How Is The Sea Hunter Mk2 With Small Targets?

[BeachHunter]

I know you didn’t ask but my recommendation is the Minelab Equinox 600. It would be perfect for what you’re looking to do. Very lightweight, waterproof and capable. A joy to swing for those sore shoulders.

i owned the Whites Surf PI Dual Field and really enjoyed that detector. I found it to be lightweight but the coil floated in the water a bit. Good luck!

[Guest]

2 hours ago, BeachHunter said:

I know you didn’t ask but my recommendation is the Minelab Equinox 600. It would be perfect for what you’re looking to do. Very lightweight, waterproof and capable. A joy to swing for those sore shoulders.

There is a really good point BeachHunter. Look at the msrp of the Equinox 600 compared to the msrp of the Sea Hunter Mk II. You need a really special use for the MkII to make it work out sensibly considering the absolute capability advantage of the Nox if you need to be budget minded. There are certainly some sites where the math might work, but the price of a new MkII makes it hard to recommend given what you can have in a detector for that kind of money these days.

But having a pi and a good vlf is something for a well rounded urban prospector that does make sense for me. Maybe not top of the line, but something decent. My philosophy of chasing jewelry is created out of combining the micro jewelry techniques of Dankowski with the detector prospecting mindset of Herschbach, then just practicing and refining to get something that works for me. That means a pi for bad ground and emi and occasional unmasking in the urban environment that is still relatively sensitive to fine processed gold, and high frequency vlf for better small gold sensitivity in good ground. The PI drops small foil but digs iron, the vlf can drop iron but digs small foil. There may be some depth tradeoff for the increased sensitivity to small, but works for what I am doing. So the main two for me are the Mirage PI and the Makro Gold Racer for well rounded urban prospecting.

This is to show my thinking, and may show a thought process for you to better decide what you want. Or at least my two cents. How to make it all work for you is to decide what you want to do and then try things till you see what works for you. It saves a lot of money trying detectors to have a place like this to see what works for others to do what they want. You can create anything from that.

[kac]

Buying another VLF doesn't make sense and for most of my hunting I prefer the Tejon as I have found more small jewelry, gold rings and piles of slag change as well as some old coins. I even set it up for a friend of mine to hit an old field that got hit really hard. Told him push the trigger forward and if it chimes clean dig it. This was his first time out and he picked up a 1775 large cent in fair condition about 14" down. Beginners luck?

The TDI Beach hunter looks like a viable option but for relic hunting around here there is simply too much trash even in the most remote areas there are either old shogun shells or pull tabs and bottle tops. Another friend has the TDI Pro and it collects dust as he uses his MX sport almost exclusively because of the trash.

I am sure I could figure out the TDI out but think it may collect dust on my shelf too.

The beaches are hit hard here, barely any trash left so not worried too much about digging all. As long as there is a little variation on signal I can usually determine what is good and what isn't. Really strong hit that doesn't pick up on my pinpointer I usually ignore as it is most likely a can way down. 

I had my eyes on the Sand Shark for a while, I don't dive so coil size isn't as critical for me though the Nel Big feels like an old truck tire at times in the wet. Finding out that Tesoro might be gone is what lead me to this site as I didn't want to buy a machine that would never be repairable if something should happen.

Fisher makes a PI or coming out with one?

[Guest]

Kac,

A person is entitled to hunt however they want with whatever they want. Just spitballin a bit for you on your options. No matter the choices you make today there will be some new machine to salivate over tomorrow even as old tech works as well today as it ever did. Others can only offer their opinions, it is for you to decide.

It is ok to go your own way no matter what the herd does or says. Take what makes sense to you and use it in a way that makes sense to you.

S

 

 

 

[Goingcrazy]

SLGuin,

I have a SH mk2.  I've hunted local So Cal beaches and the beaches in Cancun and Playa del Carmen.  In Cancun I've found lots of small broken silver charm bracelet parts, a couple larger silver necklaces and strangely, sewing pins.  I have not found any gold rings there yet.  I hunt in standard trash and near zero elimination.  I also recently purchased a Mirage PI Ultra 1, land unit, never used. Planning on trying it out today.  Did you purchase the water machine that was recently for sale?

Goingcrazy

[Guest]

GoingCrazy,

If you are finding small silver parts with your MkII, you would almost certainly find any decent gold ring you got over. Run your MkII with the discrimination turned down as far as possible. The discrimination knob on the MkII does in fact control the pulse delay, and you want that as low as you can get while keeping the machine stable. The lowest possible setting worked fine most places for me.

The Mirage I got was the waterproof version, purchased on eBay. Unfortunately, it will be more than a month before the snow melts and the ground thaws here in Minnesota. Please consider starting a thread on your experiences with the Mirage. It looks like a lovely detector. Even though Sven says he does not intend to make them anymore, he does have kits out there for others to make, and he is very helpful for those who have them. 

S

[kac]

Isn't the Mirage a kit? Where do you get the parts?

Silverdog site in UK has a 404 on the home page so site must be down.

[Guest]

Start Here: https://www.treasurelinx.com/mirage_pi_2.html

 

[Goingcrazy]

I also purchased a completely built Mirage PI with a 5" and 8.5" coil with a Whites shaft on eBay.  Get in touch with Sven Stau on treasurelinx. He recently had a couple of printed circuit boards for sale.

[kac]

Thanks, seems to take some digging for more info on it.