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Don't get me wrong it can be used on the beach. It finds targets and does just fine it will hold its own with the top line of detectors. Call me old school but I want the machine to tell me what the target is. Not me setting the tones for the targets. I currently have it set so all target in the 11-?? 12-?? 13-?? all read high, while 1-??-10-??read lower and then 14-?? thought35-?? read another lower tone. That's a big problem with me. 12-13 is a nickle nice loud tone dig it goooooood! dime same way quarter same way pennie same way pull tab, pop top, can slaw, bits of copper,beer,foil cans ,screws should I continue. With the GT and Excalibur the tones were caused by the target you can clearly tell a piece of foil from a gold ring simply in cleaness! Same with all the targets they all have the own quirts ya I dug them anyway one never knows.But I was 98% sure of what was coming out of the hole. Now I haven't a clue whats coming out. I have never dug as many round foil drink tops then this last 70 hours of hunting. GT and Excal just never heard them the same way. I am going to 100 hours before I come back home!
IMHO BCNJ
BCNJ Looking at all the video,s on U Tube and seeing it in action on the beach yesterday beach hunting salt water it seem,s even the experts can not quite the machine down in moving water like wave breaks there biggest complaint spending more time trying to adjust it with no fix , it does find stuff mostly a big pile of lead sinkers because he could not tell the difference in sounds like a few other machines he owns that can most say, and these guys have around 30 years experience each water hunting, IMHO to many things to play with and adjust , in calm bay water it works fine as far as noise . Glad i have my GT no hassle . Jim
Now for those looking seriously at it........ do you want a $2500 Sov to only hunt wet/dry sand? Because NO ONE has seriously gotten this thing wet yet. So if you stick with your Xcal i cant see the bang for buck over what you have if its a Sov, ET, Exp..... especially as a back up machine. Setting the tones to me is much like pattern hunting if you are tellling it to do certain things. Id go back to factory settings.... learn them first, then use the tone adjustments later on targets i wanted to cherry pick.
BC in NJ you must be reading my mail. The CTX 3030 is a very good machine and I have put my E-Trac away. As good as it has been to me in the water and in the wet and dry sand my Excall is still my go to machine in the water. Lots of people have said you can't tell the difference in the sounds between foil pull tabs and gold well a few of us know better. Wet and dry sand I think the CTX is the better machine. In the water the Excall just finds more good targets. It is hard to break a four year habit. Maybe it is a confidence thing I'm not sure only time and gold will tell. JMHO. HH
I have switched to combined tones and will give it a shot on the beach once again. I saw a youtube video of a set up I will be trying.
Still I am missing that tone that tells me its gold and I don't get fooled.I not saying the machine out it just may not ove to the top of the list for the beach.
BCNJ
This is why I waited, I have the scratch to buy and something told me wait, it just came out, im sure its a kick ass machine but im mostly in the salt, so I bought a fixer up excal 800 and im having a blast with it, I figured id wait to when they start poping up used and whatever bugs it has to be worked out before I buy one
This is why I waited, I have the scratch to buy and something told me wait, it just came out, im sure its a kick ass machine but im mostly in the salt, so I bought a fixer up excal 800 and im having a blast with it, I figured id wait to when they start poping up used and whatever bugs it has to be worked out before I buy one
I'm in the same boat as you brotha! I have been using a CZ21 as my main machine and waiting on the Minelab and supposed Fisher water machines; however, I had the itch to try out an Excal and picked up a nice used 1000. The tones are nice as I can already tell what I'm gonna be pulling out of the water after 20 hours on the machine. I'm gonna wait to see what Fisher has to offer and then compare the CTX to the future offering.
BCNJ, you and I are the two oddballs on the CTX site, however, we say it like it is. The CTX may have its place. I was out with it this past weekend hunting open screen combined mode, ferrous/coin separation what have you. I had to work so slow It took me forever to get through a trashy area. Granted it was extremely trashy, I found four pennies after about an hour. Sometimes I worked so slow I had to nearly stop my coil swing and move it no more than an inch side to side. Last year I was on the same beach with my Excal and found a 66 kennedy Half-I don't recall the problems with nulling or other problems that would indicate heavy trash
Then, to top it all off, the screen froze up and I had to disconnect the battery in order to reboot it. They say this a problem on a few machines-from what I can tell its all of them. If you do an update there are problems with speaker volume and what have you.
I am going to stick with my Excal till they get this CTX figured out. I am not sure if want to sell my CTX I am thinking seriously...anyone interested? standard pack never registered.
BCNJ, you and I are the two oddballs on the CTX site, however, we say it like it is. The CTX may have its place. I was out with it this past weekend hunting open screen combined mode, ferrous/coin separation what have you. I had to work so slow It took me forever to get through a trashy area. Granted it was extremely trashy, I found four pennies after about an hour. Sometimes I worked so slow I had to nearly stop my coil swing and move it no more than an inch side to side. Last year I was on the same beach with my Excal and found a 66 kennedy Half-I don't recall the problems with nulling or other problems that would indicate heavy trash
Then, to top it all off, the screen froze up and I had to disconnect the battery in order to reboot it. They say this a problem on a few machines-from what I can tell its all of them. If you do an update there are problems with speaker volume and what have you.
I am going to stick with my Excal till they get this CTX figured out. I am not sure if want to sell my CTX I am thinking seriously...anyone interested? standard pack never registered.
I was also debating whether to get the CTX or an Excal and for me, it was an easy decision, I got the Excal. I've always wanted a true water machine that could handle both fresh and salt water and the Excal is a proven winner. I'll revisit the CTX next year after Minelab has the chance to work out the bugs. In the meantime, I have my eye on the Garrett Infinium to help out with the difficult conditions here in Virginia. May have an opportunity to do some CW relic hunting next month in Culpepper Va which is well know for hot rock and red clay. Get to use my Excal for the first time in 2 weeks at the beach. Cannot wait.
