Just ordered a Sovereign GT.. One of the last 400 produced...

I already have an excal II so should be easy to learn. Would like to hear others opinion of the strengths and weaknesses of this machine as a relic and coin hunter. I already know that it is a capable beach machine. Thanks...Stuart

It is a deep detector. It does very well in clean ground, but in iron the recovery is too slow for me. It is a blast to use in wet sand with a hip or chest mount. I like it better than the Excal until water gets involved in the equation. I like an expanded iron rejection knob. But the Sovereign is just like the Excal. Discriminate iron or don't. With a meter you can cherry pick fairly easy. Best of luck to you.

thats a shame! I'm not minelab guy but i did like that model

I used a sov xs with sunray coils for ten years. In my oponion its the best dang deep turf coinsnatcher ever...and I've owned a couple explorers too. Go SLOW .Great for parks with modern trash.

Used every Sov. model ever made up to the GT. and once you learn the tones a capable detector once I modded them to be more ergonomic. Certainly a slow deep unit and only unit I ever used that I could tell if I had a silver coin before I dug by the mellow tone and dug more than one and a lots of big silver...Unfortunately nothing lasts forever and
good luck as it should serve you well. Gosh those Minelab guys must have big arms judging by the weight of some of their toys but luckily unlike the Explorer series these can be body mounted and in experienced hands can be a killer on land or seashores as did well on either...with previous Sov's I used and remember this is coming from a CZ guy...

Thanks for the useful comments guys. Dan, I have always been a Cz6a man. Was worried maybe it would be too much like the same type of machine as far as depth and iron unmasking ability. I have always heard it was great at the beach and on silver, but was unsure of its ability as a relic machine. Thanks...Stuart

I'm not much of a relic hunter , but since the Sov doesn't really ike to deal with iron much , I don't think it would work al lthat well ....I could be wrong .....Even with the Iron Mask settings on them , I did not find them that good with masking ....... The best use I found was for the beach and saltwater situations..Pck your poison as far as coils go .....The 10 x 12 SEF was cool ....The Sunray coils worked well ...... The big 15 " round coil was a good one .....Can remembe the brand ? ....( I'm having a senior moment ) ..... ..... You could also size your targets very well with the Sovereiegn .....A very tellling machine ..... You will either LOVE the tone of it , or HATE the tone of it ....I went to the CZ6a for it's simplicity and not having to deal with a constant threshold .....Thresholds are great , but not when you're hunting for 4 or 5 hrs straight .....I like my Etrac much better in dirt ......Better in every respect ..... Jim