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C

cabochris

New member
As primarily a shallow saltwater hunter, I often wonder how many gold chains I walk right over while detecting because my machine will not respond. We know many of the reasons why our detectors will not easily see chains, but rather than just give up on gold chains I'm wondering... 1, which water detector responds best to gold chains in saltwater? Is it the Tiger Shark? I know my Excalibur, BHID and former CZ20 could/can not see many chains at all! I hear the Tiger is great on gold, but how about in the salt? Or how about a pulse machine? I read pulse machines detect chains better than VLFs? I guess what I'm asking is of all the water machines available new and on the used market, is there one that sees gold chains better in the saltwater? Or are they all pretty blind to chains? I would think if one lined up all the water machines side by side, one might prove to be better on chains in the salt? Perhaps not?

OK, what about a land machine that could be chest mounted or waterproofed? I hear the Minelab Musketeer Advantage will hit on gold chains and it works pretty good on salt beaches? Are there any other land detectors known to hit on gold chains and still work good on a salt beach/water/wet sand? How about the Sovereign GT in AM mode?

So if any beach hunters out there are finding your share of gold chains in the salt, what detector are you using? All opinions welcome, CC.
 
I waterproofed my I.D, Edge in a box so i could use it in the water tucked into my waders and it will pick up on small gold rings and chains pretty well,the excall
will hit them if its balled up some dont know about the cz21 yet as i havent had it out much but in the dirt it will hit coins deep so we shell see
 
I have found 2 .925 silver chains with my Excal. Not sure how it would respond to a small gold chain though. I would think if it was large enough i.e. the same size as the silver ones my Excal would get it.
 
I've found several gold and silver chains with my excal 2 1000 just really gotta pay attention to the tones.
Good luck
John
 
No doubt the Excalibur will hit on a chain now and then. But my group of 6 to 10 Excalibur users find few gold chains in the salt. We do find many silver chains. I have 3 medium gold chains I purchased (as a gold buyer). Each is a different style of link, yet neither the Excalibur or BHID make a peep in any mode! Even when the chains are balled-up or stretched-out, or touching the coils! Again, these are all 14K medium size chains I would hate to miss! Every time I buy a gold chain, I test my detectors. I must conclude there may be many gold chains in the saltwater waiting to be found!

On a recent Caribbean trip one fellow in our group found a nice gold chain with his II 800. The chain was a fresh drop on that day and I asked him how his machine responded. He said he barely heard anything in discriminate and almost didn't scoop the target. His chain was slightly larger then my test chains. On another trip I spotted a gold chain by mask- just lying on the surface. I swept my Excalibur coil right over it with no response whatsoever! This chain turned out to be a custom figure 8 link 18K piece, that sold for more than $1,000 scrap! Yet my Excalibur could not see it! I wonder if a Tesoro Tiger Shark would have detected that chain in Caribbean saltwater? Many chains found by my group are not very deep in the sand. So perhaps the Tiger, while not as deep as an Excalibur in the salt, would see more of those shallow gold chains? Then what about the Tesoro Sand Shark PI with printed spiral coil that is supposed to be more sensitive to smaller targets? I once found a gold chain just inches under the sand with a Whites PI Pro which rang out loud and clear. I was actually surprised to see the chain hanging off my scoop. I never tried it, but I doubt my Excalibur would have hit on that chain as loud- if at all? I sold the PI because I got tired of digging junk on short vacations. But now I have another used PI Pro with M6 style 9.5 coil on the way to test on my chain collection.

Obviously if a chain is very large or has a medallion attached that changes things. But I am still trying to discover if there is any detector that might do a better job on chains in the salt? Again I wonder if the Tiger Shark, or former Stingray might do that? Such a detector could then be used to specialize in chain hunting. I kind of like the ring of that- I'm hunting for chains today! CC.
 
Hey CC,

I've been asking this question for quite some time now myself. I found through "air testing" that the sunray 12.5" coil is actually better at picking up gold chains than the 10" coil.
Some may remember the youtube video that I posted here awhile back. Here's the link in case you wanted to see it. Don't forget to turn up your volume!!

Minelab Excal Youtube Chain Test

There were a couple follow-up videos to this as well..


Pretty long and boring but at least you get the idea...Chains are tough to pickup!
If the Excal/sunray coil looks familiar to you Chris, it's the Excalibur that I purchased from you 2 years ago. Still going strong...knock on wood.
I purchased a Whites PI pro and air tested it as well on gold chains, but just never kept it long enough to get in the water with it and stay there.
At the time, most of my hunting was on land and I didn't water hunt much so I thought.."what's the purpose" and sold it after just a few months. I almost wish now I would have kept it.
So now I've been thinking about getting a Dual Field.

I know others on the forum have found gold chains using the Excal 800, including GH and Pulltab Jim(myrtle beach) from that other treasure posting site.
So, I know the excal will pickup chains. It's just got to be large enough or close enough to the surface to be able to pick it up.
Unfortunately every gold chain I have found had a pendant of some kind attached to it.
However, I have found my fair share of extremely small gold using the Excal, but in all those cases it was in a heavy iron laden area and my sweep speed would be considered, by some, to be excruciatingly slow.

One machine that I think CAN pickup on gold chains at the beach is the Minelab E-trac. I've seen what these machines can do and it is nothing less than impressive.
But, I just can't compel myself to spend that kind of money on a machine that I can't take into the water!

I would love to know what kind of result you get from air testing a dual field if you get one...keep us up to date!

OUATIME
:minelab:
 
I've found my share of chains, silver and gold, with the Tiger Shark. Although I have never tried it in saltwater, I hunt lakes only, everything I've read and heard is that it's a marginal performer in the saltwater due to the mineralization. It does have a 'saltwater' setting but my guess is that's just a sensitivity reducer that prevents it from falsing all the time. I sure would have hated to walk away from some of the tiny silver and gold chains it pointed out. But there's a down side to that as well. It'll go off on BBs and sometimes Shotgun shot as small as #6. Then you spend your time trying to find that target that keeps falling through the holes in your scoop because you know it's a nice diamond stud. NOT! As a lot we water hunters are never happy! jim
 
Shamefully it is do to salt water. In order to work salt water conditions the detectors have to be tuned for it. Salt and smaller gold are almost the same. In oder to work the salt the curciut is adjusted to tune it out. It may be the disc side or the ground balance side or both working together. The Tiger shark in fresh is great on small stuff but tune it for salt and they are gone. No longer it does not handle salt good anyhow. Take the cz 5 or 6 in salt mode then switch to normal you will see the detector will see thinner chains better in normal. Now PI's are no different change the detector to handle the salt and smaller gold goes too. The Sand shark is good on smaller stuff with a small coil. And here is another note the smaller coil the better on small stuff. I found the Beachunter id with the 9 coil good on small gold but in all metal. You may not get the led to show but you can hear them. I have used the cz 20 , excal, Infinium, whites pi (not the dual) ,Stingerray 2,Sand shark and custom units. I feel the BHID with the 9 coil is one of the best for small stuff but lacks depth on the normal gold. I would like to see the 300 on a all metal test. i have been using my sand shark with the 5 by 10 coil. I have found a few silver post earing but the gold is still hiding.I had a friend that found some smaller gold with the Excal 800. I too feel I walk over the smaller gold and it drives me nuts but then agian you got to love the hobby,Good hunting,Joe
 
Joe, will your Sand Shark hit on medium gold chains in saltwater? Enough of a signal that you would dig it? I'm not even that concerned about micro gold jewelry. My Excaliburs and BHID will not even see some larger chains! Again, I understand many of the reasons why, but still wonder if 1/any water detector might provide a slight advantage on gold chains in the salt? 1 such chain find could easily pay for a detector! I was just told on the Infinium forum that the Infinium with 14 mono coil will hit on gold chains in the salt. I may have to test an Infinium again? From my limited experience and at this point if asked, I would say the Whites PI Pro is the more responsive water machine to average gold chains in the salt. From what you say the Tiger Shark is out of this race. Realistically this leaves the PI Pro/DF, Sand Shark and Infinium. For a VLF water machine, perhaps the Excalibur is as good as it gets on gold chains in the salt?

As an Excalibur user I just purchased used both a BHID 9.5 and a 300. I also have a used PI Pro on the way. Unfortunately there is something wrong with the BHID 300 and I'll have to send it to Whites. It barely picks up a gold ring at 3 inches! Plus the ID lights will not light up in discriminate until coil is just inches away from target. The AM mode seems to work a bit better, but this machine is sick. In Super Tune AM mode I'm somewhat impressed with the BHID 9.5. In my yard (GB to bad soil) it will easily hit a thin gold band at 12 inches and give a light ID at around 10 to 11 inches. My semi-customized Excalibur 1000 with Mr Goldmaster headphones and 10 inch Tornado coil will only ID a slight gold tone on that same ring to 9 inches in discriminate, near MAX sensitivity. keep in mind this is a fairly thin band. I mostly hunt with Excaliburs in discriminate. From what I see the discriminate mode of the BHID 9.5 is nowhere near as good as the discriminate mode of my Excalibur 1000. But in AM the BHID clearly correctly IDs gold range targets deeper than my Excalibur 1000 will. But I do not know if that will be the same in Caribbean saltwater? Will I be able to ST the BHID in the salt? Plus even though I am impressed with the BHID on gold rings, when it gets anywhere near my turned on Excalibur it goes berserk! That could be a problem when hunting around 4 to 6 fellow hunters all using Excaliburs! Some Excaliburs cross talk worse than others, but some Excaliburs can work inches of each other without. Not the BHID though!

Once repaired the BHID 300 might even go deeper? But again, my BHID 9.5 will not respond any better to gold chains than my Excalibur. By using either machine in the salt I will have to accept the fact that I will miss most gold chains that my coil passes over! Even when just inches deep in the sand- and that bothers me! If a PI will hit better on gold chains, then I'm reserved to digging more junk on short Caribbean vacations, thus reducing ground coverage for potential gold targets in the same amount of time. One solution might be to cover ground quickly with a VLF for gold targets, then later back over same ground with a more sensitive PI for deeper gold and possible gold chains? That is if a PI will hit better on chains? CC.
 
Hey slow down! This is hard to say but I do not know which will be better on gold chains. i still say the BHID 9 inch and maybe the 300 will hit the small stuff better. You will have to run it in all metal and listen. The led's will not light. At least you will not waist time digging iron. Now the PI's like the sand shark with the small coil hit small targets good but I have not found any gold post earing with it yet. I am thinking of getting the 7 inch coil next. From my experince the Infinium work better with the stock 2d coil in salt. I wish they made a smaller (like 8 by 12 or 7 by 11 ) 2d epoxy filled for it. If I was going on Vacation I would use the detector that disc. 's first that I am most knowledgable with. Then take a Pi for backup and for the clean spots.I think you will be happy with the 300 when you get it back. Hope this helps ,Joe
 
Chris, I see you are still on that quest of finding another machine to plunder the Caribbean !

I had the same problem with my BHID 300. Great machine, but could not get anywhere near other hunters. The thing sounded like a pin ball machine. Sold it for a different reason..I can't use the big coils any longer.

JC
 
Beach Hunter,

Each day I am more and more impressed with the BHID 9.5, testing in my yard/bad ground in AM. Super Tuned in AM I can nearly ID targets by ear! Iron targets do not seem to carry very far. In other words, get a loud iron target in the ground, the BHID will lose it pretty quick when raising the coil just inches. With gold rings and silver coins the target loss is much more gradual!

Correct me if I am wrong, but with the BHID there seems to be a dramatic difference in detection depth between Disc and AM, especially when ST in AM? So far with my 9.5, I'm not very impressed with Disc. mode. Or does the BHID actually work better in Disc. at the beach/salt than in tough dirt/ground back home?

Can one run a BHID AM mode Super Tuned in shallow saltwater? Will the BHID still run fairly smoothly in the salt? Or does one have to turn down sensitivity even in AM in the salt? Thanks, CC.
 
I just spoke with Tesoro yesterday. They said the Tiger did not lose much sensitivity to gold when set in the salt position. That the Tiger is still good on gold chains in the salt! And, that the Tiger will soon be back in production with improved coil connectors. I was also told that the Sand Shark was very sensitive to small metal.
 
I run my detector almost MAXED OUT in salt water! in ALL-METAL...The 300's depth in disc/tone id mode is pretty good...better then any 9.5 coil I ever used. Disc mode is good for moving fast in dry sand where nothing is ever deep...the idea is to cover as much area as you can before others get it.I 99% of the time hunt wet sand or in the surf...some times I can even run it hotter in the water! Some of the most mineralized spots on beaches I hunt are in wet sand at low tide.
 
Since my CZ20 and HH PI are water proof, any inclement weather they come out first...along with the 6a ( been using the stock 8 inch coil more and more and not the Sunray FZ-12 coil. Don't know why, but I keep finding really good stuff with the stock coil on the 6a). If the weather is nice and I want to relax and dig all in the wet sand, it take the Goldquest. Smoothest running PI I have ever used in the wet salt sand and suds. Just can't dunk it. Was seriously thinking about getting that Aquasearch that was in the classifieds, but it's a little too much and I don't get in the water much. I figured the HH PI can cover me along with the CZ20 if I want to get wet.

Last but not least...the DFX with the 9.5 stock coil. An underrated beach detector in my book.

I am like you Chris...always looking for a new one to try out but in the end, stick to what we know best. CZ for me, Excal for you. I don't think you can argue with the success you have with the Excals.

Not sure if you have the funds, but the BHID300 is a nice machine. I may end up getting another one, but an older model with the 9.5 inch coil if I can find one. I seem to like the 9.5 inch coil the best when it comes to Whites machines. Like it on the DFX, on the Surf PI's I had and I can swing them a lot longer than the big coils.

JC
 
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