What is the absolute best metal detector for metal detecting in freshwater? (lakes, creeks, and rivers)

[jmaclen]

This is like asking 10 priests which came first,the chicken or the egg..the best detector for your needs is what you feel comfortable using and the one your swinging when you find your bucket lister..Everyone’s opinions are just that, personal opinions. .. What counts is features, find the machine that has the features you want and go buy it if you’re able to.

Opinions get cancelled out by facts.

Deus 2 is the only VLF that is capable of detecting micro jewelry and smaller gold nuggets submerged down to 66 feet depth.

It simply has NO competition currently for that kind of scuba detecting.

 

[woodbutcher]

Opinions get cancelled out by facts.

Deus 2 is the only VLF that is capable of detecting micro jewelry and smaller gold nuggets submerged down to 66 feet depth.

It simply has NO competition currently for that kind of scuba detecting.

That's your opinion

 

[kac_dt]

I have done well with the D2, AT Pro, Multi Kruzer and Seahunter MK2 for water hunting. Out of them all the D2 is a solid machine in the VLF class. I I really liked the AT Pro but the D2 tracking and once set up is actually a click on and go machine. Stick with the 9" coil, it has plenty of depth for the majority of hunting you will do.
I didn't jump onto the stereo audio gig, didn't find it usefull enough for what I do. Set your tone breaks in 5 tone mode to break on junk then switch to full tones you should be able to hear bad targets easily.
Lastly if you get falsing, swing bit slower. It is normal for mf machines to chatter a bit on iron OR you can simply hunt in the 10-15khz mono mode if the grounds are too hot.
I'm sure there are a bunch of guys here that have good settings to share.
Happy Hunting.

 

[jmaclen]

That's your opinion

Not an opinion just facts based on features and settings

 

[OldBeechnut]

Deus 2 is the only VLF that is capable of detecting micro jewelry and smaller gold nuggets submerged down to 66 feet depth.

It simply has NO competition currently for that kind of scuba detecting.

Great to have those capabilities but Does anyone go that deep for micro jewelry and small nuggets? All my years only known a few divers and most dove in 8 to 15 feet for regular gold jewelry. Based on location I would say the lighting would not be that great either.

Not all CZ's are created equal. My 1st CZ-20 was really hot. I had one 21 that was fair. I had 2 that were terrible. I have never been lucky enough to get a 21 that was really deep. I have a friend who has a deep one and he's done very well with it. Good luck if you go that route.

Several years ago I met up with a couple hunters from New York, we met in NJ... one had a AT Pro, I think and the other a Fisher CZ21.. long story short we did the testing of a 7 gram gold ring at 14 inches, the Excalibur barely got it, the CZ 21 had no problem. Then we did the ring at 18 inches, no way for the Excalibur, but that crazy CZ21 nailed it, and for sure you had to know there was a target there but it had a repeatable signal. Interesting that one to the next Czs could vary that much in performance. I do have that video stored away some where in my youtube channel. Tested many Excaliburs in the past the most one to the next in performance was about a inch plus or minus.

 

[jmaclen]

Great to have those capabilities but Does anyone go that deep for micro jewelry and small nuggets? All my years only known a few divers and most dove in 8 to 15 feet for regular gold jewelry. Based on location I would say the lighting would not be great.

I agree. 60 ft deep in fresh water looking for small gold nuggets and silver coins sounds like a really unique location.
Not something I have encountered.

 

[woodbutcher]

Not an opinion just facts based on features and settings

I have a Deus 2, had bought the deus 1 when first released. I know you get machines to test and that’s great, but that don’t mean you have a better understanding of the unit than somone like me who actually bought the machine you were given to test..That’s a misconception on these forums with testers, anyone can apply to be a tester and there’s literally thousands of them..I remember 8 years ago when calabash first came to the forums with his at pro, asking all kinds of questions, as green as could be..Now you’d swear he’s been in this hobbie for 50 years the way he talks..So I take what others say with a grain of salt here..
Not a lot of difference anymore amongs machines although people who push shit for companies would like others to believe..The deus 2 isn’t any better at finding jewelery as the xterra elite. This is a hobbie, not a science project.
Would I spend what I did again for a Deus 2? Absolutely not. If anything my finds have went down, not up from the machines of yesteryear since I’ve been buying the latest and greatest,and that’s a fact, not a opinion
I can go to YouTube and find 50 different YouTubers who have personal settings for the D2 that swear are the best,and if I used them I wouldn’t find anything. Same D2 after a factory reset wiping that garbage out and I start finding stuff left and right with factory settings..So, this hobbie is all opinion based, and it’s more about location than opinion, 95 percent luck with a little skill.. All machines see things differently, and my opinion is one is no better than the next when your making finds. The old saying goes, experienced detectorist find new locations, not new machines ..

 

[jmaclen]

I have a Deus 2, had bought the deus 1 when first released. I know you get machines to test and that’s great, but that don’t mean you have a better understanding of the unit than somone like me who actually bought the machine you were given to test..That’s a misconception on these forums with testers, anyone can apply to be a tester and there’s literally thousands of them..I remember 8 years ago when calabash first came to the forums with his at pro, asking all kinds of questions, as green as could be..Now you’d swear he’s been in this hobbie for 50 years the way he talks..So I take what others say with a grain of salt here..
Not a lot of difference anymore amongs machines although people who push shit for companies would like others to believe..The deus 2 isn’t any better at finding jewelery as the xterra elite. This is a hobbie, not a science project.
Would I spend what I did again for a Deus 2? Absolutely not. If anything my finds have went down, not up from the machines of yesteryear since I’ve been buying the latest and greatest,and that’s a fact, not a opinion
I can go to YouTube and find 50 different YouTubers who have personal settings for the D2 that swear are the best,and if I used them I wouldn’t find anything. Same D2 after a factory reset wiping that garbage out and I start finding stuff left and right with factory settings..So, this hobbie is all opinion based, and it’s more about location than opinion, 95 percent luck with a little skill.. All machines see things differently, and my opinion is one is no better than the next when your making finds. The old saying goes, experienced detectorist find new locations, not new machines ..

I have never received anything free from XP. I bought my current Deus 2 from BART at Big Boys Hobbies. It’s my 3rd one. I sold the other two after being disappointed with them.

When I realized that the HF2 coil was really going to happen I bought one again. Deus 2 still is not my favorite detector and I don’t receive anything but kicks in the butt for saying something good about Deus 2.

So, you are way off base with your statements about me.

The OP has a unique scenario that Deus 2 happens to fit well simply because the other available SMF VLFs and dedicated gold prospecting capable detectors are not rated for those depths in water.

If he had said down to 16 feet instead of 60, I would have said something different.

 

[OldBeechnut]

The old saying goes, experienced detectorist find new locations, not new machines ..

Lotta truth in that, been using a excalibur for 18 years now and a simple PI ... how much gold and silver I dig depends on my reconn-ing of my old and new spots to find those open areas in the water. And not to brag but this routine has found me way more gold and silver then any one in the Chesapeake Bay since 2014, when I started hunting the bay..

 

[kac_dt]

The D2 is definitely hyped up by noobtubers. I was hesitant in buying one because of all the happy horse Sh** that was slung around. Much of my water hunting was done with the Seahunter and AT pro. AT Pro was getting pretty worn out and after 3 services on it I retired it and the Seahunter was great in the water but cannot handle any EMI and EMI here has only gotten worse. I had a Multi Kruzer for a while which was plagued with EMI issues, poor coil quality and leaking which turned out to be a factory defect. I would never get another Nokta machine for the way the shrugged off so called service.
What did drive me to get the D2 was the durability, warranty, frequency range and audio options. I think it is on the pricey side but it has proven to be very reliable and I am able to hunt in many areas that previously were an issue due to EMI. As purely water machine I don't think it does much different than any other vlf but I am confident it won't fail on me.
What the D2 doesn't do is replace either of my Tesoro's. If Tesoro was still around I would be swinging a Tiger Shark in the water. For modern machines D2 does fit in well with my arsenel.

 

[RichW]

Great to have those capabilities but Does anyone go that deep for micro jewelry and small nuggets? All my years only known a few divers and most dove in 8 to 15 feet for regular gold jewelry. Based on location I would say the lighting would not be that great either.

Several years ago I met up with a couple hunters from New York, we met in NJ... one had a AT Pro, I think and the other a Fisher CZ21.. long story short we did the testing of a 7 gram gold ring at 14 inches, the Excalibur barely got it, the CZ 21 had no problem. Then we did the ring at 18 inches, no way for the Excalibur, but that crazy CZ21 nailed it, and for sure you had to know there was a target there but it had a repeatable signal. Interesting that one to the next Czs could vary that much in performance. I do have that video stored away some where in my youtube channel. Tested many Excaliburs in the past the most one to the next in performance was about a inch plus or minus.

I don't doubt that at. Sound much like my CZ-20 which I wore out. I know there's good used one's out there, it's just finding them. Buying a new one from Fisher is like rolling the dice. The odds of getting a really deep one are against you.

 

[kac_dt]

The odds of getting a really deep one are against you.

People forget Tesoro had similar issues with some machines running hotter than others... I believe a lot of that is due to the variations in the components. Resistors, caps etc have a tolerance of +-15% on average and that can make and IB machine run out of spec.

 

[Odanscoils]

Thank you everyone for your support and metal detecting wisdom. I am officially joining the XP family after buying my first XP machine. The Deus 2! Wish me luck as I figure out how to operate this machine lol. After finding out about how versatile the XP was and seeing their vast coil selection. It is safe to safe I have found my underwater gold nugget shooting and small gold jewelry detector.

Huge thanks to jmaclen, tvr, OldBeechnut, kac_dt, and everyone in this forum for answering my silly questions.

Now I just have to find the perfect waterproof headphones for me

I'm hoping you'll show us your finds

Like others said.
60ft. That's gonna be an adventure

Good Luck

 

[ilovegold888888]

Good thread. If “price doesn’t matter” and you really mean scuba to ~60 ft, I’d personally avoid trying to mod a detector beyond its rated depth. Flooding one once will cost more than the “savings” from forcing it to do a job it wasn’t built for.

So the decision becomes less about raw performance and more about the right tool for the conditions:
- Need 60 ft capability: pick something designed for that depth (and with parts/support).
- Want small gold/micro jewelry: higher frequency / dedicated gold modes help, but you’ll usually give up something in stability or depth in rough ground.
- Mineralized rivers + trash: iron falsing and target ID behavior matter more than “air test depth”.

Sounds like you’re already narrowing in on Deus 2 vs Excal/CZ for the depth requirement. If you go Deus 2, I’d get the proper dive setup (shaft/antenna routing) and keep it simple until you learn the tones in fresh water.

Curious what your targets are most of the time down there — mostly coins, rings, or actual nuggets?