Good all round detectors

[kirkn]

went and had a look at miners den today, they really pushed the xterra 705, im looking at the ssp, sounds great for the money

 

[Ben78]

I wouldn't touch ANY single frequency VLF for beach work... Been there done that.

Honestly for beach use you can't go past a Minelab FBS or BBS machine, you get the best of both worlds - great depth and great discrimination/ID the downside is they aren't great at tiny things.

If I was on a budget I'd buy a second hand Sovereign XS or Explorer ~$350-$600 for beaches and parks and look at a second hand TDI Pro for the gold side of things ~$1500.

I personally have used
Fisher Gold Bug Pro (owned)
Teknetics T2 (owned)
Minelab Explorer SE (owned)
Fisher F5 (owned)
Fisher F75 LTD
GC1038 (Chinese) (owned)
Sovereign XS
CTX 3030
Minelab GPX5000 (owned)
Whites GMT
Whites TDI Pro Oz (owned)

Best bang for buck combo would be Tek T2 and Whites TDI Pro

Best ultimate pack - CTX3030 and GPX5000 (If the F75 did better on the beach it would replace the 3030 here - and for my uses I would pick a F75 over a 3030 as I hate the beach)

 

[Ben78]

Don't get me wrong I'm sure the other brands have there pros and cons, however you don't see many people swinging a gpx series detector at the beach as beach hunters know having the ability to discriminate iron save a lot of digging and gives you a better chance to find the good targets while the time is limited at low tide.

I've swung my 5000 on the beach. DD coil, Cancel mode, max iron disc and everything it said was iron was iron and nothing it said wasn't wasn't. I dug everything to be sure. I'm not happy about winging $6500 in the salt air...

 

[Guest]

Well go have a look at the SSP then take the tdi for a spin for half a day I think $30
Don't forget some test pieces! If you let me know when your going I'll give you my number so if you get gold fever you can call and I'll talk to you in calm soothing words! (It's not a difficult machine)

 

[kirkn]

haha thanks zuke, too late, ive had the fever for a while. was in maryborough last week swinging, no luck though.

 

[Guest]

A Tom D tuned serial 1021 serial cz3d is awesome for
Wet sands. For $600 it may surprise a few and its
multifrequency with a no depth loss discriminator.

Best all purpose machine in my opinion will have to be
the whites V3i.

 

[kirkn]

ok, so i have done some research and took in everyones advice, got a few in mind

garret at pro
xterra750
whites ssp
whites mxt
garret infinium

so apparently they will find gold and do ok on beaches

 

[beach detecting addict]

Mate the at pro international is a good detector, I have found gold (rings) with it on the beach and in parks. I would recommend it to anyone.

cheers Rob

 

[kirkn]

thanks, anyone else have any opinions about that list

 

[stalker]

SSP is a simple version of the tdi sl . I think you'd be better off getting the tdi pro oz for depth and coil selection and like said above can be had second hand for 1500 bucks .. Also some say the sl is not that good In the gold fields and others say It's good but that goes for all brands of detectors in different types of soil and conditions.

Maybe try and get hold of some detectors In your list kirk to try out. Or even hire them before you commit yourself .

 

[Guest]

Your thinking SPP the SSP is a simplified MXT (I nearly made the same mistake)
I'd say AT pro will stay no.1 (from list choices only)

How often will you treasure hunt vs nugget hunt? 50/50

 

[Guest]

How much time will you be spending at the beach vs
Gold prospecting?

 

[Guest]

A really nice machine is the whites
MXT pro. It has a prospecting mode
And salt mode for the beach and
going by reports Online detects deep.

So you can use it down the beach,
Playgrounds or put a small coil on it
and use it for prospecting with a relic
Hunting option.

It also has a back light and basically
You have 3 detectors as one unit.

My next coin machine most likely will
be a Whites.

My whites gmt should arrive soon.

 

[stalker]

Your thinking SPP the SSP is a simplified MXT (I nearly made the same mistake)
I'd say AT pro will stay no.1 (from list choices only)

How often will you treasure hunt vs nugget hunt? 50/50

Yeah the spp .. bloody predictive text. .

 

[kirkn]

thanks guys. probably 50/50. on the beach and fields. I live on the morning peninsula so beaches everywhere.

 

[Guest]

Kirkn, have a scrounge on information about the whites sierra pulse pro (SPP) I've read a few posts about it I think on the TDI & goldmaster tech forum and it seams that it works quite well on the beach using the Low & high tones obviously only digging good Low tones (coins or high conductivity) I believe on youtube the guy that has all the beach detecting vids with the TDI he is running it without GB on the TDI without GB on will Match the minelab's depth. Where abouts are you Kirkn?

 

[kirkn]

im on the mornington peninsula, i talked to whites and they said it may not be great on the beach, i think i have narrowed it down to at pro or MXT pro, what do u guys think?

 

[Ben78]

MXT Pro, but they are both still single frequency VLF, neither being overly great for the beach... (they may balance but doesn't mean they are effective)

Whites are saying that it may not be great on the beach as it is a fixed sample delay of 10us, which is arguably a little fast for salt water. The TDI allows you to turn the delay up a little if you are getting salt groaning.

Multi frequency rules the beach roost for discriminators. Couple of hundred more for the V3i over the MXT Pro and you have a very effective all rounder.

 

[Sa_bogan]

I think for the beach go with a minelab bbs or fbs VLF detector. The older bbs detectors are relatively cheap and have no issues with the beach

 

[tassietaurusbull]

hi i am new to metal/gold detecting, and i am after my first detector what should i be looking for ? i want to be able to search the beaches and parks around tassie and i only live 30 min at the most from beaconsfield as i live in Devonport Tasmania, so i can go gold hunt if i want, it needs to be able to handel wet sand dry sand and dirt as well I only have $500-$600 to spend on my first detector inc post, thanks Justin.