Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II vs Tesoro Sand Shark

mortarman

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I'm looking at both and can only buy one of course. And even though I'm a bit partial to Tesoro, I'd love it if any users of both or either could chime in and give their opinions. How do they compare, features, etc? Thanks!
 
i haven't tried either but have considered both amongst others. glad you posted because you just prompted me to perform a weighted characteristic score for the machines i seem interested in. a guided test drive for each machine would be nice, but i don't know if such a service is even available in my area? some say it is, some say it's only a legend... :roll:
 
I prefer the Sand Shark. It has an external volume control and lacks the fictitious "Discrimination" knob that the Sea hunter has.

Both are waterproof but only the Tesoro has a lifetime warranty.
 
I know. If this were a perfect world in which I had a ton of money and a ton of free time, I'd buy both and do my own tests. Hopefully there are users out there who will chime in with their experiences.
 
I prefer the Sand Shark. It has an external volume control and lacks the fictitious "Discrimination" knob that the Sea hunter has.

Both are waterproof but only the Tesoro has a lifetime warranty.

It's hard to beat that Tesoro warranty. I've never owned a Garrett, what kind of warranty do they offer?
 
Sandshark. Great MD in 10 or 8 inch. The company backs its products with original purchasers to the wall. Thempany ceo is always happy to talk to you.
 
I'd go with the Sea Hunter, interchangeable headphones/coils, battery compartment separate from electronics, and pulse delay control (discrimination knob).
 
I'd go with the Sea Hunter, interchangeable headphones/coils, battery compartment separate from electronics, and pulse delay control (discrimination knob).

Crumble, PLEASE forgive my ignorance, does the pulse delay help with soil conditions (i.e. ground balancing the machine)? For example, if you're in an area that has a lot of "black sand" will the pulse delay help with this and decrease "falsing" or am I COMPLETELY "out of the ball park" about what I just said? Thanks Crumble.

HH \_ people
 
Didn't even think of that one.:shrug:

Now maybe I'm wrong. Isn't the Surfmaster a PI machine?

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The Surf PI DF IS a PI machine like the other 2 you are looking at, and close to the same price (MSRP is $899.95 on the DF, but cut a deal with a sponsor and you'll get a better price) and if price is not a factor, look at a Minelab Excalibur (of course it isn't a PI)...
 
Didn't even think of that one.:shrug:

Now maybe I'm wrong. Isn't the Surfmaster a PI machine?



Have you spoken to other Jersey hunters? some parts of Jersey beaches are so iron infested a PI is not a great choice for a detector... alot of guys down there use Excals, the GT and CZ21 machines... something to think about.
 
Crumble, PLEASE forgive my ignorance, does the pulse delay help with soil conditions (i.e. ground balancing the machine)? For example, if you're in an area that has a lot of "black sand" will the pulse delay help with this and decrease "falsing" or am I COMPLETELY "out of the ball park" about what I just said? Thanks Crumble.

HH \_ people

Yeah, some beaches have such hot ground/black sand, that at minimum pulse delay you will get constant falsing. Turning up the pulse delay makes the detector sample the ground signal a few uS later, and makes it run more stable. When I owned the Sand Shark, there were a few of my beaches that have super hot ground, and the SS would see the ground as one big iron signal, and without a pulse delay control to tweak, I couldn't hunt those beaches at all. The PI I use now has ground balancing, so I can leave the pulse delay at minimum always, but with a PI without ground balancing, pulse delay is a must, IMO.
 
I did talk to some that do use the sand shark and they love them. According to them they work great here in jersey. No problems at all. It has a microprocessor that controls the ground balance.
 
Yeah, some beaches have such hot ground/black sand, that at minimum pulse delay you will get constant falsing. Turning up the pulse delay makes the detector sample the ground signal a few uS later, and makes it run more stable. When I owned the Sand Shark, there were a few of my beaches that have super hot ground, and the SS would see the ground as one big iron signal, and without a pulse delay control to tweak, I couldn't hunt those beaches at all. The PI I use now has ground balancing, so I can leave the pulse delay at minimum always, but with a PI without ground balancing, pulse delay is a must, IMO.

I think you were just experiencing EMI, because you were maxing out your pulse width on the Sand Shark. There are hundreds of SoCal hunters that have Sand Sharks now, and nobody is reporting that problem. We have some pretty tough black sand here on the Atlantic coast in New York, and I have testested the Sand Shark in the black sands of Arizona gold fields as well.

The pulse delay of the Sand Shark is set at around 20us which is ideal.
 

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I think you were just experiencing EMI, because you were maxing out your pulse width on the Sand Shark. There are hundreds of SoCal hunters that have Sand Sharks now, and nobody is reporting that problem. We have some pretty tough black sand here on the Atlantic coast in New York, and I have testested the Sand Shark in the black sands of Arizona gold fields as well.

The pulse delay of the Sand Shark is set at around 20us which is ideal.

Actually, another guy I met on the beach who uses a Sand Shark (not the same machine I sold) has the same problem. Not all black sand is created equal, if you are ever in San Diego I'll take you to one of these bad beaches, so you can see first hand. California black sand is notorious for being very hot. I tried every possible setting on the Sand Shark trying to get it to work, it just wasn't happening.

EMI is more of a pulsing sound, that continues even if you stop swinging. The problem I was having, is the Sand Shark would give an overload signal every sweep, for the complete sweep, was unusable.

We've been over this before...
 
Interesting. What part of San Diego? I live in in North County and haven't had a problem with Black Sand with the SS yet.
 
I think you were just experiencing EMI, because you were maxing out your pulse width on the Sand Shark. There are hundreds of SoCal hunters that have Sand Sharks now, and nobody is reporting that problem. We have some pretty tough black sand here on the Atlantic coast in New York, and I have testested the Sand Shark in the black sands of Arizona gold fields as well.

The pulse delay of the Sand Shark is set at around 20us which is ideal.

Just so that I do NOT misunderstand, the pulse timing is "set" and CANNOT be adjusted manually:?: Whereas on the Garrett Infinium LS, for instance, you can adjust the pulse timing. I guess my main question is: Is it a fairly rare occurrance for one needing to adjust the pulse delay:?: I know ALL detectors have their pros/cons in some form or fashion so is it one of those yes and no's type of things for the Tesoro Sand Shark? Thank you all.

HH \_
 
I chose the Sea Hunter, because of the 14 inch coil over the Sand Sharks 10 inch coil. The Sea Hunter has found more gold than any detector on the market, Mel Fisher and his team used Sea Hunters to find the Atchoa and still use them today. That was the best testimony I could find.
 
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