Anyone here go from Minelab to a different detector?

[Tony (Michigan)]

Has anyone here go from Minelab to a different modern/recent detector and your finds increased?

 

[Dan(NM)]

Has anyone here go from Minelab to a different modern/recent detector and your finds increased?

It went the other way for me, tried several different top of the line brands, never could gel with any of them. I kept going back to watch was working in the first place.

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

I didn't leave Minelab, but added a Deus to my arsenal recently for small gold which my SE Pro can't touch. The Deus kicks the SE Pro's butt on small gold, not even a contest. Target separation is also night and day vs the SE Pro and dang the Deus is deep. No air gap issue on the Deus vs the SE Pro. Deus handles the nasty volcanic black sand in the Pacific NW much better than the SE Pro. On the other hand the Deus is FAIL at discriminating rusty crown caps, its pathetic how bad it is at this. Conversely on the SE Pro it handles rusty crown caps so well you can actually use its crown cap discrimination to find coins hiding under the crown caps. Target ID accuracy, SE Pro remains the king there is much room for improvement on the Deus. Love the Deus wireless everything, love the light weight dang 2.24 pounds.

Explorer SE Pro has been a swiss army knife for me, parks, fields, reclis, beach. I jumped to the eTrac and returned to SE Pro. Then I jumped to the CTX and again returned to the SE Pro. Somewhere in there was the Infinium bobby pin digger. Now I have my sites set on the Equinox to replace my too heavy for a 50 year old Excalibur.

 

[Tony (Michigan)]

There's a pretty good way for Deus to tell you if it's a rust crown cap. Save a program you normally hunt in then save a program next to it that operates in 4kHz.
If you think you have a rusty cap hit the plus button to go to the 4khz program and I think if the numbers go down it's a rusty cap. Can't remember if it goes down or up. Test it.

 

[Tony (Michigan)]

Has anyone here go from Minelab to a different modern/recent detector and your finds increased?

It went the other way for me, tried several different top of the line brands, never could gel with any of them. I kept going back to watch was working in the first place.

I went from the Explorers to the E-trac. Glad I did. I also got a Deus. Hot machine. It's not Digiorno, it's Deus.

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

n/t

 

[Tony (Michigan)]

Hi Christ, the Explorer XS is a great detector. When I set mine in the closet after getting an Explorer SE my finds when in the crapper. Then I tried the SE Pro and the finds just weren't there as well.
I struggled for years. I sold the SE and SE Pro. Finally got the E-trac and my finds are coming back. But I will never get rid of my XS.

 

[jctorok]

Morning friends,

I have an Explorer SE then bought a CTX. Of course after all the stories and man is it fast and deep stories on these boards I bought the XP Deus. Now truth be told, maybe I am old and my discernment in hearing is not so good, but in my area of TX the Deus has not proved the stories and claims made by others.

Both my Explorer and CTX will id a target when the Deus cannot. Yes, the Deus is faster, but truly, from my experience is not deeper.
The Deus is lighter, but for me that is not an issue, I can swing the CTX all day and the Explorer for quite a while and not get tired.

I continuously need to tweak the Deus to get it to work in different soils where as I can use my settings on both the CTX and Explorer and in general noise cancel and ramp the sensitivity up and down and work anything I have been confronted with. Again, limit my experience to the soils I have in TX.

They say you can find more with the Deus, my experience is I end up digging 3X more junk with the Deus. So, I decided to dig all the signals a few times with my minelabs and yes I likely found a few coins I would not have found otherwise, but I really like making good finds verses digging tons of junk.

My order of go to detectors is the CTX followed by my Explorer SE and I usually leave the Deus home unless I think the ground has extremely heavy iron and over and over again, the CTX has proved I can get in heavy iron and work head to head with my Deus.

This is my opinion only and for SE Texas.
Best of luck all.
Jerry

 

[Ted S]

Great info Jerry Thank you! I have an SE with the Pro coil and this is the info I like to hear. I only hunt a couple of hours at a time. I like the SE and thought about jumping on the Equinox bandwagon. I just can't justify spending the money when I have a perfectly good machine that hits old silver dimes deep! Good luck and happy hunting in 2018!

 

[IDXMonster]

Morning friends,

I have an Explorer SE then bought a CTX. Of course after all the stories and man is it fast and deep stories on these boards I bought the XP Deus. Now truth be told, maybe I am old and my discernment in hearing is not so good, but in my area of TX the Deus has not proved the stories and claims made by others.

Both my Explorer and CTX will id a target when the Deus cannot. Yes, the Deus is faster, but truly, from my experience is not deeper.
The Deus is lighter, but for me that is not an issue, I can swing the CTX all day and the Explorer for quite a while and not get tired.

I continuously need to tweak the Deus to get it to work in different soils where as I can use my settings on both the CTX and Explorer and in general noise cancel and ramp the sensitivity up and down and work anything I have been confronted with. Again, limit my experience to the soils I have in TX.

They say you can find more with the Deus, my experience is I end up digging 3X more junk with the Deus. So, I decided to dig all the signals a few times with my minelabs and yes I likely found a few coins I would not have found otherwise, but I really like making good finds verses digging tons of junk.

My order of go to detectors is the CTX followed by my Explorer SE and I usually leave the Deus home unless I think the ground has extremely heavy iron and over and over again, the CTX has proved I can get in heavy iron and work head to head with my Deus.

This is my opinion only and for SE Texas.
Best of luck all.
Jerry

I’ve had the same experiences Jerry,and we have VERY similar equipment. I don’t have a Deus but my buddy at work does. I do have the CTX w/11/17 and an Explorer2 with Ultimate,X-1,etc. What you said is what I’ve found to be the case. Any time I have tried to get depth,FAST Separation and accurate ID,it’s never lined up. I wholeheartedly do NOT believe that you need FAST anything with a EITHER the Explorers,etrac or CTX because of the way they process information. How many times have we found nails,iron objects of all kinds,pull tabs,etc in the same hole as a coin? I would say that 50% of my deep coin recoveries have had Trash directly with them in the hole or at bare minimum within the coils diameter. While some machines try to beat the garbage with SPEED(my buddy digs MASS amounts of garbage and needs more experience) the FBS/2 machines beat the garbage with PROCESSING. That’s why you see posts of people using a ML for the first time and BANG!....good finds everywhere. It’s not ALWAYS that way but if you apply the basics and good technique,along with a site that has promise,results are usually akin to ours. For the results it has given me,the CTX is the KING of deep coin hunting,bar none.

 

[Robert Hohman Sr.]

I have used Fisher, Garrett, Whites, Tesoro, and others respectively. Since 1999 I have used the Explorer series of Minelab's. From the XS to the Se Pro I currently use. I hunt with other detectorists that use Fisher F series, Garrett AT series, Whites in many different variations, MXT, DFX. XP Deus, etc, and still the Minelab FBS series detectors dominate in most situations. Not all, but most. It is weak on deep gold etc. But as far as all around detecting. In depth, target separation, sensitivity, and tone variances, the FBS comes out on top most of the time. I have hunted side by side with detectorists that use these others and compared targets while still untouched in the ground. In trashy areas, open field hunts, parks, and houses. In my experience and honest opinion it is still tough to beat and can compete with everything on the market today. Most companies today seem to have "borrowed, adopted, or taken some of this technology and used it in their detectors.

 

[IDXMonster]

Hi Christ, the Explorer XS is a great detector. When I set mine in the closet after getting an Explorer SE my finds when in the crapper. Then I tried the SE Pro and the finds just weren't there as well.
I struggled for years. I sold the SE and SE Pro. Finally got the E-trac and my finds are coming back. But I will never get rid of my XS.

I’m sure he is very good with his machine but calling him “Christ” might be a bit much!

 

[MikeO]

Used a many prior to the release of the XS but, after the switch have stuck with Minelab.
Personally could not be happier in that choice. )

 

[Hanoverdigging]

I got a Deep Tech Vista Smart Plus. Single tone machine with iron audio. Has the recovery speed of the XP Deus. Killer machine in heavy iron. Went back to all my spots I have wore out with my SE-PRO and was shocked what it missed. I have the 6x8 and the Sunray X-5 for the iron infested colonial homesites I hunt. I still hunt with my SE-PRO pro but it's no match for the DeepTech Vista Smart Plus.

 

[BigTony]

Tony, I just won the Nokia Impact! No brag, just really happy with my lucky guess.
I will be using that going forward and see how it compares to the Exp II that I have used for the last several years.

Tony

 

[Southwind]

Yes! But then I use the right detector for the right job.

Love the E-Trac/CTX for hunting our city park and some school areas like older baseball sites, but both are fair at best in the tot lots. The Deus puts the E-Trac/CTX to shame when I'm hunting gold at tot lots/schools/parks. Of course the Equinox might change that practice.

 

[IDXMonster]

Yes! But then I use the right detector for the right job.

Love the E-Trac/CTX for hunting our city park and some school areas like older baseball sites, but both are fair at best in the tot lots. The Deus puts the E-Trac/CTX to shame when I'm hunting gold at tot lots/schools/parks. Of course the Equinox might change that practice.

Exactly. I have a CTX,Explorer,IDXPro and a Compadre. They all do different things. Something light,fast and good on gold for one purpose,an FBS machine for those deeper coins I need good ID on. There’s no sense in swinging a heavy machine for finding shallower targets really.