Cobra "Beach/Land" Detector

[Janster]

..I just ordered one. I hope to find success with it at Lake Tahoe and other nearby lakes,all freshwater. Anyone one here have any experience with this machine? Thanks and HH............ Jan

[FelixtheCat]

From my readings most have not liked it but there have been a few who did. Make sure you post your review on it.

[RickO]

Can't help you, but post your evaluation so we can all learn... Good luck.. RickO

[Rudy]

South Lake Tahoe has some notoriously bad sands (highly mineralized). If it performs well there you have a winner.

[Cfmct]

Try it is all I can say... maybe you will get lucky with it... You know I really want to stick an icepick in your avatar

[bart29]

Hi Janster -
I just received my Cobra Beach Magnet last Friday. I have been going over parts of the beach that I checked using my sons Radio Shack special. A Micronta 4001. I have not gone in the water with this detector, but that is the main reason why I bought this Cobra MD. It was a reconditioned unit on Ebay for $200 including shipping to me in Canada.
I have been having trouble pinpointing with this detector. The larger coil is nice as it covers about twice as much area than the RS special. I am not always getting the repeatable signal & some times end up cutting out 2-5 divots just to find a penny. Some times there is nothing to be found. I have found a wedding band 10k & a .925 silver unicorn ring that I missed with the RS special. I also found as much clad was missed as I had found with the RS unit. So there is definately an improvement in this area.
When I did check the beach the first time with the RS special I did a cross pattern. As in walking the area twice. This unit would not work at all in wet sand. Most of the beach area here is grass. The Cobra has much better depth than I am used to.
I have not been using the descriminator very much. I have been going with the factory settings. A tad higher in the descriminator & deeper ground depth. There are 2 different beeps. A high beep for being centered on the good stuff & a deeper beep for in the general area. This unit also chatters & cheeps when the descriminator its working. Its just a matter of getting used to it. Not a lot of bells & whistles but it works & has paid for itself finding the wedding band- my second. I only started MDing in early August this year.
My main complaint is with the head phones. The line to the detector could be longer & more convennient. The other thing is that I sweat like a pig - due to all the meds 6 prescriptions that I take for my back problem - & I find the headphones keep slipping & moving. The short line does not help this any. There is a light that flashes when the MD beeps. Pretty useless during the day but it might be a good feature in deep water.
This unit has paid for itself plus giving me enough clad to put some gas in my tank to check out other locations. If it works in the water as well as it does on the land I will be very pleased with my Cobra. The vendor for my MD said that it was good in the water - I will only be going waist deep in fresh water - so that will be good enough for now.
I hope that this helps in your choice!
Good luck & best regards, Bart!

[foreverRich]

Sure hope you have better luck with yours than I did mine. I ordered a "Demo" from Ardvark and it wouldn't detect more than a couple of inches. It only had a scratchy sound when going over targets instead of a clear signal. I sent it back to Kellyco and they sent the same one right back to me with the same problem. I sent it back and took the 30% loss and decided to chalk it up to a learning experience. I won't EVER do that again. I will get a decent detector the first time from now on. I was warned before getting it that they were made in China and some work and some don't. Guess I got one that didn't. Be sure and let us know if you get one that works properly and how you like it. Wish mine had worked even a little bit, so I could have gotten something for my money besides being burnt!! Good luck and keep us informed.