Need advice on which detector to buy please... V3, E-Trac or Safari

Hi everyone.  I am looking for the best overall detector for my tastes.  I am moving to South Florida and would like to detect the beaches as well as school yards and such.  I want to finde coins, gold, silver.  I am NOT much into relic hunting.  Anyways, I am considering the Whites V3, the E-Trac and the Safari.  Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. 

PS - I have 2 years experience with an ACE 250 but thats it so far.  Thanks!

It really depends on how much money you can fork out for a metal detector.

Price is no object

 I'd go for the V3. ..Willy.

For the money you are going to spend it would be worth your while to find your closest dealer and give him a call.  Make sure he has the machines you are considering in stock and take a day off and go visit.  Since all your experience is on a simple machine you would really appreciate seeing each machine in action.   After a true hands on experience you will know which machine is best FOR YOU.  While this web site is a great source of info, you do need to take some of the postings with a grain of salt.   Hopefully you can locate a multi-brand dealer within a days drive.  I think it will be worth your time.

Why MXT over the others??

Just choose between the v3 and etrac. They are both good machines. I have used the etrac on saltwater beaches with NO problem.

[4gold]

I am brand new to this site so I would like to give a little background. My brother-in-law and I have gone detecting before, we are both new to the sport (? game, hobby, career) but we both have had a desire to detect for many years. He lives in Cary, NC and I live in Raleigh, NC.

He has a Nautilus IIBa detector and I have an Ace 250. I have noticed that his detector can pick up signals that I cannot even with my sensitivity all the way up. Sooooo...

I am in the same boat, I am really enjoying detecting but I want a high end machine.

I researched the E-Trac, Safari and V3 and I found that my wallet prefered the Safari. It is on the way and should be here next Tuesday. 

If there is anyone who whishes congratulations to me and condolences to my wallet they would be greatly appreciated.

I am visiting my father near Jacksonville Florida next weekend and I will try to use the new machine there. I have only been to the beach once to detect and it was last weekend. I found a few clad a broken hoop earring and a piece of iron. It was a very clean beach!

If anyone is in my area let me know and we can go hunting sometime. Thanks.

dig4gold

I'd say congrats.  It will be a lot better than your ACE.  One tip, I don't know about the Ace, but my Fisher was a fast swing machine.  With the minelabs you want to swing 'low and slow' -- do that and you'll be getting great depth.  Good luck and happy hunting.

I went from a Garrett product to a Minelab Safari and I have had a devil of a time sorting out all the different sounds.  I am told that all Minelabs are really noisy and it is something you just have to get use to.  I think if I had it to do over again I'd look at another Garrett prduct, maybe the 1500 or something similar if you didn't want to spend a lot more $$ and it would be easy to learn for you since you have the ACE 250.   I'm sure you will get a dozen different recommendations, but I am just speaking for myself.  P.S.  I had a GTI 2500 and sold it only because I have a bad back and the weight really bothered me.  Monty

[4gold]

Thanks, Monty.

When I was using the Nautilus for just a brief time I really enjoyed the tones. I walked away thinking that I could get used to them. I'll see if the Safari's tones has the same effect. One thing I'll attempt is to not push it too hard at first. Maybe use some presets and not set the sensitivity to high. We'll see, this may be difficult.   

p2c, solid advice on the "low and slow"! I'll take it to heart.

dig4gold

I went from a Garrett product to a Minelab Safari and I have had a devil of a time sorting out all the different sounds.  I am told that all Minelabs are really noisy and it is something you just have to get use to.  I think if I had it to do over again I'd look at another Garrett prduct, maybe the 1500 or something similar if you didn't want to spend a lot more $$ and it would be easy to learn for you since you have the ACE 250.   I'm sure you will get a dozen different recommendations, but I am just speaking for myself.  P.S.  I had a GTI 2500 and sold it only because I have a bad back and the weight really bothered me.  Monty

You'll find the reaction times are a lot slower with the Safari and you will have to learn to slow down quit a bit.  That was one of my problems when I went to the Safari myself.  You may want to discriminate out a lot of the numbers even in the preset programs until you get use to the different sounds.  My safari has about 15 different tones if left in all metal and it overwhelmed me at first.  Then I figured out a few custom settings that limited a lot of the unneeded tones until I got more use to it.  The ACE only has about 5 different tones to contend with.  Several Safari users really swear by them  and that's what convinced me to get on the Safari band wagon.  Check out the Minelab forum  here on Tnet and also check out Fines Forums as they have a large area devoted solely to Minelab detectors.  Monty

  Used explorer II and a PI unit.  Not what you suggested, but definitely how I'd spend that money.

I think Iron Patch is right on with this one.  I was thinking Etrac or Safari, but looking at the prices for used Exp 2's, with accecsories, I have to go the used route.  My pocket and the wife will love me for it later!