Big Boys Hobbies

It is the operator not the metal detector that finds good targets

maxxkatt

maxxkatt

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North Atlanta, GA
I have talked to numerous newbies and long-time owners of detectors and some seem apologetic about their beginner’s detector they are using.

Well they should not be. I hunt with my son and he uses an Ace 250 and I hunt with my Equinox 800 on our civil war relic hunts. And guess what? There is not much of a difference at all in the quality of our finds.

I private messaged a forum member recently about a CSA belt buckle he found. In the private message he informed me that he found it with an Ace 250.

Then there were the verbal detector wars back in spring of 2018 on “which is better the AT Pro or the Equinox 600 an 800?”. Some of those very hot verbal debates got reprimands from the forum admins. The AT Pro vs Equinox debates have died down. And guess what there are thousands of detectorists using the Garrett AT line and finding tons of good stuff as there are thousands of Equinox users finding tons of good stuff.

It is all about learning about the art and theory of metal detecting and applying this knowledge on your hunts with your AT Max or Equinox 600.

In march of 2018 I was so happy to receive my 800 after selling my AT Pro. But keep in mind three years prior, I was so happy to receive my AT Pro after selling my Fisher ID Edge.

Guess what? The first six months using the 800 I was finding less quality targets hunting the same parks and fields as I was with my AT Pro. Why? I knew my AT Pro pretty good since I had been using it for 3 years.

Had I not sold my AT Pro, I probably would have sold my 800 several times during that six months. I got caught up trying to use all the new and advanced 800 features without really understanding how to properly use those features. I also had a habit of asking other 800 users about the settings they used for different situations. This kept me from properly using the 800. You cannot just copy other people’s 800 settings. Why? Because you are not hunting the exact same site they are hunting. This is the biggest mistake I made and any newbie can make being new to the Equinox 800.

I saw two young boys recently in the park using a bounty hunter Jr. One was swinging and one was digging with his mom’s garden trowel and they were finding aluminum screw caps in that park just like I do using my 800. They didn’t even see the need to use a pinpointer. The digger just got down grubbing around with his trowel and hands. Hopefully those boys will continue to enjoy their Bounty Hunter Jr. and gain more experience.
 
I agree completely.

But new tech, when learned properly, has the potential to save time by reducing the number of holes you have to dig. For those who have physical issues or time constraints, saving oneself from digging just a few holes per hunt can make a major difference in enjoyment and the amount of hunting that can be done.

In my opinion, the real question is not "what matters more, machine or hunter?" Rather, it's whether it's worth the time and money to learn a new machine to gain that incremental boost in hunting efficiency.

Of course, the above assumes the newer tech is actually "better."
 
Agree and the location is number one. I don't like making a lot of adjustments or choosing freq etc and wondering if I chose wrong. There's also the fun factor. It's like fishing. I don't enjoy tournaments. It's hard work, competing for the most weight. Me enjoying fishing is casting, feeling the bite and the fight.
 
I agree with you 100%. I used to own an entry level Bounty Hunter in the 70's and became very comfortable with it and it's tendencies. It didn't bother me when others came around with more expensive machines because I had enough confidence in my MD knowing I'd find just as much as they were. I just got back into detecting, so I am still learning my new machines (they've come a long way in 45 years), but I dig EVERYTHING so I can learn their sounds and VDI's...patience is definitely a virtue here.
 
Some folk have excellent producing sites, where you'll get great finds with any basic machine.
But when a sites finds get depleted, the better detectors have a higher chance of making a find, that's if you can get the best from the machine.
 
ghound said:
Some folk have excellent producing sites, where you'll get great finds with any basic machine.
But when a sites finds get depleted, the better detectors have a higher chance of making a find, that's if you can get the best from the machine.
Click to expand...


+1

No doubt operator skill and location play a huge role, but some machines are definitely deeper and/or faster than others.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I use the spray and pray method...swing everywhere and dig everything. So far it's not working out in my favor...lol...but as I continue in this hobby my desire to learn more about the history of my area, locations that in theory should produce, and hopefully my ability to read the landscape will grow to the point that someday I am hoping that I will be able to dig less holes and produce more relics. But no matter what...there's still an element of luck involved. Couple weeks ago is a prime example...I was out with two other people. One had an AT Pro, one had an Apex, I had my brand new Simplex. I went over an area that the other two had already been over but I found and dug an old flat button. Not because I'm better. Not because my Simplex is better. It was because I got lucky and my swing went a couple inches over one way or the other that the other two didn't and I got the signal.
 
ghound said:
Some folk have excellent producing sites, where you'll get great finds with any basic machine.
But when a sites finds get depleted, the better detectors have a higher chance of making a find, that's if you can get the best from the machine.
Click to expand...

Absolutely correct. It's naive to think a good detector isn't a real asset. I love my Xterra 705, but I know that a CTX 3030 would open up some sites. I also know that I have hunted along some really good hunters that were hunting with a lesser machine (one they'd used for years) because they were letting another inexperienced friend use their good detector, and they struggled seeing the things I could see with the 705, and the things the inexperienced friend was seeing with his better machine. No doubt that experience plays a huge part, but experience with a great detector wins in the end of the day.

BTW, location trumps all.
 
I disagree. I've owned 4 other machines besides the E-Trac and I guarantee you the E-Trac will find silvers and coppers the others won't. In fact, I've tested them head to head on the same targets, and they were not all beginner machines; one was quite expensive.

One park around here everyone says is "hunted out", and I pulled 17 silvers from it. I have many examples like this.

One of the E-Trac's huge advantages is how good its target ID is, and people sometimes forget this advantage when comparing machines. I don't like wasting time digging clad, wheaties, and of course trash, and I don't have to when I am fairly certain what the target is most of the time. This is a huge advantage as you can cover more ground. I don't like digging holes; it wastes time and wears you out faster.

So, remember to consider how good the discrimination is when comparing machines, depending what you are hunting for, of course.

I will say the E-Trac struggles in highly mineralized ground, at least mine does (could be operator error), but we don't have enough of really bad dirt around here to bother me yet, but someday I would like to find a machine that handles mineralization better.
 
Not to come across as ignorant as i don't hunt parks, but how can a park be hunted out if your still able to dig silver by relying on ID numbers only, surely your walking past more silver than your digging as the Etrac ID is effected by any trash or iron within the width of the coil or when the target is at fringe depth?


randy said:
I disagree. I've owned 4 other machines besides the E-Trac and I guarantee you the E-Trac will find silvers and coppers the others won't. In fact, I've tested them head to head on the same targets, and they were not all beginner machines; one was quite expensive.

One park around here everyone says is "hunted out", and I pulled 17 silvers from it. I have many examples like this.

One of the E-Trac's huge advantages is how good its target ID is, and people sometimes forget this advantage when comparing machines. I don't like wasting time digging clad, wheaties, and of course trash, and I don't have to when I am fairly certain what the target is most of the time. This is a huge advantage as you can cover more ground. I don't like digging holes; it wastes time and wears you out faster.

So, remember to consider how good the discrimination is when comparing machines, depending what you are hunting for, of course.

I will say the E-Trac struggles in highly mineralized ground, at least mine does (could be operator error), but we don't have enough of really bad dirt around here to bother me yet, but someday I would like to find a machine that handles mineralization better.
Click to expand...
 
I rank them in this order:

1. Location
.
.
.
.
.
2. Detectorists skill
3. Detector

The location is by far the most important factor. Location can be found by luck or by research and knowledge. The machine itself is going to make a difference on whether you can find deeper targets or masked targets or not if that is a factor at the location. Then finally the amount of trash or ratio of good targets to junk slowly improves as you step up in quality of machine. In the end it comes down to what are you willing to pay to dig less trash and to find those few targets that most other detectorists leave behind because they are too deep or just don't sound right on their cheaper machines. For me it is worth a few hundred bucks to save a little time digging. I also savor the few very deep or masked coins I find in pounded public areas that other detectorists missed. For some a little time and a few more coins may not be worth the extra hundreds of dollars.

Also most people don't miss what they have never had so in a way "ignorance is bliss" applies to detecting and metal detectors as well. I used the at pro for 3 years and had a blast and found a lot of nice coins. I did not see any reason to buy another detector. Then I found a good deal on an Etrac and started using it and it opened my eyes to what I had been missing. I found several silver coins in areas I had gridded with my at pro and missed. I started finding deeper coins than I had ever found before. I then did the same with my CTX and then equinox 800. If I never would have used those machines I would have been happy with my at pro and never would have known any different. I still would have found lots of great things as well.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
detectorben said:
.........."ignorance is bliss".......... If I never would have used those machines I would have been happy with my at pro and never would have known any different......

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Dang, anyone reading this is no longer ignorant and no longer happy unless they have a minelab! :lol::lol::lol:
Next you're going to tell them about santa and the tooth fairy.
All detectors have pros and cons as we all know.
 
randy said:
I disagree. I've owned 4 other machines besides the E-Trac and I guarantee you the E-Trac will find silvers and coppers the others won't. In fact, I've tested them head to head on the same targets, and they were not all beginner machines; one was quite expensive.

One park around here everyone says is "hunted out", and I pulled 17 silvers from it. I have many examples like this.

One of the E-Trac's huge advantages is how good its target ID is, and people sometimes forget this advantage when comparing machines. I don't like wasting time digging clad, wheaties, and of course trash, and I don't have to when I am fairly certain what the target is most of the time. This is a huge advantage as you can cover more ground. I don't like digging holes; it wastes time and wears you out faster.

So, remember to consider how good the discrimination is when comparing machines, depending what you are hunting for, of course.

I will say the E-Trac struggles in highly mineralized ground, at least mine does (could be operator error), but we don't have enough of really bad dirt around here to bother me yet, but someday I would like to find a machine that handles mineralization better.
Click to expand...

Agreed. It's about saving time and hunting more efficiently - that's what the right piece of equipment can sometimes help you do.
 
ghound said:
Some folk have excellent producing sites, where you'll get great finds with any basic machine.
But when a sites finds get depleted, the better detectors have a higher chance of making a find, that's if you can get the best from the machine.
Click to expand...

Agree and especially in the south where silver coins are rare because then the north was very productive in the industrial revolution with many relative well paid workers, the south was filled with many dirt poor farmers with some wealthy big farm owners and merchants. But in the south other than Civil War relics the silver coins were mostly not around to ever become hunted out.

But I do have a friend Wilddigger on this forum who does quite well with getting permissions on older homes and finding silver. However he is not in metro Atlanta where older homes have long been demolished or are off limits.
 
Nubster said:
I use the spray and pray method...swing everywhere and dig everything. So far it's not working out in my favor...lol...but as I continue in this hobby my desire to learn more about the history of my area, locations that in theory should produce, and hopefully my ability to read the landscape will grow to the point that someday I am hoping that I will be able to dig less holes and produce more relics. But no matter what...there's still an element of luck involved. Couple weeks ago is a prime example...I was out with two other people. One had an AT Pro, one had an Apex, I had my brand new Simplex. I went over an area that the other two had already been over but I found and dug an old flat button. Not because I'm better. Not because my Simplex is better. It was because I got lucky and my swing went a couple inches over one way or the other that the other two didn't and I got the signal.
Click to expand...

Nubster - did you say one had an Apex? Tell us more about the Apex please. Are Apex detectors being received by people?
 
maxxkatt said:
Nubster - did you say one had an Apex? Tell us more about the Apex please. Are Apex detectors being received by people?
Click to expand...

Yes. One had a pre-production Apex. Said it was one of about 6 that had been released at that point. They seemed to like it a lot. Only had it a couple days at the time we were detecting so hadn't had much time with it but initial thought was it was really good and felt it would be worth the street price. I didn't ask detailed question. They didn't offer detailed info...lol...just that the general impression was really good. They said Garrett will allow videos to start being posted mid-June but as we've seen photos are ok. Since this person has not posted any photos yet that I've seen I won't disclose who it is even though it won't be a surprise to anyone.
 
I am going to disagree some,,,, yes out in an open pasture hunting for civil war relics where there is no modern trash and iron is not an issue,,,, i will agree with you , only depth becomes a concern as most detectors from 50 dollars to 2500 will find targets. Then as you clean that out and only deeper targets left, then the better machines with a bit more depth will prevail.

But come hunt where i hunt on vacant lots where multiple buildings have stood then all torn down and the lots back dragged and smoothed out and you will be very sadly disappointed when you bring an Ace 250 or something similar.

Just last fall and winter at an 1900 school house site that had been torn down... running what i consider good mid class detectors such as AT PRO and Nokta Impact etc..... we found maybe 5 coins. Between the NOX 800 and NOX 600 close to 60 old coins. I even ran ETRAC and CTX there ,,, notta single coin. This is iron red clay soil.

All these coins were mostly 8 plus inches deep in iron infested plugs.

Bottom line is it takes both a good operator and a good machine to get the job done in some sites.

There were 3 of us. All had NOX's , i even set one guys machine up exactly as i was running mine and he found only a few,, where as me and another guy found close to 60 total between the two of us. So right there shows even though the guy had the same machine ,,, setup the exact same way , he still couldn't get the hang of what we were doing to recover those coins.

Hope this sheds some light.
 
ghound said:
Some folk have excellent producing sites, where you'll get great finds with any basic machine.
But when a sites finds get depleted, the better detectors have a higher chance of making a find, that's if you can get the best from the machine.
Click to expand...

This is correct.👍
 
That may work for the land but not in the sea. You NEED a good detector to even be able to play. After that I would say it goes experience and location in that order. Experience will tell you if the location is good or bad.
 
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