I recently came into a Tesoro Sand Shark on an Anderson straight shaft that I acquired for a great deal but not sure I'm wanting to keep it. I hunt freshwater 90% of the time with an occaisional trip to the coast to get in the surf so I'm looking for something that I can use mostly in freshwater but still feel at home in the wet saltwater and sand. I'm looking to either keep the SS and acquire either a Tiger Shark or Fisher Aquanaut for my freshwater hunting or sell the Sand Shark, make a little profit then add some cash to get into a CZ 21 or Excal of some sort to use in both fresh and saltwater. Either way will probably break even price wise because keeping or selling the SS I am looking at $600 plus for a Tiger Shark or Aquanaut or add $600-$700 cash plus my sand shark toward the CZ or Excal. I have Excal questions too I will post in a separate thread. So, whats the general consensus here? By the way, don't want an AT Pro; already been that route but I much preferred the Tiger Shark I had many moons ago to the AT. Never used any of the Fisher or Minelab water machines. I do not dive at this time, although I'm looking to get some training and certification for scuba and will want to eventually do that or even a hooka system; so right now I'm just your average wader. Thanks for the input!
Find's Treasure Forums
Welcome to Find's Treasure Forums, Guests!
You are viewing this forums as a guest which limits you to read only status.
Only registered members may post stories, questions, classifieds, reply to other posts, contact other members using built in messaging and use many other features found on these forums.
Why not register and join us today? It's free! (We don't share your email addresses with anyone.) We keep email addresses of our users to protect them and others from bad people posting things they shouldn't.
Click here to register!
Need Support Help?
Cannot log in?, click here to have new password emailed to you
Already have a Sand Shark...but how about one of these?
- Thread starter Habanero
- Start date
Sanderling
Member
I do not have an Excal, but see lots of them on the beach. Everyone that I talk to that has an Excal loves it. I understand that there is a bit of a learning curve with it, but I have seen and heard of some remarkable finds in the surf and wet sand. BTW why don't you like the AT Pro? I have a Minelab Safari, but unfortunately it is not waterproof. For my money I choose Minelab.
tiger shark for fresh water for sure. tons of people love them. excal/cz are locked in salt mode which hinders their performance on small gold compared to the the tiger shark making them not the best choices for fresh water although they will work. since you dont make it to the ocean much i would probably keep the sand shark for the ocean and get the tiger shark for the freshwater. unless of course you have the money to get the excal/cz for the ocean but the sand shark gets just as much depth if not more but has no discrimination so you will be digging everything. i only hunt the beach so i have a cz21 and am in the process of getting a pi machine. if i hunted freshwater every once in a while i guess i would use my cz but i would probably try to find a tiger shark for it.
I'll probably go ahead with a Tiger Shark then, likely new though. If it's the Tiger Shark I'm gonna get then just have to decide between the 8" or the 10.5 coil! If I could find a very clean used model with both coils interchangeable then I'd probably jump on that. Thanks for the input all!
dewcon4414
Well-known member
The Xcal will hit on a piece of gold about .3 grams........ whats that $6 in gold? Id dare say i can live with that........ but the real problem is the amount of iron when fresh water hunting. The Xcal HATES iron so it nulls and is a slow recovery in disc. You can over come that with an 8" coil and PP mod. Being able to ID iron with better than average depth is another one of the Xcals strong points. TS is a very good choice for fresh water. Id have one if i fresh water hunted.... but then if i was all around hunting like fresh water, dirt and salt water id have a used CTX as well. There can be advantages to a TID screen. Machine selection is quite a process......... it took a lot of research when i was dirt hunting because it took a lot of clad to pay one off. Not quite the same beach or water hunting...... there id say buy the best because it will pay for its self.
Yea, haven't ruled out a decent used Excalibur yet but the new TS is also calling my name. I'm attracted to the Excalibur because I've never had one and it's one machine to cover all of my water hunting needs. The TS is an amazing freshwater machine but means I'll need to keep that sand shark for salt water....and dig some iron.
Habanero said:
You will quickly find that there is no such thing as a machine that does everything
This is why most detectors who have been doing it for years have several machines. I have heard of people using Excals/CZs for freshwater and doing well and I have heard of people saying do not get them for fresh water because they are locked in salt mode and wont pick up small gold that the tiger shark will. I guess it depends what your goals are. You might want to talk to some people in the areas you hunt as that can make a big difference. Good luck deciding. Oh, and listen to Dew, he knows alot about this stuff.adamBomb said:Habanero said:
You will quickly find that there is no such thing as a machine that does everything
I was looking at one machine for all my water hunting because otherwise my sand shark would sit there collecting dust. I might make three trips a year to the coast then freshwater hunt the rest if the time. That's three times of use per year on the sand shark so hard to justify having it around. Was thinking an Excalibur for freshwater that could be used often enough plus cover my coastal excursions as well.