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Which is the best for me?

B

biggraypig

New member
Hi, I am new to the sport and need some advice on a couple detectors I am looking at.
I am a beginner so ease of operation is a must, but i don't want something that I need to upgrade in the near future. I live in Utah and most of my hunting will be for coins, relics, meteorites, and possibly a little gold once in a while. Most of my prospecting will be done in west central Utah extending into eastern Nevada. (lot of mineral mountains in the area.)
Should I go with a manual ground adjust machine or will a preset work for me?
I don't want to spend thousands, just something in the 500 dollar range is what I am looking at.
I really like the Tesoro line up, but I am open to any other sugestions.
I understand you have probably beat this thing to death, but any info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, James
 
Minelab xterra 70 would be a great detector for you easy to learn and has prospecting capibilities .

Nock

Greatest treasure man can find ( FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST)
 
Just my .02 worth- Find a used Minelab Sovereign GT. Lots of accessories (coils, meters, probes, etc) available for upgrading in the future IF you choose. Control box can be chest or waist mounted. I don't think you can go too far wrong in your price range. The important thing is to get out there and have fun. Happy Hunting. Matt
 
There is a Minelab Sovereign XS-2A Pro in my area for sale in the $400 range.
Most of my hunting will be relics and metorites with a quick stop for some coins and gold every once in a while.
Would this detector work well for what I would like to do?
Thanks again
 
I would agree GET A MINELAB they handle the worst ground minerals with eas, XT 705 or a sov GT anything els will not due take it from me , many detectors make clames but minlab lives up to the hyp and goes beond and i, m not a dealer dude you must get a minelab,
 
Minelab Sovereigns are among the deepest "beep and dig" detectors out there. Honestly don't know how it would do for meteorites. I suggested the Sovereign to get you thinking in that direction. There are incedible stories and horror stories for every detector out there. Don't listen to me alone, but rather continue to do your "homework". There is a great forum on this site that covers the Sovereigns as well as forums for other great detectors. Drop in. Ask questions. Rock on. Matt
 
Minelabs are generally heavy & great machines. And though they are wonderful in the hands of many, you may want to look at a general purpose machine. A few that come to mind are the Teknetics Omega and the Fisher F5. Both of these are very light and offer great discrimination capabilities. Take a look at the rave reviews the Tek Omega is receiving. I love mine.
 
Ask if you can test the soveriegn. Take some targets with you. That's a good price if it works. Be the best $400.00 you can spend. Nothing else out there can compare with that machine for that price. Bottom line is get what you want learn it and you will bring home the goodies. Good Luck with your decision. HH:minelab:
 
No, the sovereigns will not work for nugget hunting. Nuggets, as found in their natural state, or most often pinhead sized and smaller. Pea-sized nuggets are extremely rare, so must nugget hunters make their bulk up by lots of crumb sized stuff. The sovereign is a coin/relic machine, and will not bode well on teeensy little flake like stuff.

In fact, ANY machine that is touted as a "crossover" (can be used for both coins/jewelry/relics, AND nuggets), will excell in neither arena. The reason is, the goals (of which they are normally designed from the ground-up, for the purpose) are diametrically opposed. A coin/relic guy DOESN'T want to hear every birdshot, staple, straight-pin, etc.. But the nugget guy does. Likewise, the nugget guy doesn't care about depth, or TID, on coin sized targets. He's concentrating on getting a machine that excells in tteeeennnssy flitty stuff. So ironically, a super sensitive nugget machine (capable of getting a grain-of-rice sized nugget down to 2" or whatever), will not go that deeply on a coin (or ..... at least ... no deeper than a coin-machine). There are nugget machines that can get coins (and all metal targets for that matter), VERY deep, but Lord help you if you tried to use such a super sensitive machine in the average coin/jewelry/relic environment. You'd go psycho!

There are some machines made as cross-overs (like the MXT for instance), where, with the proper alterations of the control settings, are supposed to be able to go back and forth between the 2 venues. But you will excell in neither arena. There will be much better nugget machines, and there will be much better coin machines.

But if have to have only 1 machine, then I guess you can try a cross-over unit. But if you're planning on "going behind" others, in hard-hit areas, you may be dissapointed.
 
I plan on a vacation there within weeks. Shoot me an e-mail and I'll gladly discuss versatile models with you as that's what I use most of the time. monte@ahrps.net

Thanks, and yes, you can get some very good, functional models that are versatile for that price range.

Monte
 
No one has mentioned a Whites MXT as its user friendly and will handle gold nugget hunting along with relic and coin.. and the old pro Jimmy Sierra was instrumental in its makeup...Nothing against a Sov. guys and gals as it works well for many even though its heavy and for a newbie has a learning period....
 
After a little research and thought I decided two machines were in order. So for my coin searching grab and go detector I have purchased a used silver saber max that I plan on doing a ground adjust mode on, then adding a toggle switch in place of the push button so I can have an all metal search mode.
Now for the other. I am looking for a gold machine that I can use for meteorites. (under $1000) I like the Minelab musketeer advantage for this purpose.
Anyone think of anything that may be better?
Thanks for all the input.
James
 
I've owned most of what's out there and the Sovereign GT is the deepest for me in my soil on coins and gold rings (see my signature file below). Don't care how much you pay for a detector, it's as good as an Etrac or Explorer in terms of depth. Better than my Explorers were in my soil with more stable ID as well. Some other machines can just about keep up in depth when the soil is perfect, but the minute you hunt in the real world with minerals, iron, hot rocks, and other factors non-BBS machines will lag behind.

The Sovereign is simple to use so no confusing settings might get in your way of maxing out it's performance. With many other machines that offer a bunch of controls chances are you'll hurt it's performance if you don't know exactly what you are doing for a very specific site. Once you find what works for that site it all can change again at the next one. That's one of the reasons I'm no longer a Whites fan. You're a beginner? Then throw the sensitivity into Auto, turn the machine on, adjust the threshold just high enough to hear, and go hunt! It'll still beat most machines on the market in Auto sensitivity, and when you gain more experience you can adjust the sensitivity in manual and then really blow the doors off the competition.

Point is that it's going to be pretty much as easy to use and learn as any other machine, yet as you grow into it down the road you won't find that you need to buy another detector to get deeper or do better in rougher mineralized soils. The Sovereign IS as good as it gets. If you want to meteor hunt with it just throw it into PP or one of the All Metal modes. Regular discrimination which features Iron Mask will otherwise ignore iron for you, and is legend in it's ability to pull coins out of iron and other junk.

What people get fooled by is the Sovereign's basic looks. It reminds people of something built in the 80's with the simple dials, yet what you have to realize is that there is advanced alien like technology lurking inside the box that certain other brands can only dream about being able to copy. Kind'a like an old Ford Maverick in average looks but with a 351 Cleveland under the hood.

Weight isn't an issue for me, as I've built a custom shaft for mine and am powering it with a lipo battery in the battery holder. It's at least a pound to 1 and 1/2 pounds lighter than stock. I think even lighter than my Whites now. If you don't want to do that just hip or chest mount the box to drop the weight, which it can do right out of the box. That also makes it easy to wade and water hunt with when you want to do that.
 
I read on one of the forums yesterday that(I think it was) the Musketeer Advantage will no longer be sold in the US. Best go the the M-lab forum and do some asking.I would suggest you stick with folks in the US,but there is no sure thing nowdays the way things are going. Hey, US can use the business too!
 
Yes I am all for The US made product, too bad it is becoming extinct. I am leaning toward a Tesoro Lobo Super TRAQ anyway.
Thanks for the input
 
[size=small]When you are at this game as long as I, if you look past the bells and whistles, you will find one detector is pretty much the same as another. There are too many guys out there pulling up thousands of coins annually with less that top-of-the-line detectors for it to be otherwise. All you have to do is be willing to put the time in. The coins will not jump out of the ground and into your finds pouch on their own. You have to dig them ..... one at a time.[/size]​
 
So far I'm having a blast with my Fisher F5 and my Titan 2000 aka Discovery 2200. I live in VA so I don't know how they would be out there but I hear Garrett is a good machine used a lot in sandy type soil. If I were you I would be researching reviews on different machines and Good Luck on finding for the right one for you.
 
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