Made the next step: unit and accessories ordered.

To maintain context of the thread, I've included the order information in my last post.

...................................................

Here's the kit I've put together. The kit is for the wife. Purpose? Coin/relic and occasional beach hunting, with a later, to be added, 5" concentric sensor for gold.

Now I need to find the best price. I'm using Amazon pricing. Total for the below kit; $1,411.00 in USD. Each item is listed and purchased separately as opposed to a large, one off purchase.

Minelab, Safari: $999.00

Koss UR-30 headphones: $90.00

Spare NiMH, 1600 mAh battery: $68.00

LCD Enviro case cover for the LCD screen: $30.00
(would like a Minelab screen cover as opposed to a no name screen cover)

Minelab carry bag: $60.00.
(a cheaper generic bag with no name will work just as good)

Leonard stainless steel soil knife (yes, I know it's not the MD'g standard: Lesche): $18.00.
(the Leonard digging knife has better reviews than the Lesche soil digging knife)

Treasure Products, Vibra - Quatic 2, Pinpointer: $146.00
(waterproof, PI tipped sensor, very directional, tip on/off, yadda, yadda, yadda)

Can anybody give recommendations as to whom to purchase from as in my ignorant, uninformed and inexperienced opinion, other than the case and maybe a better price on the headphones, I don't see much to fine tune. While awaiting anybody's input, I'll be calling around to see what kind of combined price I can find.

Thanks to all who have weighed in on all my questions.

...



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/2013 09:18PM by BeeMan458.

I'll suggest Kellyco -- 999 gets you the whole package until you figure out what you're doing , except for the digger of course. We all learned the inadequacies of garden tools the hard way, no reason for you to be different--you'll notice all the reviews are for gardening not detecting , Sure do like the hand guard on my leshe!

Suggest you also purchase a couple of heavy Winter parkas for your first venture out.

Well that detector is physically demanding ...So if your wife is aware of this ...It's a great mahcine...But I promise you its not very ergonomic...far from it...I cant swing explorers or etracs or safaris very long with the stock coil...about 2/3 hours is my limit...maybe a bungee will hlep you out..So keep the bungee in mind...If your wife is of small stature it will be Heavy...

Not trying to disocurage you it's great machine but sometimes the simple things can be overlooked...and become a big nuisance...

Keith

Couple of points. First...

I agree 110% with Keith's assessment. The Safari IS a heavyish unit...especially for a lady, so, do take that into consideration. Personally, I don't think she'll have a major problem using it for a couple of hours at a clip, but, after that, the arms DO tend to get a bit tiresome.

If you DO opt for the Safari though, you cannot go wrong IMO I swing one myself, and consider it an almost perfect detector. Can do coins, relics AND the beach! Super simple to operate, but, the tones take some getting used to, so, recommended to start in one of the simpler programs, like; 'Coins' or 'Coin & Jewelry'.

Second, I've used Kellyco plenty, great company. I like to personally support the small, independent dealers, though. Give my buddy Rich a call at Backwoods Detectors. He has treated me VERY right in the past, and is a pleasure to deal with. Just google Backwoods Detectors. Tell him I sent you, and I'm sure he'll work a terrific deal for you.

Have a blast in the new hobby

Joe Grasso

What a lesche should look like in my soil.
T-handle allows you to really use your weight.
Cut up point allows you to center the blade on a root and cut it.
Also easier to scoop a bit of dirt with a flatter point apposed to the pointy point,.... if you get the point.

Started out as a Minelab/Lesche, now its the Scoopinator mark IV ,... LOL

Gardening tools,... great for gardening.

HH
Johnb

Keith Southern Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well that detector is physically demanding ...So
> if your wife is aware of this ...It's a great
> mahcine...But I promise you its not very
> ergonomic...far from it...I cant swing explorers
> or etracs or safaris very long with the stock
> coil...about 2/3 hours is my limit...maybe a
> bungee will hlep you out..So keep the bungee in
> mind...If your wife is of small stature it will be
> Heavy...
>
> Not trying to disocurage you it's great machine
> but sometimes the simple things can be
> overlooked...and become a big nuisance...
>
> Keith

"That's not a detector son --- THIS is a detector"!!

Thanks. I'll check with Kellyco. I'm also checking with BigBoyHobbies for as you suggest, they have packages as opposed to doing it the Amazon way, one full priced item at a time.

BigBoysHobbies is including Lesche digging tools in their packages so that pretty much seals the deal as to which digging tool I'll be going with if I buy from them.

Face plant. You guys sure do make it easy.

With weight as an issue (and it can be and needs to be considered), then I'd have to go back to the X-Terra, 705 with multiple heads and not as efficient for the sandy beach environment. Now I'm being torn between the slow but efficient Safari vs the versatile but not as efficient X-Terra, 705. Only a hundred dollars separate these two packages.

So far, in a nutshell, I have, the Safari is great for coin/relic and does well at the beach but has slow recovery (making separation of close targets a problem), is terrible for gold and the Safari is a bit heavy.

On the other hand, the X-Terra, 705 is much lighter (good for my wife's stature), doesn't do as well at the beach, has faster recovery and with multiple heads will do coin/relic and gold.

The headphones have been upgraded from the Koss headphones to Sunray Pro Gold headphones.....better able to articulate sounds and more durable?

Like most, for my wife, I'm torn between wanting the flexibility of occasionally going to the beach for coin/relic hunting versus coin/relic hunting locally and the versatility of occasionally detecting for gold in dem der hills.

How much is a Sherpa charging these days?



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/2013 02:59AM by BeeMan458.

Hey scoop, I like that digger!

I would get a Explorer Se....any day before a Safari?

Hey mascard, he wants to hunt old iron infested mining camps ip by Chico...I wouldn't get either, but what do I know.

deathray Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hey scoop, I like that digger!


A bit of grinding, welding, polishing,.... the scoopinator was born.
Saw it on another forum, so took out the angle grinder in anger!!

Seriously, T-handle allows you to use the palm of your hand and push. Versus standard lesche you are sometimes having to grab the hilt real firm and then push.

Beeman,.... forget the beach for now,... just go with the 705. Very versatile and will perform on the dry/damp sand very well/adequatly.

Later on you can build yourself a beach tool, because you simply can't buy them in a box.


As they say in most cokery programs, here's one I made earlier.
You could order in an anderson shaft, couldn't wait, so 2 dinsmore banksticks and an old husqvarna brushcutter handle did the trick.
Only needed 2 holes drilling.

Increased swath, weight is carried by the bungee and harness.
Just flows from wet to damp to kneedeep to dry sand with ease

HH
Johnb

deathray Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hey mascard, he wants to hunt old iron infested
> mining camps ip by Chico...I wouldn't get either,
> but what do I know.

Beeman, what will you PRIMARILY be using the Safari for? If indeed it's to use in sites with heavy amounts of iron - as Deathray mentioned - you might have a difficult time with that unit. It's more or less a coin hunting unit, that does pretty good at finding some jewelry & relics, too, however, I would NOT recommend taking a Safari (or any Minelab really) into heavy iron sites...especially for someone a bit newer to the endeavor. The tones on Minelab's take a while to learn, first and foremost. Couple that, with you'll be using the detector in iron rich sites, and it might be a very confusing/frustrating experience.

There are SIGNIFICANTLY better machines if MOST of your hunting is going to be in heavy iron spots. If it's mostly coin hunting you'll be doing, with some beach hunting & some jewelry/relic hunting mixed in, the Safari will do you fine, so, disregard this message. Again though, if at last 50% of your hunts are going to be at iron filled sites, you might want to consider another model

njnydigger, your above comments highlights my (everybody's) Quixotic struggle.

The Safari is for my wife with the intent of coin/relic and the occasional beach outing. The Minelab, Explorer SE Pro, my understanding, is more complicated then what would compliment my wife's abilities. My needs will be focused on prospecting rivers and dry washes. When tired, I wish to to join my wife in her pursuit of coin/relic with us both doing occasional beach sweeping.

Believe it or not, I get the idea of there being no single perfect machine and the more one demands or expects of their machine regarding wider search environments, the more the ability of a machine is diminished. I am keeping my focus on what's important. To the degree an inexperienced neophyte can, I understand working environments and how one needs more than one, two or three machines, much like a golfer needs more than three clubs to properly work a championship course. I understand the concept of it being about the Benjamins and the more one has to throw at a problem, the easier most conundrums of this kind will be, to solve. The rub, I'm buying for two people with reasonable expectations of covering the expected search areas which doubles or triples a reasonable budget. I'm researching and buying for my wife's needs and I'm researching and buying for my needs and trying to do it in a fiscally responsible style. Good-luck to me.

For coin and relic and my wife, for the many and various reasons, all research says, the Safari is the best match. As scoopjohnb points out, the 705 covers the flexibility issue (coin/relic/beach/gold) and does so with the ease of one swapping out various coil heads. I like the Gold Bug 2 but all indications are, it's a gold machine and only a gold machine with little to no versatility for anything else. I like the focused nature of the Gold Bug 2. Great for prospecting but terrible for joining the wife in her pursuit of coin and relic hunting. Enters the need for three machines.

I prefer the Safari for it's over all technology but it has slow recovery issues. I've read that all Minelab machines suffer from slow recovery. I like the 705 for it's versatility but, in my opinion, based on what I've read, it has depth and technology limitations compared to the Safari. I did find a gold head for the Safari but it's gold capability is questionable. In hunts of this kind, I'm reminded of Abbott and Costello's routine: "Who's On First." No matter where one tries to go, they always end back at first base.

As I posted, yesterday I had confidently settled on the Safari and gave Bart, at BigBoysHobbies, a call with the intent of pricing the Safari but, the Safari is terrible for gold and to the best of my research, there's only one gold head I can find at Kellyco. It comes in the brand of EXcelerator Search Coils. My understanding, the EXcelerator Search Coils have the gold advantage over Minelab, S.E.F. and Coiltek heads when attached to a Sarfari metal detector. I'm hesitant to buy a Garrett, AT Gold because, for the price, I feel the claims are too good to be true and in the end, if buying an AT Gold, I feel I would be disappointed in the results and feel that down the road, I would be harming my wife's success rate. Time is too short. We're getting old. I have to get this right the first time. Tick-tock.

The rub being, I'm buying for two people, so each has their own MD to use. And in doing this, I find the process is getting expensive, real fast. Soooooo, the idea is to buy one crazy good machine to share between the two of us during the learning curve cycle. My wife would learn on her machine so she wouldn't have to stop and learn a second machine and I can get my feet wet on her machine and buy a second machine for my personal use in the near future. What I don't want to do is buy her a machine and then buy me a machine that I have no intent of keeping as if buying wrong will save money and time. Time and money is lost taking the time to resell a lesser unit purchased for training purposes. If I were thirty-five or forty-five, yes but my wife and I are getting old. Time is not a luxury we have in which to play with all the available MD'ers on the market today. At my age, my style is to research twice, buy once, fer-git-about it and go out with what we have and enjoy the fun and the sun.

Here's where I end up back at first base. In my opinion, based on all I've read, the Safari is a crazy good machine that's very versatile and will handle our mineralized soil competently. So far, so good. But, when the wife comes out of coin and relic hunting to join me in prospecting, the Safari falls out of favor. In the case of the 705, I have versatility but it's not as strong as the Safari and there's issues with having to carry and swap out heads. I've spent enough time in the field to know that gear gets heavy fast and cumbersome gear looses favor even faster. I don't want to get out in the field with three head, handles, bags, water, digging/classifying tools and have to deal with climbing rocks and wading streams. Compact and light (gorilla sniping) is what I'm looking for and in my way of thinking, is a rational approach to buying gear of this type.

So far, how I see this turning out is buying two Minelab, Safari's, a Minelab, X-Terra 705 (plus extra heads) and either a Fisher, Gold Bug 2 or a Minelab, Eureka. With accessories, that should only set us back forty-five hundred USD. From my wife's perspective, it's safe to say, I've entered the "Oh, Hell no!" phase of my research.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/2013 01:11PM by BeeMan458.

Just a suggestion with so many good lightweight units around a Safari is a poor choice as not many women can swing one for any length of time and even though heavy as an Explorer doesn't have the Explorers abilities.
As far a harnesses , bungee cords etc. all they do is shift the weight from the small arm muscles to the large back muscles and a sore arm is one thing but a sore back can take one out of the hobby..

Thanks for the thought Dan-PA. I discussed this point with my wife last night and she was without concern. Yesterday, we spend two hours trimming bushes in the backyard. I had her make a knot in her bi-cep, mentioned the need for a bungee or back support and she said she was good to go.

........................................
Post has been amended to reflect purchasing a metal detector.
........................................

Items ordered from BigBoysHobbies:

Minelab X-Terra, 705 (std) with one coil.

Minelab 6" water proof, 18.75kHz gold coil.

Lesche digging tool.

Minelab carry/protective bag.

Minelab, Pro-Find 25 pinpointer.

Sunray, Pro Gold Supreme metal detecting headphones.

Total: $921.00

........................................

This first purchase should cover the needs of my wife for coin/relic/wet/dry/beach/gold prospecting purposes.

So, there it is guys. You'll find your recommendations and advice in the above kit. Thanks for your wisdom sharing effort. After we're up and running with her rig, when the 401(k) smiles a bit more, I'll be able to come back and buy my kit which is expected to be a two metal detector kit. One for rig for prospecting and one for beach/coin/relic hunting. Hopefully, three metal detectors between the two of us will fulfill our metal detecting needs.

(an aside, when talking to Minelab customer service, as expected, no news to be given regarding future retail developments)



Edited 8 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/2013 09:48PM by BeeMan458.

I would have to say that the claims for the AT series machines is definately all true. Well worth the money. I have the AT Gold and my wife uses the AT Pro.

Tim N Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I would have to say that the claims for the AT
> series machines is definately all true. Well worth
> the money. I have the AT Gold and my wife uses the
> AT Pro.

For the price, the AT series seems like a screaming good deal. How do you like the AT Gold in the water when prospecting? How does the AT Gold do for coin and relic hunting? The AT Gold doesn't like salt in the way the AT pro does, how does the AT Gold do at the beach? As a hobby, how is your wife liking or loving metal detecting?

[www.garrett.com]

Our unit should be here Wednesday next week and then we'll be able to find out what it all about.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/2013 03:31AM by BeeMan458.

Just ask and we'll help you along with some pointers on the 705.

HH
Johnb

Thanks!

I see this as a journey, not a destination. I hate arrivals because I love the journey. The current conundrum, this is my wife's MD that I'll be learning on and I don't want her to think I used her as an excuse to buy me a MD.

I see two more MD's in our lives; something that's coin/relic/beach centric and something that's gold centric for prospecting purposes. But until these two MD'ers enter our lives, I'll be dependent on my wife's 705.

"Honey!"

"No!"

Sooner you buy the sooner you'll start the real journey. Then you will either stick to what you have and learn to like it, or you'll learn from it what you like and don't like and then start the journey to get more 'like' than 'dislikes' out of your units.

Good luck though. I think we all went through this at the beginning. If not for the first one, then certainly for the next dozen or so. I still do it today, working on the 'like' vs 'dislike'.

HH
Mike

Mike Hillis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sooner you buy the sooner you'll start the real journey.

Thanks!

First we'll need to get some of the 705 paid off as I've already given my wife the news about more MD'ers coming into our lives. When we order the next MD'er, I'm looking to a gold machine in the form of either a Fisher, Gold Bug 2 or a Minelab, Eureka. At this point, I don't have a large enough information bank to know which would be the best choice in gold machines. All I can say, there will be one in our lives.

Being positive, in the end, I see pursuits of this type as being all about the Benjamins and how many of them one has to throw at the quest. Universities will spend millions on a dig, while neophytes such as ourselves are lucky to have a few thousand to throw at the effort. I love watching the glorious and heroic exploration efforts chronicled on television as the filmed explorers have deep water ships and submersibles in which to explore the Abyss while we're lucky to have the money for a single MD'er we can use to explore the edges of the local creek.

Maybe I can get a university to donate some of their funds to our exploration needs.

BeeMan, in regards to how well the AT Gold performs. All i can say is in my soil , the AT series machines have outperformed my Etrac and Deus that i owned. So mich so i sold everything else and now only have the AT Gold, Wife uses the AT Pro and i have a Tesoro Compadre as an alternate unit for guests or backup.

We went for a short water hunt this morning for about 2 hours and I found a mans Tungsten ring, a 10k diamond earring and a small Toe ring and some clad. So yes, these machines are hot on everything in my soil. I live in a civil war rich area here in Pa so i cant speak for the prospecting uses of the Gold but i can say that it sniffs jewelry out better than most i have used.

I must also say that out of any machines i have used, the At Pro ny far has the best audio out of any of them. Very distinct tones and language all its own.

Whatever machine you decide to use will mo doubt give you lots of good times. And frankly i am glad to see you putting souch thought into it. Tells me you are very serious about the hobby. Which we need more people to be. And by the way, my wife loves her AT Pro and loves going detecting with me. I hope you and your wife will share the same good times as my wife and I have shared together.

Oh and i forgot to mention that the AT Gold can not ground balance to salt water. The Pro however can be used in freshwater or salt water.

Reads like Garrett outdid themselves with the AT Gold.

(Boo-hoo me in that it won't do salt)

Reads like this is a perfect detector to cut one's teeth on. An AT Gold kit with Lesche digger, headphones, bag, pinpointer and a set of Eneloop recharagable, AA, 2,500 mAh NiMH batteries would be $869 at BigBoysHobbies (batteries bought on Amazon: eneloop XX) but it doesn't do salt. Darn!

The alternative is a pair of detectors; A Minelab, Explorer SE (or a Safari) and a Minelab, Eureka; or a Fisher, Gold Bug 2 which would run a whole bunch more; by comparison, about $2,400.00 for the two detectors.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/2013 06:46PM by BeeMan458.

Dont forget Beeman that if you call or email Bart at big boys hobbies he will give you a much better price than whats listed on the web site.

Another thing i wanted to mention was that for all the types of hunting you plan to do, you may find out that the Xterra 705 will probably fill all those roles nicely.

Thanks for the suggestion Tim N. Just got off the phone and the prices I posted are based on our conversation.

Bart took the time to respond to my questions and has been candid with his advice as to an item being a good idea or not and why.

The 705 is for the wife. Boo-hoo me as I still got nothing and my wife's metal detector won't be here until Wednesday. Sniff, sniff.

From my reading, the more ancillary specialties one demands of a detector, the less sensitivity it has regarding one detecting department over another, hence why I'm looking to a two detector solution. One detector for coins and relics and another detector for gold. Making purchases in this way, my understanding or opinion, each detector will be tuned to each individual pursuit.

My philosophy, the better suited a piece of equipment is for any given complex task above turning a screw with a driver, less effort needs to be expended and the chances for success are raised exponentially.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/2013 07:22PM by BeeMan458.

My father in law used to say"I can even teach a college kid to roof". Not sure if anybody gets that, but this sure makes me think of that.

Hey beeman, serious question here...did you ever work around Manteca 10-12 years ago? Doing termite/dryrot repairs??

Tim N Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Another thing i wanted to mention was that for all
> the types of hunting you plan to do, you may find
> out that the Xterra 705 will probably fill all
> those roles nicely.

You really need to make a mental note of this!

Each coil turns the 705 into a different detector,... weird but true.
Untill you've started to comprehend the nuances of that fact,... you sure haven't had enough hours on the machine.

HH
Johnb