You probably hear this all the time but here’s one more for your records: I love my Minelab! My sweetheart, Michael, gave it to me for Christmas. On Christmas Day, we headed to the beach but I wasn’t able to use it that day since the battery had to be charged. I had to use my ‘old’, not-a-Minelab-but-wasn’t-cheap-either metal detector. I found nothing that day – not one single hit even. That’s OK, though, because after I got off work the next day, we headed back to the beach – Minelab in hand, thank you very much. We hit the beach around low-tide and began detecting. Michael warned me when we were parking that there were 5 other detectorists already on the beach, so we might not find much. I said that was OK because I just wanted to try out my Minelab. Though my ‘old’ detector was made to use in the water (without submerging the housing unit), I couldn’t go into the water with it as the minerals in the sea water made it go crazy with tons of false readings. We spent hours and hours trying to figure out how to get it to ground out the minerals – reading the manual, looking things up online and watching YouTube videos. (By “we” I mean Michael.) ‘We’ were somewhat successful but I couldn’t take it into the water as the sea water seemed to be too much for it. As I waded into the water for the very first time with my Minelab, I squealed from the cold. It was sure cold at first but the sun soon warmed me up and I was having a wonderful time. I got nary a false reading. Woohoo! And in the short time we were out there, the difference between the two metal detectors we brought with us was striking. Even going over the same area where the other 5 detectorists had been, I still had 5 hits with my Minelab while Michael had only one with his ‘other kind’. Plus, I had one really deep hit that his metal detector never registered at all! After we dug up that ‘treasure’, a shy little boy of about 3 or 4 came up with his dad in tow to ask me about it. I squatted down to show it to him. He was so cute! You could tell it was all he could do to be brave in the face of talking to someone he didn’t know, but his curiosity overcame his natural shyness. A little while later, a newspaper reporter came up to us and interviewed us for the local paper. We even got our picture in the paper! Too cool, huh? As we were packing up to leave, the same little boy and his dad drove past and stopped to ask about our finds. While this may not seem like a ‘success story’ to you, it meant the world to me to be able to show that shy little tyke the coins we found – which is a treasure for sure to a 3 or 4 year old. Thanks, Minelab. With what happened the day before and my experience with my ‘other’ detector, I can tell you without a doubt that I wouldn’t have found anything that day if it hadn’t been for my Minelab. I couldn’t have received a more perfect present. I loved every single minute on the beach with my Minelab and we’re going back this weekend - this time we’ll stay longer. Thank you, Minelab, for making such fabulous detectors! Terri - FL, USA