After spending the last year and a half metal detecting throughout southern Ontario, following many forums on the subject, there seems to be one question that is asked by many,  and that is. what is the best machine within my budget?

 

So I’ll start off by saying that just over a year ago now,  I started the hobby by accident, with a Minelab 340. I’ll insert the link to the blog post that talks about the first time detecting here.

 

Where it all started

 

I’ve talked about where this hobby has started for me many times and through many social media platforms. I say that this hobby started almost by accident because I was simply just looking for something to do while my family and I frequent local beaches in our area.

 

To make a Long story short I needed a hobby to take to the beach with me to give me something to do with my partner Erin and our son Caspian played for hours in the water. Now don’t get me wrong I love playing with my son and I love being in the water but all day w Is just a bit too much for me.

 

So moving forward over the last year and a half metal detecting has become a little bit more than just a hobby for me. Metal detecting has become more of a passion than a hobby.

 

So like I said previously I started with a Minelab 340. sorry a Minelab Vanquish 340. Now the Vanquish series with Minelab In my personal opinion is a great series to start with. Now if you know you’re going to get into the hobby but don’t have a lot of money to start with sure you could start with a 340 however in my personal opinion I would spend a little bit more money and go with either the 440 or the 540 from Minelab instead. if you were thinking of even going with minelab at all that is? Minelab are getting known for defective products more and more these days.

I know that any of the machines can have issues, it’s true. And maybe it’s because Minelab is a leading seller in the industry and maybe because the sell so many machines contributes to why they have so many problems, however I am also hearing that Minelab customer service and warranty need a lot of work in order to save their reputation in this industry. (In my opinion), at least in recent years anyway, This is what’s hurt Minelab the most lately. (Not just because of the crappy quality of their products) these pics were taken from another Minelab user, not my machines. I never had an issue with their products.

 

The minelab vanquished 340 start sit around 200 to 240 Canadian dollars, at the moment you can get the 440 for $389 at Canadian Tire or the 5:40 at $449 at Canadian Tire if they have any in stock.

You could buy any of the suggested detectors on Amazon, or eBay, however it is my personal opinion that you should always buy a detector from a reputable company. Reputable companies have experienced staff to answer any questions you may have. Also many companies will do warranty work on site, where Amazon and other similar avenues will only tell you to send the product to the manufacturer if any issues should arise.

 

Now the difference between the minelab Vanquish 340 and the 440 is quite significant the 440 has iron bias settings you can discriminate targets and certain VDI numbers and it has a pinpoint function so that you can locate your targeted item much more easily with the 440 and 540 series. In my personal opinion having those extra functions on your metal detector is well worth the small amount of extra money that you’re going to pay for your detector..

 

Within about one month of starting this hobby I myself decided to buy the minelab Vanquish 540 metal detector because it had one extra function that the Vanquish 440 did not have and that was that the LCD screen lit up at night where is the Vanquish 440 LCD screen does not. Otherwise the Vanquish 440 and the 540 are the exact same machine.

 

I used my Vanquish 540 for approximately 3 months and I was getting quite proficient with it. However as time went on I did more and more research watched many videos and was really leaning towards selling my 5:40 and purchasing an upgraded model and moving to a mine lab equinox series the 800. Now the equinox series in my personal opinion was a gigantic step up from the Vanquish series. The reason for this is that the equinox series machines had many more settings within the machine and was also waterproof or the vanquished series machines are not.

After watching countless hours of video on YouTube about detectorists all over the world I came to realize that one of my interests within the hobby was quickly turning to water detecting. If I wanted to get in the water I needed a waterproof machine.

 

Now the minelab equinox 800 was simply out of my budget at the time I could not justify spending between 1200 and $2000 on a metal detector after only four or five months into the hobby and I didn’t even know if I was going to continue. But then early October 2022 I saw a used  minelab equinox 600 For sale on Facebook marketplace for $500.

 

My research tells me the difference between an equinox 600 and 800 was very minor in comparison. The main difference was that the 800 had a gold setting, this did not mean that the 600 could not detect gold but that it just didn’t have its own setting for gold and other than a few other minor differences essentially the two machines were the exact same.

 

In the end I decided to purchase the minelab equinox 600 instead of buying a brand new equinox 800 saving myself between $1000 to $1500.

 

After some more research online and reading hundreds of reviews on the minelab equinox series detectors I came to realize that the very reason that I purchased the equinox 600 may not in fact give me what I was looking for out of the machine. The problem for me was that there were many reviews on the equinox series detectors that claimed the machine was not in fact waterproof even though the manufacturer claims that they are. And because I bought my machine used I did not have warranty on the machine which forced me to research other machines that may be more reliable for my future detecting needs in the water.

 

Needless to say I used my equinox 600 for all of October and most of November 2023. But then came the end of November and I had done more and more research undefined detectors for different budgets and here are my conclusion.

 

Like I said above, the equinox series detectors (as long as you have full warranty),  could definitely be a decent detector for water detecting, Either the 600 or the 800 it wouldn’t matter but mine lab had other plans at the time back in November 2023 minelab decided to start advertising for a new detector that wasn’t out on the market yet a superior detector to the equinox series called the Manticore. Now the MantIcore And mine lab we’re making all kinds of promises to its customer base claiming that this detector would detect deeper was more powerful and was superior in every way to the equinox series detectors, I was intrigued but also sceptical, I did not want to spend over $2200 on a machine that had not been tested in the field yet, yet this did not seem to Detour any of the loyal long term minelab customer base. It seemed everybody was putting in orders for the new Minelab Manticore Worldwide.

 

I was looking for something that had already been put through its paces had great reviews and no reviews that reflected negatively on any water leaking issues.

 

There were several machines I could choose from and all of them cheaper than the Manticore.

 

So let me state that in the industry at this current time that there are a few different leading metal detector Manufacturers. There is obviously Minelab, and Garrett, and then Nokta Technologies, And I’m even going to throw Bounty-Hunter into the mix.

 

I suggest bounty hunter for the simple reason that here in North America in Canada specifically bounty hunter has the contract through Canadian Tire well, Now I would not call bounty hunter a high-end machine or manufacturer for metal detectors but they definitely get a lot of sales. However, for anybody that is more into the hobby and past the beginning stage would realize that bounty hunter is not good quality and nothing more than Chinese crap.

 

Now I did look into Garrett and have actually almost purchased a few items myself from Garrett such as the Garrett carrot which is one of their pin pointers. In-fact, I still may buy a Garrett carrot in the future, they are proven through many detectorists worldwide and I think is probably the most used pin-pointer from all the detectorists I see on social media.

 

Garrett is also a world renowned manufacturer for detecting equipment in fact almost every airport in the world has Garrett metal detectors as you walk through security you’ll see the security officers with those metal detecting wands they pass over each individual during check-in those ones are made by Garrett and they are detecting for anything metal on your persons when you check into an airport. So I’m not knocking Garrett at all but I will say the only reason that I wasn’t really looking at a Garrett metal detector was simply due to design I just didn’t like the look of them.

Now I know several people that use Garrett equipment and detectors and they have a machine to suit almost everyone’s budget. One of my good friends Ryan uses Garrett ace 400I detector which you can purchase with one of their pin pointers and headphones as a package deal for around $600 Canadian. Sure there are cheaper ones such as the 200 and the 300,  And even the 300i,  Which range in cost between  $150 Canadian to $500 Canadian. And if all of those machines don’t have the features you’re looking for then you can go to the Garrett pro series metal detectors,  these detectors have many more functions settings and are also waterproof and they range from about $800 Canadian to $2000 Canadian.

 

 Now to be honest I don’t have much experience with the Garrett products so I won’t be able to rate their machines and be be able to give you an accurate account on their performance. Only that the people that use them who I know personally have told me that they love their Garrett machines.

 

 And then there was  Nokta Technologies.  Almost immediately after I picked up my minelab equinox 600 last fall I started researching Nokia technologies specifically the Legend Metal detector.

 

 Nokta  Was originally known and was established due to the high volume of sales from their metal detector called the simplex. Never have used the simplex myself I can only tell you about the research online through forums and YouTube users about the product. For the price point the simplex came loaded with features that usually only high-end machines had discrimination LCD lit screen iron bias it was lightweight Depth indicator, It was good in the sand on hard ground and in freshwater, however in the saltwater some people recorded having feedback and was hard to stabilize, and this machine even had a flashlight for detecting at night. All this and it came at a price of about $300 Canadian dollars.

 

Now in the last few years Nokta technologies Came out with their new product called the legend. The legend was an upgraded version of the simplex detector, the legend came with many more features then the simplex ever had and it has a lot more accessories such as an external battery you can plug into the detector if it’s out of juice so your day doesn’t have to end, that said I’ve never actually had to use the extra battery from my legend yet even though I have it it’s always nice to bring with me for security to know that I’m not going to run out of battery power for the days dig.

 Yes, that’s right, you read that correctly, I did end up purchasing the Nokta Legend last fall in early December Last year.  After all the research I had done I came to the conclusion that the number of features and settings and options that the Nokta  legend had, for the price point, & with all the good reviews, that the legend was going to be the best bang for my buck. It was a high-end machine for a low-end cost, & last December Nokta  Had the legend on sale worldwide with all the accessories such as headphones an extra coil a hand digger finds pouch an extra external battery A protective cover and a couple promotional hats, all for under $1000 including taxes. If I bought that same package today it would cost me around $1500 Canadian.  The legend has been compared with the minelab equinox series and even the XP deus II, both of which are high-end hobbyist machines and cost upwards of $2000 Canadian each.  So the legend was on par with high end machines for literally half the price.

 

 Now last year in December I was nervous I wasn’t going to get out too often before the snow came and the ground was too hard to dig however my luck held out a little bit and we got digable ground in the area until after the second week of January 2023.  This gave me a little bit of time to play round with the settings on my new detector, I could see quickly. I was going to enjoy this machine.

 

 It seemed forever but March came quick and digable weather was just around the corner. It wasn’t until the end of March until I was able to get out with the legend once again and it is now mid-June, I finally feel comfortable with my new machine I have over 120 hours on the legend now and the machine and I are starting to communicate properly.

 

 For those of you who are not avid metal detecting hobbyists may not quite understand what I mean by the machine and its owner being able to communicate but I assure you you must be able to understand your machine before you can be proficient with it and successful. Generally, it takes over 100 hours on any machine for a user to become comfortable enough with the machine and start being successful with it in the field. I am now getting to that point with my legend.

 On Saturday June 4^th there was an event held at the woodbine beach in Toronto by radio world. This event turned out over 150 metal detectorists within southern Ontario who turned out for the event. Men women and children all came out.  Dalek the head of sales for Nokta technologies out of Turkey also attended this event.  She brought with her a team of individuals ready and willing to help anybody at the event with the Nokta equipment.  They also set up an area just outside of the detecting field where people could go and test out their newest detectors not yet on the market.

 Of course, I headed over to the booth and picked up their newest nokta simplex ultra metal detector.  Knowing now about myself and giving my history I know there is no point in picking up their cheapest machine in the lineup, out of the simplex series to which there are three the simplex ultra is the best. Of course, the legend is still an upgrade to this simplex series, but I was looking for a backup to my legend considering I haven’t even touched the equinox 600 which I bought last fall.

 After testing the simplex ultra digging items out of the sand over 9 inches deep and listening to the tones of the machine and feeling the lightweight composition, I knew I had found my backup detector to the legend and once again it would be from Nokta technologies.  The original simplex was what put knocked out on the map and a real competitor for metal detecting worldwide the simplex ultra is a huge upgrade to their original machine.

 

 So what does this all mean?  Well personally and if I’m to be honest with myself I have loved every machine that I’ve owned so far from the minelab 340 basic model I have the Vanquish series the vanquished 540 the equinox 600 the knock to legend and now the nokta simplex ultra every machine has had pros and cons to them and every machine has worked out well for my needs and my experience levels.

 So I guess what I’m trying to say is that in the end when it comes to the question by people over social media asking what is the best machine for their budget the answer is to do your research figure out which machine is best for the area that you dig taking into consideration mineralized ground for the area what are the main targets you are going to search for whether it be coins or relics and what terrain will you be hunting in and once you figure all that out determine whether or not a multi frequency detector  like the Minelab Vanquish or Equinox series  or maybe the  Mantocor or maybe it’s a single frequency detector like the simplex or the Garrett ace 400I is going to be the machine of choice.  I think it would be a big mistake to purchase a detector based on price point alone because that’s exactly what I I did with my first one it’s only been a year and a half and I’m already on my 5^th metal detector.

 

 Also take into consideration that when you ask the question on social media on what the best detector is for a certain budget the people are only going to give you an answer based on the machines that they currently use and have chosen for themselves and their own detecting needs.

 

 Let me give you an example of what each of the machines I’ve owned was able to find

 

Minelab Vanquish 340

A white gold diamond ring worth over $20,000 Canadian. At the moment you can find this machine for around $249 Canadian

 

Minelab Vanquish 540

1865 Mexican token my oldest coin to date. This machine costs $449 Canadian

 

Minelab equinox 600

  I find Great separation on targets. It is a coin magnet many gold and silver rings and Jewelry found with this machine right now this machine costs $849 with no extras

 

Nokta Legend

 So far this machine has been a beast I have found silver and gold rings, multiple pieces of jewelry, it is a coin magnet, great separation and depth, it is a little bit on the heavy side,  “especially with the additional battery pack installed”, however you can take the battery pack out and the company has come out with carbon fibre shafts which make the unit lighter. In weight.

The cost of this machine is around $749 Canadian with no extras if you want all the extras I mentioned above that package will cost around $1500 Canadian

 

 

Nokta simplex

 I have yet to put this machine through a a good and thorough test accepting at the Toronto beach event, first of all you notice that how light this machine actually is,, it was able to get targets up to 9 inches in the sand with no problem at all, I dug gold silver copper and even modern day clad with this machine between 7:00 and 9:00 inches below the surface  there are many settings and features with this machine at the low cost of $409 Canadian that does not come with the pro package which include earmuffs hand bigger extra coil etc.

 

 Now these are the machines I have experience with personally and have found lots of incredible items with each of them they all perform well I believe mostly that the cost difference in machines is so that the company can put a detector in everybody’s hand for every budget not because one detector is that far superior to the next or can detect significantly deeper than its counterpart. Of course, there are exceptions to that rule. I did find that I could not detect further then about a few inches with the Bounty Hunter machine I tried out.

 

Don’t get me wrong the settings you get on the more advanced models definitively make a detector more versatile and will help with this success of 1’s finds, Because the more efficient you are in the field and the more targets you can dig in a day will allow you a better chance at getting that special target as opposed to that trash Doug item. This is why I now get the best model in a series that I am looking at. Such as my latest purchase of the Simplex Ultra over the original simplex or even their new Lite, BT., and Ultra series. I know I would not be happy with the lower model

Sure ask away on social media if you want others to spend your money for you, but if you do the research properly. The. You will end up with something you won’t look to replace in the near future. Also remember the 5 must haves that go along with the purchase of your detector. Lol most people just getting into the hobby forget that you don’t just need a detector to go metal detecting.

Here is a link to my must have items. I hope you have enjoyed my blog. Leave a comment about what you think of my thoughts or if you would like to ask any questions. ?

The 5 Essential Must Haves For Metal Detecting