I finally got a chance to take my Racer 2 to the beach today. While there wasn't a soul around and no one has been down to this beach this season, I thought it would be a good time to see how the Racer2 handles Salt Water, Wet Salt Sand and Dry Sand..
If this detector was waterproof, Garrett would never sell another AT Pro...
I'll say that again;
If this detector was waterproof, Garrett would NEVER sell another AT Pro. No Falsing, it took a couple of tries to get it to ground balance,but once it did, it was rock solid the whole time. I didn't have to throttle it back, change my swing or make any other adjustments. I took my AT Pro as well so that I could compare on the exact same beach under the exact same conditions. Now My AT Pro is ok in the salt water despite what a lot of people claim (that the AT PRO can't be used in salt conditions.which is nonsense). The Makro Racer 2 is just that much better. ZERO Falsing, Accurate Depth, handles the transition from dry to wet sand to immersed and shore break water seamlessly. On the Wet sand I got a ground balance in 3 tries using the standard Beach Program. Once I had that ground balance, it was no problem to re-balance both in the water and out. My Ground balance wound up at 10 and on the AT Pro it was 17. I call that a pretty good match for two different manufacturers. Plus both machines run at different frequencies so there may be some variation there as well.
The Makro found a gas cap at about 14" (rang up a solid 85... I had to dig it right?...Didn't stop to think that a 14" "85" was PROBABLY not a quarter LOL!) It didn't' matter because the beach was SO quiet that I had to check a couple of times to make sure that the detector was on!
The AT PRO also had a decent showing but was far noisier than the Makro (Running Pro Zero with no discrimination makes for a noisy machine anyway). I was able to run full sensitivity (many people will tell you that you have to lower the sensitivity on the ATP for it to work on the beach... Sometimes, that is true but not always.). The ATP will also false a lot more but you learn to ignore it. When it DOES hit a good target, it's a solid response. Conditions were good and the ATP found a piece of a shipwreck that was too big to remove LOL...Again, ringing into the good numbers...
On the way off the beach, I stopped at the air station point and did a quick sweep, The Makro pulled a War Nickel out of the sand so once again, my record it unmarred...
Final analysis is that the Makro Racer 2 is only a tick mark away from the ATP on the beach because it's not waterproof. If you make a waterproof Racer, I want to be first in line...
I think that the next time I go to the beach, I'll take my V3i and see how it stacks up against the Racer 2
If this detector was waterproof, Garrett would never sell another AT Pro...
I'll say that again;
If this detector was waterproof, Garrett would NEVER sell another AT Pro. No Falsing, it took a couple of tries to get it to ground balance,but once it did, it was rock solid the whole time. I didn't have to throttle it back, change my swing or make any other adjustments. I took my AT Pro as well so that I could compare on the exact same beach under the exact same conditions. Now My AT Pro is ok in the salt water despite what a lot of people claim (that the AT PRO can't be used in salt conditions.which is nonsense). The Makro Racer 2 is just that much better. ZERO Falsing, Accurate Depth, handles the transition from dry to wet sand to immersed and shore break water seamlessly. On the Wet sand I got a ground balance in 3 tries using the standard Beach Program. Once I had that ground balance, it was no problem to re-balance both in the water and out. My Ground balance wound up at 10 and on the AT Pro it was 17. I call that a pretty good match for two different manufacturers. Plus both machines run at different frequencies so there may be some variation there as well.
The Makro found a gas cap at about 14" (rang up a solid 85... I had to dig it right?...Didn't stop to think that a 14" "85" was PROBABLY not a quarter LOL!) It didn't' matter because the beach was SO quiet that I had to check a couple of times to make sure that the detector was on!
The AT PRO also had a decent showing but was far noisier than the Makro (Running Pro Zero with no discrimination makes for a noisy machine anyway). I was able to run full sensitivity (many people will tell you that you have to lower the sensitivity on the ATP for it to work on the beach... Sometimes, that is true but not always.). The ATP will also false a lot more but you learn to ignore it. When it DOES hit a good target, it's a solid response. Conditions were good and the ATP found a piece of a shipwreck that was too big to remove LOL...Again, ringing into the good numbers...
On the way off the beach, I stopped at the air station point and did a quick sweep, The Makro pulled a War Nickel out of the sand so once again, my record it unmarred...
Final analysis is that the Makro Racer 2 is only a tick mark away from the ATP on the beach because it's not waterproof. If you make a waterproof Racer, I want to be first in line...
I think that the next time I go to the beach, I'll take my V3i and see how it stacks up against the Racer 2
