Need a beach detector

[clearwatermike]

I'm trying to find a good detector for searching wet sand on Florida's west coast. I assume a PI unit is the way to go? I've had a lot of noise and very little luck in that environment with my White's Prizm.

[marcus118]

Have you looked at the Tesoro sand shark?

[clearwatermike]

Not yet, I'm just trying to determine that PI is definitely the way to go for saltwater. I'm a little confused when I see models like the White's BeachHunter 300, described as a "dual frequency" detector.

[Terry Soloman]

Originally Posted by clearwatermike

Not yet, I'm just trying to determine that PI is definitely the way to go for saltwater. I'm a little confused when I see models like the White's BeachHunter 300, described as a "dual frequency" detector.

A littltle from my article, "Beach and Water Detecting 101: Getting Started"

http://www.terrysoloman.com/id18.html

...Very Low Frequency and Pulse Induction metal detectors.

The first thing to determine is what type of water, or beach you will be hunting. Are you detecting in the saltwater and on wet ocean sand, or will you be hunting dry sand and freshwater lakes and river beaches? This is important because there are different metal detectors designed for fresh- or, salt- water use. For instance, a "VLF" or very low frequency type metal detector, works extremely well on dry sand and in fresh water. It does not work as well in saltwater, or on wet ocean-water beaches. In highly conductive saltwater conditions pulse induction, or "PI," metal detectors excel.

The VLF metal detector sends 12,000 - 60,000 radio waves per-second into the ground. When the radio waves hit something conductive - like an iron nail, gold ring, coin or aluminum pulltab, a magnetic field sets up around the object and a particular signal frequency is transmitted back to the detector's receiving coil. VLF metal detectors have the ability to "discriminate," or tell what type of metal they are seeing by "reading" the return signal frequency. An iron nail for example, has a different frequency than a silver coin.

The processor in the metal detector knows the difference between the two, and can be set to remain silent when seeing the nail. However, the radio waves bounce off everything that is conductive in the sand or water. This is why VLF detectors must be "ground balanced" to work effectively in highly mineralized soil, or on highly conductive saltwater beaches. You must tune or adjust the machine to see through the "fog," or white-noise created by the salt and iron in the sand or water you are detecting. Unfortunately, this usually leads to a loss of depth and stability with most VLF detectors.

A pulse induction or, "PI" metal detector, sends out hundreds of electric pulses-per-second, rather than thousands of radio waves. While PI metal detectors do not have the ability to discriminate between different types of metal, their powerful pulses go much deeper than the VLF signal, and eliminate the problem of mineral conductivity. A pulse induction detector measures the decay rate of the electronic pulses it sends out, and looks for anomalies. The strong electronic pulse is not conducted by the salt in the water or the iron in the black sands. Think of a Navy ship "pinging" with its sonar for an enemy submarine. If there is nothing in the water the "ping" just continues on and fades out at the same measured rate. If the submarine is there, the signal decay is interrupted and bounces back to the sonar operator on the ship.

Most successful ocean-beach detectorists, own both types of detector. The land-based VLF unit is preferred in the dry sand blanket area because you can use discrimination to knock out iron and still achieve superior depth without loss of stability. The pulse induction machine is used on the wet ocean- and black- sands, as well as in the surf....

Hope this helps. I am a Tesoro Sand Shark owner - and lover!

[marcus118]

Great info Terry! Couldn't have put it better myself! :-)

[zeemang]

For the wet sand look at a minelab sovereign gt, go used if you can't go new...

[clearwatermike]

Thanks for the information and advice! That Sand Shark keeps coming up....is it better than Garrett's and White's products, or just more reasonable?

[goodmore]

Everyone seems to have their favorite PI. There are many threads dealing with comparisons. The Sand Shark has the best warranty. The Whites and Garrett models have their loyal followers. I personally like the HeadHunter PI by DetectorPro.

[stewart73]

Originally Posted by zeemang

For the wet sand look at a minelab sovereign gt, go used if you can't go new...

This would be my advice as well. The sovereign is an absolute monster on the beach.

[Terry Soloman]

Originally Posted by clearwatermike

Thanks for the information and advice! That Sand Shark keeps coming up....is it better than Garrett's and White's products, or just more reasonable?

You are asking a question that requires opinion. If you want to spend $1,200 - $1,500.00, you can get a Minelab that many condsider the best in dry and wet ocean conditions. Then, you could make the choice I made, and get a dedicated water machine, AND a dedicated land machine - for less money.

It's Your call!

[Smudge]

The Sand Shark is well liked because the Tesoro brand name is well liked. It is an excellent PI detector.

Garrett, Detectorpro, and Whites all make good PI units, it just a matter of your personal preference.

The one thing that matters a lot to me is having an external volume control on a PI unit, and most do not offer that. In fact, Tesoro and Detectorpro make the only two units with that feature that I can think of.

[clearwatermike]

Thanks for all the replies, it really helps with my research!