Posted on

SOLD – Minelab Sovereign Elite

I decided after a year of finding nothing much that 4 detectors for beach is overkill and I need to sell at least 1. So I came home, disassembled my lot of 2 sovereigns and 1 Excalibur to get my Elite back together, went frantic because suddenly I have 1 shaft missing but then found it again leaning against the kitchen table lol.


I ‘ll keep the Sovereign 1991 because it’s very vintage and it’s also very loud, meaning that I will not need headphones. It’s also the cheapest since it is the oldest (thus furthest away in time from the GT which I guess will be the most sought after detector) but I reckon all the Sovereigns are pretty similar in performance. The new battery pack lasts 12 hours or more. The downside is that it will only work properly with original 8″ Minelab coil or the -too-heavy 10 inch Tornado but that’s a tad too heavy for me. So I guess I’ll keep it for now and maybe have fun with it one day with the 8″ coil.

The Excalibur is the one that can handle all coils, it’s very practical with the harness, while the Sovereign’s shoulderbag does annoy me a bit and also can lead to broken cables. I also cut it into pieces completely to suit my psychopathic urges so that makes it the least sellable. Don’t like so much that it always needs headphones.

So the one I will sell is the Sovereign Elite.
Good about it: can handle all coils, works well.
Difference with the old Sovereign 1991: the new batterypack only lasts 6 hrs for some reason. It does come with a battery holder for normal AA batteries, the ID Meter, the bag, and some other things so this one is the most Sellable, I guess. Cable of teh coil and the meter got replaced since I got it after dog ate cable and owner used Meter cable to replace the coil cable in a horrid way. I think I did my first good bit of cable soldering (twist cable and not forget any shrink tube) on this one so am quite confident about it.

Got some bids of 375 on the first day. Not sure about where it will go. I figure it was a Very wanted detector for the people who like to have a decent old-fashion beach detector classic, but there is also the Equinox now working its way through the whole Vintage-loving Armada. And also the cheaper Minelabs with lower price that work quite well on the beach.
Have to wait for the few people that really want a Sovereign.

Saaie kippen in kanaal

Posted on

Meh – Equinox 600 at the beach

I hadn’t been to the coast for a few months, since it was bad weather, and I had a temp job which I was happy to leave behind after 3 weeks. I had a need to be out on the beach so I went for 2 days, and I hoped that the sand that had built up would have gone a bit so I could find as much as previous year May. Alas..

First 3 hrs with the Equinox

As i was in a hurry and didn’t feel like putting on the Excalibur harness over my big coat, I took out the Equinox which comes in one piece, unlike my 3-piece Excalibur which needs lots of preparation :p The downside came afterwards when my arm started to hurt in 2 hrs.

Found 4 euro in 6 pieces on the dry sand. The tide was very low but i usually go out to the water and lose about 2 hrs finding nothing and/or old crap.
I went back to get my Excalibur with the 14 inch NEL coil and found the bullet near the waterline and the dry sand. Weird. Seems some old stuff is coming to the surface again.

Day 2 was hopeless. I found 10 cents and the bullet point near the towerhouse where a good patch was last year. Found 2 old Belgian coins there too.
Day 3 – it started to give some icy rain in almost horizontal direction the second I set foot on the beach :/ Went around for an hour, found 10 cent again. Eyeballed the bracelet which looked red so I thought it was copper with silver plate but after I got home and cleaned it, it turned out to be some quite nice real silver (has 2x 925 hallmark). So yay for my eyes, not the detector :/ Doh. The Equinox was killing me even after half an hour on the last day. I was amazed for not having any muscle ache after the 2x 3 hrs of detecting in the first 2 days. Even my left arm hurt during detecting from holding the scoop. I’m out of fitness, I guess. HAd to stop quite often to just be panting, and also to try to get a more comfortable grip on the Equinox but it’s an absolute horror for me. Yes, I know I’m the only person in the world that cannot swing an Equinox. Everyone else is of decent size. Strangely enough, I didn’t have as much problems swinging a 13″ Deus coil over the beach for 6 hrs, something some grown ass men complain about. I need to change the Nox’ shaft if I want to keep using it once in a while, because THIS is impossible to live with.

Since I have been going around on the beach for a year and didn’t really feel like it was working out as much as i wanted, I decided to sell at least one of my Minelab beach detectors, see next post.

the empty bullet shells all came from the same small spot next to the dunes right next to the pavement