What detectors have you used ??? Which ones have you liked the most.

[Elton]

Myself I have used Whites Eagles, Spectrum's, XL T's..Fishers CZ units, F75,1266,1260, 1265, CZ3D, Minelabs EXP, Se, and SE Pro along with a short stint on the Etrac
Treasure Baron, Compass, Teknetics, Gold Mountain, Detector Pro, and a few I can't remember.

The easier ones to use have been the Whites Good all around, The Fishers , Teknetics, and some of the Minelabs like the X50 and X70............

I find myself liking the Fishers for depth with relative ease of set up, the Older Whites for all around everywhere detecting...........and my latest the SE Pro for raw power and depth.

What do you like ..what have you used...

My biggest concern in detectors is the complexity of some of the new units. Digital/ and Micro chips have added a lot of new things that require a relearning for success.
Some are no longer turn on and go or make a few adjustments and detect.. You have to make a lot of changes for basic results. I hope some will remain relatively simple in the future and just plain fun to use.

 

[RLOH]

Elton, your list of detectors is long, just like mine. The question you asked makes me think long and hard. To be honest with you, I can't remember all of the detectors I have owned, but after some thought, I have narrowed it down to three detectors. I once got publically scolded on one of the forums when I stated that I am a coinshooter. I still stand by that statement and when I turn a detector on, I am looking for coins first and foremost. With that being said, I think my favorite detectors for my type of hunting are Explorers( I have owned all but an Etrac), CZ's(I have owned all many times over), and Teknetics T2. I need a detector that will go eight plus inches to find the older coins I hunt and all of these detectors will do this. I do not hunt private sites and the places I hunt are hunted hard by the two large clubs that border my county. The places I hunt have had many experienced Explorer users hunt them and just about every silver coin I find has been a chore to uncover( the easy ones are long gone). By hunting slow and methodical, I have been able to uncover many silver coins, but the way I hunt is too boring for most detectorists. The Explorers are right up my alley for this slow hunting, but they are heavy. The Fisher CZ's are just about as good, but I believe the DD coil helps the Explorer tremendously in the trash where I hunt. I still have had several summers of over a 100 silver coins with a CZ, but the coil options of the Explorer makes it better. The T2 is an awesome coin hunter that is more known for relics, but in the short time I used this lightweight detector, I found many old coins. Easy to setup and as light as feather. (I was always afraid of the flimsy nature of the T2 and I sold it after a great three month run of success. Ps, an addtional reason for selling was because of how long a small coil took to come to the market. There you have it, my three favorites. R.L.

 

[NiagracountyNY]

Ive only had the Pleasure of using a few diffrent detectors.A few radio shack and a bounty hunter when I was a young lad.I got back into the hobby 4 or 5 Years ago.Since then I've went from a Whites 6000 My grandfather Had ,to a GTI 2500.After Using the gti for about a year I went to the Minelab SE.I have to say thats when detecting took on a whole new meaning to me.I started finding alot of deep and masked out stuff I never found before.I Switched to the E-Trac 3 months agao and all I can say is wow.I didnt think it could get much better than the SE but the Stability of this machine,the ease of making patterns and setting changes,New angle on the handle all have proven a Huge improvement to me.Having the VDI#'s and the smartgraph has proven to be a Killer combo on my sites.The depth is basically the same.I have been watching the Visions they seem like they have some potential .A few to many adjustments for me to mess up for my liking tho.I also think the F75's and T2's are some Hot units.I only wish I had enough money to try them all Im selling my Se and Getting an Excal 2 to try some water Hunting .Id go detect no matter what type of machine i had tho..Heck a stick with a magnet would work for relics

 

[Elton]

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[Elton]

Sounds like you like the Etrac like I am liking the SE Pro..

 

[7centsworth]

I have had a radio shack , bounty hunter tracker , bounty hunter sharpshooter II, minelab x-terra 50 and just purchased a minelab x-terra 70. I have to say the minelab are by far my favorite so far. Although I have made some good finds with my bounty hunters. My next machine in the far future will probably be a fisher or tesoro.

 

[kraelity]

I started out using a Garrett Groundhog and a Whites Coinmaster 4 TR D and Compass Gold Star series. Still wish I held onto the Groundhog.Then started using Garrett GTA 500 & 1000,still like these machines. Fisher- tried CZ 5,7,70pro not for me. Whites- DFX (favorite),tried Beachhunter ID not for me. Tesoro - had a Piranha not for me. Minelab- Sovereign GT (favorite) when I can get it out of my sons' hands. Excalibur 1000 (favorite). And a couple of homebrew PI machines,still a work in progress but work well.
I too started out as a coinshooter but have evolved into beach hunting.
But, still a coinshooter at heart looking for those deep silver and gold targets.

DFX - very versatile with great programing for different sites.
Can run allmetal and in a snap disc targets, deep
Sovereign - Deep and stable
Excalibur - Deep and stable

Very nice topic Elton,Thanks
HH Ken

 

[Elton]

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[Elton]

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[mike from Illinois]

hi elton i too like rloh am a coinshooter. have used whites and garretts. two years ago i purchased a fisher cz3d and have not looked back. have been working two different fields, one where they held campmeetings during the 1800s. and the other where they held agricultural fairs in the 1800s. have found close to 90 pre 1900 coins. a lot of these have been older indian heads and shield nickels. i know both of these places have been hit hard over the years. i like how the 3d brings these coins into the high tone like the silver coins, and i believe this is why a lot of these coins have been missed by others.i too hunt slow and grid my area. hh mike

 

[Gunnar MN]

elton , my 1st was a bouty hunter 150 found a coin spill of silver coins 1st time out a walking half , a standing quarter a merc dime and a buffalow nickle then i got discouraged fast whith the pull tabs and quit that was 1975 or so years later i used a garret pulse but it was old and heavy i did not even know how to use it It was all confusing to me knobs like null and a bunch of others i was lost gave up again then after i lost my pottery busness and home i needed something to do so i got a whites M_6 wich is a great Tid machine was to heavy for me and i thought it was junk because coins would be masked what i did not realize at the time was all detectors VLF do that and the bigger the coil the wors they mask i sold it and got a cibola which was good but it did not have a ground balance and a all metal mode so i sold it then got a silver umax which did have a good all metal mode but i hated the 8" coil and it was not very deep sold it and tried the compadre which was really a good detector but was not deep and i could not cover mush ground so i got a golden umax which was no deeper than the silver umax but i liked the 4 tones and the ability to change coils then i sold that to get my current detector a minelab musketteer advantige and I am so blown away whith the depth it smokes all the others and handles mineralized ground far better than all the others It is really a super machine i did have to get the heaphone jack fixed which coast 60 dallars and a month wait but minelabs are worth the wait detectors i would love to try -- sov gt-- F75 -- T2 and garret infinium E nuph said

 

[Elton]

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[Elton]

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[Canewrap]

I have used an MXT, F75, F70, Tesoro Cibola, Tesoro Eldorado, Ace 250, and X-terra 70. Out of those I liked the MXT, the Cibola, the Eldorado, and X-terra 70 (still have and now have 2 of them). I really didn't care for the new breed of Fishers or the Ace 250 (pinpointing was a problem for me). I'm not going to get into machine bashing, but let's just say I will never bother with Fisher again. I might try Tesoro again at some point. Once you train your ears, they're good machines. My problem with the Tesoros was just that I felt I was digging too much trash and not finding anything. I have had my best luck with the X-terra 70. I love that machine for how light it is and how easy it is to use. I've started to train myself to go by tones almost exclusively. I look at the numbers just to note where things seem to fall. If the MXT hadn't been tearing up my shoulder (tried the swingy thing, got in the way) I would still be using it, because with the larger coils (12" and SEF) it can't be beat for depth. Although, got to admit the X70 seems to tell me more about my target and is allowing me to pass trash that I would have dug up before (I do go back and dig up some of that trash to be sure and sure enough that's what it always is). I've learned that depth isn't everything, even in relic hunting. The most important thing is to train your ear and know how to optimize your machine. For me the X-terra 70 has been the best fit out of all the machines I've tried, the most versatile, the most stable, and most user friendly. In fact, I've traded in everything else and bought more X-terras so that when the family is detecting with me I can more easily help them get the most out of theirs. I don't have any financial interest in these machines, but they've been the best for my purposes.

 

[Elton]

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[bigolhorns]

I have owned these. I'm a coin/jewlery hunter inland parks and schools.
Rated from what I liked most to the least.
1. Minelab Safari
2. Whites Eagle Spectrum
3. Tesoro Golden uMax
4. Tesoro Silver uMax
5. Fisher CZ-3D
6. Compass Coin Scanner Pro
7. Garrett Scorpion
8. Compass Coin Scanner jr
9. Compass X-200 Challenger
10. Compass XP 350
11. Tesoro Compadre
12. Tesoro Cibola
13. Compass Magnum 220
14. Bounty Hunter Land Star
15. Tesoro Tejon
16. Tesoro Vaquero
17. Whites Coinmaster (don't remember which one)
18. Bounty Hunter Time Ranger
19. Garrett ULTRA GTA 500
20. Fisher F-75

 

[Neil]

Elton Ive used the Sovereign more than any machine since I started hunting but dont have one now, sold the last one I had a short while ago to concentrate more on some others Ive got that also are becoming favorites.

Now Ive got an Etrac, Tejon, F75, Vaquero and Excal II. The Tejon is like my 2nd time around with that machine and Im finally getting the audio which I dont really think I paid much attention to before, just beep and dig you know, but the audio is actually very telling on it. Credit a guy called michigan badger for getting me interested in learning it well, he was right about it. for a disc machine its the best on small gold Ive ever used and of course all other gold as well.
The Etrac has several nice improvements over the Explorer, congrats to minelab on that. now if they can just shave off a pound or so it would be much more enjoyable. Havent had the F75 long enough to make a good call on it, but can say its light, deep and super fast in resetting from target to target. The Vaquero I just got so cant say. The Excal is super, works fresh/salt/brackish........you name it, deep with great tones like the Sov. Minelabs upgrade on the battery and coil are welcomed indeed!
Ive had a bunch more and honestly most are pretty good.

Neil

 

[Elton]

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[Elton]

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[AUDuke]

My first was a Whites BFO Gold Master in 1962 followed by a Detectron, Fisher T10, Metrotech, D-Tex, Karl Von Mueller's Little Monster, Relco, Garret BFO, Whites TR, Fisher , Garrett ADS, Garrett Ground Hog, Tesoro Mayan, Tesoro ElDorado, Minelab 15000, Gold Bug, Tesoro Diablo Minelab 18000, 21000, Compass Gold scanner, Silver Sabre, Minelab 2200, Whites Gold master,Tesoro Bandito ll, Whites GM4B, Tesoro Lobo, Minelab Excalaber, Minelab Explorer XS, GMT, Gold Bug ll, Tesoro Lobo ST, MXT, and probably some I can"t remember. I currently have 6 Tesoros, original Bandito ll, Sting Ray, Vaquero, original Golden Sabre, Cibola and a Compadre, Whites TDI, GM4B, Minelab Explorer XS, Explorer ll, and a Fisher F-75.
My favorites were or are Metrotech, Gold Bug, Bandito ll, Explorer, Vaquero, Compass.