Andy Sabisch
Active member
Anderson Detector Shafts has built the well-earned reputation of designing and producing high-quality accessories for a wide range of today's most popular metal detectors for more than a decade with a focus on making them more ergonomic while not breaking the bank in doing so. When you come across a serious water hunter you can virtually bet that he or she will have swapped out the stock shaft assembly for an Anderson Detector Shaft and will rave about the way t changed their detector for the better.
Pete Anderson, one of the company's primaries is an avid hunter himself and is always listening to customers to see if there is a new product waiting to be developed and improve what people are swinging. Well, the latest addition to the Anderson line is a newly designed lower shaft that fits the Minelab CTX 3030.
Minelab FBS detectors have always opted to run the coil cable inside the shaft and while it does provide a streamlined design, it is difficult to produce and as with most of Minelab's accessories, carries a step price tag of one wants to leave different coils mounted on their own shafts to make switching coils easier. In fact, the list price on the lower shaft from Minelab is $175! Well, Anderson Detector Shafts has been building replacement shafts using carbon fiber for some time and after looking at the design of the CTX 3030 mounting clevis as well as getting requests from customers, they worked on developing a prototype. After some internal testing and tweaking, they sent several out for testing and I was fortunate enough to have received one just in time to take with me on a trip to see family over the holidays.
The first thing I noticed when I unpacked the box was that it had a different finish to it than the Minelab shaft but felt just as sturdy when I tried to flex it. The lower clevis is a different design and how the cable feeds through the shaft is also different than Minelab's. Rather than entering through the clevis itself which has snapped due to stress applied when water hunting, Anderson's design has it enter the shaft above the clevis and does so in a manner that actually provides a stronger overall design. This is an advantage when you are searching with the shaft fully extended and especially when searching in the water where drag and exert a great deal of force on the shaft mounting point.
[attachment 325177 Anderson1.jpg]
As you can see from the photo. the two shafts are virtually identical in length although Pete did say that he would be offering other lengths in time for different applications.
[attachment 325178 Anderson2.jpg]
Installing the shaft into the upper shaft assembly of the CTX 3030 took a little "jiggling" but Pete has indicated that the pin at the top of the shaft has been redesigned and eliminates that when inserting / removing the shaft. Feeding the cable up the lower shaft, it was a snap to connect it to the control housing and within seconds, I had the machine extended and was hunting in my test area.
Since I was heading to the Northeast and wading in freezing water was not high on my list of things to do on the trip, I opted to hunt several land sites to give the Anderson CTX 3030 shaft a spin or two. Since I tend to hunt with the shaft fully extended to balance the unit, if there was any flex in the shaft I would tell but despite searching a few areas with a fast, competition-like sweep, the shaft was rock-solid. I found the shaft easy to remove for cleaning which is something I tend to do regularly with my CTX 3030.
[attachment 325179 Anderson3.jpg]
Since I tend to use three coils depending on the site - the stock 11" coil, the Minelab 6" and the Coiltek elliptical coil - having extra shafts to mount each on is no longer a budget-busting decision. AT the time I penned this report, Pete had not finalized the pricing of the basic lower shaft but he assured me that it would be considerably less than the $175 cost of the Minelab shaft. If you already have used one of Anderson Detector Shaft's products, you know that they are quality products that will make your time in the field more productive and enjoyable - and the CTX 3030 lower shaft continues that tradition. If you have never tried one of their products yet, be sure to visit their website at www.AndersonDetectorShafts.com and check out their latest addition to the Anderson product line . . . your wallet will thank you and after a time or two in the field, you will know you made a great purchase!
Andy Sabisch
Pete Anderson, one of the company's primaries is an avid hunter himself and is always listening to customers to see if there is a new product waiting to be developed and improve what people are swinging. Well, the latest addition to the Anderson line is a newly designed lower shaft that fits the Minelab CTX 3030.
Minelab FBS detectors have always opted to run the coil cable inside the shaft and while it does provide a streamlined design, it is difficult to produce and as with most of Minelab's accessories, carries a step price tag of one wants to leave different coils mounted on their own shafts to make switching coils easier. In fact, the list price on the lower shaft from Minelab is $175! Well, Anderson Detector Shafts has been building replacement shafts using carbon fiber for some time and after looking at the design of the CTX 3030 mounting clevis as well as getting requests from customers, they worked on developing a prototype. After some internal testing and tweaking, they sent several out for testing and I was fortunate enough to have received one just in time to take with me on a trip to see family over the holidays.
The first thing I noticed when I unpacked the box was that it had a different finish to it than the Minelab shaft but felt just as sturdy when I tried to flex it. The lower clevis is a different design and how the cable feeds through the shaft is also different than Minelab's. Rather than entering through the clevis itself which has snapped due to stress applied when water hunting, Anderson's design has it enter the shaft above the clevis and does so in a manner that actually provides a stronger overall design. This is an advantage when you are searching with the shaft fully extended and especially when searching in the water where drag and exert a great deal of force on the shaft mounting point.
[attachment 325177 Anderson1.jpg]
As you can see from the photo. the two shafts are virtually identical in length although Pete did say that he would be offering other lengths in time for different applications.
[attachment 325178 Anderson2.jpg]
Installing the shaft into the upper shaft assembly of the CTX 3030 took a little "jiggling" but Pete has indicated that the pin at the top of the shaft has been redesigned and eliminates that when inserting / removing the shaft. Feeding the cable up the lower shaft, it was a snap to connect it to the control housing and within seconds, I had the machine extended and was hunting in my test area.
Since I was heading to the Northeast and wading in freezing water was not high on my list of things to do on the trip, I opted to hunt several land sites to give the Anderson CTX 3030 shaft a spin or two. Since I tend to hunt with the shaft fully extended to balance the unit, if there was any flex in the shaft I would tell but despite searching a few areas with a fast, competition-like sweep, the shaft was rock-solid. I found the shaft easy to remove for cleaning which is something I tend to do regularly with my CTX 3030.
[attachment 325179 Anderson3.jpg]
Since I tend to use three coils depending on the site - the stock 11" coil, the Minelab 6" and the Coiltek elliptical coil - having extra shafts to mount each on is no longer a budget-busting decision. AT the time I penned this report, Pete had not finalized the pricing of the basic lower shaft but he assured me that it would be considerably less than the $175 cost of the Minelab shaft. If you already have used one of Anderson Detector Shaft's products, you know that they are quality products that will make your time in the field more productive and enjoyable - and the CTX 3030 lower shaft continues that tradition. If you have never tried one of their products yet, be sure to visit their website at www.AndersonDetectorShafts.com and check out their latest addition to the Anderson product line . . . your wallet will thank you and after a time or two in the field, you will know you made a great purchase!
Andy Sabisch
