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Ever Regret Buying A Detector?


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Can’t say that I have really...the 6000 was the closest I came to regretting purchasing but it’s problems seem to have been sorted out now and mine ran great on its last couple hunts. There are a few coils I don’t really use that I probably should sell...I have sold some detectors but just  because they are just sitting not being used. What say you? 

Strick

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Strick

 I’ve got a Nox 800 with 6” and the elliptical coil sitting there collecting dust . I knew when I bought it It may be not used for a long time. The problem wasn’t me but with my wife needing surgery. I can say she’s had the surgery but now therapy. 
 Now that 800 is a year old and here’s the 900 . You can see the value of that 800 is just above a roll of toilet paper but can’t use as the same.

 I guess you could say I’m a slow learner because I’ve done this before and knowing me I’ll do it again.

 Chuck 

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Yes,the worse detector that i have ever owned and i fell for all the hype was the Troy X5 it was not cheap when i brought it brand new back in 2005/6 something like that but even after using it for 2 years and speaking with Troy across the pond it was a total piece of junk....sold it and regretted ever buying it for sure.

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My first was the worst, but ended up being how I got into metal detecting. I tried to find a "bang for the buck" detector to look for nails in the yard after a roof job, and believed all the hype on the Internet (it's still there) about the Garrett Ace 400. Bought one, found lots of nails, and was happy to not get any in our vehicles or lawn tractor tires.

I had a feeling that there might be some old stuff in my lawn, and most beginner advice was to start in your yard. One of the first things I found was a WW2 service button, then musket balls, pistol balls, and buttons that were much older than the service button. 🤔

I used the Ace from July to November, searching every bit of my yard, and started poking around the forums reading advice. This forum stood out as the most informative, the rest seemed a bit cluttered and full of "Outhouse Lawyers". I was especially impressed by Steve H, Chase Goldman, Jeff McClendon, GB_Amateur, and a few others, so I dug in and held on, got my ass kicked a few times. By Christmas I was ready for a new detector, and had got permission to detect the farm in front of my house.

Yes, the Ace found some cool stuff out there, but the Ace pretty much identified everything as good so my fabulous wife bought me an Equinox 600. I couldn't afford the Deus 1 at the time and the dealer told me I didn't really need it. He was sort of right. I found some cut pistareens the first time out using it in the farm.

By then Chase had contacted me and I invited him down to hunt and perhaps offer some advice on how to best use the Equinox. Well that went well, I went off on my own, used the Equinox everywhere and found a lot of great stuff. As I got used to it, the stuff got better, but I knew there was more...

Now I have the Deus 2, and can't seem to put it down. At the moment I don't think there is another detector in existence that will beat it once learned, and it still is facing improvements! This is for farm relic hunting and confidence on the beach and in the water. I'm a pillager by trade 🏴‍☠️ 😎

Along the way I bought a Tesoro Vaquero just to see how the better older tech worked, and I'll be damned if it didn't blow all my detectors away with a simple square nail on coin on board test I did. I have yet to investigate that further. 🤣 I do know now that yes, the Tesoro can disc iron out and find the great stuff under it, but it still means digging a lot of crap until that situation comes along, just not iron nails. 🤔 That's cool and much better than the Ace that can't do that, but still not better than learning how co-located iron and non-ferrous stuff sounds with an expressive machine like the Deus 2, or in fairness the Equinox 600. With forum ideas I now use the Vaquero with wireless headphones. There are tricks I can still learn with the Vaquero.

I now have the Ace 400 and 3 coils gathering dust. It served me well at first, but as with guitars, you have to have a "real" one if you want to sound like Jimi Hendrix. 🤣 Yes, an expensive detector won't instantly make you good, but it sure helps later on. I owe this forums' administrator and members a great deal as well. The check is in the mail 😏

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I really regret ever buying a Fisher Gold Bug Pro, Fisher F19/Technetics G2 series detector. (I somehow have heroically resisted the temptation to buy a new Bounty Hunter Time Ranger Pro.) I don't regret it because they were bad detectors. I regret it because I really liked them even though they were easily outperformed in every detector use I could think of by my former $179 US Minelab Vanquish 340 except on really small nuggets.

After experiencing that realization my rational self just reminds me that I own 4 simultaneous multi frequency detectors that also have selectable single frequencies (including 20 kHz) and that they detect circles around those FTP products absolutely, end of story, where I use detectors the most.

I still really want one though

And then there are all of those fantastic single frequency detectors that operate below 15 kHz that I have tried out  and really liked except for how they utterly fail as detectors where I most often detect.

It's not those detector's fault. I love Colorado and the Western USA. Most "normal" VLF detectors just don't do very well here unless targets are literally laying on top of the ground.

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I'll be honest and say no.  I have had detectors that I liked more than others but I truly have enjoyed every machine that I have owned.   Part of the fun of detecting for me has always been to find out how to get the best performance out of these quirky devices.  My one rule since I was a kid that I still follow is that I will not sell a detector until my finds exceed the price that I paid for it.

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Yes!! My top 4.

1. Tesoro Eldorado uMax --  I had a Bandido 2 uMax and loved that little machine. The Eldorado was to be the replacement for it. So naturally I had to have it. I hated it from day 1.  Was just something different about it. I always had plans to get another Bandido 2 but by then, they weren't cheap and still really aren't when they come up.

2. Minelab Quattro - My first FBS machine.  It and me...did NOT jive well. 

3. Fisher Excel ID -  Was a spinoff of the CoinStrike, which I really liked.  I was one of the first to get one and immediately it had bugs in the display.  Fisher sent me 2 of them and both were the same way. I ended up just getting my $ back. 

4. Nokta Impact --  I bought into the hype. Meh.  

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GPX5000......  I kinda knew I wouldn't like it even before I bought it? Swung it for 10-12hrs and immediately sold it.  Country I dig in is steep and brushy and that stupid harness, bungee, battery cord, headphone cords, readjusting bungee when going uphill or downhill, etc.  All those cords getting hung up in the brush every 10-20 feet, headphones getting pulled off my head all the time.  That was it so down the road it went!  I'm out there to ENJOY my retirement and dig a little gold, not fight with a machine.

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The best words that covers what some of us have had is “If it wasn’t for bad luck we wouldn’t had no luck at all “

 What you have to understand is it makes you better but if I get any better I don’t know if I can stand myself. My wife said she can’t stand me already .

 Isn’t love wonderful?

 Chuck  

PS This is my second wife but the guy next door he was on his 10th wife before he died. I just got 8 more to go but at 81 I don’t think I’ll make it.

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I'd have to say yes, the White's PI 1000 dive detector, in the 80's(?). I think I got it for freshwater detecting but it probably was much better suited for a salt water environment. I remember that pinpointing targets was really challenging and after a few years in the garage all the cable insulation was cracked and falling off. Now that I hunt salt water beaches 95% of the time I wonder how well that detector would have worked on some of the highly mineralized beaches that I encounter?

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