lordmarcovan
New member
Somebody on another forum I frequent has asked for recommendations for a good general-purpose detector for coinshooting and beach hunting, under $500. I told him my pick was the Garrett GTAx-550, due to my past coinshooting and relic hunting experience with the machine (and, for twelve years, its GTA-500 predecessor).
He seems impressed with the machine and I think it is on his short list of candidates, but he read a review somewhere that said the machine will not work properly on salt water beaches. Rather than being able to put his mind at rest, I had to admit that I too had experienced difficulty with my old GTAx-550 on the beaches here. (I live on the Atlantic coast of GA). I do not do much beach hunting, and when I did, I preferred to use a Fisher 1280-X underwater machine.
I was reluctant to tell him of my difficulties with the 550 because I suspected it might have been an issue with the user settings rather than the machine. (Sensitivity set too high, whatever). However, even tinkering with my sensitivity, I had trouble with phantom signals on the beach when I tried that detector. (Which, admittedly, was not very often).
What made me question my own beach hunting skill was that I saw somebody else on the beach, using an even less-expensive Garrett machine, and they seemed to have no problem at all.
Now, I know Garrett bills most if not all of its machines as being suitable for beach hunting (though not necessarily for surf or underwater use, obviously). But let's cut through the ad hype and hear from actual users. Have you had any problems? How were you able to resolve them, if so?
If and when I am inclined to go beach hunting myself, it should not be a problem for me personally, since I now use the GTI-2500 and it has a salt elimination feature.
I told this fella that as far as coinshooting and most general purpose hunting goes, I stand by my pick of the 550 as a great midpriced machine, but he does need to resolve this issue about wet salt beaches before he makes his final decision on what detector to buy. I will link this thread to the other forum so he can read it.
If y'all wish to read along or participate over there, too, be my guest.
He seems impressed with the machine and I think it is on his short list of candidates, but he read a review somewhere that said the machine will not work properly on salt water beaches. Rather than being able to put his mind at rest, I had to admit that I too had experienced difficulty with my old GTAx-550 on the beaches here. (I live on the Atlantic coast of GA). I do not do much beach hunting, and when I did, I preferred to use a Fisher 1280-X underwater machine.
I was reluctant to tell him of my difficulties with the 550 because I suspected it might have been an issue with the user settings rather than the machine. (Sensitivity set too high, whatever). However, even tinkering with my sensitivity, I had trouble with phantom signals on the beach when I tried that detector. (Which, admittedly, was not very often).
What made me question my own beach hunting skill was that I saw somebody else on the beach, using an even less-expensive Garrett machine, and they seemed to have no problem at all.
Now, I know Garrett bills most if not all of its machines as being suitable for beach hunting (though not necessarily for surf or underwater use, obviously). But let's cut through the ad hype and hear from actual users. Have you had any problems? How were you able to resolve them, if so?
If and when I am inclined to go beach hunting myself, it should not be a problem for me personally, since I now use the GTI-2500 and it has a salt elimination feature.
I told this fella that as far as coinshooting and most general purpose hunting goes, I stand by my pick of the 550 as a great midpriced machine, but he does need to resolve this issue about wet salt beaches before he makes his final decision on what detector to buy. I will link this thread to the other forum so he can read it.
If y'all wish to read along or participate over there, too, be my guest.