Best pinpointers?

[ryaan21]

Hey all. I will be buying a new pinpointer soon and was wondering what you all would recommend. I am currently using a Pistol Probe. It has seen better days. One thing I like about it is the range, but the build quality is poor.

I am also NOT interested in the Garrett Pro Pointer.

So out of the brands left, which do you use and would you recommend?

No need to question me about why I don't like the Garrett Pro Pointer, I have done my research and I would not buy one of those for any money.

 

[Bucksport]

Everyone will have an opinion on this one. There has been debates that have gotten ugly about this question.
It is really a personal preference. I personally don't need a pinpointer with 2-3" of depth. Other may like that.
You really have only 3 high dollar choices. The minelab, whites, and vibra-probe. The low dollar would be centek, and fisher unit.
I have been using the vibra-probe for 3 years without a problem. Others have had great luck with the others. I know that doesn't answer your question, but it is a hard one to give an answer that is not an opinion.

 

[ryaan21]

Yeah thanks, it helps. I also see Kellyco has a new one out as well, looks interesting and some of the reviews I have read have been favorable, but I do not do business with them so I guess my options are really limited.

Minelab

Whites

Vibraprobe

I did have the centek and fisher pointers at one point in time and while they worked the build quality was lacking. Which is fine for the centek, I think i paid 13$ for it. But the prices they charge for the fisher/BH pointer are robbery.

I have used the minelab pointer and it works good but the volume is a little low for my liking.

No biggie, just getting some feedback before I clean up all my clad and place an order. I remember hunting without a pointer back in the 90's so its not a make or break item.

 

[yowow#1]

Not sure there is a best, Sunray makes a fine product if you don't mind the added weight. I have several handhelds "the TRX, profind, propointer and really don't see much difference between them in how they work. I have had two pro-pointers and they both went berserk chattering in no time, so not a big fan. One pinpointer you don't here a lot of talk about is the Nokta RS, I think is a fine pinpointer the only thing i'm not sure who would do warranty service for them if needed, Kellyco maybe? Good luck, i'm sure you'll get a lot of opinions.

 

[MarkCZ]

Well the two or three top models closely match each in performance, you tossed one of those out the window already, so your down to maybe two, do a coin toss.

In the many topics that I've seen come though this forum covering this topic, the Garrett always! comes out on top. But for whatever reason you've narrowed your search to a very small window of worthy candidates.
A few on the market don't even make the grade for a dollar store toy.

Mark

 

[Rick(ND)]

There is several I like, the Sun Ray is the tops for me, but it is made for the detector you are using and they don't make them for all detectors, so I have a Uni Probe that is built into a quality set of Headphones and these are going on over 6 years of use and only had a wire break from the use of the probe and had to send it in and was repaired for free. These also have the cord that is replaceable like the Gray Ghost NDT and is made by the same company too. If you been using headphone you know the biggest problem is a wire breaking on the cord that plugs into your detector, well you get a extra cord so when you are out on a good hunt and the wire breaks you can switch the cord and save the day of detecting.
The other pin pointer that seems to have more depth then the Garretts and made in the USA as claimed by Whites is there new TRX, which I got 2 in to use and 2 of the guys I hunt with bought them so I had to get 2 more and now I believe one of the other want 1 too as they like them so much.


Rick

 

[ryaan21]

Yeah, we are going to order 2 of the Whites pointers.

 

[mrwilburino]

The Sun Ray for when I want to leave those rusty nails in the ground.

The Pistol Probe for when I'm going for the deep stuff..

 

[nugget71]

Waterproofed my Garrett pro-pointer as soon as I bought it and have never had a problem with it. Even leaked after my first attempt so I simply took it apart hit it with a hair dryer and waterproofed it again with success a second time. No problems since. Had mine for over a year so far. I was expecting any left over water inside to seize it up after a few months but she's still firing on all cylinders, no complaints here. Good luck with your choice what ever you buy.
Cheers!

 

[ryaan21]

Yeah everyone I know personally who had a garrett pp had to return it, some people up to 3 times before they got a working one. I used to trust garrett as a company, but with their horrible failures in dealing with my AT PRO and the things i witnessed with the PP, I will steer clear of them.

Not to say other people wont and dont enjoy their products, they are just not for me.

 

[MarkCZ]

Well, I have a Pro-Pointer (A real one not the Chinese knock off that's floating around)
My Brother has a real one.
My other Brother has a real one.
My Friend has a real one.
His girl friend has a real one.
All of ours are the first ones we ordered and no defective ones yet.

I'm not sure where all the ones you know of that went bad came from, but! I'm thinking possibly they may have been the Chinese look a likes.
The Pro-Pointer is built to Military Specifications.

Now I have seen post where people have stated that digging with them will damage the inside of the probe tip (wonder why?)

I can say with some certainty that the Pro-Pointer out sells ALL other handheld pin-pointers by at lest 2 to one.

I'm still not really trying to sell you on the Pro-pointer, but if you have a bunch of detector buddies that bought crate of them and they were all bad, then there is something just not right, like maybe the $10.00 look-a-likes that was going around awhile back. They looked exactly like the Garrett, but were nothing but junk!

For me I really don't like the idea of the Sun-Ray mini coils (pin-pointers) because I have 5 detectors and buying five of those things is not an option for me, then they don't work on another model plus, when you sell a detector with one attached you can't get one nickel more out of the unit if you let the inline go with it. Nope! not for me.

Of the six pro-pointers in my list all but two are over two years old.

The new Whites models is getting some praise, but its still early in the game for them yet, it will only be decent to good if Whites the company actually makes it.

Mark

 

[yowow#1]

Well, I have a Pro-Pointer (A real one not the Chinese knock off that's floating around)
My Brother has a real one.
My other Brother has a real one.
My Friend has a real one.
His girl friend has a real one.
All of ours are the first ones we ordered and no defective ones yet.

I'm not sure where all the ones you know of that went bad came from, but! I'm thinking possibly they may have been the Chinese look a likes.
The Pro-Pointer is built to Military Specifications.

Now I have seen post where people have stated that digging with them will damage the inside of the probe tip (wonder why?)

I can say with some certainty that the Pro-Pointer out sells ALL other handheld pin-pointers by at lest 2 to one.

I'm still not really trying to sell you on the Pro-pointer, but if you have a bunch of detector buddies that bought crate of them and they were all bad, then there is something just not right, like maybe the $10.00 look-a-likes that was going around awhile back. They looked exactly like the Garrett, but were nothing but junk!

For me I really don't like the idea of the Sun-Ray mini coils (pin-pointers) because I have 5 detectors and buying five of those things is not an option for me, then they don't work on another model plus, when you sell a detector with one attached you can't get one nickel more out of the unit if you let the inline go with it. Nope! not for me.

Of the six pro-pointers in my list all but two are over two years old.

The new Whites models is getting some praise, but its still early in the game for them yet, it will only be decent to good if Whites the company actually makes it.

Mark

The first propointer i bought came from kellyco.....I don't think they sell the chinese ones. It was a bad one
The second one came from garrett because of warranty......I don't think they sell the chinese ones. It is a bad one
Geez man take it easy. It aint nothing personal.

Why do people get so worked up over pinpointers

 

[Mega]

No pinpointer will be 100% perfect but the Garrett is near perfect for most detectorists needs,the Whites is still new yet and has not shown it true colours in terms of reliabilty and anything that is new detecting wise this could be detectors or accessories i wait a minimum of 12 months to see if any faults start to appear then and only then will i hit the buy button.

The biggest problems of late has been the dreaded chinese copies,they do look very appealing when you see them much cheaper on the famous 4 letter website that starts with a 'E' and ends in a 'Y' or the longest river in the world website,but once they arrive although they do look like the real deal they end up being thrown away in the rubbish bin,this then also then condems the real thing as being un-reliable.

When you thing the abuse that a probe gets from either being dropped,used for actual digging findss out and then even being dropped into water then its not suprised that a electronic item could fail,but if used properly and follow certain guide lines then pinpointer will last alot longer.

Another probe i use and own is the SunRay one on my DFX that is a quality piece of kit but of course the down side is that its teathered to just one machine and if you change your machines often then you could loose alot of money as others have stated.

For me i use the Garrett PP as my main weapon that i shoot from the hip but i also have a Whites as a backup as although its uktra reliable its not as refined as the GPP,its all down to pewrsonal chpice nd what we are happy with and of course what your budget is as well i guess,but what amazes me is you get folks spending multi 1000s of dollars/pinds or what ever on a top flight detector but use cheap inferior accessories like headphones/spades and pinpointers.As a general rule you get what you pay for in the detecting world in my mind,others could see this as being wrong.

Good luck in what ewver you are happy using.

 

[MarkCZ]

color] ones. It is a bad one
Geez man take it easy. It aint nothing personal.

Why do people get so worked up over pinpointers

Well, I didn't really mean to seem "Worked Up" its just for the past few years I've followed many of these post about pin-pointers and the Garrett always comes out on top by hundred of users but if I was in your shoes and had the problems you had with it, then I wouldn't ever buy another Garrett product either and that's fine, one thing for sure its "Your Money" and I wouldn't expect you to spent it on products your not happy with.

Carry on

HH
Mark

 

[ryaan21]

No, none of them were the chines knock offs, they were all authentic garrets.

7 guys in our club have had at least one, and all of them had to be sent back at one time, some more then 2 times.

That combined with the thorough forums search i did across multiple forums and the failure rate seems to be rather high. I figured i would find some posts about them failing after the guys in my club all abandoned theirs for better units and I was correct.

I dont have a lot of money to spend so i like doing some research before dropping money on something that has a proven fail rate.

Anyways, we all like things, we all are not going to always like the same things. Garrett is not the company they once were in my opinion so I take my dollars to a different company. That is the beauty of this hobby, lots of choices

 

[marcomo]

ryaan, despite the inexplicable percentage and number of people in your club that had problems, the Pro-Pointer is the real deal. There's good reason why they've become so popular, and it ain't just Garrett marketing savvy. But they aren't indestructible for sure.

Push down more than very lightly on the ground when probing and you'll eventually distort the windings.

The speaker is not waterproof and if you get it too wet there goes the high end from that little speaker. Get it really wet and you can ruin the board. If you don't cover the speaker, it gets filled with dirt and mud. Cover the speaker and the sound drops significantly and you lose all high end. Fill it with dirt and mud enough times and you won't have to cover the speaker to make it sound covered.

My experience with numerous Pro Pointers is that, for multiple reasons, performance eventually deteriorates. A new or relatively new Pro Pointer just plain works better than a two or three year old one. Anyone who thinks that's not true would probably change their mind if they tried their old one next to a new one.

The good thing is Garrett has fantastic customer service and the Pro Pointer has a two-year warranty. Talk to Sue or Myra at Garrett and if you return it during the two years and they'll fix it or replace it. They don't ask you if you pushed it into the ground like a shovel, gave it a bath or used it as a baseball bat. They just take care of it. Of course, you're not too bright if you do any of those things with a piece of electronic equipment. But my point is Garrett will cover your arse if you commit "user error." The guy who distributes and warranties the Pistol Probe shall remain unnamed but he always copped an attitude and implied user blame when his Chinese probe would break.

There is also a healthy market for used Pro Pointers, even if they aren't working optimally. So if you get a replacement during your two year warranty and the replacement deteriorates in performance, you can still usually sell it well used and get at least half your money back.

Old timers will tell you that Garrett has always had great customer service. I'll agree with you that Garrett isn't the company they used to be when it comes to performance. We'll just disagree on whether that's good or bad.

Like you, I've used the Pistol Probe for quite a while. It was the back up to my Pro Pointer when I needed extra depth. I definitely 100% agree with you about the poor build quality of that Chinese made product. The barrel always wanted to snap at the body. The on/off button was temperamental. Worst of all, it was big and bulky. From a distance it looks like a big gun. The TRX at default level 3 is as deep or at least almost as deep as the Pistol Probe and much more stable. And it's not awkward and massive like the Pistol Probe. When the TRX came out for me it was RIP Pistol Probe.

The TRX has only been out a few months so as others have said the jury is still out on durability. It doesn't have the textured grip of the Pro Pointer which I think has a better hand feel. But again, the TRX has a two year warranty if anything goes wrong. I've never used White's customer service, but most everyone that has says good things.

The TRX operates differently than the Pro Pointer with the power mostly concentrated in the tip (like the Pistol Probe) instead of the lower shaft. The TRX has a lot of flexibility the Pro Pointer doesn't, and that's a plus to me. Audio on or off, vibration on or off, multiple sensitivity levels, AA or 9V batteries. I like that I can save money using AA LSD rechargables with the TRX.

The TRX is the next evolution of the pinpointer IMO, and I'd strongly recommend it. To someone who was new to detecting, or wanted simplicity, I'd still recommend the Pro Pointer. I carry both. The TRX is no advantage with a shallow or moderate depth textbook coin signal. The Pro Pointer is actually slightly faster on those. On the deeper iffys, having the TRX is an advantage.

 

[Barry NY]

I heard rumors that another cheap (under $90) Chinese "knock-off" will soon hit the USA...selling under it's own brand name and looking very similar to the Garrett.
Watch for supposedly unbiased "comparisons" video to be made by someone who is actually importing the pin-pointer (but won't say so...).
I'm sure he will tout it as the next greatest thing since a BLT sandwich!

 

[mrwilburino]

They're all pretty much Asian on the inside.
Regardless of where they're assembled.

 

[mcb613]

Just bought a Profind after having 2 perfectly working Garretts. Both Garrets were flawless, needed another for my sone just starting. Wanted to try the Minelab unit, since O am a fan of Minelab. The other thing that was interesting was ability to adj sense and turn off speaker. I just finished a side by side depth test on a recently found silver. The Mibelab has 1/4 to 1/2 inch advantage.... Until I did the nickle mod for the Garrett , which resulted in same depth. Not sure if the few extra bucks for minelab unit is worth it but i guess so. As long as a tight budget isnt a concern. Hope this helps.

 

[mcb613]

Forgot to clarify something. Prior to Garretts, I used Sunray inline. That changed with my 3030, If available for my machine, wouldnt have either handheld!