newbie salt water detector

[ramram]

I am new to this and know little. I spend part of my winter at salt water beaches in South East Aria.What I want to do is buy a detector for use in shallow
(under 12 inches) salt water and wet and dry sand looking for stuff people have lost. I have told the M6 is the way to go. Is there a viable alternative that would less costly as my interest in this could be shortlived.Any feedback would be greatly appreciated....ramram

 

[ramram]

n/t

 

[mblemmy]

well this hobby is a double edged sword for the new guy . what i mean is this..... if you buy a cheap enexpensive detector you may well be agrivated quite quickly as most single frequency detectors incounter lots of interference in ocean beaches. there are a few that work ok,,l. some much better but come with a bigger price tag. so the other side of the sword is you end up with a overpriced dust collector. personally i feel you would come out better to purchase a higher quality detector for two main reasons one is it will perform much better which in turn will pay you bigger rewards sooner, and two, if you dont enjoy the hobby the resale on the higher dollar machine will be much much better. personally for the beach and in the water a water machine is a must. I have had great success with the minelab excalibur. over a pound in gold jewlery with it. that sound like a lot, but that many many hours out hunting. if you are persistant and realize the more junk you dig the more good finds you will dig it will become enjoyable and its a very relaxing hobby. i wouldnt want to guess how much the total weight for all the junk was for that pound,,, but i found lots of other great stuff too... you just never know what will show up under the coil.thats what keeps it exciting.

take your time do your homework. there is lots of good reading right here. you will get better more realistic info from detectorist than you will from dealers.


good luck!!

mikeB

etrac/excal

 

[Bling]

Mike is right,save your money and buy an Excal,if you get a good one you wont be sorry! iv had 4 of them and they all were great.and iv found enough every year to pay for them,

 

[fieldboy]

n/t

 

[Beachcomber]

If you are only going to go 12" into the water there is no need to buy an Excalibur. Wait until you decide if you like this hobby before putting out the big bucks. If you time your beach hunts to the tides you can hunt in knee deep or shallower water and be in the same area that people were swimming when the Tide was High. The least expensive way to have a win win situation in hunting the beaches is to buy yourself a used Minelab Sov. Any version of the Sov will do as they are all good on the beach and they are very easy to use. A Sov is the land version of the Excalibur so once you learn to use the Sov you will know how to use an Excalibur. You should be able to find a good used one in the $300-$500 range. It will be able to easily handle the saltwater, the wet sand, and the dry beach. It will also reject iron so you won't waste your time digging the iron junk found on most beaches. Also if you find you don't like the hobby you can get most of your money back when you sell a Sov as they are well known and sought after detector. I would stay away from a PI's as your first detector as they excel at locating rusty iron and are a sure way to become discouraged with this hobby. Check out the Classified Forum here at Findmall and I am sure you will see a Sov listed on there somewhere and if there isn't one right now I am sure this will be sometime soon as they come and go all the time. The newest version of the Sov is the GT, before that was the Sov Elite, and before that the Sov XS2. Any one of these would make a great first beach machine!! JMHO

HH

Beachcomber

 

[grumpyolman]

The only trouble with a land detector in the water is it's toast if you trip or a big wave sneaks you. (Called sneakers) I found a good used Excal for $600 on this forum. When I was in SE Asia the tide changes were mammoth compared to the US. It might be difficult to perfectly time when to be in the water. Most of my success has been water that is not deeper than waist deep. That'll change. of course, with the tide ebb and flow. Look at a recent tide chart in the area you are going to and see what they are. That might be another piece of data that will help you choose wisely. Don't forget the sandscoop! There's lots of posts in here about them and since you are traveling, you might want to just look at those that are made in sections to speicifically fit in a suitcase.Let everyone know what you found there....Jim

 

[mblemmy]

the sov's are a great machine and are a bit less money however they are not water proof. as you said, you will be just hunting very shallow. you will have to be very very careful. one dunk in the salt water and the sov. is toast.... i have been hunting over 30 plus years. i have had close calls with land detectors at the beach i have been lucky to not have dropped one. i hunted the beach today with my new etrac i was not brave enough to wade with it.. current a bit strong. lots of clad but no gold. i will hit some soon im sure,,,



good luck !!

mikeB

 

[Beachcomber]

the coil wire is long enough for you to chestmount if you are worried about a rogue wave or about dropping the detector. So the only way to drown it would be to trip and fall.

HH

Beachcomber

 

[dahut]

Beach Hunter ID-300

 

[BEACH HUNTER]

n/t

 

[Bernie]

FYI There is a good discussion of the Excal vs Infinity on the Garrett forum. Very informative, at least for me.

 

[Bernie]

Infinium...sorry.

 

[king-ghidorah]

Infinium...sorry.

Heehee, I knew what you meant. I started that thread on the Garrett forum. I've had my heart set on the Excal for some time now. The Infinium is a great MD but I think living on the East Coast I don't really have to worry about difficult beach conditions and the Excal is the one I will be getting soon. An interesting thing I found out was that the Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II also uses 96 frequencies like the Infinium. It has slightly less features but costs $400 less and still packs a heck of a punch for the price.

 

[dahut]

Infinium...sorry.

Heehee, I knew what you meant. I started that thread on the Garrett forum. I've had my heart set on the Excal for some time now. The Infinium is a great MD but I think living on the East Coast I don't really have to worry about difficult beach conditions and the Excal is the one I will be getting soon. An interesting thing I found out was that the Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II also uses 96 frequencies like the Infinium. It has slightly less features but costs $400 less and still packs a heck of a punch for the price.

The the thing SH II lacks is a target identification feature.

 

[relic-hunter]

I just bought a Tesora Sand Shark, it's my second detector, my dry land detector is a Garrett. I have only used the tesoro about a dozen times and found two rings, a mans wedding band 14k white gold, and a 925 silver with a birthstone or other orange stone. It's a pulse induction detector, so there is no discrimination. As with some other water detectors. But I like mine well enough.

Ken