Water/Land Metal Detector

[2DZTHDAY]

Went back a few months to find an answer to the ultimate question. If all water detectors were the same price, lets say $1000, which one would you recommend? For use in the surf or on dry land.. With no real clear cut winner (performance and service) it seems like a lot of people like different machines for a lot of reasons. Am I correct??

 

[Stix]

Different people value different things. Some like top notch service. Others want max depth and do not care about CS. Some may like the looks and audio it makes. People like different things. No detector would please everyone.

 

[weswadebum]

I've had the ability over the years to try dozens of different machines. I use the White's Surf Dual Field for the water, use to use the Beachhunter id for 3 years, turned it into a 300 model and only switched to the PI because I wanted more depth. but before deciding for sure I tried a Excalibur for a week, and it worked well, but I always here how people have to send them in for service and how its a nightmare sometimes and takes forever to get back. I remember years ago my beachhunter broke and it was out of warranty, White's sent me a brand new beachhunter. CS is the best with White's!!. I use a older Classic III for competitions and a MXT300 for my park and non beach detecting. My kid as well has a Classic III for competition, and I've let her try 2 other brands for competition and she likes the CL3. for beach she uses a older Surf PI Pro. I am in the market to possbly get a Fisher F75 since I've heard spectacular reviews on it and seen club members pull some great finds out of the ground with it..

I definitely agree with buying a machine for Customer Service vs Depth.

BTW my Beachhunter that broke, it was completely my fault for it breaking, I leave it in my car all day and night, it was 95 degrees outside, and how knows how hot in the car trunk,, but I left work went straight to the beach and went in the water about 20 minutes later my detector went full tone and threshold and I looked and it was full of water. the hot car and then going straight to the water cracked the case. And that was the 2nd time I'd done that to a Beachhunter in 3 years and White's sent me a brand new unit at no charge!!!!!!!

 

[jimmy jam]

ONE OF EACH!!!! I would find out what the locals are using that works well with the beaches you will be hunting.

 

[txkickergirl]

There was a time I would of said Excal hands down, and I still believe it to be an excellent machine, and I love the fact you don't have to buy batteries and I am not digging bobby pins, and nails. But having to live through the minelab customer service nightmare twice in one year. Once with my year and half old machine and now with my 4 month old machine. I will tell you that I would rather have a machine I can depend on and if it does happen to break for the customer service to be superior than to ever go through the minelab saga again. I in all honesty would advise anyone wanting a new excal to sit back and wait awhile, let the new owners of minelab settle in and work out all the bugs and problems and see how the new machines made in Malaysia do, before buying one. I will probably end up getting a dual field before next summer, even though I didn't really want a PI.

 

[mtpockets]

I agree !!

Now.. I must say.. I haven't had any issues with my other Excal II... and Well, I've only hunted "Once" with my Newest Excal II which was made in Malaysia..

but it bought me home some gold.. All the issues that I was having were on My Excal 1000 "Yellow HPs" boards being replaced several times..

Whatever you choose.. Goodluck with it.

There was a time I would of said Excal hands down, and I still believe it to be an excellent machine, and I love the fact you don't have to buy batteries and I am not digging bobby pins, and nails. But having to live through the minelab customer service nightmare twice in one year. Once with my year and half old machine and now with my 4 month old machine. I will tell you that I would rather have a machine I can depend on and if it does happen to break for the customer service to be superior than to ever go through the minelab saga again. I in all honesty would advise anyone wanting a new excal to sit back and wait awhile, let the new owners of minelab settle in and work out all the bugs and problems and see how the new machines made in Malaysia do, before buying one. I will probably end up getting a dual field before next summer, even though I didn't really want a PI.

 

[Island Packet]

I'm new to this also, my choice was the Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II, after reading everything I could about detectors, I looked at the companies involved. I really, really liked the Excalibur but from what I've read the service after the sale is poor, and service to me is part of what I purchase. I also really liked the Whites Surf Pro but folks were having some problems with water leakage to the circuit board compartment, and it floats up in water, but there customer service was superior. I also liked the Garrett Infinium LS and may consider getting one in the future after I learn to utlize the Sea Hunter for awhile. as the Infinium LS Learning curve may be a bit steep for a newbie. I also liked what was said about Garrett's customer service. Good wishes with your choice. - Mark

 

[2DZTHDAY]

We all know that the Minelab Excalibur II is a great machine. I'm just not confident about their customer service right now so it looks like the Whites Dual Field PI is going to work as well for me if not better and for alot less $. Seems like many hard core MDers use Pulse Induction so we will give it a try for now.
Lets see what happens over the next season on both fronts. Thanks for all your input!!

 

[hershey1]

I hardly ever heard of any problems with Excal's until this move. The electronics are still made in Australia and just assembled in Malaysia but since their changeover the customer service has been terrible. My minelabs have not given me any problems and hope they don't. Whatever machine a person chooses and learns will serve them well and most people will stay loyal to them. My son's V-3i has been back three times and he was sick. Choose the machine you can afford and take time to learn it and hopefully it will stay out of the shop. Good Luck with your decision. HH

 

[scrooge]

I use a Whites DF now before that I used a Whites PI pro that machine is 20 plus years old and is still in service used by my son. After giving my son the PI pro I went with the Infinium but had nothing but problems. Garrett replaced the machine I sold it and got the DF. The DF has been a great machine.

 

[Critterhunter]

I'd have more of a problem always being worried in the back of my mind what targets I'm missing if I didn't use a Sovereign or Excal more so than being worried about the service if the machine breaks. Minelabs are built like tanks and I have put my GT through a lot of bad situations yet it's never failed to work perfectly for me. I do a lot of woods hunting, getting caught in the rain (I have rubber boots on the switches), leaving it in a hot car trunk for the drive home, even falling on it a few times when going up/down ravines in the woods. It's been as reliable as any other detector I've ever owned.

I've said this before but...Keep in mind that you tend to only hear from people who are having problems than those who never do. It's just human nature to complain about a product when it's broke but never give it praise if it always works fine. From my perspective the Excal is probably just as reliable as any other water machine on the market. Let's not forget also that there are probably more Excals than any other water machine on the market. And for good reason, nothing but a PI is going to beat it in depth most of the time. Same deal with the Sovereign. Many water hunters chest mount the Sovereign for waist deep hunting and so it is the perfect land/water machine as it's depth is as good as it gets and it comes out of the box ready to hip or chest mount.

I'm not in a position at this time to afford a water and land unit, yet I don't want to own something that gets less depth than something else on the market. Having tried and owned most of the machines out there I'm confident nothing can beat the GT in depth....on land, or in the water. Throw the meter on for your land hunts. Chest mount it for water. Best of both worlds, and don't get me started about it's ability on gold rings as well as deep old coins. It's VDI and audio is killer on telling gold from junk when you have to be picky on land.

 

[2DZTHDAY]

Well we got the Whites Dual Field Surf PI. Now only if the weather and tides would cooperate to try it out!!

 

[Dirt Poor]

I prefer the Excal's ability in both fresh and salt water, not to mention good depth on land.

 

[GONGA]

you have made the right choice...good idea to get Clive James Clynick book called ''the whites surfmaster P.I. dual field an advanced guide''...
I got mine last week its a must have to really unlock the powers of the DF...

 

[2DZTHDAY]

Got that as well...Good reading!!