For me a post such as this, set this forum above the others...I'm here looking for the knowledge of the many years, many here possess...I question the "why others do what they do" and if I would be better served doing things differently than I currently am....You touched on areas of detection and how that influences your choice of equipment and I guess that is a thing that continually goes through my thoughts...I watch the guys out west digging good targets at 4 inches deep, barely beyond the grass roots here...I have places I call clad fields where a 1980 dime could easily be at 8-10 inches ... or the beach hunters digging real deep in the relatively inert sands ...mostly 2 to 4 bar dirt here and the nearest ocean beach is a hard 5-hour drive...then there's the finds...I've made quite a few great finds in the five years I've detected...lots of silver, gold and valuable relics...but I still question if a different machine would up those finds and/or what am I missing that a different machine would uncover...is it worth the extra 2k to dig an inch deeper IHP or is that extra inch the place where the real treasures lay...and also how can I sell that need to the wife.
I'm continually looking to better my detecting experiences and am not one to change just because someone said so and I need to jump on the bandwagon to fit in (something that seems to be needed so to post on other forums)....I hunt mostly at or up to the depths of the all-metal mode of the T2...which, many times, is as deep as I want to dig on a regular basis and way deeper than I would dig in anyone's front lawn.