On the lookout for a better detector....

[Dusty]

Hello chaps, after using an Ace 250 for nearly a year I decided to flog it on, was getting cheesed off with digging pull-rings, bottle tops, bleeping like a nut only to find nothing and awful recovery times. So its time to get the wallet out 

My budget is £300 to maybe £350, I want something with good iron rejection, depth is not so important 7" will do me - depth that is.... SO

Is it gonna be a Tesoro, C-Scope or XP I'm open to all suggestions please thankyou 

[waltonbasinman]

For that money there are some good second hand Minelabs around. though heavier they do the business with a great build quality.

[zorro]

Dusty you need to  consider where you'll be detecting. If you plan on detecting beaches and wet sand you probably want to look at a minelab. Tesoro's dont do wet sand very well, if at all?

[Dusty]

You know guys I'm half tempted to breakout the CC and get a Etrac..... but Jesus begorra are they pricey!

Lets be honest, cards on the table - do they 'really' warrant those prices £800 - £1299     

[ORDOVIC]

I bought a second hand Explorer II for £350 and it served me well for 4 years, it found me a lot of stuff on clean ground, very deep machine,but now I need to send it to Minelab for a service.

[Salty (Karl) Cardiff Scan Club]

You know guys I'm half tempted to breakout the CC and get a Etrac..... but Jesus begorra are they pricey!

Lets be honest, cards on the table - do they 'really' warrant those prices £800 - £1299     

To be honest with you ...NO. they are a superb Detector, but the price is artificially inflated by the manufacturer, The trouble is they have us over a barrel, you either pay the money or go without, i decided life's too short, went for interest free credit and got the best deal i could.
I'll warn you now though, you'll still be digging Ring pulls and foil and bottle tops, or you risk missing the good stuff, as for my E-trac, she found me my Fourth Ring, all from Pasture today , add that to my other finds i've had, if i decided to sell them, i may just break even, Trouble is, i never would,its not about the money for me, so she will always owe me £1200
 remember, when your dead, its for a long time,and you don't have pockets in a coffin If you can get one without bankrupting yourself, why not, Check out some other machines though before you commit to that sort of outlay, Good luck.
Salty

[Dusty]

Not wrong there Salty, long time dead an all!!

What I don't understand is why even with such an expensive detector would we still end up digging pull rings and other rubbish?

Anyway its all dependent on either getting 0% credit (HA!) or a shop doing a very good cash/debit card deal.... lets be honest, they cant sell many at that price and we all still in the crunch... lets hope Joan takes pity on me lol  

EDIT, just outta curo what haave you found with your E-Trac Salty?

[Salty (Karl) Cardiff Scan Club]

Hi Dusty, My comment on the ring pulls etc, is based on, no matter what fancy discrimination you have, the damn things sit exactly where some hammered coins/ Jewelry do (as well as other good stuff), so whilst you can selectively scrim out one particular type of object, you run the risk of missing a good find, Today for example,i had probably my 15 signal @ 12.35 (this the ferrous/conductive readout) with a good tone from the E-trac, all the others were shotgun cartridge back ends, i came very close to saying Blow it (well not those exact words but you know what i mean ) i dug it, twas a ring , i could have scrimmed out those shotgun cases and never been bothered by them all day, but i'd have missed that ring
You got to dig the junk to get the good stuff i'm afraid, i by heck i've dug my share of junk
Salty

[Dusty]

Ha nice!

Dont want to pester but whats your honest view on this detector compared to others you have used?

Thanks bud!!!!!

[Salty (Karl) Cardiff Scan Club]

Minelabs can be a bit odd if your not used to Multi tone machines, a bit like R2D2 on acid But it doesn't take long to get used to that, They are awesome on the beach/wet sand, incredibly stable and Deep (dont get too hung up on the depth thing with a detector though ), Fantastic battery life, good range of accessory coils, the pro coil it comes with is very sensitive, i'm forever digging .22 rimfire bullet heads and small bits of bronze, they tend to cope with overhead powerlines very well, dont trigger on "hot Rocks" (though i can alter the settings on mine to do so ) all in all an excellent tool, a bit heavy after a while. I am looking at a Deus (ref to dead a long time lol) i wont be parting with my E-trac though, the Deus is for covering large areas quickly and ease of transport. The -e-trac is not to be rushed to get the best out of it
Salty

[PHIL YNYSBOETH]

Hi Dusty

Ive bought Minelabs for years
But going by the reviews  (especially the Explorer range) i dont know of any other detector manufacturer that has an almost 50/50  split in people who love them and people who hate them.

I read the review and put it down to people not reading the instruction but im my case i fully understood the machine (had an Exp 2 for 2 years) but i just didnt like using it. i found it to heavy (NO IM NOT A WIMP OR CONFUSED LOL  )
And the recovery rate bored me to tears
sometimes in very trashy areas an over sensitive machine can be a nightmare and the slow recovery rate only makes matters worst.

I got advised to look at the Fisher F75 by a very good friend and im so glad i did,
 Its high tec but very intuitive and understandable and your not far behind the Explorer Depth wise, plus youll find more targets per day than anyone using an EXP the recovery rate of the F75 is ledgenary

Have a look at the reviews you wont find many if any bad reviews and it seems that once youve got an F75 youll only sell it to get a Teknetics t2 which it a very similar machine

I bet your confused now lol
Good Luck with your quest ;0)

[PHIL YNYSBOETH]

The Fisher f75 and the Teknetics T2 have got a bit of a cult following at the moment
I bought a new one from Joan Allan for £650 but looking at the mags latley they are going for a lot more now
But they generally sell for £400+ used



all the best
Phil

[Tinman (paul/Lisa)]

Hi all, interesting post this, I have always had an explorer, but recently i got hold of a T2. The T2 is lighter faster etc, but i do have a gripe with it 1st one hot rocks, they turn up anywhere between 44 and 55 sometimes higher, some give a damm good signal even when ive walked all around the target. Also i had sussed the SE out for deep finds with the faint signals etc, I havnt with the T2 let me explain, i get a faint signal showing 55 ish one way change the angle and its gone, now is that a deep signal? or one of those rocks, so far everytime its been a rock but you see where im coming from. I went out yesterday on some new land and decided to do an experiment comparing the T2 and the SE, If Lisa had a deep signal we marked it with a flag and me the same, when we got about ten flags out we compared them. she picked everyone of my signals except two (because they were hot rocks we checked) but the T2 failed with 6 of hers and in my opinion wernt that deep. ( they turned out to be buttons). Now maybe my T2 is faulty i dont know but it has nowhere near the depth of the se. I will be doing more tests try and find something near iron etc

[Dusty]

I bet your confused now lol

Ha, should have had a tenner on that - you would have won lol!!

My head hurts now, SO much choice and all much of a much. Don't know much about the Teknetics although I have been looking at a Teknetics Omega 8000 secondhand for £359, good machine or not I don't know? As for the Fisher F75 I don't know much about this one either.......

Now I'm on 2 minds whether to leave the E-Trac for now and try one of the suggested detectors?

Confused!!!!

[detectordave]

Dusty i dont know if your in a detecting club but my advice would be to join one there you would meet other people with different makes of machine that i am sure they would be willing to let you try them out before you buy one there is more to detecting than just minelabs (and i use a minelab) take your or it could be a costly mistake