dawgdiesel
Member
My son (13) is wanting me to get him one. Anybody here in to that? Suggestions? If he gets one he will be wide open. If you know him you'd understand,he's 110% about being outdoors in woods.
metal detectors
- Thread starter dawgdiesel
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beastmaster
Well-Known Member
Depending on how much you wanna spend,id suggest a garrett 250 or 350 and they are in the lower price range. Garrett AT PRO for mid range price and its an excellent detector. And Fisher F75 SE for upper end detector.
pressfit
Well-Known Member
I have several that range from 100 to 1600.. I would suggest a tesero silver umax.. I have one and its a good machine for the money.. http://www.kellycodetectors.com/tesoro/ ... erumax.php
I've had detectors that cost from $100 to $5,000 and everywhere in between.
A few things to consider:
1. All of them are in the same ball park as one another depth wise. Some have more bells and whistles but all of them in general are right there with one another. The exception are the Pulse Induction detectors in which case, are a great deal deeper (and start at $1k for the bare bones ones). I just took a Minelab eTrac ($1,500) and a Teknetics Omega 8000 ($600) against an older Fisher 1265-X (circa mid 1980s and discontinued a long time ago) and the older machine is still right there with the latest and greatest as far as detection depth.
2. It depends on what kind of hunting. Modern coin hunting? Civil War relics? Old coin hunting? Beach/Jewelry? A little bit of everything? Cause one detector IS NOT going to cover everything. They are just like tools...each one does things a little better and it's always best to have more than one LOL. Modern coin hunting is the easy one...as the coins are newly dropped and aren't deep, and a $200 machine with target ID will be just fine. Old coins are different...they are more than likely still in the ground because of being missed by other detectorists...for either being masked by heavy trash (iron) or just missed. Depth is so so...people think it matters alot but masking and unmasking ability in a machine far outweigh the depth end of it for coins. The Minelab eTrac is a good example of this. It doesn't go any deeper than any of the other machines out there but it can cut through iron laden areas with stunning target ID ability...and thus you aren't going any deeper in the ground but you are picking good targets out of iron with a visual aid...and your old coin count sky rockets. Civil War relics are more of a beep and dig kind of detector setup...depth is a bit more important here but just doing good research and finding new sites will always pay off instead of going back and re hunting already hunted ground. A good low cost machine for this would be a Tesoro Vaquero or Garrett AT Pro. Then it jumps up to the Teknetics T2/Fisher F75...and ultimately, the Minelab GPX series.
3. Resale value. If he gets him a low end unit and goes out and gets discouraged by not finding anything but junk...well it's gonna sit in the closet and never get used. Or you can start him off with a mid priced unit...have good abilities to handle what he is going to do with it, and then if he decides to upgrade, he can sell the one he had for a little bit of money towards it...vs having to basically give the other one away.
Rule of thumb....stay away from the WalMart and Radio Shack ones. Stick to the major name brands (Minelab, Tesoro, Whites, Fisher/Teknetics, Garrett). Check around for local dealers and go play with some of them. If you are near Tuscaloosa, take the drive to see Brian Pennington at Southern Treasures. He is a great guy and a big detector distributor for most of the south on metal detectors. He would do you right on one and help you out on machines.
A few things to consider:
1. All of them are in the same ball park as one another depth wise. Some have more bells and whistles but all of them in general are right there with one another. The exception are the Pulse Induction detectors in which case, are a great deal deeper (and start at $1k for the bare bones ones). I just took a Minelab eTrac ($1,500) and a Teknetics Omega 8000 ($600) against an older Fisher 1265-X (circa mid 1980s and discontinued a long time ago) and the older machine is still right there with the latest and greatest as far as detection depth.
2. It depends on what kind of hunting. Modern coin hunting? Civil War relics? Old coin hunting? Beach/Jewelry? A little bit of everything? Cause one detector IS NOT going to cover everything. They are just like tools...each one does things a little better and it's always best to have more than one LOL. Modern coin hunting is the easy one...as the coins are newly dropped and aren't deep, and a $200 machine with target ID will be just fine. Old coins are different...they are more than likely still in the ground because of being missed by other detectorists...for either being masked by heavy trash (iron) or just missed. Depth is so so...people think it matters alot but masking and unmasking ability in a machine far outweigh the depth end of it for coins. The Minelab eTrac is a good example of this. It doesn't go any deeper than any of the other machines out there but it can cut through iron laden areas with stunning target ID ability...and thus you aren't going any deeper in the ground but you are picking good targets out of iron with a visual aid...and your old coin count sky rockets. Civil War relics are more of a beep and dig kind of detector setup...depth is a bit more important here but just doing good research and finding new sites will always pay off instead of going back and re hunting already hunted ground. A good low cost machine for this would be a Tesoro Vaquero or Garrett AT Pro. Then it jumps up to the Teknetics T2/Fisher F75...and ultimately, the Minelab GPX series.
3. Resale value. If he gets him a low end unit and goes out and gets discouraged by not finding anything but junk...well it's gonna sit in the closet and never get used. Or you can start him off with a mid priced unit...have good abilities to handle what he is going to do with it, and then if he decides to upgrade, he can sell the one he had for a little bit of money towards it...vs having to basically give the other one away.
Rule of thumb....stay away from the WalMart and Radio Shack ones. Stick to the major name brands (Minelab, Tesoro, Whites, Fisher/Teknetics, Garrett). Check around for local dealers and go play with some of them. If you are near Tuscaloosa, take the drive to see Brian Pennington at Southern Treasures. He is a great guy and a big detector distributor for most of the south on metal detectors. He would do you right on one and help you out on machines.
pressfit
Well-Known Member
What machine did you have that was 5K?
beastmaster
Well-Known Member
......If i had to guess id say it was one of the Minelab GPX machinespressfit said:
leebowhunts
Well-Known Member
I have talked to crow on detectors for years now and if one thing I know about him is if a new detector comes out and he thinks it might inhance depth or seperation he will get one and use the crap out o it for a month or so and give feedback. I know he has minelabs best from the SE to the 5000. all the whites machines, fisher, last year he made videos on the AT pro and it was good now the bugs are worked out of it.
I think you should start with a mid range machine and if he gets the bug like I did, he will work and buy the ones that are more pricey but have bells and whistles. I use a MXT pro now.
I think you should start with a mid range machine and if he gets the bug like I did, he will work and buy the ones that are more pricey but have bells and whistles. I use a MXT pro now.
Yep I've had two Minelab GPX machines...they are right at $5k each. I got a 4500 after I saw my buddy dig a minie ball in Virginia at 18 inches deep with one. I fretted over the price and finally went for it...and wouldn't you know it, the sorry rascals came out with the 4800 and 5000 right after that. So the little part of me that always has to see what's over the other side of the hill, decided I needed to sell the 4500 for the macdaddy of 'em all...the 5000. And so I did. Those are the only machines I've regretted parting with but I had to in this case...not a want to, but a have to. I will have another one as soon as my piggy bank will allow it.
Right now I'm not testing any new machines. I'm actually going back to some of the older ones that I liked and rebooting them with some of the newer after market coils that have came along. In several cases, this has produced crazy depth increases.
LEE -- If you get the hankering for some extra depth out of your MXT, I know what you need to try. Will run you about $200 but well worth it for the increase. Do a search for the following companies:
Detech coil company & NEL coil company
They are made over seas but do a YouTube search for those coils and you will see what I mean. Detech makes the SEF coils that the Kellyco company sells...they are good coils but the newest one is called the Detech Ultimate...it's a 13" DD coil and I've only heard and saw very very good things about them. I tried a 10x12 DD SEF coil for a Tejon I had, and it turned it into a totally new machine. I currently have a Teknetics Omega and have my first NEL coil coming for it...I got their Tornado coil (there is a dealer in Texas) which is a 12x13 DD coil. I saw a video of a guy over seas with one of them on the Omega where he puts a US quarter in the ground and the Omega is hitting it at 13 inches in ground...in disc mode. I've got a $1,500 Minelab eTrac...the "king of coins" machines and it wont do that with a fresh buried quarter at just 8 inches...much less 13. So there is a lot of horsepower in those coils. They make them for the MXT too. I gave $169 for the NEL Tornado for the Omega. The Detech Ultimate is around $220 but you can only get it from the overseas dealers on eBay.
Right now I'm not testing any new machines. I'm actually going back to some of the older ones that I liked and rebooting them with some of the newer after market coils that have came along. In several cases, this has produced crazy depth increases.
LEE -- If you get the hankering for some extra depth out of your MXT, I know what you need to try. Will run you about $200 but well worth it for the increase. Do a search for the following companies:
Detech coil company & NEL coil company
They are made over seas but do a YouTube search for those coils and you will see what I mean. Detech makes the SEF coils that the Kellyco company sells...they are good coils but the newest one is called the Detech Ultimate...it's a 13" DD coil and I've only heard and saw very very good things about them. I tried a 10x12 DD SEF coil for a Tejon I had, and it turned it into a totally new machine. I currently have a Teknetics Omega and have my first NEL coil coming for it...I got their Tornado coil (there is a dealer in Texas) which is a 12x13 DD coil. I saw a video of a guy over seas with one of them on the Omega where he puts a US quarter in the ground and the Omega is hitting it at 13 inches in ground...in disc mode. I've got a $1,500 Minelab eTrac...the "king of coins" machines and it wont do that with a fresh buried quarter at just 8 inches...much less 13. So there is a lot of horsepower in those coils. They make them for the MXT too. I gave $169 for the NEL Tornado for the Omega. The Detech Ultimate is around $220 but you can only get it from the overseas dealers on eBay.
Hogbear
Well-Known Member
Thing I like about the SEF coil on my Sovereign is it really hits well on coins that are on edge instead of laying flat.
