Noob looking for underwater detector

Dirty Dirt

New Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2020
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Hey guys. I'm new here. I've been looking through the posts here for a while and finally decided to join. A little background: several years ago I tried to get into metal detecting. I impulse bought a bounty hunter platinum detector at Cabela's just because it was there. I never really got into it much because I was too busy with other things. I do remember that I really didn't care much for all the adjustments and digital readout, probably more than anything was because I just didn't have a clue as to what I was looking at.

Fast forward to today, I'm in a unique situation. I had a baby born over in the Philippines in March, got laid off due to this covid, had a tree completely destroy my house in hurricane Laura, and bought some land over on Palawan island in the Philippines. I'm going to be moving there before the end of the year. I want to get back into metal detecting. I already bought a Tesoro Vaquero for general use on land. I love the fact that it doesn't have all the digital readouts and seems to be easy to adjust. Let me know if my choice was bad.

I'm also wanting to get another detector solely for beaches and shallow water. I already ordered a wedigout smaller handheld underwater units with no adjustments to use while scuba diving and snorkeling. I ordered it off of Amazon based on reviews. Now for my shallow water / beach unit, after a lot of research, had decided to try to find a Tesoro sand shark. Well they're next to impossible to find now. I do have a lead on one but it's halfway across the country and the transaction seems a little sketchy to me so I held off and did more research. It seems like the more I search the more confusing this becomes. I've now looked into the white's surfmaster and beach hunter, which are also very hard to find. I've looked at the excalibur 2 and the Garrett sea hunter. So many choices.

Can y'all help me out here? This is almost Greek to me lol. I'm sure any of the above would do but I'm looking for good quality. A company being out of business, or a model being discontinued has no affect on my decision as I'm going to be too far away to try to get warranty work done anyway. I'm very open to getting a second hand unit as long as it fits my needs. Thanks
 
Welcome.

You list several pulse units, and several discriminating units. Just be aware that if you choose a pulse (which has multiple admitted upsides), that you will sacrifice ability to tune out nails and iron. This may or may not be an issue on the beaches you have in mind.

Discriminators , on the other hand, can pass nails & iron. Yet aren't going to be able to handle super black mineralized sand, can't get dainty tinsel thin chains, etc..... This may or may not be an issue on the beaches you have in mind.
 
The Vaq for land is a good choice, if you learn the Tesoro language and like this way of hunting you can do well.

Tesoro is now out of business so service can be sketchy, most of them are built like tanks but for heavy use in water like that Sand Shark you could have issues getting it fixed if you are unlucky.
Blow one seal and you could have a very expensive doorstop and nothing else.

The Minelab Equinox has a good track record for both land and water...it can deal with saltwater which many can't and good to about 10' deep if you care to go that far.
Some don't survive that, still a newer model and a few have drowned but it has a warranty that is pretty much worldwide and they take care of their customers pretty good if that happens.
Tons of settings and adjustments but find what you like and what works in your area and you are good to go.
A million vids out there with these on the beach and into shallow water.
Look up gigmaster, he has a ton.

For serious underwater use the Minelab Excaliber is used by a ton of successful hunters.
Go to go any forum that has a dedicated Beach/water sub forum and see how many use them.
Waterproof up to 200 feet but most that seem to use them that don't go near that deep.
Plenty of YouTube vids out there with guys using these underwater.

J. W. Fisher is a company that has premier underwater models, not cheap at all but for professionals like salvage operators or true deep sea treasure hunters the best choice.
For general hobby use way overkill.

I am not actually a water hunter but I have gathered up all of this from reading the forums for years.
I am sure actual water guys will chime in soon with their opinions but from what you said the Equinox might work well for you.
 
Welcome and congratulations with the baby!

Palawan is a great place and the beaches there are amazing! White sands, blue skies and clear water!

I'm not aware with other machines but if you will just be doing beaches and shallow water, the Minelab Equinox 600 or 800 is a great machine for both land and water. I'm sure other people will have better reviews than mine. lol

Good luck!!
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I guess I've kind of narrowed down my search a little more. Is the excalibur 2 a good choice for what I'm looking for? I'm not really sure what is meant by highly mineralized soil. I know some of the islands in the Philippines have volcanic sand but Palawan has no volcanoes, not saying that sand hasn't washed over from one of the other islands. I've also got a good lead on a Tesoro tiger shark. Would I be right believing that the tiger shark, excalibur 2, and vaquero would pretty much cover everything?
 
Philippines are ring of fire, they are volcanoes. You will probably need a good PI but that's just my guess. It's not really a matter of which is better though, it's when to use which one. They are different tools for different jobs. PI can ignore the soil conditions that render a VLF useless. The trade off is PI don't desc very well so you dig everything. PI can ignore saltwater, VLF do not like saltwater. PI tells you something metal is down there, some models of VLF do a dandy job (not perfect) of telling what it is (trash vs treasure). They both have their area of expertise but there are overlaps where either works fine (relic hunting).

Before you get too far out into the best brands, etc., try going to Minelab, Garrett, Whites, and other brand's websites and read their technology pages. They have some interesting engineering tech pages for normal (nonengineer) people that explains the types of tech (VLF, PI, BFO, etc) as well as coil types. Some tech is industry wide other tech is brand specific but it will give you a better understanding of the "magic" needed for what and where you want to hunt.




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The ring of fire location could have heavy mineralization. Idk , never been or researched that area much. Could render a Nox useless. There are beaches here in So.Cal that are so thick and heavy , that even a PI is hard to use. But better than a Nox.
 
You are going to be very far from a service center so don't get a minelab equinox, even though it has a warranty the shipping expense would kill ya!
Somewhere like that i would want something built like a tank, excal or cz21 maybe.
 
Well I've decided that I won't be able to fill all my needs with just one detector so I've ordered 5 lol. I don't know how long it will be before I come back to the US and getting something like that in the Philippines is just too difficult and often times you get a knock off. After much research I think I like the rigidity and simplicity of the Tesoros. I got the tesoro vaquero for all purpose, the tesoro sand shark and excalibur 2 for the ocean, the tesoro tiger shark for freshwater, and the tesoro lobo for gold searching.
 
It's really pretty over there. I've been all over the world and El Nido is in my opinion right at the top. The property is about an hour drive from El Nido. I've never seen anyone over there with a detector either.
 
Detecting in the Philippines

It's really pretty over there. I've been all over the world and El Nido is in my opinion right at the top. The property is about an hour drive from El Nido. I've never seen anyone over there with a detector either.

While detecting on both Tourist resorts as well as public beaches on Bohol i ran in to many who had never seen a detector. Many of the public beaches were so trashy really hard to detect. The locals bury their trash under the sand to get rid of it. With snorkel gear or scuba gear could be a lot of good finds at tourist beaches .
 
Hope you will post some pictures of that area of the Philippines , i haven't got to that area yet but hope to on a future trip. With over 7,000 islands it would take a long time to detect all the beaches over there in the Philippine. One one of our future trips i would like to take one of the island hopping trips they offer. Have you spent any time on Bohol or Cebu in your travels there?
 
I lost most of my pictures because they were in my old phone but I'll surely post some when I get back. El Nido doesn't even look real in pictures and seeing it in person is even better. I've been to both Cebu and Bohol. If you're ever on Cebu island be sure to check out the whale sharks down in Oslob. It may be just as fast getting there from Dumaguete via the ferry that goes directly to Oslob. It's well worth the trip. I only spent about a day and a half in Bohol. We took a driving tour with a local that lasted a little over half a day. It was worth it but I didn't see much to keep me on Bohol for any longer than that. We went to the chocolate hills, a rope bride, man made forest and a couple of other places. Mostly just tourist traps. Man made forest just looks like a typical forest. I asked the driver what was so special about it. He said because all of the trees there were hand planted, ummmmmm.... Ok? Lol.
 
Bohol and Cebu Philippines

I lost most of my pictures because they were in my old phone but I'll surely post some when I get back. El Nido doesn't even look real in pictures and seeing it in person is even better. I've been to both Cebu and Bohol. If you're ever on Cebu island be sure to check out the whale sharks down in Oslob. It may be just as fast getting there from Dumaguete via the ferry that goes directly to Oslob. It's well worth the trip. I only spent about a day and a half in Bohol. We took a driving tour with a local that lasted a little over half a day. It was worth it but I didn't see much to keep me on Bohol for any longer than that. We went to the chocolate hills, a rope bride, man made forest and a couple of other places. Mostly just tourist traps. Man made forest just looks like a typical forest. I asked the driver what was so special about it. He said because all of the trees there were hand planted, ummmmmm.... Ok? Lol.

It does take a lot more time to explore Cebu than Bohol lots of sights there espically like the old Spanish fort, my wifes family home is on Bohol walking distance to the sea. The floating resturant /boat ride are worth doing on Bohol if you have time.
 
It does take a lot more time to ....

David, I love reading your insights to the Philippines . Since you have connections to there :)

Question: I know this post has to do with fumble fingers coins/jewelry . But the subject of "shipwrecks" also crept in. So: In your opinion, is there a lot of cultural superstition/belief in treasures there , with the Philippine people ? Eg.: Treasure stories here and there, Yamashita, etc..... ?

Most of the time, whenever we see , on a forum from someone in the Philippines, it's typically about big-ticket-treasures. Not beaches or coin-shooting.
 
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