My wife and i want to get her son a metal detector of his own. He seems to be interested in the hobby. He went with me a couple of time's. We want to be around $200+ or - and under. I'm thinking of a compadre, like i have. But i think he would like a vdi machine. How about the Fisher F2, or a whites coin master. I hear the F2 is a good beginner machine than the Garrett 250 or 350 for the money. I have never had a fisher myself. looking for advise.
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
Changed email? Forgot to update your account with new email address? Need assistance with something else?, click here to go to Find's Support Form and fill out the form.
low end price detector
- Thread starter hunter12
- Start date
REVIER
Well-known member
hunter12 said:
You had plenty of replies that recommended the F2 on the other forum.
Why?.
VDI numbers and a pretty much free sniper coil in a few packages are just a few reasons.
Rapid recovery and superior target separation are a few more.
Plus, it is a coin machine and finds just about everything else and lets you know it if you get your coil over it.
Mine has, anyway...see the proof below which is just a small amount of my F2 totals.
Surfinsafari
New member
I bought my son an Ace 350 only because the 250 didn't have earphones and the 350 has a larger coil. The 250 is a fine detector as is the F2. I would like anF2 for myself and I swing an Etrac. Every machine has its strengths and weaknesses..even the 3030 so I would just get him a detector and let him have at it. He may not like digging anyway.
Rainyday101
New member
I vote F2 or Compadre. Both have better warranties than the "Yellow One".
While I would get the F2 because it offers a lot for the money, you may wish to seriously look at the Compadre.
Like anything we do in life, there is a better way to learn a subject and a not so efficient way to learn it.
If he learns to discern targets by audio first, he will have gained an advantage that he will never lose even if he goes to a VID style detector later.
However he may become disenchanted with detecting if he takes the more "initially" difficult path.
Since you know him best, you will have to make that decision "VDI" or "no VDI".
That is the question. (sorry 7UP)
Like anything we do in life, there is a better way to learn a subject and a not so efficient way to learn it.
If he learns to discern targets by audio first, he will have gained an advantage that he will never lose even if he goes to a VID style detector later.
However he may become disenchanted with detecting if he takes the more "initially" difficult path.
Since you know him best, you will have to make that decision "VDI" or "no VDI".
That is the question. (sorry 7UP)
Joel-Winnipeg
New member
One of the best kept secret Euro-Tec Pro
Right choice. And here's why I say that.
Of the products on the market in that general price range, if you get a Eurotek Pro, you never have to wonder if you got the right machine, you never have to second-guess your decision. If you get anything else in that price range (even stuff I designed), you'll always wonder if you should have gotten a Eurotek Pro instead.
Although I designed the platform that the Eurotek Pro is based on, the primary engineer on the Eurotek project was Jorge Anton Saad, assisted by our new engineer Yi Yang. These guys have become a formidable team who make life easy for me, just point them in the right direction and they can handle the rest.
I've never even swung the EtekPro myself, I'm working on other stuff. It was through reading the forums that I discovered what a good machine these guys had engineered.
--Dave J.
Of the products on the market in that general price range, if you get a Eurotek Pro, you never have to wonder if you got the right machine, you never have to second-guess your decision. If you get anything else in that price range (even stuff I designed), you'll always wonder if you should have gotten a Eurotek Pro instead.
Although I designed the platform that the Eurotek Pro is based on, the primary engineer on the Eurotek project was Jorge Anton Saad, assisted by our new engineer Yi Yang. These guys have become a formidable team who make life easy for me, just point them in the right direction and they can handle the rest.
I've never even swung the EtekPro myself, I'm working on other stuff. It was through reading the forums that I discovered what a good machine these guys had engineered.
--Dave J.
purplesage
Member
Where ya findin' all the rings Reiver??
REVIER
Well-known member
purplesage said:Where ya findin' all the rings Reiver??
My wife's fingers.
Ok, a joke, but several of them end up there after I find them.
It took me awhile to figure out the ring finding game, I swung a bad unit for 3 months and never found one, (but I also knew nothing about site selection at the time, either), then I upgraded to a Vaq and that slowly started to change.
The first ring I ever found was a 1970's classic mood ring.
The first gold ring was a very tiny child's ring about 8" deep in the sand at an inland lake swimming area, and over the last few years I got better at picking sites and finding rings at those sites so my collection is still growing hunt by hunt.
The ones you see in the pics above were found in all sorts of places but there are 2 kinds of sites where I find a higher percentage of rings than most others and I target these and hit them hard whenever and wherever I find them.
Those sites would be the grass, pebble or chip filled islands used to divide up parking lots, high schools and colleges are the best kind, and the very best site to find jewelry of all is the perimeters of basketball courts.
The older the courts and the trashier they are the more I like them because you have to work through the heavy trash but most are rewarded if they do.
The gold targets in the first pic were all found last year with the F2, I found 2 more gold rings to make an even dozen and hit a crazy goal I set for myself last year, one with my Vaq, one with my new F70.
Here are a few of my other ring finds from the past few years, I have a decent amount of silver chains, too.
A few found with my Vaq, several were sniffed out by my Compadre, the bulk of them were found with the F2 mostly because I used that the most.
A large amount of the gold targets I found with the F2 happened after I mounted the sniper coil on the thing which was not a coincidence.
Again, found at all kinds of sites but mostly in public parks.
A few years ago I decided to become a jewelry hunter as my specialty and studied site types and percentages, I always strive to learn new things and get better using any of my detectors on every hunt, and worked hard to get good at this phase of the hobby and became pretty successful at it over time.
I have mentioned hunting these grass islands in the past, and have posted a lot about these basketball courts, what I use, how I think and exactly what I do when I hunt them so do a search on me and those terms and you will find them if you would like to read about that stuff.
I've use over 15 different detectors in the past 20 years and can say, for the money, the Eurotek can't be beat. The iron audio feature has become a very important part of what I like. I presently use the F75 LTD as my main machine but have found the Eurotek fits right in when hunting the heavy iron, old home site locations. I can set the audio to 11 and run with 0 discrimination and still hear the iron without it screaming at my ears. Such a feature and would very much like to have it on my F75.
Wow, I've dug 6" dimes that gave a very loud and repeatable audio even while mixed in with iron nails. I've had 3 Ace 250's and can say for sure the Eurotek pro is better balanced and just as deep.
Wow, I've dug 6" dimes that gave a very loud and repeatable audio even while mixed in with iron nails. I've had 3 Ace 250's and can say for sure the Eurotek pro is better balanced and just as deep.
The folks here in El Paso TX are king of the under-$300 market. Not to knock certain models that used to claim that spot.
TODAY'S HISTORY LESSON. During the late 1990's and early 2000's, BH was king of that market, but had a reputation for poor quality control. When they chanced to work, they worked pretty darn good for a low cost unit.
Several things happened meanwhile. Tom Walsh bought out the previous BH owners and immediately began upgrading manufacturing practices. Then in late 2002 he hired me (arguably the best metal detector engineer in the USA) to continue the quest for upgrade. Approx. 2003 came Garrett with the Ace 250 which immediately became the $200 price point standard, we bought one and tested it and dissected it and were impressed. Several years later we acquired Fisher, and desperately needing new products we answered the Ace 250 with the F2 which was a major revision of the basic "Payne platform" that had its roots in the 1980's Teknetics. And, we kept on answering, with the BH Platinum (still a sleeper because of its narrow distribution) and later with the Teknetics Delta and most recently with the Eurotek Pro.
The Ace 250 redefined its price point a decade ago. Garrett has good marketing, and the Ace 250 took off. But nowadays, it's coasting on inertia. Since the intro of the Ace 250, all the action has been in El Paso. There is simply no comparison between the Ace 250 and what you can get delivered from El Paso these days in the same price point ballpark.
--Dave J. (On behalf of Jorge Anton Saad, the maestro of the Platinum-Delta-GB/G2-Eurotek series of platforms).
TODAY'S HISTORY LESSON. During the late 1990's and early 2000's, BH was king of that market, but had a reputation for poor quality control. When they chanced to work, they worked pretty darn good for a low cost unit.
Several things happened meanwhile. Tom Walsh bought out the previous BH owners and immediately began upgrading manufacturing practices. Then in late 2002 he hired me (arguably the best metal detector engineer in the USA) to continue the quest for upgrade. Approx. 2003 came Garrett with the Ace 250 which immediately became the $200 price point standard, we bought one and tested it and dissected it and were impressed. Several years later we acquired Fisher, and desperately needing new products we answered the Ace 250 with the F2 which was a major revision of the basic "Payne platform" that had its roots in the 1980's Teknetics. And, we kept on answering, with the BH Platinum (still a sleeper because of its narrow distribution) and later with the Teknetics Delta and most recently with the Eurotek Pro.
The Ace 250 redefined its price point a decade ago. Garrett has good marketing, and the Ace 250 took off. But nowadays, it's coasting on inertia. Since the intro of the Ace 250, all the action has been in El Paso. There is simply no comparison between the Ace 250 and what you can get delivered from El Paso these days in the same price point ballpark.
--Dave J. (On behalf of Jorge Anton Saad, the maestro of the Platinum-Delta-GB/G2-Eurotek series of platforms).