coherent

I ordered mine from Kellyco on Oct 10th. Received an email with tracking info about a week ago and received it a couple days ago. No signature... go figure. FedEx just sat it on the porch and walked away. Didn't beg for the case... simply asked for the minelab case and they included it for free. I have no use for most of the "stuff" they include to entice newbies, but the padded case is something that I will actually use. Charged everything up and paired the headphones. Think I'll have to get some bluetooth earbuds. (The detector itself charge light never stopped blinking and I finally disconnected it anyway after 4-5 hrs. Full charge on the bar indicator. Not sure if this is an issue or should have left connected longer). Looking forward to getting some testing in this weekend and comparing it to my CTX.

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Just another note for those who order from Kellyco. Yes they will give you the military discount, but I told them when I ordered it wasn't fair that all their other sales on "in stock" detectors usually include some sort of extras, and here I was paying up front for a detector I won't see for months... so they included a free minelab padded case. Forgot all about it until I received it yesterday and the case was there. Anyway, can't hurt to ask or beg a little if you haven't received it yet or are just now ordering.

" kind of lost my enthusiasm for it to be honest"... me too. I was really excited for the few couple of expected "release" dates, but now... not so much.

Looks like 'kellco finally got a larger bunch in at their warehouse/distributor and is shipping. I Received tracking... ordered 10 Oct.

I ordered Oct 10th... haven't heard a thing. :(

Actually.. Hugo wasn't going to take vacation at that time, but his mother-in-law had to have hernia surgery and his wife insisted they go and take care of Mom's cats while she is recuperating.. so it's the cat's fault.

I just looked at the Cabellas web site and they show both the 800 and the 600 in stock online, with delivery in 4-6 days. If I could get the 15% military discount, I'd cancel my order and buy one from them. They do offer a 5% discount to all military and vets, but considering the difference between 15% ($135) and no tax from a online dealer and 5% ($45) and $80 plus in tax from cabellas?.... $160+ will buy a lot of beer... I'll just wait.

I agree that the cost of Detectors and accessories is excessive, but metal detectors fall into one of those unique categories like software in some regards that if a company puts a large investment into the research and development phase at the front end, the price is inflated well above the manufacturing cost per unit by far to recoup and make a profit to put into continued research. I don't necessarily like some of the prices I see either, but kind of figure if we want to keep seeing advancements in technology, you have to pay for it somehow. I also just wish it wasn't excessive, but when something comes around that does what you want, like you want... and you decide you want one... well cost seems to become less of an obstacle in the decision to buy process.

FWIW, you can call a minelab dealer and they will most likely work out a bottom line price by phone, but then if you try and then include the military discount on top of the phone deal, they won't do it... that tells me the military discount is not a minelab incentive, but a minelab "approved" discount that dealers can provide without violating the minelab pricing agreement. A couple of phone calls and skipping the "free dealer add ons" will likely get you closer to 20%.