The best underwater detector is...

oro · Nov 2, 2006

Hi,

I have spent last week including many hours during last Saturday researching which is the best underwater detector. I don't have an answer yet and to be honest my brain is smoking with all the information and different reviews. So far to my personal opinion I think it's between the Minelab Excalibur and the Whites Surf Pi Pro or Beach hunter.

I want to ask the experts and the detectorist with experience with different underwater models in this forum. What is the best underwater detector?

here's my research results:

Minelab Excalibur

Pros:

lots of knobs to tweak
different tones for each type of metal
very good finding gold
good but not great depth detection
some experts say the Excalibur is the best underwater MD
very popular
iron mask : can filter iron out. ex. you can detect an gold ring below an iron item.

Cons:

cheap controls, they get loose
is a heavy unit
sand get into the coil cover
very expensive $1,000 dollars
some people dig everything so the multi frequency/ multi tones is useless.
need to buy accesories like better headphones.

Whites Surfmaster PI Pro

Pros:

really good depth detection
good finding gold

Cons:

does not discriminate anything, only one tone for everything.

that's it, not too many cons on this unit.

I would like to know more on the Headhunter diver and any other good underwater detector.

I hope this help and please send me your input! thanks

Oro

TonyinCT · Nov 2, 2006

Well tell me what type of hunting and where you want to do it. Salt water or fresh water? :?:

Do you want to do mostly beach /mostly water/ or a combination? ANy diving involved? This will better narrow down the choice.
:yes:

Scrltt641 · Nov 2, 2006

A very large percentage of fellows in my club have Fisher 1280X Aquanauts, which I also bought. Some have used theirs for 12 years, others 18 years, others 8-10 years, so I know they hold up well, and boy, they sure bring in the gold and pretties!

Trudy

Willy · Nov 2, 2006

Check out the Garrett Infinium. It's a PI with a form of ID and disc. I did a lot of freshwater hunting with one and it did as well, trashwise, as the VLF's.. but went waaayyyy deeper. Another nice thing about it is the ability to change coils and the assortment of coils (DD and mono) available. ...Willy.

Brian · Nov 3, 2006

Excaliber is good if you want discrimination that works and the hardware side is now far better. Excellent if you stick on GreyGhost headphones and a SunRay coil.
Infinium. Got to say I still hate it. To noisy. discrimination little use to me. large stock coil far to heavy. Love the build quality though.
!280's still good for fresh water but don't cut it in the salt.
Whites Surfmaster PI has been improved over the years. Great hardware, reliable. Could be the best value diving P.I.
My favourite to go in the water with would be the Goldquest SS Aquasearch V.2. Rather expensive.

Cfmct · Nov 3, 2006

Minelab Excalibur, good detector for salt or freshwater, drawbacks its heavy and you have to spend more money on headphones and a straight shaft to mount the controls to or hip mount them but you run into the possibilty of ripping out the wires.

BeachHunter ID good for fresh or saltwater but I hear its better in the freshwater although I used it in the salt and it did ok for me.

PI PRO my detector of choice for the wet salt environment, its deep its stable, it finds the gold, its well balanced and light. I won't use a PI in the dry sand at all its no fun digging up a tiny sneaker eyelet a foot down.

oro · Nov 4, 2006

TonyinCT,

I totally forget !!! yes I'm at Miami, FL and my intention is to go to the coast so Salt water and will be dectecting in the water, but want to have the option to go to the beach and in the future go dive (SCUBA).

Scrltt641 ,

Honestly I discarded the Fisher 1280X Aquanauts because of the cosmetic lookk, I don't like how it looks but I have read good reviews and now with your information I think I will take a better lok at it. Do you have any problem with the way it's mount in the shaft?

Willy,

can you compare to others or the Garrett has been your only underwater detector?

Brian,

great info. , so I will need to buy that headphone and coil to have a good experience on the Excalibur, more money! First time I hear about the Goldquest SS Aquasearch V.2 I will do my home work on it.

Cfmct-PI,

your best choice is the PI Pro, good comparison.

thanks guys. I'll keep looking at this post and will add more information about the detectors as it comes.

Oro

Willy · Nov 4, 2006

As far as underwater detectors go, I've had 2 others, an Excalibur and Stingray 2. I liked both detectors, but traded the Stingray for an LST and sold the Excal 'cause it really was lacking in sensitivity to low conductors.. especially if they were small. It also was pretty lousy on Canadian money, which is magnetic and often just nulled out in disc. I used the Infinium for quite a while hunting through iron patches where the 2 tone 'ID' came in handy. Seeing as you're from Florida, I've heard that the mineralisation there is rather low and, therefoe, PI's don't offer much of an advantage. I'd also recommend the CZ20. It should give better hits on low conductors. I prospected with a CZ6a, up in the Arctic Circle, using salt mode and the 10.5" coil and was finding nuggets down to about 4 grains with it (largest was 2 oz). ...Willy.

TonyinCT · Nov 4, 2006

I would reccomend the Whites Surf PI or Minelab Excalibur 1000. If you do seriously want to go diving , get the Excal since you don't want to waist a lot of time digging trash while using up your air supply. Both will do well in salt or fresh water with the Surf Pi doing better in salt conditions. I sell and use all of them but these are the two I mostly reccomend. If you need any more help let me know. :yes:

Brian · Nov 10, 2006

Don't pay me to much attention on the coil/headphone issue with the Excaliber. It will do fine as is, its just it can be made better, so if I had one that needed replacements I would go third party rather than for Minelab parts.

The best underwater detector is...

oro

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