very few passing boats, planes and trains and the LS was a pleasure to use.

I have a lot less hastle with the Dual field, but when I can no longer find targets with it I shall return the Infinium to service to find the rest!!

Many thanks diggin for your information and the benefit of your experience,

CJ

 

[diggindirt]

 

[Infiniumexplorer Excalibur]

The new coils that are coming out for the Infinium might include the figure 8 design, as seen on youtube, it's what they were testing. I hope they make them water proof, because a figure 8 coil (in theory) would be quiet 100% of the time!

 

[Lake Hunter]

I like it better than my Infinium LS. Easy to use and IMO it has better disc capabilities and same depth as Infinium. The descrete mode works great in freshwater where the trash is. I just love it. Wish I would have got one sooner.