Hi Pickers,
I have just read your thread with Luuk. (Luuk the sensitivity you getting on your PI is still very impressive) On the beaches in the Cape a PI can give you some good finds. If you detect more on the West Coast side you may find that lots of the beaches have a lot of iron on them from all the modern ship wrecks which have broken up and the beaches have LOTS of small pieces of iron. It is work able, but you do a lot of digging and in these areas the Excalibur is a really good machine that enables you to discriminate the iron and still get small gold. Remember the duel field was made to cope with highly mineralised soil not cope with pieces of iron in the soil.
I have recently got a Garrett Sea Hunter II and it is a great detector, but Whites is still my detector of choice. I looked at getting the duel field and settled for the sea hunter because Whites did not have a dealer in SA and I was having to use their guys in the UK. They are a pleasure to work with - but our customs are not. (By the way Whites are looking for someone to take on their product in SA if you know of anyone interested.)
A quick comparison between the Garrett and the Whites: If you read the threads on some detecting forums a lot of people talk about the challenge the surfmaster range has as the detector floats. I have used my surfmaster diving, freediving and shallow water detecting and it has never really been a challenge for me. I actually prefer it, when you have to use two hands in water I found having the detector going up is better than going down as wave motion can bang it around of rocks. I have found a big difference in the coils of the Whites v.s Garrett and in my opinion the Whites has a much better coil for two reasons. (1) it moves through the water a lot more easy than the Garrett. (2) the Garrett uses a hard enamel like finish on the bottom of the coil and this tends to chip if you bump it against rocks, using a coil cover in surf is not an option due to sand collection in the cover. Some guys epoxy coat the bottom of the coil to protect it, I have used duck tape and find it works well. The Whites coil cuts through water much better and is tough as nails. I have used one coil for over 15 years and no problem with it. And it has been worked hard in some rough conditions. If you plan to detect in the surf and you want to work in a channel with a strong rip, the Garrett gives you a good workout. (Last night I work into the low tide at Strand to see how the sand is shifting and spent about 3 hours working against a pulling tide and I can feel it this morning.) By the way there are some sections opening up at Strand and when the NW comes through there should be some nice gold pulled into some of the low areas
).
As I said I love the surfmasters and they are really good detectors and it comes down to personal preference at the end of the day. I went with Garrett as I was able to get a second had detector at a very good price and as there is a agent in SA if needed. Last night I chatted with a guy on the beach with a Minelab Safari, I had a small 9ct child's ring in my find bag as I had not emptied out the bad from the last detecting out at a lagoon around the coast. He was saying how happy he was with the Safari and how he does not have to pick up pull tabs any more. I fund the small ring and he waved it over his coil and noted just how little signal he got. As I said it is all down to personal preference, the Safari is a really good detector and works real well. The settings you use will determine your finds.
Here is the reason why I love PI detectors: You pick up everything, even the small gold chains
