Minelab Excalibur II 1000 Underwater Metal Detector

The unique design of the Minelab Excalibur II allows you to use it as effectively in or out of the water. Whether working the beach, wading at any depth or diving a wreck at 200 feet, the Excalibur II will perform every time.

The Minelab Excalibur II multi-frequency operation allows it to operate with better performance in salt water than most single frequency detectors and yet it has better discrimination than pulse induction (PI) detectors so it also works great in trashy fresh water locations. In fact, the Excalibur II is perfectly suitable for use above water as a general purpose coin and jewelry detector.

Powered by Broad Band Spectrum (BBS) Technology, the amazing depth and accuracy of the Excalibur continues to amaze long time divers and everyday beachcombers.

The Minelab Excalibur II has been improved with a new, longer lasting nickel metal hydride battery pack, better balanced, lighter weight coils, improved signal response and lower interference in salt water applications, and new high visibility decals.

Upgraded Features:

* New, longer lasting nickel metal hydride battery pack

* New High Visibility (Hi-Vis) fluorescent bodywork

* New Slimline Lighter weight coil for improved balance – easier to maneuver in all conditions

* New Improved signal response

* New Enhanced performance in salt water

* New Hi-Vis Skid Plate

* New Side-Mount Shaft for shallow and surf-wading (available as an optional accessory)

Product Details

Minelab Excaliber II 1000 Metal Detector: The World’s Best Beach Detector, now improved!

The Excalibur II 1000 is the ideal coin and treasure detector.

Minelab’s unique BBS 17 Frequency and Ground Rejecting Technology makes the Excalibur Two metal detector the ideal machine. This amphibious detector can move from land, beach, wet sand conditions to underwater depths up to 200ft (66m) seamlessly.

Never again get false signals from detecting in salt water, enjoy the simple, yet effective discrimination, be surprised at the sensitivity and depth that you pull targets from.

The unique design of the Minelab Excalibur 2 1000 metal detector allows you to use it as effectively in or out of the water. Whether working the beach, wading at any depth or diving a wreck at 200 feet, the Excalibur will perform every time.

Minelab Excalibur II Features

• New, longer lasting nickel metal hydride battery pack
• New High Visibility (Hi-Vis) fluorescent bodywork
• New Slimline Lighter weight coil for improved balance – easier to maneuver in all conditions
• New Improved signal response
• New Enhanced performance in salt water

Minelab Excalibur II Field Test

For people considering the Minelab Excalibur II, here is my experience. I have used this machine in salt and lake water, and it does work flawlessly, I have the jewelry to prove it. Mostly I use it in the dirt, fields and woods. This machine communicates with sound, it talks and sings to you. The more you use it the better it gets. No need to fuss with LCD windows and all the complicated adjustments, I just turn it on and go. This machine is truly for the hardcore searcher.

You have to learn this machine and take the time to understand what it’s telling you. There is a slight learning curve but it doesn’t take long. I started off in auto and dug everything even the nulls just to verify what the sounds were telling me and now with a better understanding I’m selective on what I dig which allows me to cover more ground and pass up the less desirable targets. As with any detector you will dig up some trash but this machine allows you to minimize it.

A few days after I received the Minelab Excalibur, I took my family to Florida to visit my parents. Having hunted the saltwater beaches of the Florida treasure coast with a number of detectors over the years, I was anxious to see how well the Excalibur worked under the adverse conditions found in this area. The combination of saltwater and black sand found on most ocean beaches typically results in a significant loss of detection depth on VLF-type detectors.

Pulse detectors can ignore these conditions, but they lack discrimination, and with 200plus years of metal accumulation, you usually spend a great deal of time digging junk targets. Since the Minelab Excalibur was designed to offer discrimination while ignoring even the most adverse ground conditions, I was hoping to hunt these beaches with more success than I’ve experienced in the past.

After talking with my parents, we decided to try a popular beach known as The Bathtub. It gets its name from the coral reef that protects the swimming area. With the sensitivity control in the Auto position and a faint audio threshold present in the headphones, my son Paul and I began hunting the dry sand area. Almost immediately I received a high-pitched tone indicating a probable dime or quarter. Paul dug furiously with, the hand scoop and from a depth of nearly 10 inches recovered a heavily encrusted clad quarter.

Several more coins were uncovered along the dry sand ridge – all from depths ranging from 6 to 12 inches. It’s interesting to note that we watched another treasure hunter search the same area and not recover a single target during this time.

Hoping to find some jewelry or possibly a piece of eight from one of the Spanish galleons that sank just off the coast, we decided to try the shallow water area. Fully expecting to have to make an adjustment to the sensitivity control as I reached the wet sand, I was pleasantly surprised to hear no change in the threshold signal. My previous experience with VLF and even some pulse detectors was that frequent adjustments were needed in order to hunt this area with any degree of success. During the next 30 minutes, the two of us found a small handful of coins along with a hotel room key and a small piece of copper sheathing from some unknown ship that sank many years ago.

One could imagine that it came from one of the galleons in the famous 1715 fleet. Wading out into the shallow water just off the beach I immediately noticed that the Excalibur’s slim profile presented almost no resistance as I swept it back and forth. Compared to most of the water machines I have used over the years, the Minelab Excalibur was extremely comfortable to use both in and out of the water. My son’s height limited how far out I could hunt, but we traversed the shallow swimming area in search of targets. Signals were plentiful and combining the Excalibur’s discrimination and audio target ID circuits, I was able to bypass all of the iron trash along with most of the pull-tabs which littered the area.

Unfortunately I had brought only a hand scoop along and as a result, the Minelab Excalibur was able to detect a number of targets that were buried deeper than I could reach. Even so, almost 30 coins and a small ring found their way into our goody pouch before a tropical downpour accompanied by lightning put an end to our hunt. Based on the detection depth I experienced using the Minelab Excalibur, I would strongly recommend buying a sturdy long-handled scoop capable of recovering deeply buried targets.

Returning to this area once more before we headed home, I experienced similar results recovering coins that had obviously been there for quite a while despite the number of times the beach had been hunted by local detector users.

Arriving back in Georgia, I took the Minelab Excalibur to several smaller beaches on lakes surrounding the Atlanta area. The first beach was a pay-to-swim site that I had hunted heavily in the past. Hoping to find at least a few targets that were beyond the detection depth of our other detectors, I turned the Minelab Excalibur on and waded out toward the ropes defining the swimming area. Signals were few and far between, but I did receive several clear signals that produced coins, a brass buckle and a small I Ok gold nugget ring at depths ranging from 8 to nearly 14 inches.

Hoping to make a few more finds in deeper water, I took my scuba gear out of the truck and brought it down to the water’s edge. Converting the Minelab Excalibur to the diving configuration was quite simple, taking less than five minutes to complete. Swimming out to the deeper section of the beach, I dropped to the bottom and began searching. The unit was extremely comfortable to use in this configuration and was just the right length to cover a wide area with each sweep yet not being unwieldy when recovering a target. Just to test the Minelab Excalibur, I took it down to 65 feet at the far end of the lake. Neither the electronics housing nor the battery compartment showed any signs of leakage, a real tribute to Minelab’s engineering staff in a designing detector intended for use in the water.

Searching other beaches throughout northern Georgia and Tennessee produced a generous amount of coins along with a mixture of items such as keys, toy cars, sunglasses and several pieces of jewelry including nine gold rings, a gold earring and a 14k gold chain. In all cases I was able to identify most of the targets with a high degree of accuracy before recovering them with the aid of the audio target ID circuitry.

This unique feature gives the Minelab Excalibur an unbeatable advantage over other detectors. How this feature can be used to increase the number of valuable targets you recover is actually quite simple. Let’s assume you are planning on searching a beach that contains the typical mixture of a few hundred coins, some gold jewelry and an assortment of trash such as tin foil, bobby pins and bottle caps. With other detectors, you would have to recover every target that registered above foil to make sure you didn’t miss any of the gold we’re all hoping to find. To recover the requisite 500-plus targets would take a considerable amount of time. With the Excalibur’s target ID circuitry, you could cruise through the entire beach area and ignore most of the trash and all of the coins, focusing on recovering just the gold jewelry.

Over the next few weeks I used the Minelab Excalibur at several sites, both on land and in the water. Surprisingly, I had a good deal of success hunting some Civil War sites surrounding Atlanta even though they had been heavily hunted. Minnie balls were recovered at depths of up to 10 inches, and larger artifacts such as a scabbard tip and horseshoe were unearthed at depths exceeding 18 inches. What makes the Excalibur attractive to relic hunters is its waterproof design. No longer do you have to worry about ruining your expensive detector in the event you get caught in a sudden downpour a mile from your car.

Minelab’s engineers revolutionized the metal detector industry with the introduction of the unique BBS circuitry found on both the Sovereign and Excalibur. No longer does a water hunter need two separate detectors to hunt saltwater and fresh water beaches. And combined with the audio target ID and discrimination circuits, the Minelab Excalibur is equally at home in a park, long abandoned ghost town or battlefield as it is on a beach or 200 feet underwater.

If you are looking for a detector that is unaffected by adverse ground conditions, extremely simple to operate and offers above-average detection depth, you need to stop by your local dealer and try out the Minelab Excalibur.

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