Safari... Never owned a Minelab, but...

[asanaman]

Well, I took the plunge and got a Safari. I already have a White's V3, DFX, F75 LTD, Tesoro Tejon, Silver uMax, Lobo ST, Stingray II, Sandshark, Garret Infinium, Garrett 1350...

Having a friend who owns an Excalibur, Explorer, and Cibola has pretty much showed me the advantages of Minelabs and I guess I had to bite the bullet and try one.. Didn't want another 'programmable' so I chose the Safari... Have to say I like it and I must say the tones across the board are, as others say a "caliope".. Having said all that, I wanted to ask if the machine is as good now or better in your opinions as some of the post I have read.

By that I mean is it as deep as the explorer when operating right, and are the things I have been readin' pretty much true as to the Target ID. I read in a few that the depth relationship to target ID changes so much that it is pretty much useless.. Am I right in that understanding...

And.. What is a "warble" tone...

But to ask all this seems like a relatively mute point, when asking you guys and gals, but I am curious after reading all the posts, and things that have been said... IS it as easy when I learn it to use it? I have learned the Tesoro "growl", the softness of the White's and the Infinium 'hi-lo/lo-hi' song too...

I have pretty much covered the range of good detectors in my arsenal, and all really do have their place. I travel and when I go, I chose the best I feel for the areas I go to. I do cover all ranges as you can see from freshwater, land, and sea...

Yes I really do have job also, but it is great to have the machines for where ever I am, to get out and hunt. I am ordering Andy's book to read, but I would really appreciate a good idea of where you all stand with this machine and tips, should you want to share them...

Kenny

 

[ronaldj2]

I have owned the safari since Feb. 09. I like it, it is a deep machine, and I have found things in areas that I missed with my white's xlt. I think my xlt was better on batteries than the safari. Most recently more and more copper pennnies have been coming up in the 37-38 silver coin range. When I think I may have found silver here comes Lincoln. It is a killer on the beach except for the fact that it is very sensitive a will pick up even the tiniest pieces of metal. I haven't really used a lower sensitivity number on the beach, usually auto. This one thing I do know, be prepared to find deep things that other people have missed. I have found coins in excess of 12-14 inches, and fishing lures at 18-24 inches. So much so that I really got tired of digging so deep. I would recommend a short handled shovel. When my machine was brand spanking new pennies never came up as a 38. Ron

 

[The Fog]

I got mine around the same time as Ron, I was running a tesoro as an entry level machine into the hobby and made the plunge to a better machine. The first 40 hours on the machine were frustrating with the cacophony of sounds I was getting. After digging a lot of holes and tweaking some settings I no longer really need to look at the VID #'s anymore. I use the numbers just as a reference now, I know by tone with a good degree of accuracy what I'm digging beforehand. As Ron stated i have gotten pennies in as high as 37, but that's just the nature of detecting I suppose, strange things can happen to metal when things sit in the ground, add in ground mineralization, moisture etc and #'s can shift from place to place. The penny thing hasn't really bothered me since I hunt cellar holes primarily and I dig anything and every smooth tone from 30-38. And for that matter anything with a good repeating signal aside from iron. I've seen Indian head pennies ring in at 19, and 23... but those have been the less common nickel/copper alloy and bronze injuns. It was a good investment as my quality finds have tripled since switching to the Safari, and I dig far less holes/junk than I did with the tesoro. Which in turn leads to better finds with the extra time I save avoiding trash. I do have to send mine back to Minelab this winter though, my display has 3 lines of pixels that are dead. I wish they had made the handle out of something besides a spongy foam.... that was poor planning on someones part as it holds dirt and mud. I'm surprised they didn't offer a backlit screen option, l because I do quite a bit of night hunting and that would have been a nice feature.

 

[jspeedy]

Ronald, I have the same thing happening to my Safari. Lincoln Memorials are now coming up as 38 and screaming, that is something new.

 

[Elton]

n/t

 

[idig4]

In reference to comments about batteries and the foam hand grip on the Safari:

I am lithium AA batteries in my Safari and I am very pleased with how long they last. Also, I found a luggage handle wrap that wraps right around my foam handle and is held in place by velcro. It fits almost perfectly and after a while it can be washed in the washing machine. My foam grip is like new.

 

[E-Trac-Ohio]

Hi "idig4" --- I believe that the Minelab factory manual says not to use Lithium Batteries in your Safari - just Alkaline and the Rechargeable types.
I think I remember reading this - please check to make to the Lithium's are OK to use.
Would hate to see you damage your Safari !

HH ! --- Mark

 

[idig4]

I'll check the manual. I don't remember reading that. Thanks for the "heads up"!