Minelab Safari/Quattro Forum

I'm a New Safari User.... I purchased it three weeks ago and since then I've searched a couple of local spots and spent a week at the beach with my new Safari and MXT Pro. I purchased the Whites MXT Pro back in February of this year. So far I've logged about 100 hours on the MXT Pro and about 30 hours on the Safari. I've operated both with and without headphones.

General Observations concerning the two machines:

1) The Safari seems to go deeper than the MXT Pro using out of the box settings on both machines. I haven't tried too many setting adjustments on either machine yet.

2) The Safari is a heaver machine and I like the way the coil is routed inside the tubing rather than wrapped around the outside like the MXT Pro.

3) The VDI / Numbers for the MXT Pro that I obtained from another Forum seem to be pretty dependable and fairly on target. The VDI / Numbers for the Safari that I obtained from this Forum seem to be less dependable, although I'm not really sure yet. I do seem to be digging a lot of junk, not all, just a lot using the Safari - I'll provide examples in a bit.

4) The MXT Pro is definitely a faster swinging machine. A back and forth rotation/swing for the MXT can be done in 2 seconds (recommended from what I've read). The Safari's swing/rotation time is a recommended 4 seconds. Mostly I read in the forums to swing the Safari slowly.

5) Of course the No brainer item: The Safari uses FBS (multi frequency) and the MXT Pro is a single frequency.

Search Results and Areas Searched:

Areas Searched: (1) A grassy field adjacent to the Canteen / Store of an old Mill now closed (2) Around an old water tower in town where kids used to play and alcohol drinkers used to hang out (3) The Beach (4) The city park (5) A grassy area at an old bus stop that I remember from my childhood.




Results: (1) The field adjacent to the Canteen / Store of the old Mill

I had previously searched this grassy field which is about the size of a small back yard. Using the MXT Pro I've probably searched the field 15 times and I'm the only one that has ever searched it. With the MXT I found about 20 Wheats, 4 silver dimes, a silver half, two buffalo nickels, an Andrew Jackson Hard Times Token, and a lot of junk. Using my VDI / Numbers list for the MXT Pro I was able to predict fairly often what I was about to dig. I took the Safari there twice now to see if I could recover anything that the MXT missed. On my first pass on a section of the field, I hit on two Mercury Dimes that the MXT missed. Both dimes hit in the upper 30's (38 or so). The thing I noticed about the Safari is that I receive a Lot, a LOT, a LOT, of signals that register in the upper 30's or Silver range. But, upon digging the signals, I come up with rusty nails. Ok, why there are nails in this field area, I don't have a clue, none. The thing is that the conductivity rating for these rusty nails and silver are identical, more or less - and the Safari numbers are tending to bounce around the 34 -35 -36 -37 - 38 -39 a lot when going back over the targets. Anyway, I dug a lot of nails looking for more silver. A lot of nails.... Also dug signals that some had suggested for Nickels but came up with scrap metal. I do realize that I had used the MXT to get the easy stuff already, but the MXT demonstrated to me that it discriminated signals received really well.

(2) Around the old Water Tower

I really don't remember how much stuff I found around the tower with the MXT, mostly pocket change and maybe a silver coin or two.

I took the Safari there Yesterday after the rain had settled down. I covered the head of the Safari with a plastic bag to ensure it stayed dry. I was there about two hours. I again dug a lot of stuff. I followed the sounds as well as I could and also watched the Safari Screen Numbers and the Identification of the type of metal it thought I was seeing. I dug a lot of stuff. Copper signals and again the Silver signals and sounds yielded mostly scrap metal, metal screw tops from wine bottles, rusty nails and bolts. The ground is full of broken wine bottles beneath the surface so I had to be careful while I dug. Anyway, I did find a Silver Quarter, and a clad Quarter, dime and nickel. As I was leaving I got a silver hit, (upper 30's) again. I knew it might be another rusty nail, but I dug anyway. About 6 inches down I came up with a ladies band. It says sterling on the inside and has 6 diamond chips. That was pretty cool.

(3) The Beach

I took both machines with me last week and searched the beach about 6 times while there. I started with the MXT Pro since it was already assembled (The Safari was still in the Box). This is a family beach with Beach Houses only, no hotels, no commercialism. So, I knew there wouldn't be much to find. The First few days there I used the MXT Pro on the sandy area first and then later down by the shoreline. I found a lot of clad with the MXT. In the middle of the week I assembled the Safari and began hunting with it. I found clad as well, but less. Again, I had cherry picked with the MXT and so there was less to find. I also took the Safari onto the hardpan area of the beach at low tide. I had been out about 6-7 hours before I saw my wife heading down the beach to get me. As we walked back to the beach house I got a hit without really trying on the Safari. I dug and about a foot down, I found a quarter. The Safari is deep. In the end, I found less clad with the Safari, but I did find it. In this case, it was not the safari's fault since I hit previously searched areas with the MXT.

(4) The city park:

This park is absolutely trashy. It has been there as long as my dad can remember and he's 82. With the MXT Pro, I found a couple of dimes, an Indian Head penny, a foreign coin, a couple of zinc pennies and eventually gave up due to the constant chatter. I took the Safari there today and tried to dig only the silver and believe it or not the pull tab indicators. Again, for the silver (35-39's) I dug only rusty nails. Again I'm at a loss as to why there are rusty nails in a park that shows no sign of prior construction and has been there since my dad was a kid (80 years or more). But, the point is, the Safari reads the returned signal of a rusty nail as a high conductive item like Silver. So, other than the Safari being right on the money with pull tabs, I found nothing in my short stay at the park. I just got tired of digging nails today. ( By the way, I revisited the prior sites (1&2) today as well and dug nothing but scrap metal with the Safari all day.

(5) The Bus Stop

I had been over the small grassy area adjacent to the bus stop about 7 times with the MXT. The grassy area is adjacent to an old in ground concrete reservoir shaped like a big circle. The Concrete comes about two feet up and then there is a wire fence all around it to keep people out or from falling in. With the MXT I found about 6 - 8 Mercury dimes, a silver quarter, a buffalo nickel, and two rings there along with about 10 -12 wheats. I took the Safari there the other night and it proceeded to go crazy giving non stop signals. I thought it had either broken and the batteries needed changing. So I went back to the car and changed the batteries even though the battery indicator didn't read empty (two bars showed). After changing the batteries I found a grassy area and swung the detector back and forth to see if the chatter had stopped. It Had. I need to go back to the spot and try again to see if the Safari will pick up on anything the MXT missed....


So, I don't know what to think about the Safari yet. I've ordered Andy's book to learn more about it. I get the feeling that if I want to cherry pick an area with a degree of confidence as to what I'm digging, then I need to use the MXT Pro. If I wan't to go deeper but with less confidence in what I'm about to dig, and dig more trash in the process, then I should use the Safari.

The tests I've conducted so far aren't equal. The MXT has gone first everywhere except parts of the Beach searching that I did. So the jury is still out on the Safari as far as I'm concerned. If I get better at using it I'll enjoy it more I'm sure. If not, I'll sell it and try another type of detector... I do know that I need to be fair and objective. So, I'll take some time to decide....

I am new to the Safari as well. You have more hours then I do swinging the Safari but I would have to say I have had the same experience as you have had except in my case no nails just lots of alum cans and screw caps. It seems that everything is in the 30 range. I has a DFX prior to the Safari and my gut says she is a deeper machine no question. At first I was a little taken back on the slow swing speed but I am starting to like it. I can hover over a target and with very little back and forth motion pick it up. The DFX like the MXT needs motion unless using mixed mode. Anyway I am digging deeper then I ever did with the DFX but still having trouble with target ID just like you my DFX was much better in this regard. But I think the key to the Safari is not TID numbers but sound. For example I was hovering over an iffy target I almost dug it but as I slowed down I noticed that the tone had a slight crackle to it and I remember reading that coins will have a solid tone an alum cans are known to crackle - guess because of the uneven surface.

Again I am sure the Safari is deep. I am also sure that to master this machine I need to master her sounds. I would be curious how an explorer or Etrac respond. Here is my analogy between the three minelab machines. They all have big block Chevy performance turned engines the SE and Etrac have navigation option the navigation option on the Etrac is better then the SE and it also has cruise control. But they all play the same tunes on the stero but the SE and Etrac have fancy equalizers but when it comes to going form zero to 12 inches they are all pretty darn fast.

I like you plan to give the safari more time. I know she is deep and I know she can find treasure. But time will tell if she is the machine for me. Keep in touch I think we are on the same path. It will be interesting to see where it leads. or

Bryanna

One thing I've noticed with the Safari is it's super hot on very small items at ridiculous depths.. In the back yard today I was digging a brass/bronze broach no bigger that a UK 5p at 7 inches and a 5mm steel nut at similar depth. I don't know if this is the 'norm' never remember my old SE being so sensitive but it gives me confidence that I won't miss much of the small stuff, just keep it low and slow

anyone wanting a new ,never used safari? i have one.facing two surgeries one after another.have two back surgeries now need another one ,plus when that heals need a neck surgery.real bummer, no more hunting for a long while

I think in time, you will learn alot more about the Safaris tones and numbers. It is really sensitive and can pick up something smaller that a head of common nail. Speaking of nails, if you want to risk loosing a coin, 90% of the nails will give you some indication that they are nails. A broken signal, A wobble, jumping numbers and a moving target when you start digging them. Usually nail ring up like pennies, so it is no big loss, BUT depending where you are, you might want to dig almost anything...sometimes you will be pleasantly suprised.

Safari is a better silver machine than the mxt and dfx and it goes deeper. But the mxt and dfx are better gold Hunters.