Best detector for dirt dry sand wet sand and water detecting?

UNC Walker said:

I want to upgrade my detector. I am looking at the ExcaliberII but wonder if anyone knows of a maching that can get the best depth in dirt and still be used at the beach in all types of conditions. I am looking in the 1300 dallar range. What other options are there?

Dave

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Water detectors are:

Minelab Excal ll
Whites Dual Field

Dirt Detectors:

Minelab E-Trac
Minelab SE Pro

Good Luck!

CZ-21
Excalibur II

Both are in your budget. Don't mess around with the cheaper models. You will end up with one of these anyways.

Here is your answer..

UNC Walker said:

I want to upgrade my detector. I am looking at the ExcaliberII but wonder if anyone knows of a maching that can get the best depth in dirt and still be used at the beach in all types of conditions. I am looking in the 1300 dallar range. What other options are there?

Dave

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Hi Dave! You want a machine that does not exist. There is such a world of difference between Saltwater detecting and dirt/freshwater detecting. VLF, or "very low frequency" machines are used for dirt and freshwater. The work using radio waves, which gives you the ability to "discriminate," or mask out iron. The problem is radio waves get messed up by high conductivity - like you find in highly mineralized saltwater, and become unstable and lose depth.

PI, or "pulse induction," detectors, work using electronic pulses which are not affected by high conductivity, but cannot discriminate. If it is iron, aluminum, tin, gold, silver, stainless steel, titanium - it beeps! So..

Get a good VLF, and a good water machine PI. You can get a Tesoro Vaquero AND a Tesoro Sand Shark, well within your budget. When I get tired in the surf, I come up on the dry sand and put my VLF to work. You'll have two machines that will give you a lot more treasure than the hunter that owns one $1,400.00 machine that excells at niether..

That is MY opinion. Good Luck!

goodmore said:

CZ-21
Excalibur II

Both are in your budget. Don't mess around with the cheaper models. You will end up with one of these anyways.

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I agree... these two models will give you the most bang for the buck if you only want one machine... just add a straight shaft to the Excalibur and you will be good to go

Thanks for the advice, I really want excalibur but will only go to the beach maybe every three months. I have an F2 and have learned a ton about it in a short period of time. Very good advice from you all and I guess I will need to get the excalibur for now and perhaps upgrade my dirt detector at a later date.
Always a Lady is my partner and she can take over the F2 when I dive into an etrac in the future.

One other question, I am in NC Triad and wonder is my F2 getting as much depth as possible. We have found alot of coins in 6 weeks but can't seem to get any deeper than about 4 inches with disc maxed. Would an Etrac get deeper in the soil ?

Thanks again!!

UNC Walker said:

Thanks for the advice, I really want excalibur but will only go to the beach maybe every three months. I have an F2 and have learned a ton about it in a short period of time. Very good advice from you all and I guess I will need to get the excalibur for now and perhaps upgrade my dirt detector at a later date.
Always a Lady is my partner and she can take over the F2 when I dive into an etrac in the future.

One other question, I am in NC Triad and wonder is my F2 getting as much depth as possible. We have found alot of coins in 6 weeks but can't seem to get any deeper than about 4 inches with disc maxed. Would an Etrac get deeper in the soil ?

Thanks again!!

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You might want to grab the 11" DD coil for that F2. That would increase your depth quite a bit.

UNC Walker said:

One other question, I am in NC Triad and wonder is my F2 getting as much depth as possible. We have found alot of coins in 6 weeks but can't seem to get any deeper than about 4 inches with disc maxed. Would an Etrac get deeper in the soil ?

Thanks again!!

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I sure hope that is not true!

I will hopefully be moving to that area soon and I am bringing all my detectors with me. of course, including the F2.

Here in Alabama, we have some of the worst red clay and iron-laden soil you have ever seen, and I am still getting deeper than 4 inches, here.

A good 5-6-7 and even up to 8" in some milder areas.

You might want to look into seeing if Fisher can take a look at your preset ground balance sometime, or the sensitivity settings.

I don't think all these units come out of the factory the same way like they should.

UNC Walker said:

Thanks for the advice, I really want excalibur but will only go to the beach maybe every three months. I have an F2 and have learned a ton about it in a short period of time. Very good advice from you all and I guess I will need to get the excalibur for now and perhaps upgrade my dirt detector at a later date.
Always a Lady is my partner and she can take over the F2 when I dive into an etrac in the future.

One other question, I am in NC Triad and wonder is my F2 getting as much depth as possible. We have found alot of coins in 6 weeks but can't seem to get any deeper than about 4 inches with disc maxed. Would an Etrac get deeper in the soil ?

Thanks again!!

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I don't want to hijack your thread but:
I actually was searching the forums about a 11"dd for my F2 and landed in this thread lol.
I've only been at it for a few weeks but I am not seeing anything below 4". My spot I found that reale at 2" is bone dry dark kind of sandy clay soil.
What's weird too is, I'll have it disc up to nickle and get a strong dime or qtr on a sweep to the right but wont get it on the return left sweep. Then I'll pinpoint it will say 6" I dig and probe and find nadda. Then pinpoint the exact spot and it will say 4" haha.