Newbie question about which detector to buy.

[arniehoutx]

Had this up in general detecting. Suggested that I put it up here.
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Hello,

I hope some of you can spread some light and help me choose a detector. I will be using it every where but mainly on Texas beaches. A machine that could do a little nugget shooting would be nice to have on trips around gold country.

I keep coming back to the Garrett Infinium LS Pulse Induction machine. They call it the "The "Go Anywhere" Detector". It sounds like the perfect choice until I talk to the salesmen. They say I don't want that machine because it has no or poor discrimination. I would be digging up lots of trash. Pictures I see on the forums from successful hunters show (looks like to me) that is just part of the game. To get a lot of treasure (small gold chains and rings) you have to dig a lot of trash. Am I wrong in my thinking?

PI sounds like the state of the art tech for most detecting.
I also read somewhere that Garrett will soon be replacing the Infinium with a better unit. Any truth in that?

Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
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I received the following reply:

Re: Newbie question about which detector to buy.
Posted by: willy <Send a PM> (IP Logged)
Posts: 238
Date: Today, 03:50PM


The Infinium is not really a "use it everywhere" detector insofar as, while you CAN use it almost anywhere, it can get quite gruesome. It doesn't have as sophisticated a Disc. as a VLF detector but, in highly mineralized ground, will vastly outperform a VLF re. depth and does allow a person to 'ID' large, deep iron better than a VLF in said ground. There's also a Garrett Infinium forum with a lot of info. ...Willy.
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Any additional help is welcome.
Thanks!!

 

[John-Edmonton]

For general hunting....you want to stay away from PI's including the Infinium. It is a do everything in the right environment, however, lots if not most environments just have too much iron and junk to make the Infinium a practical machine for you. Having said that, the Garrett Scorpion would easily cover all the bases with you, except it isn't water proof. It can be ground balanced to work the salty dry and wet salty sand. It has discrimination abilities to cut out the iron to hunt rings and coins, yet was designed to also find gold. It has different coils available to compliment your specific hunts and is reasonably priced too.

Check out the link below:

http://www.garrett.com/hobby/products/scorpiongold.htm

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[willy]

.. while it's a good detector, it's way overpriced in todays market (when compared to other detectors). It also has a retarded battery replacement scheme; you essentially have to disassemble the detector to replace the 3 9v batteries. ..Willy.

 

[Uncle Willy]

Yeah that is one drawback on the Scorpion.

Bill

 

[willy]

..Garrett will get on the ball and come out with a decent prospecting (VLF) unit or, even better, a crossover detector that will out MXT the MXT when it comes to gold.. shore would luv to see that. ..Willy.

 

[Uncle Willy]

If you are a newbie stay away from the Infinium. You need to learn the basics of detecting before tackling a machine like the Infinium and taking on more machine than you can handle. Learning to detect is not as easy as it sounds and there is a learning curve. The Infinium is a specialized machine for specific types of hunting and you need to learn how to operate a regular detector before jumping into the world of pulse induction.

You need to start of with a good VLF then work your way up to the Infinium. It's like getting your first drivers license to drive a car then trying to operate a D-8 Cat. Nuggetshooting is another specialized type of hunting requiring a specialized detector. You can't take just any detector and go out and find gold. It's a whole other world. Don't bite of more than you can chew. Don't buy into all the hype like the Whites commercials on TV giving the impression you can buy their machine and walk out in your backyard and find diamond rings and CSA belt buckles just laying around.

Bill

Bill

 

[Uncle Willy]

I wish they would tweak the 250 up with switchable higher frequency and manual GB all metal. It's already hot on gold items.

Bill

 

[willy]

.. ,and this is a bit of a digression, is that the stock coil on the GTI's is incredibly sensitive to small low conductors; you'd think it was a higher frequency detector. If they'd come out with a 6-7" imaging coil for the GTI's it would have been really impressive. Would also be nice to see them add ground tracking (on/off/slow/fast) and a fast retune AM mode to the Ace 250 (as well as the higher frequency). Stick a few more notches in there and keep the 4 AA's (also keep the price reasonable) and it would be a real winner. ...Willy.

 

[tucky_tector]

Would like to see manual GB added to the Ace 250

 

[Uncle Willy]

Yeah I'd like to have a small imaging coil but guess it's tough to cram three coil windings into that small of a space.

Bill