What detector?

[GeorgeinSC]

I need a detector that does not mind getting wet in Salt Water and Fresh water. My current "Go to" does not have a waterproof housing and I am hesitant to go more than knee deep.

I am considering one of the following detectors (in no special order). Garrett AT Pro, Garrett Sea Hunter Mk-II, and maybe a Tesoro Sand Shark.

I read some real horror stories on the forums about The AT Pro and Salt Water. Also some very bad reviews About Tesoro Customer Service.

I realize that the AT Pro is VLF and the other two are PI machines.

Any advice is appreciated. Give me the Pro's and Con"s on the AT Pro and Salt Water Beach and Surf Detecting. Any experience you have had with either of the other two detectors also. I would like to have the Minelab Excal II but that is greater than my budget. Havent found enough clad to pay for one. LOL.

hh

 

[BarryL]

I need a detector that does not mind getting wet in Salt Water and Fresh water. My current "Go to" does not have a waterproof housing and I am hesitant to go more than knee deep.

I am considering one of the following detectors (in no special order). Garrett AT Pro, Garrett Sea Hunter Mk-II, and maybe a Tesoro Sand Shark.

I read some real horror stories on the forums about The AT Pro and Salt Water. Also some very bad reviews About Tesoro Customer Service.

I realize that the AT Pro is VLF and the other two are PI machines.

Any advice is appreciated. Give me the Pro's and Con"s on the AT Pro and Salt Water Beach and Surf Detecting. Any experience you have had with either of the other two detectors also. I would like to have the Minelab Excal II but that is greater than my budget. Havent found enough clad to pay for one. LOL.

hh

Can"t Believe any Bad remarks against the customer Service Of Tesoro , Had to have come from a Minelab Dealer wanting to sell a Detector!! JMHO

 

[goodmore]

CZ-21 can do both fresh and salt water with discrimination. You do not want to use a PI machine in fresh water. Too much trash.

 

[maliaros]

Since you already have a metal detector for land hunting and you are happy with it then if you don't mind digging every beep go for the sea hunter.
There is NO compare between any VLF and PI in salt water.

 

[John-Edmonton]

PI's work great in fresh water just as salt water. VLFs for trashy areas, PI's for not trashy areas. It's a myth that PI's don't work well in fresh water because of too much trash. Probably started by a metal detector dealer feeling threatened his sales may suffer. My first year using a PI, was my best year ever finding both more gold and total rings. The same results were found with my buddy who also bought a PI. They go deeper then the VLF detectors, and will pick up the the deep coins/rings missed by other hunters. And from my experience..... they missed a lot.

When using a PI, one must step out of the old VLF box, use more of your ears and grey matter. Below is an article I wrote a few years back on the Infinium, one of Garrett's PI detector

."The Infinium does have some discrimination characteristics. It's not like an accumulative type or notch found on VLF type detectors. In fact, the Infinium is entirely different then any other type of detector. What the Infinium can do as far as discrimination is concerned, is give a tone HIGH-LOW for iron, aluminum and gold. It also gives off a LOW-HIGH signal for silver, copper and again iron. So iron and other junk is always the wild card in both types of signals, as it is a Pulse Induction type of detector. However, the Infinium also comes with an iron check, which again helps with getting a better probability of what type (iron or not?) target it is. Now the Infinium has a bit of a learning curve, and if you are new to metal detecting and lack basic theory on how the machines operate, don't buy one. It will be a lesson in frustration for you.

Now having said that, other little techniques are on your learning curve to be discovered. For instance, the smoothness/roughness of the tone gives a hint as to whether it is an iron rusted target or not. The "Sustain" audio length of time that the Infinium gives after reading a target gives you a hint as to its size. The Infinium gives a double bleep on bobby pins and wire. So......if you only want to dig gold, only dig the HIGH-LOW signals. That removes a lot of signals that you can leave in the ground. Also, use the iron check, which even cuts out more targets. If you want to dig mostly coins, including old deep silver, dig only the LOW-HIGH signals. Again....use the iron check.


Is the Infinium the holy grail of detectors? No it isn't. It's a PI and loves iron, like all PI's. Iron can not be discriminated out like a VLF detector. But it goes DEEP! It must be ground balanced and a proper frequency must be picked for maxamum performance. I have pulled rings out at over 14 inches with a nice strong signal. It is one of (if not the) deepest machines available. It was designed to get gold in some of the highest mineralized soils in the world. It works in all salt water/beach environments and is water proof too.


Is it a good coin shooter? Perhaps, but only in areas where there are few targets. It's not practical for park environments, as it picks up all metals, even those that your VLF will miss. I have had some success using it in the woods, digging only the LOW-HIGH signals. It should also perform well at relic hunting too.


Where it worked best for me was in hunted out beaches where most of the targets had been removed. The best beach hunters dig ALL targets. The Infinium isn't for everyone, and is not a do it all detector. But if you give it the time it deserves to learn it properly, and use it in its proper environment, it is a killer. I have my best gold ring year ever in 15 years using this machine."

John-Edmonton

 

[firstring]

I need a detector that does not mind getting wet in Salt Water and Fresh water. My current "Go to" does not have a waterproof housing and I am hesitant to go more than knee deep.

I am considering one of the following detectors (in no special order). Garrett AT Pro, Garrett Sea Hunter Mk-II, and maybe a Tesoro Sand Shark.

I read some real horror stories on the forums about The AT Pro and Salt Water. Also some very bad reviews About Tesoro Customer Service.

I realize that the AT Pro is VLF and the other two are PI machines.

Any advice is appreciated. Give me the Pro's and Con"s on the AT Pro and Salt Water Beach and Surf Detecting. Any experience you have had with either of the other two detectors also. I would like to have the Minelab Excal II but that is greater than my budget. Havent found enough clad to pay for one. LOL.

I hear tell the salt water/wet sand issue has been going on since the AT Pro has been introduced, so I contacted Garrett and they responded;

Thank you for your purchase of Garrett products. We are happy that you`re pleased with your AT Pro. In order to get the best performance in your salt water beach environment , Garrett suggests you use a PI detector ( pulse induction ) instead of a VLF detector. As mentioned in the owner`s manual , the saltwater environment is challenging for any Continuous Wave (VLF) detector, and the Garrett engineers have developed the best state of the art machine available on the market today designed to deal with these conditions.

and

Second , is the AT Pro equal in both saltwater and fresh water ? Not completely , no.
Third , will the AT Pro perform equally well at wet salt sand / water beaches detecting small gold? No.
And fourth , if not , why not ? To condense the answer to this , it is because of the relative conductivity of saltwater and small gold ( they are almost identical ) . You have certain lines of defense to deal with saltwater when engineering a metal detector. Detectors respond to the relative conductivity of targets.( saltwater is conductive and looks like a thin foil to a detector ) You first have to design your coil , we made the DD coil , best for dealing with the highly mineralized salt water and mineralized soils with its narrow search field. It is a form of suppression. Next , there is Ground Balance . It is best described as adjusting a phase or phase shift. The goal is to be able to maintain a search field while basically overlooking or (ignoring ) the surrounding medium yet still finding the preferred targets. . (ie: ground minerals or in this case saltwater). Then you have discrimination. (ie; the pixel notch ) . This is necessary when you are looking for targets that are basically the same conductivity as your search field medium. You must deal with the conductivity of the salt water which is equal to your small gold. It is unlike searching for a needle in a haystack , yet more like searching for a needle in a stack of needles. No current VLF machine can do what you`re asking. Engineers are always creating and experimenting with new ideas. I hope this will help in your quest for answers.

I received this right from Garrett

You are not alone. I knid of have gold jewelry has one of my primary targets, but gold blind?
hh