compadre on dry sand beach...

[fishandchips]

Hello, im looking to get an inexpensive machine for my wife to use at the beach with me. It will be Atlantic City mostly.How does the compadre or silver umax perform on the dry sand? thanks

 

[silverskidmarks]

compadre

 

[fishandchips]

ok thanks

 

[Dancer]

Compadre, watch out she might out hunt ya with it.

 

[pelanj]

Silver does fine as well. I use a 12x10 SEF in dry sand and it finds coins and gold deep, no problem.

 

[CladDog]

Love the Compadre, but not on dry sand beaches. The coil is too small and the depth too limited. Remember, good targets sink fast in loose sand.

A Vaquero would be my first choice, but if you were on a limited budget, I'd vote Cibola second (for depth) and the Silver third.

 

[fishandchips]

I know if i buy her a machine she will only use it when we are in Atlantic City(or other jersey shore beaches).I signed her up for the hunt in A.C. in may.Other than that she wont go out dirt hunting with me. I just purchased the outlaw for myself and didnt want to spend that on a detector for her. She had an Excal and it was to difficult for her. That would be the reason I was looking at the compadre. Do you think the compadre would get 4-5" in the dry sand or just avoid it for sand hunting. Thanks

 

[CladDog]

4"-5" very likely yes, but that answer can be deceiving.

The beach sand in my area is flat, but has a more rolling effect which makes swinging detector at sand level difficult.

You have to hold it higher in my area to swing it without hitting sand.

If that's the case in your area, the Compadre's depth might be too limited to be worthwhile.

 

[fishandchips]

Ok thanks I have 300 dollars to spend for a used machine(to be bought here of course) which would you choose?

 

[CladDog]

Personally, I would get either a used Cibola or a new Silver uMax..

 

[Rick in Pa]

Last summer my son and I were hunting OC , NJ beach. He was using my excalibur and I was using his Compadre. Found a nice silver ring and lots of change. The coil is small for the beach compared to 10 inch excalibur but it is still lots of fun to use.

 

[lrsjr]

Actually, for use on the beach a large coil would be better for coverage.

 

[fishandchips]

thanks for all the answers everyone. i have an outlaw,do the coils work with the silver umax?

 

[lrsjr]

n/t

 

[ToddB64]

CladDog and fishandchips...........I've often thought of tying a heavy-duty plastic bag over the coil and up the lower pole section a ways to hunt volley-ball sand courts that have undergone a lot of foot stomping, creating sand humps. You could swing away and not worry about lightly crashing into those sand humps ! That would improve depth and also protect the coil from sand scratches, sand getting between the coil and coil cover and into the pole-to-coil pivot assembly.

The above idea should work on dry sand ocean beaches equally as well, but sorry to say I haven't tried it yet.

ToddB64

 

[pkrska]

I tired my Compadre in beaches and I did find falsing sometimes. Other times it did not false. I was wondering if that had anything to do with the weather or time of day because I was searching fine until the Sun started to go down and suddenly it was falsing all over the place. Perhaps it was due to the humidity or other factor that made it mineralized soil suddenly?

As far as depth goes, I did dig some deep hole, a lot deeper than in grass. I also found that the Compadre works in the water close to the edge. Not too far into the water. But I did get signals and found garbage. I guess I need to go further into the water to make it worth it!

I also didn't find that the beach sand was a problem swinging my Compadre. I guess it depends on the beach sand conditions, but where I go there are no major sand dunes like stucture hindering my swing. It's pretty even looking.

 

[ToddB64]

Two options for the "coil-crashing-into-sand-humps & small dunes" would be (a) a metal detector that deals well with mineralization and goes deep so you could hold the coil high enough to clear these obstructions and (b) the plastic bag tip in my post dated February 08, 2013 11:30PM in this thread.
I've always intended to try that tip, but haven't gotten around to it yet. LOL !

I'm sure there are other options !

ToddB64