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Hello Steve,

 I am George from Greece again. I will tell you what I dislike about minelab safari.

The discrimination is not good and confusing, so you have to dig everything because you don’t know if you hit a pull tub or a small golden ring. Also, when I set discrimination there is a lot of iron masking.

I have to do noise cancel every 20-30 minutes in order to work correctly.

The depth measurer is very medium.

It has terrible recovery speed.

Has no ground mineralization indicator.

In other words it is a tiring detector and you have to spend a lot of time to learn the nonferrous audios in order to understand approximately what you have hit.

What I like is the silver coin sound and with a lot of trying copper sound.  But yesterday I was on beach handing, and I found several bob fishing with the same numbers and the sound of silver.

Know, I am interested about silver, copper, gold coins, jewelry and relics and I am interested about deep targets. I do handing on the fields, mountains, parks and beach.

I do not search for gold nuggets because we do not have in Greece (except Thrace region).

I want your suggestion about 3 detectors (so I can choose) with the following specifications:

-          Very good and precise discrimination.

-          Very fast recovery speed.

-          Extremely depth.

-          Ground mineralization indicator.

-          Tracking ground balance.

-          Tone adjustment.

-          Sensitivity adjustment.

-          Soil adjustment.

-          Simple but effective.

-          Not too much expensive.

(I was impressed by the Nokta/Makro metal detectors, although here in Greece there is a prejudice about Turkish products that they are not good in general)

Do you think there is such a detector, or is it marketing tricks in order to shell new metal detectors every year? If I bought a new detector (because technology evolving) with the above specifications I will have better results?

Thank you in advance for your answers.

P.S.: I read your articles and reviews very often and my knowledge about metal detectors has change.  You have done very good work. Just continue.

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George, Just slow down a bit and get to know the detector. Everybody has most of the same issues as you except the noise cancelling thing you mentioned. There is no machine that just sees desirable targets. Many targets show good when they are trash and that's all there is to it. If you recover 1 good target for every 10 bad ones you're doing good. Don't get discouraged it's a hobby not a sport to get rich with. Take a look at the Minelab 705, Nokta Simplex machine or Minelab Equinox 600. There are many easy to use machines out there new and used. However there is no "best" machine that will find only good things. Learn the machine, research the area to increase your target finds and be patient. 

Good luck! John 

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George  

 The best detector is always the one you don’t have.. Like the statement above give yourself and the detector time for you to get to know it . 

The thing is if you’re not happy with it then best you sell it and buy you another. The trouble with so many they get dissatisfied and they stick it in a dark place never to see the light of day again .

 The Best 

Chuck 

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3 hours ago, George1971 said:

The discrimination is not good and confusing, so you have to dig everything because you don’t know if you hit a pull tub or a small golden ring. Also, when I set discrimination there is a lot of iron masking.

 

3 hours ago, George1971 said:

What I like is the silver coin sound and with a lot of trying copper sound.  But yesterday I was on beach handing, and I found several bob fishing with the same numbers and the sound of silver.

It does sound like you want better discrimination George. What would you think if I told you the Safari is better than most in that regard? The Safari as a multifrequency model will generally deliver more accurate target id numbers than any single frequency detector, while still working well on salt water beaches.

The main thing limiting the Safari in that regard is the  -10 to 40 target id range where more targets occur closer together than in detectors with more target id numbers. Your options there would be to go to the E-Trac for the dual target id numbers and two dimensional screen, vastly expanding the range. Or to the CTX 3030, with 1450 possible target id responses.

Except that may not help you at all!

The real issue is detectors originated in the United States for coin detecting. It just so happens that if you want to detect U.S. coins most can be targeted while avoiding most trash due to the way our coins read. I can go out and dig coins here and little else. But that does not apply to most other places that have different coins of lower quality metal content. It also does not apply to relic detecting or jewelry detecting because valuable targets occur at all id numbers. Most relic hunters and jewelry hunters simply dig all non-ferrous targets. I just got back from two weeks detecting in the U.K. and the standard is to dig all non-ferrous targets. If I beach detect, I dig all non-ferrous targets.

The XP Deus is a great detector, but it does not have a very good target id capability when it comes to separating various non-ferrous items one from the other, and many people do not like it for park hunting in the U.S. due to this. It does however have superb ability to separate ferrous from non-ferrous, making it perfect for most European field detecting. It does not fare as well on salt water beaches due to the single frequency operation however. Multifrequency has an inherent advantage for handling ground minerals and salt water at the same time.

I hate to say it but if you do not like digging trash you may not like metal detecting. That’s what we normally do. We dig trash. The good finds are the exception, not the rule.

You can go to the E-Trac or CTX and try and be picky about digging targets, but that simply means you will also miss good targets that read the same as whatever item you are rejecting. You can target certain good items and indeed dig far less trash, but it is a trade off. Some people hate digging trash and reject most trash targets and still make great finds however so that option exists.

Or you can readjust your thinking to digging all non-ferrous targets, which is the norm for most beach hunters and European detectorists due to the wide range of possible good targets. If you do that your detector options boil down to a popularity contest since most detectors separate ferrous from non-ferrous quite well. Keeping in mind that if you hunt salt water beaches multifrequency has an edge.

These days I generally dig all non-ferrous targets and prefer lightweight affordable detectors. Machines I have an interest in at the moment were I shopping are the new Makro/Nokta Simplex+, the new Minelab Vanquish series, the Minelab Equinox models, the XP ORX, and XP Deus. Of those the Minelab multifrequency models have the edge around saltwater. The only other detectors I personally consider are dedicated gold nugget detectors and so outside the range of your inquiry. If on the other hand I had to pick a detector based purely on it’s discrimination capability, it would be the CTX 3030.

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Thank you both for your answers, I recover one good target for every 10 bad ones and maybe more, even on the beach where I go crazy with the trash. On the main land I go much better but I want something more.  Of course is very important the location were you hand.

The things about metal detecting in Greece are very hard because of the too many antiquities.  I will never give up metal detecting because of the ecstasy of finding coins or jewelry made 2.000 ago or more.

If you want to search with a metal detector even in your own back yard you need permission from the archaeological service of your region and from the ministry of culture.   I work only with permissions. If you have metal detector with digging tools in your car without permission and the police stops you, is confiscation of the car, of the metal detector, 2.000 euros fine and you go to trial.

Now, back to our topic, supposing you do not have a metal detector and you want to choose one with the characteristics I mention in previous post what would you choose and why:

-          Minelab safari (owned now and without the characteristics I mentioned)

-          Nokta simplex

-          Minelab equinox 600

-          Nokta/Makro racer 2

-          Nokta/Makro impact

-          Garrett at max

-          Garrett at pro

Every other suggestion is welcomed, always justified.

Also, I am waiting Steve’s answer.

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Yup, posted at the same time!

Based on my first post there are only two detectors on your list I’d be interested in, the Simplex and Equinox 600. Since I want salt water capability it would be Equinox 600. If I was to never hunt salt water or only rarely I might very well go with the Simplex. I like it’s physical design better and I think it will ultimately have a better coil selection than the Equinox, and the price can’t be beat for what it offers.

If waterproof does not matter do consider the new Vanquish series. Keep in mind however the Equinox and Vanquish have no more target id numbers than the Safari so no advantage there.

Note I am very much talking about what I like. I am speaking strictly from my own preferences. You might get something I like and hate it. It does happen. :smile: I don’t set the standards by any means as to what is good or not in the metal detector world. I’m just one guy with an opinion, that’s all, so do consider other opinions as well.

By the way 10 trash targets to one good item is great. I often dig far more trash than that for a single good find. A nugget hunt might very well mean 100 bullets and nails for one nugget, and when jewelry detecting in a park you may as well call it aluminum detecting. I dig piles of aluminum to get a single ring.

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As a Garrett owner I like my machines but if your in heavy iron or high trash areas you will not do any better with them. For high trash areas I use the Tesoro Tejon which is analog and has no vdi. Tesoro is no longer but you can look at the Deeptech X as a competing product. I find that analog machines do very well but can have a steep learning curve.

I find my Tejon able to snipe out a dime from a big chunk of iron without issue, can for the most part hear the difference between valuable targets from square tabs in the low conductor range by their sound but do have trouble in many cases with ringtabs that have been folded over. As a rule you should dig those anyways as I don't think there are detectors accurate enough to discern between many of those trash items and the good stuff as they simply conduct the same. Analog machine for me offers better audio.

In your region you could check out the Blisstool Beast v6. It is made for harsh areas and lots of knobs to keep you busy for many years!

If the Blisstool was waterproof I would snag one in a heartbeat.

Bottom line for me I go with silent search method in trashy areas as I find it less annoying to sift through than having to fiddle with notch discrimination that tends to chop out good targets. I often make a few passes over an area and cherry pick ranges to snipe out good targets and once your in the low conductor (gold aluminum range) you should dig those iffy targets, more often than not they are rings or small bits of jewelry.

I have found for me that a vdi really doesn't offer much more and often can cast doubt on whether or not to dig. The machines aren't necessarily wrong but I think too much information isn't always good.

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Thank you all for your answers.

The Tesoro brand is relatively known brand in Greece and the Blisstool is totally unknown. The metal detector brands that are sovereigns in Greece are: Minelab, Garrett, Fisher, XP, Whites, Teknetics, Bounty Ηunter, and the last years the Turkish Nokta/Makro and the Russian Aka.

From our conversation I understand that I was almost to be a marketing victim. I realize that I have one of the best metal detectors ever made, since now, but I want too much (like Ridge Runner said: «The best detector is always the one you don’t have...»

If I make a new purchase might be the Simplex as a second one because of the price and the abilities.

Now, I would like one last advice. What do you suggest for small coil for safari, in order to use it in trashy, beach areas and mineralized soil?


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