Tiger vs. Sand

[mtsheron]

You ole beach hunters........which do you prefer? The Sand Shark or Tiger Shark? I want to add a second detector to the stable when I go to the beach to hunt the sand and surf which would be all inclusive to dry/wet sand/and knee high surf. I posted this in another forum and the person who has had both stated for overall and with wet salty sand the Sand Shark was the winner.

What do you guys/gals think? Both are equally priced for the most part and I have a dry land detector (Fors Core) which is awesome. So this would be beach specific!

 

[hunter12]

Easy, Sand shark is great in the salt water, and wet sand. Tiger is for fresh water hunting only. I have a sand shark, it's a P.I. machine, you will dig a lot, but you will find a lot.

 

[Tom Slick]

Between those two, the Sand Shark is the way to go for saltwater beaches. Being a PI unit it will of course hit on everything which means you'll be digging lots of trash and iron signals. I quit using PI detectors on the beaches years ago because I wasn't satisfied with their performance in doing double duty (dry & wet). I prefer using two different detectors. One for Dry sand ( I like the Makro Racer, Fisher Gold Bug Pro and F19) and a second detector for the wet (Minelab Excal, or Sovereign) These last two will achieve the same depth as a PI without having to dig the iron. The Sovereign also makes a good dry sand hunter and if using in the wet, you must be careful not to get the control box wet. I hip mount my Sov. which makes it a lot easier to swing the S-12 coil. The Ecal. works well in the dry but I feel it's too heavy for that task.

 

[tvr]

Pretty much what was said above.

For salt water beaches; the Sand Shark. There are some clues it gives that can help keep from digging all the iron, but you never really know what the target is unless you dig it. Sand Shark gets very good depth when swung at a relaxed sweep speed. Rush it too much and you loose some depth.

I've used a Tiger Shark in brackish bay water and been able to get a ground balance, but not over full salt ocean water and the nearby wet salt sand. At the ocean beach the Tiger Shark struggles when it gets away from the dry sand.
Cheers,
tvr

 

[mtsheron]

Thanks folks! Looks like when I pull the trigger a Sand Shark will be the one.

 

[hunter12]

Don't get us wrong. There are other makes of machines that are better than the sand shark. But i feel for the money for a new salt water machine and the warranty they give you. You can't beat it for the price. It's a pretty easy machine to learn with. I bought mine with the 10" coil. I had to make a brace for it so the heavy surf wont flop the coil around, it works fine. You may want to check into the 8" coil, it will have less resistance in the surf. But you will like the machine when you get it. Try to search and read all the topics on the sand shark , things you can do to make life easy and mods you can do to the machine. For the dry sand i use a Whites coin master GT i bought used. It doe's great in the dry sand. Good hunting.

 

[mtsheron]

Don't get us wrong. There are other makes of machines that are better than the sand shark. But i feel for the money for a new salt water machine and the warranty they give you. You can't beat it for the price. It's a pretty easy machine to learn with. I bought mine with the 10" coil. I had to make a brace for it so the heavy surf wont flop the coil around, it works fine. You may want to check into the 8" coil, it will have less resistance in the surf. But you will like the machine when you get it. Try to search and read all the topics on the sand shark , things you can do to make life easy and mods you can do to the machine. For the dry sand i use a Whites coin master GT i bought used. It doe's great in the dry sand. Good hunting.

Thanks for the input! I will certainly heed all advice.

 

[Nauti]

Between those two, the Sand Shark is the way to go for saltwater beaches. Being a PI unit it will of course hit on everything which means you'll be digging lots of trash and iron signals. I quit using PI detectors on the beaches years ago because I wasn't satisfied with their performance in doing double duty (dry & wet). I prefer using two different detectors. One for Dry sand ( I like the Makro Racer, Fisher Gold Bug Pro and F19) and a second detector for the wet (Minelab Excal, or Sovereign) These last two will achieve the same depth as a PI without having to dig the iron. The Sovereign also makes a good dry sand hunter and if using in the wet, you must be careful not to get the control box wet. I hip mount my Sov. which makes it a lot easier to swing the S-12 coil. The Ecal. works well in the dry but I feel it's too heavy for that task.

I just wondered what pi machines you are comparing the minelabs to.I own a pi and have owned the gt and the pi will pick up smaller gold objects and rings at greater depths.I've also compared signals with a fellow hunter who owns an Excalibur and some of the signals I picked up with my pi did'nt even register on the excel.

 

[Tom Slick]

I was comparing my Sovereign GT with the S12 coil to my White's Surfmaster PI, PI Pro, Dual Field, TDI SL, Tesoro Sand Shark, and HeadHunter PI. I've used these on East Coast Florida beaches and Southern California beaches. I feel my GT, the way I run it will do as well as the PI's without digging all the iron.

 

[Oldguy]

I have a Tiger and hunt mostly fresh water. It will GB in wet salt sand and in salt water and it is usable, but the performance is reduced from the normal setting in dry sand. I've never used a pi machine but I am told that the Tiger won't go quite as deep as a pi. The Tiger will hit on smaller jewelry and it will provide the same great discrimination as other Tesoro Bandito class machines. I have noticed that discrimination is far less effective in water as the targets, especially iron, oxidize rapidly and come in in the jewelry range or higher. This occurs in both fresh and salt water. If it's iron it usually gives that distinctive Tesoro crackle unless it's completely oxidized, then it disappears after it's disturbed with the scoop like any other haloed iron. Hope this helps.

 

[C.J.M.]

Hmmmm looks like the sand shark has it.DO both have a hard -wire?

 

[tvr]

Both Sand Shark and Tiger Shark are now hard wired coils on all the new ones. There have been used ones for sale with hard wired coils too. If you come across an older used one, there are older ones with coil connectors. Both my Sand Shark and Tiger Shark have connectors. I only have one coil for the Tiger shark, but have both 8 inch and 10.5 inch coils for the Sand Shark.