Best detector for Hawaii beaches?

If you were moving to Hawaii (I am) and wanted to get a detector/coil specifically to hunt wet/dry beaches in Hawaii, what would you select? Also, is there a favorite detector for salt water wading areas? Appreciate your thoughtful advice.

Hi Johnny

It really depends on if you want descrimination or not. I use an infinium (pulse induction) with the 8 inch mono coil for the beaches near me here in southern california without any issues. The infinium can cut through tough mineralization but its pretty much a dig it all machine so if the beaches your hunting are littered with iron its gonna drive you nuts. If you like having a little discrimination i have seen and heard alot of success with the excalibur. Both machines are waterproof. If your leaning toward a pi machine you could check out tesoros sand shark iv heard many good things but i have not had a chance to use one.

Hope this helps a little

Justin
(Dynoman2002)
Explorer se pro

I have been detecting in Hawaii many times and never yet found the perfect detector for the conditions. Which are salt water, very iron mineralized ground/hot rocks, and military grade EMI. I tend to prefer PI detectors myself. For VLF you are basically looking at the Excalibur or CZ-21. I have done well with the Surf PI and Infinium but both have issues. I am going again in January and am packing the new Garrett ATX and my CTX 3030. Check out my various Hawaii detecting stories at [www.detectorprospector.com]

Nice read Steve!!!

Thanks for the link's.. Will give me some reading material!!

I see you have been to England on a hunt that had to be a big time Rush!!

One day I hope to go!

Keith

Hope you enjoy the reading. It has been fun doing the journal and the older I get the happier I am to have done it. Nice to get the memories down while they are fresh!

The UK trip was truly awesome. I should do it again. The first coin I dug was a large 1700 copper and I was basically told they throw those "greenies" in a ditch! You find coins that new by the pound. I went hoping for a gold coin though and though several were found by people around me I was not so lucky. Still, I found stuff older than one could ever think of finding in the US so a very good time indeed.

I have to say though nothing beats digging a big gold nugget!

Can't vouch for the accuracy but here is the info I could find on underwater pulse machines suitable for saltwater beaches:

Excalibur II 1000
8" Coil.....Nulls over iron, not as deep as PI, good for wet sand in iron,

Infinium LS
PI, 10x14 mono and 10x14 DD coils, 8” coil, multi-freq, 730 pps, WP to 200 ft, sensitive to small gold (is a gold prospecting unit), can false with each swing or in surf if not GB with DISC and threshold set properly for salt water, deeper than Sand Shark by few inches, only PI with tone ID: High-Low tone for jewelry, digs less trash, reverse disc for iron ID, ground balances on mineralized beaches, steady threshold (no falsing), can be chatty when run hot but then gets small gold, slightly deeper than Sea Hunter Mk2, EMI mitigation with freq check, more involved to set up correctly, some threshold change in surf if set too sensitive, changeable coils, 3 control housing locations plus hip mount, pulse delay may be 15 – 25 us.


White’s Surfmaster PI Pro
PI, WP to 100ft, No Disc, single tone, thin 9.5" coil cuts thru water, reasonable pricing, very deep, has weighted or unweighted coils, simple operation, well made, comfortable headphones, belt mountable control box, no falsing in salt water, exact pinpointing, quick target response, many positive reviews, comparable to Sand Shark in depth, flimsy coil mount - coil flips up. Sounds audio if coil is bumped, or when under surf, or if detecting height changes.

White’s Surfmaster PI Dual Field
PI, 12x6” coil, WP to 100 ft, has Pulse Delay (Pro does not), thicker and bigger 12" coil more difficult to cut through water, slightly deeper than PI Pro, tone changes (squeals) with each wave, permanent coil, coil floats, not for dry land hunting, need weights to keep coil on bottom, chatty, loses depth in mineralized sand, permanently attached headphones, poor sensitivity and depth, harder to pinpoint, Pulse Delay 15 us (pulse timing knob in off) and 16 – 25 us (on and adjustable).

White’s Beach Hunter ID 300
VLF, 12” coil, weighs 5.7 lbs, WP to 25ft, dual freq: 3 and 15 kHz, load volume, some consider not too deep, choppy signal for ferrous, coil floats, vol is loud, headphone swivel connector easily broken, noisy in saltwater, case can crack, leaky gaskets (black gasket leaked, not orange), harder to pinpoint target, very sensitive, 3-colored LED lights hard to see in sunlight, hip pouch (one strap covers red light), lights work in A/M or DISC, falses in surf, comfortable headphones, well balanced, feels light, Disc toggle easily dislodged, thin rubber O-ring for battery closure that tears, some trouble with mineralized sands.

Tesoro Sand Shark
PI, 8" & 10.5" coils, 600 pps, weighs 4.5 lbs, PI, WP to 200 ft, single tone, lifetime warranty, solid build, slightly heavy, fairly deep, comfortable to use, coil pushed about in water, buoyant coil, permanently hardwired coils, inaccurate battery indicator, some say falsing on each swing other say smooth, leaking battery compartment, poor quality control, pinpointing requires practice due to coil design, WP headphones permanently attached, must open control box to change batteries (SH Mark2 - screw on cap), compartment latches can open, Auto/Manual GB, similar depth to White's PI Pro., said to have 19.5 - 22 us pulse delay, has adjustable pulse width, erratic on mineralized beaches, control box location is adjustable,

Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II
PI, 8" coil, 750 pps, weight 5.7lbs, WP to 200 ft, High pitched threshold that cannot be changed, no volume control (need HP with vol control), very loud vol outside water, has discrete iron elimination for shallow targets, deeper than Sand Shark, changeable coils, changeable headphones, four control housing locations, better WP enclosure than Sand Shark, needs straight shaft to replace S-shaft, struggles on mineralized beaches, heavier machine, hip mountable, pulse width set at about 70 us.

Tom talked about Aqua star-II, and the Au-21x you will have to ask Tom about that last one? Would imagine its a fine machine! HH

I think the Au-21x is a modified CZ3D for non-mineralized Florida beaches, and is not submersible.

I think the AquaStar2 by Eric Foster is now the Pulsepower Deepstar. It is hand-built by Eric and is rarer than a Yeti spotting.

Also, though I included the Excal2 in my list above, like the E-Trac/E-Trac2, is a low freq detector whose sensitivity will be hindered on small, fine jewelry and rings, which is important on the beach.

The question I'm wondering if anyone can answer: Which submersible detector has the best sensitivity on gold jewelry and yet remains fairly stable to use in saltwater or mineralized beaches?

Looks like out of the detectors I listed, based on my research, the Infinium is the one that has the edge in underwater operation on mineralized saltwater beaches. Seems to be a bit 'tweaky' to get it running smooth but is a better performer all-around. So I would buy the Infinium - but now comes along the more expensive Garrett ATX, a direct competitor for surf hunting. So, it's a Garrett vs. a Garrett run-off.

Hopefully there will be comparisons made by unbiased people soon between the ATX and the Infinium in the water. I'll be in Hawaii soon and don't think I can last long without having one of these.

Well, I am going to Hawaii in January and have been trying to decide what to take for a year now. I always take two detectors, and first one is easy - CTX 3030.

Second one I was hoping for a waterproof White's TDI. I guess there is still that possibility but I have pretty much gave up on White's. So was thinking Infinium again as despite the pain in the butt it can be it has found me lots of rings in Hawaii. Then out of left field appears the ATX! So I am now set on taking an ATX, but frankly I feel like it is a gamble as I have no way of knowing before hand if it is any better in Hawaii than the Infinium. I wish I could tell you now but unfortunately I will not know until February how it all plays out.

Hawaii is an example of places still waiting for the right detector to be designed. I have tried quite a few now and none satisfies completely.

Steve, did you use the CTX in the surf? How was the stability? Is it the 'salt' mode that you used?

In my experience, the CTX doesn't have the frequency necessary to excite slim, thin jewelry. Sure it would get the thicker/larger rings but I wonder on its ability on the small stuff.

If I can't make a decision between the Garrett PI's, perhaps I should bring my CTX for the time being as a stop gap. I'll need something for sure.

Never used the CTX in salt water. No, it is not a micro jewelry detector, nor is any detector that will function well in salt water. If you do not pick up wet salt sand, you do not detect the smallest jewelry.

I may toss in one of my Gold Bugs for hunting the dry sand.

Thought it might be interesting to plot the results of air testing several PI detectors done by "TheAquahobbit".

The HeadHunter PI Pulse with 11" coil did well as did the White's Dual-Field - very similar. The Sand Shark was a bit less deep and/or sensitive. The nickel was the only test that could be compared to another test using the Infinium. The Garrett Infinium had about mid-way performance on the nickel. Small, very thin gold was not detectable by any of the PI detectors. Though the HH Pulse did well - however from the info I've seen it isn't for underwater use and therefore is more for wading and wet sand due to the headphones leaking. Would have liked to see how the Garrett Sea Hunter Mark2 performs in this test (and for that matter the Excal2).

The problem in Hawaii is volcanic basalt cobbles and black sands. It impedes the performance of other detectors more than the Infinium.

Anyway, I got the ATX and it blows the Infinium away so can't wait to get it to Hawaii.

Anybody selling the ATX for less than $2120?

Not going to go the PI route - not going to buy an expensive ATX either (at least not yet). Thought about it and though there are some serious drawbacks and risks, I'm bringing my CTX-3030 to Hawaii and will use it underwater and in the surf (and shore). I'm going to teflon the threads on the screw-in ports and apply silicone grease to gaskets and further seal the seams with waterproof silicone tape. The CTX has history of having the battery compartment gasket fail. Usually it is sand grains along the gasket - but this should ensure none of that happens and no sand get in. There is nothing more I can do to overcome its shortcomings in regard to water leakage.

I am disappointed with Minelab for designing something that requires so much upkeep to avoid total failure - but OK, I'm going to give it a whirl. But I'm definitely going to give it a shot. Not going to buy an Excal2 when the CTX can do it too (at least to 10 feet). Not going to buy a PI if the CTX can manage both the black sand and salt while avoiding the PI's dig-all-iron requirement and also gain some discrimination capability with the CTX.

Perhaps the CTX is not going to be as deep - we'll see about that. Perhaps the CTX won't have sensitivity enough for small rings/jewelry - but that is also the problem with most PI machines, so it is probably a wash.

I haven't found anyone who uses the CTX in the surf in Hawaii - but I know one guy who is going to give it a go next month (me).

I will be very interested in hearing how you do. Best of luck to you!

The continuing story ...

First outing along a south shore Oahu beach. First - lots of igneous rocks, hard limestone bedrock, and coral on this beach. The CTX gets the signal on coins 9 - 10" deep, but you aren't going to plow through that bedrock without dynamite. Those coins are there for eternity.

In the soft sand the CTX does fine - whether dry, wet, or in the Pacific Ocean - it purrs along. The only falsing is right along the shore as the waves lap - there the CTX is erratic. So far I've only waded out to about 3 feet. Trying to get the hang of using a long handled scoop, while holding the detector - and with a strong trade wind blowing and some current moving everything sideways. It takes some skill (which I don't have yet) to keep from losing your balance.

I was using the waterproof Grey Ghost headphones - worked fine for a few hours then quit on me. Don't know what happened. Stopped to converse with a lifeguard and when I put the headphones on they were silent. The detector speaker is still functioning. Tried unscrewing the plug and putting it back on again - but no dice, there is no sound coming out of the either the port or the phones, don't know which is the problem yet. Will have to explore that a bit more to try and isolate it. Hope it can be fixed easily. But it put an end to my first beach hunting outing. Did find coins - as expected, but no jewelry yet.

The next thing is to find an ideal CTX program for the saltwater. Then I'm going to have develop a more sophisticated water techinique.

john