About to Bite the Bullet

Just returned from a 2 week working trip and I am about to bite the bullet. After months and months of research, chatting to experienced detectorists and emails to dealers on best prices, I have decided to purchase a Minelab CTX 3030.

What a tough decision, when I first started researching I was going to get the Garrett AT Pro. Then after a bit more research, it was going to be the Minelab Safari. After speaking with people, they suggested the Minelab E-TRAC over the Safari. When I started to research the E-TRAC I then started to get interested in the XP Deus. Then it just followed the natural progression to the Minelab CTX 3030.

For the last couple of weeks I have been comparing the CTX 3030 to the XP Deus (not physically, but that would have been great) by reading reviews and checking out all the forums. I tried not comparing the prices as I know the XP Deus would have won easily.

What swung it the way of the CTX 3030 is the following:

• Local dealer who is also a BMDC Member (very important)
• Australian product and therefore, suitable for our conditions
• Waterproof (rain proof is important for me + I am an hour from the beach)
• Wireless module (no headset wires)
• GPS locating
• PC mapping (Mac compatible would be perfect, hurry up Minelab)
• Upgrades
• Colour display
• Target trace and Target seperation

I know that the XP Deus has some of these features plus others (that the CTX 3030 hasn't) but having a local dealer close-by is really what won it for me.

I will keep the XP Deus links and reviews in the Sidebar because if I can get the wife (or kids) interested, that will be the next purchase.