Myers Depot Metal Detectors

Going to the beach for $500ish

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Noreaster

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Hello to the members of the forum and allow me to thank you in advance for any advice that you can give.

I was all ready to purchase an ACE 350 to bring to the beach and did some reading. Glad i read before purchase. I am now trying to find what the best rig i can get for my $500 price range that will work on the beach. I don't plan to be going into the surf, but i do expect to be in wet sand. Will also try some other dry land areas so need to be a little flexible. I'm in Massachusetts, not sure how the beaches here are for minerals ECT..

I have been leaning to a couple models, the AT Pro and the MX5.
I am a geek when it comes to a nice display - i know i shouldn't be that way but i am. Just wanted to get that off my shoulders, (step 1 admitting you have a problem :grin: )
Anyway it seems the AT Pro is liked by a lot and does a lot of things well, the water resistance is nice for the environment i will be in.
On the MX5 i like the backlit display and how it can cope with wet sand and dry sand nearly auto-magically, at least by the reviews i have seen. It also seems to be slightly less money and complimented on its ability to go deep. I think i would have already jumped on this but the review i have seen have been from whites fans so i am not sure how subjective the reviews were.

So what shall i do and more importantly - WHY? Feel free to recommend something that i am missing. I know that in my price range i am not going to get the best tool for the job, but i already nearly doubled my purchase power and can't go further.

Thanks again,
Jason

Sponsors - im looking to make a quick purchase, feel free to reach out with contact info.
 
Are you planning to also use this machine on land or just beach? Are the beaches you want to hunt known to be trashy? Reason I ask is because you might want to consider a sand shark which is a PI machine. Single freq. VLF machines like the AT Pro are a nightmare to use in wet sand.
 
Mostly beach use, but will be exploring other areas on occasion.
Beach area is public, i expect a fair amount of junk. Problem is i dont know what is a lot vs a little junk when it comes to a beach.
 
Ok a Sand Shark is $577 but it's a PI which will hit the deepest on wet sand but the tradeoff is that it doesnt have discrimination so if you have lots of trash on the beach, you could go mad. Also not sure if you have a lot of black sand like we have in NJ but that can also drive you mad with a PI machine.

An AT Pro will work great on dry sand, but on wet you'll need to turn down the sensitivity to cope with the salt and false signals which makes you lose a ton of depth.
 
You wont go wrong with either of those machines and both will be great on dry land as well. I own both but one definite advantage of the at pro is that you can just hose it off when your done for the day and get all that salt and sand off of your detector.

The sand shark wont work well for land use...just so you know.

Pick up a good long handled scoop also will save you a ton of time retrieving targets..Have fun and GL!!
 
saltwater beach or freshwater beach ? the AT Pro in wet sand on a Saltwater Beach will be pretty much useless. listen to Marcus he is a dealer
 
A multi frequency would do best on the beach and inland, but would be well above your budget. You may find a used one for 500. but that would take time.

I use the ATP on the beach, dry and wet sand. In wet sand the vdi numbers will be all over(often within range of a target) and the depth won't be great. Maybe Four inches on a quarter. You will need to adjust the Ground Balance manually for that, and to get some stability. Good targets will sound off loudly down to about 4 inches, depending on the size. If you can afford the additional price, I recommend the additional 5x8 coil. It is great in trashy areas, and the depth is close to the stock 8.5x11 coil. Both are DD coils.
 
Another option if you don't mind going used is to pick up a minelab fbs machine or whites DFX which would allow you both land and wet sand hunting with little depth loss in the wet sand.

Multi frequency machines unlike the PI units will discriminate out unwanted targets and still get great stability in wet mineralized sand.

For that price range you might find a used whites DFX, minelab sov, minelab explorer or if you get lucky a minelab safari ( they go fast at that price)

Check out the used buy/sell on this forum and others and ebay or craiglist...

Dave
 
Most fbs and bbs machines on the forum here are going in the 600 range. Just saw a DFX for 600. I would check the classified forum on here.
 
Grumpysrb said:
A multi frequency would do best on the beach and inland, but would be well above your budget. You may find a used one for 500. but that would take time.

I use the ATP on the beach, dry and wet sand. In wet sand the vdi numbers will be all over(often within range of a target) and the depth won't be great. Maybe Four inches on a quarter. You will need to adjust the Ground Balance manually for that, and to get some stability. Good targets will sound off loudly down to about 4 inches, depending on the size. If you can afford the additional price, I recommend the additional 5x8 coil. It is great in trashy areas, and the depth is close to the stock 8.5x11 coil. Both are DD coils.
Click to expand...

Lots of good info here!

Holler if you more questions. Be glad to help out!
 
My explorer SE worked great on beach last week in gulf shores.you can find them used but will be more than your budget probably.i got my used and wished that I would have spent the extra money to start with.it has paid for it self in less than a year I would guess I only hunted 30 times that first year.st the beach I found over nine dollars in clad diamond ring.mans wedding band,silver ear ring a small gold ring and two junk rings.
Now I want a water machine and as soon as I figure it out I will order one in next few day.
 
scott stokes said:
My explorer SE worked great on beach last week in gulf shores.you can find them used but will be more than your budget probably.i got my used and wished that I would have spent the extra money to start with.it has paid for it self in less than a year I would guess I only hunted 30 times that first year.st the beach I found over nine dollars in clad diamond ring.mans wedding band,silver ear ring a small gold ring and two junk rings.
Now I want a water machine and as soon as I figure it out I will order one in next few day.
Click to expand...

Great beach machine! It has a detailed visual display, plenty of aftermarket parts, and can be waterproofed later if you are a do-it-yourselfer. Whatever u select, skip the single frequency machines if you want to avoid false signals.

For the explorers, the se-pro was the most recent edition with the fastest processor. If u can't find one in ur budget then consider an explorer ii, which has all the same functions but a few milliseconds slower response. Currently the forum classifieds have one for about $400...

Any other questions, just ask!

-David
 
IMO! You can't submerge one. But if I had to do it all over again I would do the same thing as before. Start with a used Whites DFX. They're just that good! You learn the tricks of the DFX not many are going to embarrass you on a beach. I own lots of machines. I'd still put my DFX up against any machine on my beaches. I actually owe a big thanks to my DFX for allowing me to afford the other machines it helped pay for. At Pro will work good in salt dry sand. But the DFX will still outdo it where I live. If you are hunting fresh water I can't help you. The AT pro guys can though:lol:
 
For $500, you can find a used Sovereign or CZ...and both would also work on land. A vdi meter can be added to the Sov if you like to crunch numbers...
 
scott stokes said:
My explorer SE worked great on beach last week in gulf shores.you can find them used but will be more than your budget probably.i got my used and wished that I would have spent the extra money to start with.it has paid for it self in less than a year I would guess I only hunted 30 times that first year.st the beach I found over nine dollars in clad diamond ring.mans wedding band,silver ear ring a small gold ring and two junk rings.
Now I want a water machine and as soon as I figure it out I will order one in next few day.
Click to expand...

Great advice! I used the Minelab E-Trac until the CTX 3030 came out. Both great beach machines!
 
If I was doing it all over again I would have started out with the minelab SE to start with it would have been a lot cheaper on me in the long run and I would have really got to know the machine well.
I think about this a lot because some of the places I got to hunt I was only allowed a couple of times and if I would have had the SE I would have found a lot of deep silver.I am in construction so I got to hunt some places only once until they started grading.
I personally think that it would be worth it to use a credit card and pay the extra.
If I was buying now I think I would do the Etrex. From sponsor on here,you will get a good deal and the extras will be of good quality.I have several things I wished I would have it the bullet and spent more.like my $60 sand scoop lasted a total of 8hours not such a good deal,digger lasted 4hours before it broke.Sorry for long post.
 
I am not saying did not find things with my other detectors I just have found a lot more with the SE in shorter time of using it at the same places as the other detectors.
 
A used Explorer would be the ticket. It can hunt the wet sand very easy. It also can be used in the dirt if you want to. If you are looking for just a wet and dry sand hunter an older model Sovereign would be great. You can chest mount the box to keep it further out of the water.
 
stay away from the single frequency machines unless it is the 705 for the wet salt sand even with the 705 you have to turn down the sensitivity. You should be able to find a multi frequency for even a dual like beach hunter 300 for $500
 
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