Waterproof Metal Detectors
On this page we'll try to give you some information about the waterproof metal detectors we have used, or are still using while treasure hunting in the water or on the beach.
Describing the pros and cons for each detector, and some tips on how to use them. You may even want to visit: Metal
Detector Reviews to see what others have to say.
Barracuda by Anchor Electronics
After a couple months of detecting, we joined a treasure hunting club in Rhode Island. We started thinking about getting a waterproof detector since both of us were enjoying the hobby. So this is our second detector.
We found ourselves preferring to detect the beach rather than ground hunting. After doing research on all the detectors we felt the Barracuda fitted our needs, and we located someone who had a used one for sale.
Fortunately, we have not had any problems with the CUDA, except that we had to replace a defective coil recently, and it wasn't Anchor Electronics that replaced it either. Anchor Electronics doesn't sell replacement parts.
The Barracuda is a waterproof pulse detector and it's not cheap. This unit normally comes with an 8 and a 12 inch coil, but we've found it difficult to pinpoint with the 12 inch coil. We have 2 of these detectors now.
Fisher Impulse Detector
This is the newest to our arsenal of waterproof detectors. I've used the Fisher Impulse in fresh water and it does really good. However, it doesn't perform well on the beach, it has to be in water. It has a 10 inch coil and it is wickedly hard to use. You need three hands to operate this detector.
I use it mostly in salt water and it seemed to do okay, as long as I have the unit on a strap hanging around my neck. For some reason, the further the unit is away from the salt water, the better it works.
You need to stay in the same level of water, sort of walking in a straight line at the same depth or your continually having to tweak it.This is not a metal detector I would recommend for a beginner. I gave it to my wife to try out once, and she gave it back to me.
Garrett Seahunter Mark II
We bought the newest Garrett Seahunter Mark II early last summer. We were attracted to it because of the easy "change the batteries and go" feature which is very convenient. A lot of times when we go water hunting we don't have any place to plug in a metal detector to recharge it.
We were surprised to see that this waterproof detector has 2 modes, a Standard Elimination and a Discreet Elimination, (which you can use with the Discrimination knob). And we're still not sure what the difference is between the two. We have been detecting in the salt water and normally pull everything that beeps anyway.
We started out by using the Standard Elimination and found that it does not maintain a steady threshold in salt water. It kind of fades in and out, or sways. Because of this, you're unable to hear the whisper of a deep target (which is normally gold). And when the tide comes in, the swaying gets worse. Plus when you find a signal, and remove the first scoop and rescan it, the target produces a loud blast to your ears, even if it is a tiny target. We talked to the company we bought it from, and all they could recommend was moving the headphones away from your ears. Who wants to do that?
We tested the Discreet Elimination mode by finding a target in Standard Elimination and then switching it to Discreet. When we did this, the target became a whisper and we could hardly find it, couldn't tell if it was tiny, or deep. It seemed to be easier to pinpoint in Discreet for larger targets, but we're not sure yet how deep it is finding things.
We tested the Discrimination by putting it all the way to 9 to see what it would detect, and we were still pulling nails and wires. We took the Seahunter Mark II to a freshwater beach, and didn't seem to have any problem with maintaining a threshold in Standard mode, yet your ears still get blasted.
Garrett needs to do something about the audio, or put volume controls on their waterproof headphones. The company that we bought it from says, You can't beat it for the money. But it was costing us in missing deep gold. Recommended for someone who wants to find recent losses. We sold this detector 2 months after we bought it.
Minelab Excaliber 800
We got this Minelab Excaliber 800 waterproof detector by trading a flat screen monitor for it. We wasn't sorry we got it either. First we practiced by turning the discrimination all the way up and seeing what kind of tones we were getting . After awhile, we turned the discrimination off and realized that even with it off we were still able to distinguish what kind of target we were going to retrieve.
We found that using the Excaliber detector was good experience for us. We didn't have any trouble with it like some of the stories you hear. We used only the 8 inch coil on it, even though we had the 12 inch. The 12 inch really didn't go that much deeper, it just covered a larger area. And we didn't have a waterproof connection for it.
Even though the weight of the Excalibers are to be dealt with. I eased Carol's arm by making a special mount on the arm grip to give it better balance. We don't have our Excaliber 800 anymore, and sometimes we hit areas where we wish we did have it, but we know the person that bought it from us is very happy.