Little confused on somthing

woodbutcher

Forum Supporter
Joined
Jan 29, 2014
Messages
7,878
Location
Western Pennsylvania
I hear about high end performance in metal detectors.Im just confused on what people consider high end performance?
Is it the ace 250 finding gold rings,or the Etrac digging 10 inch nails?..lol..Don't get me wrong here cause I really like the Etrac and Minelab,I'm just throwing a dig at people's views,not machines.
I'm thinking a lot of people have this hobby all wrong,and I'm not just talking newbies.Seems the worst information comes from the ones who act like they know the most.Sure,I read a lot but take it all with a grain of salt and hope there's somthing there I can learn from in the posts.
Back to high end performance..I'm on the edge of buying a eurotek pro or a ace 350 and going to a few permission yards I have,and getting busy.And I'm sure I'll be posting pics of silver and coppers.So,I gotta ask you guys here,Do you really think high end performance is the price you pay for your rig,Or the reward you actually get in good finds?
My answer,your rig plays only a small part of your finds.i mean like 20 percent.Your location plays 80 percent.Thats my guess,so I'd love to hear a few more uneducated guesses.lol
 
I hear about high end performance in metal detectors.Im just confused on what people consider high end performance?
Is it the ace 250 finding gold rings,or the Etrac digging 10 inch nails?..lol..Don't get me wrong here cause I really like the Etrac and Minelab,I'm just throwing a dig at people's views,not machines.
I'm thinking a lot of people have this hobby all wrong,and I'm not just talking newbies.Seems the worst information comes from the ones who act like they know the most.Sure,I read a lot but take it all with a grain of salt and hope there's somthing there I can learn from in the posts.

Having owned and ACE250, then an ACE350, and now an ATPro, I can tell you each one of them was "higher performance" than the last.

Whether or not something CAN find an object is actually only at the low end of the equation.

The ability to do more of the following increase the performance of machines:

- Find something more easily (higher frequency machines hit "harder" on gold, whereas lower frequency machines hit "Harder" on silver. Your ACE250 and ACE350 will be MAGNETS for quarters and silver. A lot harder to find smaller gold with them) "Higher performance" machines often have variable frequencies, or even dual frequencies. This enables them to hit "just as hard" on small gold, as well as small silver. Uncompromised.

- Enable the user to personally "discriminate" out trash by sound of signal. With the ACE series, you get a belltone. It only tells you "something is here!" and you have to dig it up to tell what it is. You have a VERY limited amount of sound information, but even still, it's useful. Think about how a bottle cap grunts at the edge, and you can tell it's a bottle cap by that sound. Add fully variable sound to a "higher performance" system, such as the AT Pro, and your ability to understand what is in the ground enables you to SKIP digging trash. Why is this so important? Because when you're skipping digging trash, you're spending MORE time searching for legitimate targets. As I indicated, it's not whether or not you CAN detect a target. In this case, it's how often you encounter "good" targets, versus time spent figuring out or digging TRASH targets.

- VDI (numbers on the display) This just adds more information, like sounds do, to your ability to determine what is under the coil. Just like you look at the notches to tell what something is, VDI gives you MORE information to process.

- Adding more function. Depth, water proofing, neat features like Iron Audio or even All Metal Mode. All of these things enable you to hit more targets more often.

Higher performance leads to just one more thing:

MORE GOOD TARGETS FOUND IN THE TIME YOU HAVE.

That, by any definitions is a GREAT measure of performance. Your ACE series will find stuff... but I guarantee I can cover more ground, dig less trash, and ultimately dig more good stuff with my AT Pro in the same 3 hours than you can.

Back to high end performance..I'm on the edge of buying a eurotek pro or a ace 350 and going to a few permission yards I have,and getting busy.And I'm sure I'll be posting pics of silver and coppers.So,I gotta ask you guys here,

Do you really think high end performance is the price you pay for your rig,Or the reward you actually get in good finds?

My answer,your rig plays only a small part of your finds.i mean like 20 percent.Your location plays 80 percent.Thats my guess,so I'd love to hear a few more uneducated guesses.lol

To answer the question in bold. It's in actually getting good finds. There's too much evidence of someone coming BEHIND someone else with a lower end machine and pulling out even more stuff. Combine that with the fact that low end machines will result in you spending more time with the trash, and even the best location will result in two things occuring with a low end machine:
1) More time spent detecting for the same stuff, possibly 2x to 3x
2) More "missed" stuff

You can think 20%, but I can tell you in the SAME locations I used to hit (I only do modern parks and schools), with the AT PRo, I've more than DOUBLED my take in the same amount of time, over what I was doing (competently, might I add) with the ACE350.

I simply find more stuff, miss less good stuff, and have a much better time. The cost of ownership of a better machine is in offset heavily by the increase in finds, often, such as in my case, the better equipment more than pays for itself.

I can think of at least FOUR gold rings that I could not have found with the ACE series. They were in areas flooded with EMI (power lines). The ACE series was going nuts (my son was using, and had to move away from the location). I was using the AT Pro, and simply switched channels. Four of the 5 gold rings in that location were found in the zone of interference. YES. Higher performance machines CAN help you find more stuff. And YES, they can do it in less time.

Someday, you'll upgrade, and then you'll post something like this, to someone using an ACE series machine, too. :) That's the beauty of the forums like this. GREAT questions like yours, have answers!

Cheers, and happy hunting!

Skippy

-
 
Last edited:
....So,I gotta ask you guys here,Do you really think high end performance is the price you pay for your rig,.....

woodbutcher, your question is "all over the board". A million nuances depending on type site, etc... Let me give you a real-world example and you decide if the "high end" machine was any "better" :

I use an explorer II. A friend of mine was using a 6000 Di pro. They each have about the same depth (well, ... exp. is a bit more). But we were hunting furrowed farm ag.-crop field, hence "depth doesn't matter". And we were in "relic mindset" (ie.: dig-all except iron), thus discrimination and tone ID wouldn't matter, right ? After-all, the 6000 Di pro. has a meter that .... if the user studies the bouncing needle, he too gets ideas of conductivities. Thus who needs orchestra tones, right ? (esp. if you're in relic-mindset). Hence in theory: There should have been little difference in our results.

HOWEVER, at the end of each hunt, I would always best him 3x to 1x on the period coins and buttons we were getting (reales, gilt buttons, etc...). BUT when we counted our overall targets (when you included random aluminum, slag, green copper, lead doohickies, etc...), we seemed to have *about* the same count of targets in our aprons.

He accused me of "cherry picking", since I had tone ID and he didn't. To which I assured him I was NOT being picking and passing any conductive targets. So we each remained perplexed why I always spanked him on coins and buttons. Hmmm....

FINALLY after 3 or 4 hunts, the answer came into focus: Since I had full orchestra TID on my machine, and since this site was virgin at that time (we'd just discovered it), I was subconsciously gravitating to the "nicer" sounds. While he, on the other hand, had a monotone machine, he had less ability to discern flitty and elongated vs not, foil versus *nice round coin* type sound, etc....

It was not purposeful mind you. And I could not purposefully recall passing an conductive target in our "relic" mindset. It was just that when you NEVER LACK for signals to choose from, that having such bells and whistles helps you to start honing in on the targets which ... uh .... have more potential.

Hence yes, expensive machines can help. On the other hand, some "simple" machines will kick the Exp. II's butt. Like is iron-ridden ghost-townsy environments. Since power-house machine's like that are not known for good averaging-ability.

So your answer is: It just depends. :?:
 
Post-script on the story above: After we figured out the advantage the high-end machine was affording : The next day my friend got up bright and early, and drove an hour to the nearest brick & mortar Minelab dealer, with $1k cash in hand to buy the first explorer he could get his hands on :laughing:
 
Post-script on the story above: After we figured out the advantage the high-end machine was affording : The next day my friend got up bright and early, and drove an hour to the nearest brick & mortar Minelab dealer, with $1k cash in hand to buy the first explorer he could get his hands on :laughing:

Yep. And it probably paid off, too, I suspect. :)
 
woodbutcher, your question is "all over the board". A million nuances depending on type site, etc... Let me give you a real-world example and you decide if the "high end" machine was any "better" :

I use an explorer II. A friend of mine was using a 6000 Di pro. They each have about the same depth (well, ... exp. is a bit more). But we were hunting furrowed farm ag.-crop field, hence "depth doesn't matter". And we were in "relic mindset" (ie.: dig-all except iron), thus discrimination and tone ID wouldn't matter, right ? After-all, the 6000 Di pro. has a meter that .... if the user studies the bouncing needle, he too gets ideas of conductivities. Thus who needs orchestra tones, right ? (esp. if you're in relic-mindset). Hence in theory: There should have been little difference in our results.

HOWEVER, at the end of each hunt, I would always best him 3x to 1x on the period coins and buttons we were getting (reales, gilt buttons, etc...). BUT when we counted our overall targets (when you included random aluminum, slag, green copper, lead doohickies, etc...), we seemed to have *about* the same count of targets in our aprons.

He accused me of "cherry picking", since I had tone ID and he didn't. To which I assured him I was NOT being picking and passing any conductive targets. So we each remained perplexed why I always spanked him on coins and buttons. Hmmm....



FINALLY after 3 or 4 hunts, the answer came into focus: Since I had full orchestra TID on my machine, and since this site was virgin at that time (we'd just discovered it), I was subconsciously gravitating to the "nicer" sounds. While he, on the other hand, had a monotone machine, he had less ability to discern flitty and elongated vs not, foil versus *nice round coin* type sound, etc....

It was not purposeful mind you. And I could not purposefully recall passing an conductive target in our "relic" mindset. It was just that when you NEVER LACK for signals to choose from, that having such bells and whistles helps you to start honing in on the targets which ... uh .... have more potential.

Hence yes, expensive machines can help. On the other hand, some "simple" machines will kick the Exp. II's butt. Like is iron-ridden ghost-townsy environments. Since power-house machine's like that are not known for good averaging-ability.

So your answer is: It just depends. :?:

I guess I shoulda elaborated more.Ive just read so much about people asking for advice about newer rigs because they were not finding much,,and people say get this or that top of the line rig...I guess my thinking was just find a new site,it's probably not they're machine but just a punished park that people hunt.The best rig money can buy won't outhunt a beginner machine if it's not there to find.Sorry for the confusion.
 
There's only 1 high-end detector on the market. It's called a Deus. Pronounced Day-us.



Just kidding.

Find a detector that matches your style. For me I hunt fast and cover a lot of ground. I also like to hunt iron infested sites. The deus is just that.

I could be wrong but isnt the ace 300 better than the ace 350?
 
I hear about high end performance in metal detectors.Im just confused on what people consider high end performance?
Is it the ace 250 finding gold rings,or the Etrac digging 10 inch nails?..lol..Don't get me wrong here cause I really like the Etrac and Minelab,I'm just throwing a dig at people's views,not machines.
I'm thinking a lot of people have this hobby all wrong,and I'm not just talking newbies.Seems the worst information comes from the ones who act like they know the most.Sure,I read a lot but take it all with a grain of salt and hope there's somthing there I can learn from in the posts.
Back to high end performance..I'm on the edge of buying a eurotek pro or a ace 350 and going to a few permission yards I have,and getting busy.And I'm sure I'll be posting pics of silver and coppers.So,I gotta ask you guys here,Do you really think high end performance is the price you pay for your rig,Or the reward you actually get in good finds?
My answer,your rig plays only a small part of your finds.i mean like 20 percent.Your location plays 80 percent.Thats my guess,so I'd love to hear a few more uneducated guesses.lol

It is all relative to what a person wants,,and what they can afford.

Is the mighty Deus a great detector in iron??
You bet ya.
I can follow behind a lot of folks using a lot of other detector models and dig nonferrous targets behind them.

But not all sites are created equal either.
And not every single "target" detecting scenario is the same either.

Some of the "target" detecting scenarios will allow for detection of some cheaper units.

Maybe here is the better question to ask???

Are any finds discovered solely attributable to the the detector model in use??
YES

I can also make the same argument here in relation to using different coil sizes,,but just because you go to a bigger or smaller coil,,,the detector's DNA is still there.

Great finds can be found with lower, mid grade and higher grade detectors.
Any find found that is worthy,,,no matter which detector it was found with gets my total respect.

I can even make a case here,,,some of the higher grade detectors make finding certain things easier.
So this would be the machine not the USER.

An example,,Etrac and CTX users here,,the experienced ones should be able to relate.
Just how hard is it to hit most 6-7" solo sitting higher conductive coins using Etrac or CTX??
IMO it is like shooting fish out of a barrel.

But what about an ACE 250 user who is pulling in some coinage,,,they in fact are having to IMO pay a whole lot more attention and likely work harder to dig 6-7" coins.

Let's face it,,some finds are easier to come by using certain models detectors vs others.
And there is a wide range of experience with the different folks as well.
Both overall detecting experience and detector model specific experience.

It is about both the detector and the detectorist.
 
Last edited:
i kinda think a lot of it boils down to user experience with whichever machine the user is proficient with.
if the user "is one" with a low end machine, he/she is likely going to do better than an inexperienced user with a top of the line machine.
 
I'm really new at this hobby but I've had the pleasure to hunt with Cellrdwellr and he doesn't mind my stupid questions or constant watching him. I think that it's a lot of the user being able to use the machine, then the machine itself and finally where you pick to hunt. When I watched him pull that Walker out of all those nails an spikes I was amazed, but he knew it was there, the machine told him so. Even if we swapped machines he'd still out hunt me since he knows the Garrett tones. His experience is hard to beat just like the other long time hunters on here. JMO . . . GL&HH everyone!
 
I have a theory using an entry level and and a more advanced machine as subjects and using them to hunt many of the same exact sites as close to laboratory settings as I suppose you can get in the field.
Let me preface this by saying I am not referring to depth even though that is definitely a factor...more advanced machines usually have more power to penetrate deeper so that counts, but throwing out the deeper ones I have found probably 95% of all the targets I have come across were at depth levels that both should be able to hit...maybe a bit more than that 95%.

I used an F2 for 3 years and an F70 for about the same and using both constantly hunted a large amount of the same sites and the same areas in those sites.
I did very well with the F2, as limited as it was.
I don't think anyone can't say I didn't get the most out of it that I possibly could.
Close to a couple dozen gold targets, more silver jewelry than I could almost count, silver and other old coins even though that was not really the focus of my hunts at the time, and enough clad to win most coins found awards two years running at my club.
Plus a ton of other great things...most all of it at the same public parks and places anyone could hunt and many did.
I found so much about 4 or 5 members that owned much more advanced machines bought F2's just to see what was up.
There wasn't any magic in that machine, at first I dug a ton of trash but eventually settled down into digging way less and just concentrated on going after the better more higher percentage targets according to target behavior I had noticed and learned and was still successful.
I just learned it well, that was the magic and I believe anyone could have done the same if they did what I did, learned what I learned and hunted the same sites with that same tool.
I was happy, I had found more great treasure than I ever thought possible when I started this hobby so I couldn't really ask for more but eventually in the back of my mind I started to wonder if I could do all this with an entry level machine what could I do with something more advanced?
Would there be a difference, could I find even more and better treasure...was that even possible?
When a fire sale deal on an F70 came my way I bit and continued on my way hunting mostly the same sites as I hunted with my F2 so many times.

There were more settings to learn, more behavior to notice, more power to deal with and I did come across a couple of deeper targets that were definitely out of range of the F2, especially since I used the sniper on that one most of the time, but the really deep ones were the exceptions, not the rule.
What I found was in most normal sites both were about equal.
I still found tons of clad coins even though I had been draining these same sites for years and won the most coins award at my club for the third year in a row.
I continued to find gold, silver jewelry too, pretty much at the same pace and volume as I did with that F2 so not much of a real difference.

Eventually what I did discover was even though in the normal sites the extra settings and results from those settings on the more advanced F70 might not have mattered much where they did seem to matter was the more difficult sites, the real challenging ones that sometimes had so many obstacles and were so difficult most just avoided them and looked for greener pastures.
At a site of an old farm house that was knocked down that had more iron than I had ever experienced before in my life, from a million tiny bits of wire, nails, screws and more up to larger bits and even some huge pieces like tools, chains and other farm junk, I tried hunting there dozens of times with a few detectors and coils but mostly with the F2.
The most I came out of there with was a couple of shallow wheaties.
Others hunted here too with decades of experience using advanced Whites, Minelabs and other tools but most that I knew hunted there only did it once and one lone silver dime was the best I ever heard come out of this place for all that hunted here.
Now the new whiz bang machines out now that are supposedly so good in iron might have made a difference and been more successful at that site but nobody I know ever went in there with any of those so I can't tell you if they would have or not.
I can tell you it was frustrating, we all suspected there might be a lot of great targets there but they were so masked, so well hidden none of us could find them.
I was in about month 5 or 6 with my F70 and I vowed to stay here as much as possible and work as hard as I could using every feature this thing had to try to crack this code and get to the treasure we all thought this site might hold.
It took hours, I used settings I read about from others on the forums and tried some new way outside the box settings of my own and eventually I did it, I observed enough behavior that repeated, strange as it was, to start targeting the non ferrous objects that were hidden so well in that mess.
Over time I went from it being very hard to becoming surprisingly easy to avoid most of the iron and junk and spend my time digging the good stuff and we were right...there was a ton of great treasure hiding there.
Many more old wheats, some Indian heads, more silver dimes and even a bucket list walker plus a lot of other great things like lighters and knives plus more.

It was the advanced features of the F70 that did it all, I just don't believe it was possible to do what I did there with the F2 no matter how good I was or anyone else was with it.
I couldn't before and even after I learned all this new target behavior in iron I still don't think I could have come close to finding all that I did...it just wasn't able to replicate the settings I used or the resulting effects they had to enable me to recognize those better targets at that site.
Using the F70 at a few other heavy iron sites I had scoured with the F2 in the past I repeated that success...I found lots with the F70 I had missed so many times with the F2.

When I moved to where I live now exactly the same thing happened.
Now I had bad mineralized dirt to deal with along with extra helpings of trash and iron and again at sites I had used the F2 at so many times in the past I was much more successful using the F70 and it's advanced abilities.
Not so much in depth although I have recovered several targets deeper in the bad stuff than I ever can remember coming close to reaching with the F2 at the exact same sites, but in the area of unmasking even the more shallow targets the F70 excelled and found me shocking amounts of great treasure I just couldn't with my F2...or other detectors I used for that matter.
Sure I could have just missed some with the F2, we can't cover every inch of any site no matter how many times we hunt them, but there was just too much more that I found to count it as just luck.
Especially in a relatively small entrance area at an old park in my neighborhood, an area I and so many others had hunted a ton in the past for decades.
So many targets came out of this site I was shocked, Indians, silver dimes, buffs and a V nickel plus even some bucket listers like a seated dime and an SLQ plus much more.
A few were deep, most were not...just masked extremely well.
Again it can't be coincidence, there is just too much, it had to be the more advanced settings I have on the F70 and the knowledge I gained to take advantage of those settings and extra abilities that resulted in my still continuing success.

So yes, overall metal detectors find metal, pretty much all of them can, and in most normal sites at most normal depths and under most normal conditions there might be a pretty even playing field for all of them but when you get to the not so normal sites that is where a more advanced units with extra features and abilities just might make a difference between success and failure.
In my several thousands of hours hunting experience, anyway.
 
Last edited:
Spot on digger. High end means more capability, and better depth if needed.

A funny story, I was talking to my father in law about detecting. They're very well off and live on a fairly exclusive lake. After a while he asked what my machine cost. I told him and he couldn't believe how expensive a good detector is. Just then I turned and pointed at two guys slowly passing in a nice bass boat. I told him those guys dropped 30k on a boat to catch fish they're just gonna let go.

Didn't seem so crazy after all.

HH.
 
......I guess my thinking was just find a new site,it's probably not they're machine but just a punished park that people hunt.The best rig money can buy won't outhunt a beginner machine if it's not there to find.Sorry for the confusion.

I think I understand now.

Yes: If/when I look back on all my best coins (gold coins, reales, silver dollars, etc...) it's probably true that even a cheapie could've gotten a "beep" on that location. Thus the factor of whether or not I got those coins was often-time NOT "whether or not a cheapie machine could've gotten it". But rather: LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION.

But having a good machine with bells and whistles *does* speed things up. Esp. in places where you simply don't have liberty to "strip-mine". And some cherry picking and/or speed comes into the picture. Then yes: the higher end machines gives you nuances of speed and selection to better-use-your time.
 
It is also important how the detector is set up for the current hunting conditions. A high end detector setup improperly will be a poor performing machine. I've learned this several times. Usually an oversight on my part, not thinking about what I was doing.
 
It is also important how the detector is set up for the current hunting conditions. A high end detector setup improperly will be a poor performing machine. I've learned this several times. ......

Good point. A detector with oodles of settings, just has oodles more opportunities to be set up wrong. Versus a turn-&-go machine that you can't "over-set".

Back when the spectrum and xlt first came out, this was the constant problem: The very first thing newbies did, when they got machine, was set every single control to the maximum. Thus making it "over-hopped" (false signals off everything). And when they'd come to us asking for advice on this "machine that didn't work" , we'd see how they'd hopped-up all the controls.

And when you'd ask them : "Why did you do that ??", they'd say: "Because I didn't want to miss out on anything". doh! See ? They just couldn't resist to fiddle, lest they be in the camp of pathetic beginners. Doh! Same is true for other starship enterprise machines like explorer and 3030 today !
 
Lots of good replies and truthful answers here, along with the OPs legitimate question....what is the most important aspect to finding old coins?
Definitely location, IMO. Because of the way different machines operate and the physics contained within them, some are better at finding high conductors at depth. Some can find them at depth with all kinds of junk around. Some are only good for 5-6" before the ID becomes useless, no matter the coil. Others can give good ID on a silver dime much deeper. There are environmental conditions, the operators frame of mind, a sketchy machine or bad coil.....
I've said it before...the first few years with my IDXPro I found 22 silver coins total. I got an Explorer2. Hunting the same sites I pulled 44 silver coins in one season,as opposed to 4 with the IDXPro. I got the CTX and pulled 85-ish silver coins in one season,again mostly the same sites.
Numbers just don't lie. If I found more with the IDX I'd be using it today. But I haven't,so I'm not. The Minelabs are just really good at targeting high conductors. But like the OP said, it doesn't matter what the machine is if the site isn't old enough or had enough activity for you to reliably find old coins. COULD someone have found the same coins I have found in some VERY difficult and junky conditions with an entry level or mid level machine? I just don't think so, not for the bulk of them. But we will never really know for sure, all I can gauge a machine on is what it finds me. The Minelabs just find difficult(deep or in junk) silvers and coppers.
My advice would be what's been said...run what you can afford and switch sites when one isn't producing anymore. Spending ALOT of hours with ANY machine in a difficult site that produces very little will teach you ALOT! Those skills will make you look like a freakin' GENIUS when you and your buddies roll into a place that has a nice selection of deep old coins, or coins mixed with junk items....
An old hand with a familiar machine will out maneuver the noob with the spaceship detector....TO A POINT.
 
High end machines don't always equal more or better finds , there are a lot more variables to consider. But " high end performance " normally refers to the extra features and abilities normally found in the high end machines. Things that can really make a difference in the right hands at the right location. High end performance normally increases " POTENTIAL ".....since the machines can be further calibrated to handle more variables and extreme situations.....very deep targets , bad soil , trashy ground , operating frequency , EMI , target masking or blending , etc. The more control you have over the machines function the better you can set it up according to the particular obstacles you are facing. The more you can reduce the negative variables the more potential you have to find elusive targets. A detector that can be " dialed in " by the operator gives much more control than one locked in to a certain setting by the factory. High end don't guarantee anything , it just increases potential.
 
Lots of good replies and truthful answers here, along with the OPs legitimate question....what is the most important aspect to finding old coins?
Definitely location, IMO. Because of the way different machines operate and the physics contained within them, some are better at finding high conductors at depth. Some can find them at depth with all kinds of junk around. Some are only good for 5-6" before the ID becomes useless, no matter the coil. Others can give good ID on a silver dime much deeper. There are environmental conditions, the operators frame of mind, a sketchy machine or bad coil.....
I've said it before...the first few years with my IDXPro I found 22 silver coins total. I got an Explorer2. Hunting the same sites I pulled 44 silver coins in one season,as opposed to 4 with the IDXPro. I got the CTX and pulled 85-ish silver coins in one season,again mostly the same sites.
Numbers just don't lie. If I found more with the IDX I'd be using it today. But I haven't,so I'm not. The Minelabs are just really good at targeting high conductors. But like the OP said, it doesn't matter what the machine is if the site isn't old enough or had enough activity for you to reliably find old coins. COULD someone have found the same coins I have found in some VERY difficult and junky conditions with an entry level or mid level machine? I just don't think so, not for the bulk of them. But we will never really know for sure, all I can gauge a machine on is what it finds me. The Minelabs just find difficult(deep or in junk) silvers and coppers.
My advice would be what's been said...run what you can afford and switch sites when one isn't producing anymore. Spending ALOT of hours with ANY machine in a difficult site that produces very little will teach you ALOT! Those skills will make you look like a freakin' GENIUS when you and your buddies roll into a place that has a nice selection of deep old coins, or coins mixed with junk items....
An old hand with a familiar machine will out maneuver the noob with the spaceship detector....TO A POINT.

Excellent post IDX-monster ! Spoken like someone who's "been there done that". Yes it's a fun eye-opener test to use the SAME machine at your OWN pounded sites, and get targets at spots you KNOW FOR A FACT you pounded before.

Those type of evolutionary comparisons are what makes our own "pacing" of-ourselves fun. And those type results don't lie. Good post.
 
as far as performance goes I believe its different for every person. For me its using the settings that have proved themselves in the past which in my case is multi conductive, similar to what I ran on the etrac. I bought the CTX to be able to water hunt as well as land hunt but I have had the most success with the multi conductive option and that may be due to the fact I was familiar to that with the ETRAC. I have tried doing some settings with the ferrous coin option but I find that I do better by going low and slow with multi conductive so I fall back on what has been proven to succeed in the past.
 
The absolute only way to tell if any one machine is deeper than another is to use both machines on EXACTLY the same target in EXACTLY the same conditions. Everyone has their opinion on which machine is better and which does better in which circumstances but until they are both tried with the EXACT same targets it is all speculation.

I had an E-trac and my friend had an At-Pro. Both good machines. I would go over coins that I knew were silver and before I dug I invited him over to try out his machine. On most of them he didn't get a peep no matter what settings he used.

A high end machine is not necessarily better in all circumstances. Some people swear by the abilities of the Excalibur. I love my CZ-21. However, I found out last year that the Tiger Shark can and will find coins and rings that the CZ-21 missed because of target masking or some other reason. I now use both in the same spots and I am sometimes pleasantly surprised at my finds.

Of course experience, patience, and ground conditions have a lot of impact on if you are going to find a target with any machine in your arsenal.
 
Back
Top Bottom