Detectors That You Used In 2020 ?

[Chuck M]

On 2/2/2021 at 8:41 PM, Jeff McClendon said:

My hunt logs say I coin, jewelry and relic detected for 1,354 hours last year.....somehow metal detecting seemed to be a good activity during a pandemic and during the loss of two part-time jobs.

At least a thousand hours was with the Equinox 800. Most of the rest was with the XP Deus. A little was with the Garrett AT Gold and the new Vanquish models. I did try out the Simplex and sold it (not because I didn't like it, I just don't need it.) The same thing happened to my Nokta Makro Gold Kruzer and XP ORX.........I have a Nox, Deus and rock solid waterproof AT Gold. I don't need those other detectors.

On the PI front, my son and I together bought a Minelab SDC 2300 with his military discount. It got about 100 hours of use in the gold fields of Colorado which are not included in my 1,354 hours. We both liked the SDC 2300 somewhat, but did not like the unbalanced weight or the unstable threshold/over sensitivity to EMI. We both agreed to let it go. In late November a Whites dealer who had bought all of Whites-Oregon's test models (brands other than Whites) put a QED PL3 on Ebay. I made a deal with him and now have a basically brand new QED PL3 to play with for way less than half the price of a new one. Simon really helped me with some unbiased encouragement since he knows the QED and the SDC pretty well. More to come on the QED PL3.

Jeff, in your opinion which is best between the Minelab Vanquish 540 pro pack or Simplex. I dont hunt in the water. 

[Jeff McClendon]

4 hours ago, Chuck M said:

Jeff, in your opinion which is best between the Minelab Vanquish 540 pro pack or Simplex. I dont hunt in the water. 

That totally depends on what you are hunting for, how trashy the area is (especially iron trash) and what kind of climate and mineralization you deal with. 

For me and my hunting conditions (fairly dry climate and very mineralized dirt) if I could only afford one detector of the two you mentioned and I only wanted to hunt coin sized objects or bigger in moderately or less trashy areas, and I needed really accurate numerical and tone target IDs down to 10"+ deep, I would pick the Vanquish 540 Pro Pack. 

If I hunted in damp or rainy areas where waterproofing or at least weather proofing was important, I was mostly relic hunting in moderate to thick iron trash on old sites with moderate to mild mineralization, and I needed a threshold based all metal mode, faster recovery speed, better target separation and didn't care too much about accurate tone and numerical target IDs, I would pick the Simplex with wireless headphones.

[Chuck M]

14 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

That totally depends on what you are hunting for, how trashy the area is (especially iron trash) and what kind of climate and mineralization you deal with. 

For me and my hunting conditions (fairly dry climate and very mineralized dirt) if I could only afford one detector of the two you mentioned and I only wanted to hunt coin sized objects or bigger in moderately or less trashy areas, and I needed really accurate numerical and tone target IDs down to 10"+ deep, I would pick the Vanquish 540 Pro Pack. 

If I hunted in damp or rainy areas where waterproofing or at least weather proofing was important, I was mostly relic hunting in moderate to thick iron trash on old sites with moderate to mild mineralization, and I needed a threshold based all metal mode, faster recovery speed, better target separation and didn't care too much about accurate tone and numerical target IDs, I would pick the Simplex with wireless headphones.

Thanks Jeff for your opinion. I have a real concern with the tones on the Simplex, they are horrible in my opinion. 

[oneguy]

Goldmonster and the SDC..........

[sodbuster]

95%  Equinox 800

5%  Fisher F75 LTD2

 

Equinox is hard to leave at home because of its flexibility

[☠ Cipher]

I find myself using the Equinox 800 more than anything, but very often it’s more out of anxiety over the future of the V3i and maintenance of a machine like the CTX, should it need any. I’m keeping the miles on the latter two as low as possible. Once I’m comfortable that I have enough parts to keep the V3i alive I’ll give it hell again. Still my favorite model. I do enjoy the CTX-3030 w/13”x17” coil over large fields. It’s just a really fun machine to run and learn. Now with the Bullseye TRX being in such demand with no apparent supply, I might have to ease off it for a while too, and use the Tek-Point as my go to. Seems the Trx disappeared practically overnight. Speaks volumes about its performance 

[Tiftaaft]

5 hours ago, ☠ Cipher said:

Once I’m comfortable that I have enough parts to keep the V3i alive I’ll give it hell again. Still my favorite model.

I have been so tempted to pick one up.. but have been a bit intimidated by the adjustability of the programming.  I have spent time with others who used the V3i and they killed with them... but they were speaking a whole different language with their machine than I was with mine at the time... still tempted...

[Chuck M]

On 2/7/2021 at 8:40 AM, nickeldNdimed said:

How do you like the Vanquish compared to the F22?  I still love to take my F22 out occasionally instead of my 600. Looking to try a Vanquish sometime. 

The Vanquish 540 goes much deeper with good reading. I'm finding silver coins with the 540. I'm able to run the Vanquish mist times on full sensitivity. I would highly recommended this detector to anyone 

[MSC]

Used my 5000 75% of the time my 7000 25% of the time. Looking to use my GB2 a little more this year.