Which detector do you use for your various hunts?

As a mechanic has alot of tools and each has its special use, which machines do you use for which type of hunting, and what are their stong points? Why do they excel for you for that particular hunt?
I use a safari, as it has excellent depth and discrimination qualities for manicured lawn hunting, which is 95% of my hunting. I will be picking up an atpro soon for water hunting. looking forward to reading your responses. HH

Old home sites with no modern junk CZ3D

Parks, ball fields, sidewalks, ETRAC

Relic hunting Goldmaxx and Troy X-5

grab and go Minelab 705 with proper coil for hunt


Tom in SC

For my silver coin hunting a CZ or Explorer and for local parks a Tesoro notch unit.

Reason in my neck of the woods silver coins sink deep and CZ's or Explorers excell.

In local parks depth is not an issue as basically after shallow clad and gold rings and Tesoro's by far like gold jewelry pinpoints on a dime and grab the clad as well as any.

Garrett pro pinpointer is my choice for handheld pinpointers but Sunray has excellent ones that attach to your unit if thats your preference.

Come on guys give us your input as should be an interesting thread.....

I'm an inland jewelry hunter with limited time, so most of my machines are selected for that type of hunting. Efficient and productive. My biggest obstacle (besides lack of time) is EMI. So here is what I've built up to for 2012.

I use a new "new toned" Tesoro Golden/Cleansweep combo for hunting shallow gold jewelry in turf and woodchips because it is the most efficient unit for this type of hunting. I've only used it 6 times so far and I've already reovered the money I spent on it plus some. Its key feature is a user adjustable "gold" tone. You move the tone into the range you want to focus on and dig that tone until the gold appears Pretty simple and effective if you have learned how to hunt inland gold.

I have another old Tesoro Inca on the way that I'll mount my 12x10 SEF coil on for hunting sand playgrounds for non-ferrous targets. I like this old unit and think it will do ok for this purpose.

I use a Fisher F5 for hunting close around iron, rebar foundations, in high/extreme trash, and for hunting small gold in turf areas. It can hunt close around large iron and rebar, it can be ran HOT at low gain settings, and it has a very good ferrous/non-ferrous cut off. By that I mean that very few non-ferrous items drop into the ferrous responding area. The F5 has also produced enough gold to pay for itself a couple of times.

I have a CZ70 for those rare times I want to hunt deep turf, though I may want to move to a slower motion unit like a Explorer. Undecided, so for now, I'm keeping the CZ.

And lastly I'd been researching a higher frequency cleanup unit for sand and chips for the really small gold. Something I'll use on my regular producing sand and chip sites once a year or so. I used to use a GoldStrike for this but the 30kHz is just a little too high for the minerals in the sand. Out of the contenders I've decided that unit will be a Xterra 705 Gold package. I'm not particularly fond of the Xterra units (I've had 7 of them before and was not that impressed) but for this focused application I believe it will do better than the others.

opps forgot...Uniprobe headphone/ electronic probe combination is the cats meow. And I have a Pistol Probe for when I want to use my Koss headphones. I like to be totally silent when I hunt and both of these pinpointers allow that.

Thats me.
HH
Mike



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/01/2012 06:21PM by Mike Hillis.

Mike, I bet you have a one iron in your golf bag, just bustin on ya.;-]

F-75 for high iron areas, old home sites, fairgrounds. Cz3d for low trash areas, old fields, woods, beach.

Garrett pro Pointer

Etrac for almost all of my hunting. I usually hunt public parks and other public places so I am usually dealing with a lot of trash. If its too bad I will put on the smaller coil. I am looking to get another CZ3D for some of the older sites I hunt. I use the pistol probe for my pinpointer.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/2012 12:38AM by wjs.

I use a 3D for older yards ( that's what I hunt 75% of the time ).
Tigershark for the water.
I don't need anything else............see ya yardhunter

Silver & Old Coins: 1021 3D, Etrac

Inland gold: V3i, 1270 HRAD

Beach: Au21X, 1266 MAGNUM, Gold Bug ll

Water: Excalibur, ATPro, Tiger Shark

Relic/Heavy Iron and old home site: LTD SE

Thats ALL I need



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/2012 04:14AM by Aaron.

Beach hunting wet sand and suds- CZ6a, CZ20, Infinium, Goldquest SSV2, Sov GT (CZ's about 80% of the time)

Beach hunting dry sand - DFX, GoldBug SE

Parks - DFX, E-Trac, CZ6a ( small coils )

Woods - DFX, E-Trac, CZ6a

Tot Lots - GoldBug SE, DFX (small coils)

I like Mikes post about the Tesoro Golden....never tried one but seems an interesting unit to use for gold jewelry hunting

Aaron........... you only have eleven units??????????

Well...those are the ones I USE.
Yes I know I have a problem....but I seem to recall someone on this forum with over 50 machines so I don't feel too bad ; )

Heck its part of the hobby...hunted for 40 year one rifle one shotgun....detected for 20 plus must have used over a hundred units....go figger..

Again can't compare golf with detecting but they carry a bag full of clubs for different situations and same holds true for a true detectorist.

My son bowled for years in high competition....anyone need any anchors as got a cellar full of balls.....

Anything dirt .......E Trac
Beach ....wet sand / dry sand / suds ........CZ6a or Sovereign GT ....Leaning heavily now on CZ6a
Beach ....In the deeper water ....Excal but will be going to a CZ either 20 o 21
Beach ...First thing in the morning for quick retreival of recent drops in the dry sand or wet salt sand ....AT Pro

Turf hunting for old coins -- Explorer SE Pro
Clad/jewelry hunting, gold prospecting -- Gold Bug Pro
Relic hunting -- Gold Bug Pro, but would like to get an F-75 LTD for that at some point...

Steve

Bottlecap infested area's & fast clad recovery - White's Silver Eagle.....everything else...the Omega with DD coils. But Steve G. say's I can borrow his Explorer SE anytime I want

Terra -- absolutely, but with one catch...you gotta fly down here and hunt with me, to borrow it (that way, I can learn a thing or two from an old pro...)

Steve

Older areas and the beach I use my 3D or Vaquero. Newer parks and homesites where targets are not deep and possibility of jewerly I use the F5. Did a seeded hunt once with the Vaquero, set the disc@ 2 o'clock position and kicked butt, not my cup of tea though.

Land - v3i
Water - beach hunter 300

For me, for now, limited time and all. I hunt old spots. I like to find old maps and locate old house spots out in the cotton fields. And I will hunt old houses in town. Dont do much park hunting for jewelry, but, I may be changing that.
But for now, I have two machines, Whites XL Pro and an E-Trac (which I am trying to become familiar and confident with). I am thinking down the road, maybe a Golden UMax.
Of course, I have different size coils for each as well.
I dont consider myself at this point an amateur, difinetly no pro hahahaha, a hobbiest??? I guess. But Im learning, more and more. Its definetly hard, when it comes to making a decision on a detector to purchase.
John

whites surf dual for beaches and fresh/salt water

XP Deus gets used for most land sites and a T2 ltd as well but the lightness of the Deus puts it at the top of the list

garret pinpointer

the Tesoro umax/sef coil gets little used now but no complaints just the Deus is featherlight and small packable .

Deep turf silver hunting E-trac stock coil. Semi trash X-8 coil, Heavy trash X-5 coil. If I find a spot with deep coins I go back with the CZ-3D see if I can find any the E-trac maybe missed. I also like the CZ-3D for hunting old picnic groves out in the woods as the terain can be rough and the CZ's are built like mini little tanks!

What type of performance are you getting with the deus? Depth, unmasking, speed of swing, etc .

Deus is as deep as anything else i have inc T2ltd ,its just featherlight and very ergonomic ...

progs can be tweaked plus the standard progs

Tom, what are you swinging today?

I keep it simple..... Xcal for water and the Exp SE with a SEF coil for everything elce. There may be better machines in given situations but i went with what seemed pratical as all around machines.

Dew

f-75 with 5" dd coil for trashed parks
sidewalk easements.hunt old open areas ,like ballfields,and carnival grounds
with 11" dd coil.

(h.h.!)
j.t.

Rick........... for the past couple of months I have been using a 21-year old CZ to aid the State of Florida ...... FPAN (Florida Public Archaeological Network) on a registered/documented site recovery project.

Beach and Shallow Water- Sovereign GT (My baby)/ Old beat up Sovereign Elite that I know is going to take a wave some day.
Yards and Sports fields- AT Pro
Etrac being ordered tomorrow. The wagon is full, but I need a seat.

I love seeing some of the older detectors listed here. Did we come as far as we think?

Beach and Shallow Water - Fisher CZ-7a Pro
Parks & Lots - Whites M6
Woods - Whites M6 and Fisher CZ-7a Pro

Tom, do you use your Etrac as a "go-to" machine for any sites in Florida?