Garrett Infinium- First Impressions

[MontAmmie]

Well, the Infinium arrived this morning, and I just couldn't wait to get some sand on the coil.  So I headed for the closest beach about 1/2 mile from our house and hunted for about 3 1/2 hours. I didn't get past knee-deep as I was just trying to find some targets to dig and get used to it first.  First impressions of my new Infinium:

1.  I don't like the stock shaft at all.  I'll be upgrading that thing ASAP.

2.  Hip-mounting the control box is the way to go.  My arms and shoulders are usually hurting after 3 hours of swinging the DFX, but after some food and iced tea I think I could take the Infinium out again!

3.  This thing goes deeeeep.  These are guess-timates on depth, but a lead sinker at about 10 inches down in wet sand? pull-tabs at 8? There were a couple of targets I just gave up on because my scoop wasn't up for it (gotta upgrade that too).  The Infinium didn't find any gold or silver, but it found an abundance of junk, so the good stuff will eventually show up in the scoop too. Looking at my junk pile, I would estimate that the Infinium found me about twice as many targets as the DFX did in wet and damp sand on the same beach in the same amount of time.  Yay!

4. Iron junk wasn't really a problem.  I didn't try that reverse-disc thing on every target, so I dug two nails that I probably would have passed by with the DFX. One of those nails did that "double signal".  I dug it anyway to see what it was.   

5.  I'll have to rig an external speaker of some sort on it before next summer.  In Montana, people are not the top of the food chain, and I need to hear what's sneaking up behind me.

6.  All that stuff I read about "hard to learn"?  Nah, it seems pretty simple to me, but I've only run it at the beach, so that might be the reason.  It is a little bit noisy in the shallow water, but when it hits a target for real, you know it!  I was running the DFX pretty hot anyway, so I was used to it and it didn't bother me at all.

7.  Gotta dust off that PADI card and probably take a refresher course at the local dive shop.  This thing is going to be awesome in the water!

8.  If there's a speck of gold left in a river in Montana, my Infinium is going to find it for me.  It LOVES lead sinkers, which, from what I hear, are the redneck relatives of gold nuggets.

The bottom line is that I REALLY like it.  We all know it's a numbers game.  So what I'm thinking is that double the pull-tabs will equal double the goodies in the long run. I can't wait to get in the water with it! 

Ya'll have a great weekend!

Ammie

[Steve Herschbach]

I am glad to hear the new detector clicked with you! That's most of the battle, and no, the Infunium is not difficult to run at all. I hope you dig a pile of gold with it!

Sime gold specimens I found in Alaska with my Infinium...

[Mark Gillespie]

I wonder how it compares to the TDI in iron..........

[Swampstomper Al]

On 7/7/2017 at 8:35 PM, MontAmmie said:

Well, the Infinium arrived this morning...
Ammie

Glad you like it.. Now you know why you couldn't have mine..  Works equally as well inland as it does in salt (see above..) Only thing I'll add is to not take all reverse signals as Gospel..

Swamp

[Steve Herschbach]

On 7/8/2017 at 5:12 AM, Mark Gillespie said:

I wonder how it compares to the TDI in iron..........

Performance of the TDI and Infinium is close, but there is no ability to manipulate ground balance on the Infinium (it's automatic tracking plus "lock") directly which is one of the things that makes the TDI different. The TDI also generates a single tone, either high or low, depending on the target. The Infinium generates a dual tone in each target, high/low or low/high. This doubles the noise in dense trash, and there is no tone suppressing switch (referred to as a conductivity switch on TDI) so you always hear it all. The bottom line is the Infinium can find the same items as the TDI but has less tuning options and the nature of its audio response make it more challenging in dense targets.

The main Infinium advantages are waterproof and simplicity of operation. Garrett Infinium Tips & Tricks

[MontAmmie]

2 hours ago, Swampstomper Al said:

Glad you like it.. Now you know why you couldn't have mine..  Works equally as well inland as it does in salt (see above..) Only thing I'll add is to not take all reverse signals as Gospel..

Swamp

Al. your mono coils want to come hang out at the beach all day with me and my Infinium. 

2 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Performance of the TDI and Infinium is close, but there is no ability to manipulate ground balance on the Infinium (it's automatic tracking plus "lock") directly which is one of the things that makes the TDI different. The TDI also generates a single tone, either high or low, depending on the target. The Infinium generates a dual tone in each target, high/low or low/high. This doubles the noise in dense trash, and there is no tone suppressing switch (referred to as a conductivity switch on TDI) so you always hear it all. The bottom line is the Infinium can find the same items as the TDI but has less tuning options and the nature of its audio response make it more challenging in dense targets.

The main Infinium advantages are waterproof and simplicity of operation.

Dense targets are not a problem on our beaches and in Montana!  I'm really glad I got waterproof, although I think I will need the 8 inch mono coil.  I got out about waist-deep yesterday and moving that 10x14 DD through the water was tough.  We did have some 2-3 ft waves, but that's just normal for here.

Thanks everybody, and especially Steve, for helping me pick my Infinium!

[Swampstomper Al]

20 hours ago, MontAmmie said:

Al. your mono coils want to come hang out at the beach all day with me and my Infinium. 

I never got a mono.. For down here beachin' I didn't see the necessity.. There have been times I wish I had one, but truth be told that's mostly only after the power coil starts getting heavy..

If living in a different part of the country though...

Swamp