Menu
What's new
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.

Safari, my first Minelab!

K

KennyD

New member
Hello everyone,
I wanted to pop in here and say hello, and express my excitement on a new Safari that should be arriving soon.
I've been using a number of different machines, but I've never owned a Minelab. I traded in my AT pro so I hope that the Safari was a good decision.
Hope to learn more about it from you experienced Safari users here!

Cheers,
Ken
 
Congrats on your new Safari. Be patient & take time to learn it & I think you will love it. Its a great machine. Good Luck with it.
 
Be Patient. Its gonna take you a while to get used to it. My former experience with a Whites Coinmaster didn't really help much. It took me about 50 hours on the machine until something CLICKED in my brain and my finds shot up and my trash shot down.

Trust the tones, yourself and nothing else. Nothing. The tones never lie.
 
Ken...congrats on choosing a great detector!!!:thumbup: KinTN was right when he said to have patience. I would also recommend getting Andy Sabich's books to read the techniques he has employed with the FBS detectors. Also, I would recommend going back and reading previous posts on this particular forum to learn how others broke through the 'barrier' of initial frustration of all those funny and weird sounds and tones and had that 'eureka' moment like has been stated from many other Safari and other FBS machine owners!!
I still remind myself that each tone my Safari emits, is telling me about a target underground. It identifies and tells you through different tones and then it's up to you to dig...or not!!! Congratulations on a great investment!!!!
P.s. If you get so frustrated that you want to throw it in a river or jump up and down on it, I'll buy it from you!!! I've almost worn my out and I'm about due for a new one!:rofl:
 
Thank you very much for the comments and suggestions guys. Much appreciated!
So, from what I'm reading, I should go by the tones more than the TID on screen.
Is the screen TID not very trustworthy on this machine?
 
It's going to be different than your AT Pro in numerous ways.

Sweep slow, make sure your sensitivity is not too high to start ( you can go auto, but I found out running manual at the optimal setting will give you much more depth. But you have to know your soil), and above all, LISTEN to what the Safari is telling you, not what it reports on the screen.

Without a doubt, the tones are the way to go on this unit.

I have a Safari and an E-Trac and for my ears, along with the headphones I use, silver dimes and quarters are a higher, more distinguishable tone on my Safari. And it goes DEEP.

It may not have all the bells and whistles of an E-Trac, nor the visual ID capabilities, it's a damn good unit.
 
On. your first couple of hunts, stay away from the heavy trash areas. I made that mistake when I got mine, and became overwhelmed with all the tones and numbers. I remember thinking what did I get myself into with this thing! But it wasn't long and things started making sense. A test garden really helps too HH
 
Great advice guys, thanks so much!
I really want to learn this machine so that it becomes my favorite. I don't want
to be frustrated by it.
Please keep the tips coming!
 
I got my Safari back in June of this year and have perhaps about 40 or so hours on it. It did take me awhile to learn the sounds. When I turned it on for the first time, I was sure that I might never understand those wierd sounds, but now the sounds of the various targets make sense to me.

What really helped me was turning the machine on and running it over the various coin types placed on the ground: silver of each denomination, clad of each denomination, copper and zinc cents, as well as some different types of jewelry, especially rings. And don't forget to try some pulltabs, foil, aluminum cans, bottle caps, etc.
Soon, the sounds will make sense to you, so please do not get frustrated at first.

I have found that the numbers are very reliable, but if a signal sounds good, but the number is questionable, I dig it anyway.
It may be a good idea to dig everything at first, just to see for yourself.

I use it primarily for coinshooting, so I do not have any experience with it for relic hunting.

Best of Luck with it. Know that you have a GREAT machine...
 
Thanks for that post Metaldetective, I'm a coinshooter as well. I'm so glad to hear that the Safari has a good reputation.
I really enjoy learning new machines, and it looks like the Safari is gonna be alot of fun to learn.
 
If you decide to concentrate on trashy sites/parks etc; and you have a few dollars to invest, you may want to invest in a smaller coil to help you in the separation of targets. Here's one I would recommend. It's 6 inches across and great in super trashy areas. It will pick out good targets in between the ring pulls, foil and bottle tops etc;. It has helped me a lot to avoid the frustration of the many sounds of multiple targets under a larger coil. Also, it will enable you to detect closer to the swings and slides metal structures and metal fences.
 
Well, the Safari came today. Took it out for a spin and all I can say is WOW!
I'm definitely going to love this heater! I couldn't be happier with it.
 
Congrats on your new machine, you will soon discover they eat batterys like no other. I still say my RNB rechargable pack is the best investment I made. You might want to consider one if your gonna stick with the Safari
 
Simpsonslammer said:
Congrats on your new machine, you will soon discover they eat batterys like no other. I still say my RNB rechargable pack is the best investment I made. You might want to consider one if your gonna stick with the Safari
Click to expand...
I use all of my empty beer can deposit money for batteries, so that won't be an issue. LOL
 
Congratulations on your new Safari.

The Safari was my first Minelab as well. I was so pleased with it, that I bought an Xterra 705 to be a back up, and an Excalibur to go into the water.

I feel that you will love your new Safari.

Good luck to you
 
fwiw, I bought a bunch of hi-amperage Eneloops and a MAHA charger when I got my Safari and always have tons of AA's for all my toys.
 
After using my Safari for awhile now, it seems that the battery life is no worse than the AT Pro I had. Its just that it uses 8 AA batteries instead of 4.
 
KennyD now that you have had your Safari for awhile how does it compare to the AT Pro? I see a lot of AT Pros around, but have yet to run into anyone else with a Safari. Love the Safari! I find my battery life is around 14 hours. Only drawback is that it takes so many AAs. It is a great machine and you can look forward to many finds.
 
I put in alot of time with the ATP, and really enjoyed it. Great machine for the money. I traded it in for the Safari because of all the high praise it gets.
Better depth, tones, and the fact that it uses 28 simultaneous frequencies instead of only one. Build quality is outstanding too.
I think we see more ATP users because of the lower price, and the national TV shows they appear on. In my opinion, the few hundred dollars more in price is well worth it to have such a quality machine that the Safari is.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top