I find it difficult...

To buy or not to buy on one mans field test using his headphones with his abilities in his neck of the woods...A smart individual will read many of them and not be the first kid on the block to own one...Charles Garrett once said he recommends X amount of hours in the field with a unit before any efficiency can be expected and myself the first time I take out a unit might as well be swinging a broom. Indeed the internet is a great tool so do your homework and research and in time the plus and minus features of any unit will be evident and no perfect detector out there as indeed every one of them has their plus and minus attributes...so choose wisely....

Ive never liked ANY unit until Ive had atleast a good 20+hrs on it. I remember my Explorer SE, I hated it for the first 40hrs, then everything started to click.

When someone says they can take a unit out and try it out, (even in a area theyve hunted for years) and say that machine is not for them and doesnt suit their needs.....well... c'mon, gimme a break!

Theres way to many variations of settings to experiment with on these new machines these days to make a judgement call that quick.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/30/2012 03:51PM by Aaron.

Never trade a machine until its paid for its self..... period. It is kind of silly for someone to brag about how great their detector is when they dont realize it might just be the combination of headphones, coil, conditions, area and talent thats giving them the warm fuzzy.

Dew

They are all the same. The only difference are the feature sets and the design engineer's intent. Just like riding a bicycle, if you can detect metal with one, you can detect metal with the another. I can tell if I'm going to hate, like, or love a metal detector in 4 hours. I refuse to hunt with a unit I hate. I prefer to hunt with a unit I love. I will put up with a unit I like for a certain type of hunting until such time as I can find a unit I love for it.

I have spent a large amout of time with units that I look back on now and realize I hated them. Only I didn't know I hated them because I didn't have the references then that I do now. I have also used a bunch of units I liked, without knowing the difference of hunting with a unit I loved using. Now that I know what it feels like to use units I love, hate and like just don't cut it like they might once have. And I have spent a lot of time and money trying to like some units. Xterra's come to mind.

Nope, I disagree. For me, four hours is plenty of time to tell whats what.

HH
Mike

edited to fix some spelling



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/30/2012 10:15PM by Mike Hillis.

I'm with Mike on this one. Not everybody learns at the same pace either. But you don't have to have 40+ hours in test driving a car in order to tell whether you like it or not. You might not find all of its hidden compartments and such on a test drive but you can get a good over all feel of it just by taking it down the road. I think the same holds true with detectors...most of the settings on today's machines are just user preference stuff...such as color changes to the menu, brightness contrast, tone frequency and assignments, etc. They don't have any bearing on overall performance of it. The same hardcore basics of them will apply from one machine to the other. The big thing is just getting out and hunting and finding stuff. He that sits at home on the computer writing posts about detectors will always find far less than he that is out swinging said detector.

How is that ATpro stacking up against your tesoros in your gold jewelry hunting?

I probably hunt differently than others. For one thing I hunt the same locations over and over, gradually adding new locations to the list as I prove them out.

My scouting unit is the Golden uMax / Cleansweep coil combination. I can find out whats happening at a site really quick, and can tell if its hunted by someone else, where the hot spots are and improve my site reading skills. My Golden has the new tones. I love it. Its the cats meow for hunting recent drops.

Once I get a site onto the list, I go back and clean it out with my F5, get it categorized as to how often I need to hunt it, and then will alternately hunt it with the Golden/Cleansweep or the F5 depending on what it may require. The Golden/Cleansweep is fast, but the F5 can do things it can't and if the site requires it's feature set, then I bring it back. I love my F5.

I wanted a backup and cleanup unit. Something with a higher frequency and a useful feature set. I picked the AT Pro out of the high frequency list I had generated because 1) I had used the early model and like it, and 2) the aftermarket coil mfgs are going to be building the coil sizes I need.

To the question, I am really liking the ATPro's ability to discriminate foil paper from foil targets with more mass. Foil with mass reads higher than 40. Foil paper reads below 40. I find that useful when I first move into a site that is full of foil and I am starting to pick my way through it. I really like using it in that application. I also like it as a backup when EMI shuts my F5 down. Border line like/love.

HH
Mike

Wow this thread got interesting but somewhere along the way went off track....Sure we all learn at a different rate, have special likes or dislikes and detectors well one size doesn't fit all kind of thing comes into play.
My original post was don't depend on one tester but use the web as a tool and combine all your research and if possible visit a mult line dealer and try it on for size as nothing like hands on and most of these dealers have one assembled for that purpose.
For those that don't know field tests are proof read before they are made public and good points accentuated and bad points downplayed.
Wouldn't be surprised if there is a shill or two posting overated abilities or for that matter using misleading wording in that respect.
From what I have seen on this forum members shoot from the hip and tell it like it is so certainly a good starting point in your research....

Sorry Dan,
Yes, it does pay to research and read as much as you can about a machine or accessory and not take just one person's view as if its the word of god. I like to read the field tests and reports and manuals mostly to get a good feel for the feature set. But I will sometimes buy just on one person's feedback. Daniel gave a very good review of the 13" Detech coil on the Omega and because of that one review I'm really wanting to get one for my F5.

HH
Mike

Mike Hillis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They are all the same. The only difference are
> the feature sets and the design engineer's intent.
> Just like riding a bicycle, if you can detect
> metal with one, you can detect metal with the
> another. I can tell if I'm going to hate, like,
> or love a metal detector in 4 hours. I refuse to
> hunt with a unit I hate. I prefer to hunt with a
> unit I love. I will put up with a unit I like
> for a certain type of hunting until such time as I
> can find a unit I love for it.
>
> I have spent a large amout of time with units that
> I look back on now and realize I hated them. Only
> I didn't know I hated them because I didn't have
> the references then that I do now. I have also
> used a bunch of units I liked, without knowing the
> difference of hunting with a unit I loved using.
> Now that I know what it feels like to use units I
> love, hate and like just don't cut it like they
> might once have. And I have spent a lot of time
> and money trying to like some units. Xterra's
> come to mind.
>
> Nope, I disagree. For me, four hours is plenty of
> time to tell whats what.
>
> HH
> Mike
>
> edited to fix some spelling


when you expire,can you leave some to me? (he! he! he!)
it's certainly one way to find out! what ya like or don't like!

(h.h.!)
j.t.

dewcon4414 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Never trade a machine until its paid for its
> self..... period. It is kind of silly for
> someone to brag about how great their detector is
> when they dont realize it might just be the
> combination of headphones, coil, conditions, area
> and talent thats giving them the warm fuzzy.
>
> Dew

Years ago I purchased a new Compass Judge 2 Auto. It had just came out. Long story short it paid for itself and then some in one day. It happens.

Lipservice Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> dewcon4414 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Never trade a machine until its paid for its
> > self..... period. It is kind of silly for
> > someone to brag about how great their detector
> is
> > when they dont realize it might just be the
> > combination of headphones, coil, conditions,
> area
> > and talent thats giving them the warm fuzzy.
> >
> > Dew
>
> Years ago I purchased a new Compass Judge 2 Auto.
> It had just came out. Long story short it paid for
> itself and then some in one day. It happens.


me too! a judge 6 back in '77 paid for itself in no time at all!

(h.h.!)
j.t.

Boy, it takes me 6 months before I learn new a machine, I'm still learning the CZ20, I need to be ready for this summer, I read the forums 2 years before I bought a detector, now I'm down to 6 months before I get a newer one, I also like them to get the bugs out of the machines too, they all come with bugs