How Many Of You Would Jump On A CTX If Minelab Dropped The Price To 1200 ?

[kac]

2 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Or in other words, the detector doesn't find treasure.  I'll add one more.  Which would you rather have, the best detector made so you can hunt a beat-to-death location, or a bottom of the line detector on a virgin site?

Even hunted to death sites you can still find stuff with a mid ranged detector. Even entry level machines now with newer electronics are nipping at the heals of the older expensive machines. I don't believe that someone should spend $2500 or $1200 or even $600 with the assumption it will get them targets or that without spending $2500 they won't have a chance. Too many factors other than just machine features cause people to miss a target over a buddy and not necessarily do to the machines functionality.

[schoolofhardNox]

15 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

Thanks for that detailed response.  It's consistent with what a local detectorists told me.  (He's the only detectorist in the 5 years I've returned detecting in my area whose path has crossed mine.)  He said his E-Trac gave more accurate TID's but he could move much more quickly with the Eqx.  (The day I saw him he had the Eqx.)

I think there is always a trade off with every new release from Minelab. We always want our old machine with just a few refinements and added features...... and Minelab responds with something completely new 😄 In a way, you have to applaud them for not listening to us.

[Mike_Hillis]

New CTX's with a $1200 price tag would be attractive to me.  The current price turned me off of it and the ETRAC does very well for me when I need its feature set.  I don't have any desire to spend more than that on a metal detector.   

As I've said before, the lack of enhanced discrimination turned me off the Equinox from the get go but even it they update the discrimination to the point where its actually useful for hunting non-ferrous objects in non-ferrous trash I'll turn it off if the price is over my threshold and $1200 is about my limit. 

I personally find it hard to justify standing in a park with something even that expensive digging trash and clad coins, no matter how much gold I find.

HH
Mike

[Tom_in_CA]

15 minutes ago, Mike_Hillis said:

New CTX's with a $1200 price tag would be attractive to me.  The current price turned me off of it and the ETRAC does very well for me when I need its feature set.  I don't have any desire to spend more than that on a metal detector.   

As I've said before, the lack of enhanced discrimination turned me off the Equinox from the get go but even it they update the discrimination to the point where its actually useful for hunting non-ferrous objects in non-ferrous trash I'll turn it off if the price is over my threshold and $1200 is about my limit. 

I personally find it hard to justify standing in a park with something even that expensive digging trash and clad coins, no matter how much gold I find.

HH
Mike

Mike, I know that the "Nox faithful" would dispute what you are saying, but :  I agree.  The old school explorers were better for cherry-picking in junky-parks types of scenarios.   A better "grasp" at telling a potential coin apart from trash. 

 

HOWEVER, that's only a select niche of hunt style preferences.   A lot of hardcore guys simply do not troll junky inner-city turf for silver.   They are strictly relicky guys.  Who are just after anything conductive, and don't need nuanced tones that a cherry-picker needs.   In the case of iron-riddled zones, I've noticed that my equinox friends are indeed spanking my Exp. II.  However, in turf, I tend to spank them.    I know some Nox guys will dispute these results, and try to say that the Nox guy "just needs more experience", blah blah.   But ... so far ... I just haven't seen it.

[Tiftaaft]

6 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Which would you rather have, the best detector made so you can hunt a beat-to-death location, or a bottom of the line detector on a virgin site?

I would choose the beat to death site... with one caveat... time enough alone on that site to fully learn the best detector made, so I can fully uncover the hidden treasures.  I would much rather have that than shooting the proverbial fish in a barrel. 

And I guess now that I think about it...  The 'best detector' part of the equation is optional... just a beat to death site all to myself... And a solid detector.  ~Tim.

[cjc]

On 3/12/2021 at 12:28 AM, Dances With Doves said:

Hi C.J.C.Since you are on the other side of Lake  Ontario which do you prefer for your water hunting our big lake.The Nox or the CTX and do you have sections that can be thick in black sand in certain spots over there too?

As much as I like the CTX in salt--it's not much for black sand.  NOX seems to handle it better--more fidelity to manage it ie. Rec Spd.  I was very disappointed to see the CTX getting about 10 inches in those conditions.   Hoping the Coiltek 15 will get WOT / Sov - like performance although the NOX doesn't seem to handle the stock big coil all that well.  With the CTX you have to open it up--or maybe Tadpole 4.  Still trying to figure that one out.   cjc

 

cjc

[cjc]

On 3/12/2021 at 12:28 AM, Dances With Doves said:

Hi C.J.C.Since you are on the other side of Lake  Ontario which do you prefer for your water hunting our big lake.The Nox or the CTX and do you have sections that can be thick in black sand in certain spots over there too?

well, I've hit spots that the CTX just nulled on alltogether.  I think that in these conditons wide open or at least something like "Tadpole" is best.  Overall I feel that having adjustable Rec Spd and FQ weightings (Gold 2 if necessary) helps in black sand.  Just never been able to get the right settings with the CTX.  Ive seen recommend GB of "6" what do you do with that?

cjc

[Dances With Doves]

4 hours ago, cjc said:

well, I've hit spots that the CTX just nulled on alltogether.  I think that in these conditons wide open or at least something like "Tadpole" is best.  Overall I feel that having adjustable Rec Spd and FQ weightings (Gold 2 if necessary) helps in black sand.  Just never been able to get the right settings with the CTX.  Ive seen recommend GB of "6" what do you do with that?

cjc

 I  like the gold modes on the sand bars which can be on the hot side.It is easy   digging and I go by the nice zip when I decide to dig.I  dug a tiny  stainless ring that would read a air test  a one for id at almost a foot.The park modes would have gave me a  iron sound.Lots of fresh   drops   on the cleaner first sand bar that can get deep fast after some  wave action. What machine do you like for the gold in the iron which is usually done in close in a shore line cut.

[cjc]

9 hours ago, Dances With Doves said:

 I  like the gold modes on the sand bars which can be on the hot side.It is easy   digging and I go by the nice zip when I decide to dig.I  dug a tiny  stainless ring that would read a air test  a one for id at almost a foot.The park modes would have gave me a  iron sound.Lots of fresh   drops   on the cleaner first sand bar that can get deep fast after some  wave action. What machine do you like for the gold in the iron which is usually done in close in a shore line cut.

There's no denying the power of the NOX as an edge machine--gets you past a lot of the junk.  At the same time the AQ has a lot of potential in the same conditions.  It has the ability to get down a lot deeper on objects that are pounded down deep by the waves.  Locally, the hackers leave everything in the holes--accuracy is key, not depth. cjc

[phrunt]

CTX 3030 for $1200 USD? I say hell yes.

I recently purchased one and couldn't be happier!   I'm still very much an absolute beginner on it and have virtually no understanding of anything with it yet 🙂

I took it to my old sports field I've hammered with various detectors and found 14 silvers in a couple of hours.  This was using the stock 11" coil, I didn't even try my big 17" sucker on it yet, I have done some testing with the larger coil and in my soil the depth is noticeably better too so I have high hopes for that coil.   My sports field is relatively iron junk free so really it's just a case of sorting the trash which is mostly pull tabs, zippers, football boot spikes and bottle tops from the coins. 

I found in the Default coin mode it was a pretty poor performer,  I copied that to a new profile and changed a couple of settings and deep coins are showing that do not show in the default coin mode.   I'm so new to the CTX I can't even remember what the settings were but I could find out by firing it up I guess.  I also noticed in the manual it states not to use the ground balance unless your soil requires it, mine doesn't so I assume doing it is detrimental to performance?

I'm very happy with the CTX purchase.  I can live with the current price, the build quality is very nice and feels terribly light compared to the GPZ I'm used to swinging so the weight of it doesn't bother me at all. 

I'm contemplating buying a smaller coil for it, I just don't know if it's worth it as I guess for the trashy areas I'd be better off using the Equinox, switching to the best tool for the job at hand.  In the wide open relatively junk free areas a slower than my usual swing with the CTX appears to be paying dividends.