Chase Goldman Posted October 23, 2021 Share Posted October 23, 2021 10 hours ago, GB_Amateur said: For all the verbal crap dumped on First Texas (IMO, some deserved, some not) over both the AQ, other detectors, and the company in general) it's nice to see someone with a ton of experience with one of their detectors singing its praises. As always, thanks for your posts (with associated great eye candy!) and especially your objectivity. Well it didn't come out if the box that way. Joe has done some serious mods and upgrades, particularly with the power source, connectors, miscellaneous stem hardware, and headphones to turn it into a Bay beast. Not sure where FT is headed with the platform now, but Joe should get a special mention as an unofficial member of the design team if they ever release a completed design version. Nice saves as usual, Joe. You work hard for those recoveries and that's the key to your success. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schoolofhardNox Posted October 23, 2021 Share Posted October 23, 2021 1 hour ago, Chase Goldman said: Well it didn't come out if the box that way. Joe has done some serious mods and upgrades, particularly with the power source, connectors, miscellaneous stem hardware, and headphones to turn it into a Bay beast. Not sure where FT is headed with the platform now, but Joe should get a special mention as an unofficial member of the design team if they ever release a completed design version. Nice saves as usual, Joe. You work hard for those recoveries and that's the key to your success. Without Joe's battery the machine is not practical for the avid hunter. 2-3 hours just doesn't cut it in the real world. Imagine finding a big gold ring and your battery dies. You have to exit the water and be very careful on installing the other battery and hope it lasts for at least 3 hours. Joe should be labeled a "Saint" as well as an unofficial member of the design team ? 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tvr Posted October 23, 2021 Share Posted October 23, 2021 21 hours ago, schoolofhardNox said: Without Joe's battery the machine is not practical for the avid hunter. 2-3 hours just doesn't cut it in the real world. Imagine finding a big gold ring and your battery dies. You have to exit the water and be very careful on installing the other battery and hope it lasts for at least 3 hours. Joe should be labeled a "Saint" as well as an unofficial member of the design team ? Agree! I thought I'd be OK with two of the stock batteries until I was consistently running out of both. I thought five hours would be enough, until I actually ran one of Joe's big batteries out from a full charge. Completely lost track of time; wife was ready to call in a search party and I was sore as heck from the digging the old body did. Love the AQ LTD but it does need a lot of battery to keep it going. Joe has made it very usable where it was not entirely what was needed as it came from the factory. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dewcon4414 Posted October 24, 2021 Share Posted October 24, 2021 On 10/21/2021 at 9:27 PM, tvr said: I like that old gold! The AQ is really quiet in the bay and tributaries. Settings that I can run in the ocean waters are not near as hot as in the bay. I like that black coil! Now wouldn't it be nice if First Texas made one that size? Around 10 inches or so. I said that from the start as a beach hunter. Many PIs had an 8” coil. I talked to Bill Crabtree several years back his preferred coil size was 9 or 10”. Having swung the Xcal I just like that side. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dewcon4414 Posted October 24, 2021 Share Posted October 24, 2021 12 hours ago, tvr said: Agree! I thought I'd be OK with two of the stock batteries until I was consistently running out of both. I thought five hours would be enough, until I actually ran one of Joe's big batteries out from a full charge. Completely lost track of time; wife was ready to call in a search party and I was sore as heck from the digging the old body did. Love the AQ LTD but it does need a lot of battery to keep it going. Joe has made it very usable where it was not entirely what was needed as it came from the factory. Again something I questioned from the beginning. I was hunting sometimes 10 hours and the answer buy and carry another battery made no sense. Joe did it shortly after getting his. I chalked it up to …. This wasn’t the production model. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill (S. CA) Posted October 24, 2021 Share Posted October 24, 2021 Nice to see you out there again, Joe. The old gold can run but it can't hide from you. FYI to all, and not sure that it means anything at all, but I got the new Kellyco catalog in the mail yesterday and it advertises the AQ as "coming soon." 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamid Posted October 24, 2021 Share Posted October 24, 2021 Very nice ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tvr Posted October 24, 2021 Share Posted October 24, 2021 10 hours ago, dewcon4414 said: I said that from the start as a beach hunter. Many PIs had an 8” coil. I talked to Bill Crabtree several years back his preferred coil size was 9 or 10”. Having swung the Xcal I just like that side. I got my Headhunter Pulse from Bill when he was closing down his shop. I got the 11 inch coil. I think the form factor of that coil makes it a great coil in the water. It has less drag than the 10 inch Excal coil. Agree that the 9-10 inch range is kind of a sweet spot size for water hunting. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Beechnut OBN Posted November 3, 2021 Author Share Posted November 3, 2021 On 10/24/2021 at 7:28 AM, dewcon4414 said: I said that from the start as a beach hunter. Many PIs had an 8” coil. I talked to Bill Crabtree several years back his preferred coil size was 9 or 10”. Having swung the Xcal I just like that side. Here you go Dew! 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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