Is there another brand that will go deeper on silver than a Minelab?

agree with the Captain

This is my pick,the Etrac ids are better,but the edge i would go with the f75se (ltd) as far as depth,like both ,run both,a coin toss on which machine i hunt with,come's down to were im hunting and what for!happy hunting Earl
 

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F75
T2
CZ3D
Tesoro Vaq.
Whites V3i
Dues,GP goldmax
Gold Vista

I have looked into all of these. Most of these are hard to get in Australia or their big coils, but this is pretty much the list. I may be considering a Tejon as well.
 
This is my pick,the Etrac ids are better,but the edge i would go with the f75se (ltd) as far as depth,like both ,run both,a coin toss on which machine i hunt with,come's down to were im hunting and what for!happy hunting Earl

Thanks, looking into this, though I would want to get the 15" DD with it. The problem is, this would be hard to get in Australia but if I think it's the right one, it won't stop me.
 
I have looked into all of these. Most of these are hard to get in Australia or their big coils, but this is pretty much the list. I may be considering a Tejon as well.

The Fisher CZ series, are one of the best for depths . Even a well-tuned CZ5 or 6, that was made 20 years ago, outperforms many new detectors. Your being in Australia changes things some, for you. Where are you loacted in Australia ? Plenty of American dealers will ship a detector to you. BUT, Tesoro dealers are not allowed to. Tesoros lifetime guarantee doesn't help you much, either., when you have to pay for shipping both ways, to the U.S. Of course,,, you can get an American friend to forward one to you at an additional cost, or buy a used one from an American willing to ship.
My suggestion would be to find others over there & see what detectors work best in your soil, before going much further.
 
My suggestion would be to find others over there & see what detectors work best in your soil, before going much further.

Yeah, you're right, the problem is everyone here uses minelabs, and it's not because it does well in mineralised soils! People just use it because it's the only brand you can buy from a store in my town, you can get the x-terra models cheap and that's all you need for shallow stuff. The FBS machines go deep, but not that much deeper than my Golden with a big coil. In iron laden ground, my Golden does better. Many here use FBS machines because of reputation, yes they are good machines but I have used them and owned them, they are not for me, not the park varieties. Actually, I currently own one, an SD 2000.

My Tesoros do well for park hunting, most parks have nutrient top soil which is quiet, most of my deep coin hunting will be in colder weather. In other words, our noisy ground is only an issue when you're getting down to our native soil, FBS machines are not the answer for that...

It's just that I know that I can go deeper, neither of my Tesoros were designed for depth (Golden and Compadre), but I'm really pushing them to their limits! 7 inches is about the deepest I've gotten with both of them.
 
Let's face it there are a lot of good detectors that will find silver as deep as the Minelab, the difference is how well that detector can tell the user that there is a deep piece of silver. That is where the Minelab, particularly the E-Trac/CTX, shine above all others I have tried. Yes hours and hours with one of the other detectors and you can learn to spot that deep silver just like a Minelab but I truly believe few can have the new user finding deep silver like the E-Trac/CTX.

My F75 LTD hit almost every deep coin my E-Trac did on my head-to-head in the field testing, but it was painfully obvious the E-Trac was far more telling on when I had a good target. The F75 LTD made a sound but it could have been anything. Same was true for pretty much all other top-end machines I compared. The only other close competitor I felt was the V3i. Once it was set correctly it did very well.
 
Yeah, you're right, the problem is everyone here uses minelabs, and it's not because it does well in mineralised soils! People just use it because it's the only brand you can buy from a store in my town, you can get the x-terra models cheap and that's all you need for shallow stuff. The FBS machines go deep, but not that much deeper than my Golden with a big coil. In iron laden ground, my Golden does better. Many here use FBS machines because of reputation, yes they are good machines but I have used them and owned them, they are not for me, not the park varieties. Actually, I currently own one, an SD 2000.

My Tesoros do well for park hunting, most parks have nutrient top soil which is quiet, most of my deep coin hunting will be in colder weather. In other words, our noisy ground is only an issue when you're getting down to our native soil, FBS machines are not the answer for that...

It's just that I know that I can go deeper, neither of my Tesoros were designed for depth (Golden and Compadre), but I'm really pushing them to their limits! 7 inches is about the deepest I've gotten with both of them.

7" is pretty deep with those two detectors . I wish you could find someone in your area who used a Fisher CZ , & see what it does. I suggest getting a detector with manual ground balance. I have 2 Cz models, a CZ5 & a CZ3d . Both will hit the 10" dime I have buried in my yard, but not many other detectors will. I understand that Minelab pretty well " has the market " over there.
 
The only other close competitor I felt was the V3i. Once it was set correctly it did very well.

I appreciate your reply.

I have researched the V3i quite a bit, it seems as though if it too had a coil of equal size and quality, it might be an improvement. Do you think the V3i can be set up even more specifically in order to only target silver, so that it well and truly goes as well as say an etrac?
 
Do you think the V3i can be set up even more specifically in order to only target silver, so that it well and truly goes as well as say an etrac?

In my experience I'd have to say yes. When I was testing the V3i my hunting buddy used his E-Trac to check/compare signals and the V3i silver accuracy was right there with the E-Trac. Now, I will again say the E-Trac is the quicker learner for identifying deep silver. It took me a few weeks to get the V3i set to where it was as reliable in target ID as the E-Trac. Now the CTX 3030 I found to be a little more reliable/accurate than the E-Trac or V3i, but just.
 
I have looked into all of these. Most of these are hard to get in Australia or their big coils, but this is pretty much the list. I may be considering a Tejon as well.

I'm also considering this. The Tejon with the 12"x10" Tesoro DD is a force to be reckoned with. The only downside is that the DISC knobs max out at screwcap. Anything in the silver or coin range (besides U.S. nickels etc) is cannot be disced out, but who cares? I would dig any coin signal anyways. The upside is that you can set the dual disc to quickly confirm the presence of a nickel range target with the flip of the trigger switch.

Vaquero is just as deep and has the same insane target separation capabilities, and discs all the way up. Even all the way up silver coins will still hit.
Vaq is also a lower frequency machine and will see dimes more reliably. Tejon air tests at about 10" on a silver U.S. dime, but would be considerably deeper on a dime that's been in the ground for years.
 
I'm also considering this. The Tejon with the 12"x10" Tesoro DD is a force to be reckoned with. The only downside is that the DISC knobs max out at screwcap. Anything in the silver or coin range (besides U.S. nickels etc) is cannot be disced out, but who cares? I would dig any coin signal anyways.

Huh, I just noticed that... It looks like it's just a disc controll with slightly different labels on it. A screw cap is fairly high, on my Golden they don't really disc out... or maybe just about. I always dig that signal anyway, can never tell weather that's a silver. I've hunted with an etrac guy, he could never tell either.
 
Right now, I'm leaning towards a Tejon, the only things that concern me are:

1 Ability to handle noisier ground. I intend to mainly use this in parks, but this may reach native soil. Some parks may also be mineralised.

2 Lack of round coil options.
 
Fisher 15dd coil

The coil is a monster,real heavy,i havn't used it much ,but requires a swingy thingy,this is a coil i would use in open,non trashy field's, geared more for deep relic hunting,V3i hype,i seen alot of people selling them,some claim 2 thing's,one complicated to tweek in,and some claim they didn't dig anything over 6 inches :shock: the DFX was discontinued -it had minelab gut's,whites bought the right's from Minelab,that was there best machine ,my buddy has one,ill stick to the F75se,and Etrac,minelab has went over the edge on pricing,waiting on the next generation machine to come out,and sorry it's not the CTX3030 :lol:
 
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