Minelab Sovereign Elite
Price: $700
Avg. Score: 
4.58
Based on 19 reviews
4.58Based on 19 reviews
Avg. Durability:
4.40
Avg. Ease of use:
4.60
Minelab elite "simple perfection" kiss
March 11, 2017
I have hunted the beaches along the Treasure coast for over 20 years. When
it comes to beach hunting, plain and simple...Minelab Sovereigns will
always perform as good if not better than most any beach hunting machine
out there today. Just turn it on, "hunt in all metal" with threshold
humming, sensitivity-just passed click off auto, and when that threshold
gives the hint of change, stop, toggle to discrimination from all
metal...And listen for the tones. Be prepared to dig DEEP.
I would buy a gt, Elite, XS, XS-pro before I ever would consider buying a newer detector. Put all the bells and whistles, smart screens, backlights, programs on the detectors made today, and I guarantee the old word from the past will knock you up side your head "KISS" Minelab Sovereign series didn't forget that word and ended up building quite possibly the finest overall beach detector of all time. I have and use Tesoro's, Fisher's so don't think I'm pushing Minelab.
Max Depth: 14 inches on US quarter
Overall Rating
Durability
Ease of Use
Would you recommend this to a new user?
I have no clue...
Src from
Treasure Coast
154
Sov elite
June 19, 2016
I bought mine used to use on the saltwater beach in California. I hip mount
it because it is weighty. It works without falsing on the beach. Mine came
with the meter and that makes it fun to guess what I'm digging with some
degree of accuracy. I dig most everything anyhow. It is a joy to ignore
iron. I had a PI unit before and that was too much digging not knowing what
it was signalling on. If you are near a beach I highly recommend one since
they are discontinued the prices are falling! I have 10 inch stock coil and
been digging kinda deep. A great machine!!
Overall Rating
Durability
Ease of Use
Would you recommend this to a new user?
Yes, absolutely!
Paul from
California
110
Minelab elite- it is the elite md
October 16, 2015
I'm 55 and have been MD'ing Off and on for 36 years. I have been a die hard
whites fan for 35 years. Then I tried an Elite. To make a long story short,
I sold my whites and now have 5 Minelab machines. An American Gold Strike a
Sovereign GT and 3 Sovereign Elites. Need I say more! I think not!
Max Depth: 13 inches on US quarter
Overall Rating
Durability
Ease of Use
Would you recommend this to a new user?
Yes, absolutely!
Ron Fletcher from
Central Alabama
133
Lots of loyal minelab dealers
May 14, 2015
Minelab sovereign elite is a surface feeder. Any garrett gtax1250 to 2500
with the white stock search coil will out hunt the stock search coil
minelab elite. Even an ace 350 has more depht than the elite. I have had
the minelab sovereign for about a year before my neighbor showed me up with
a gtax 1250 in the test garden with various coins from 4 to 11 inches. I
then sold the minelab after seeing it make one flute on a dime buried
5".
Most all my garrett detectors including the gtax1250 can hit all those targets no problem at all with a nice belltone but the deeper the target the less reliable reading. In closing, the elite could not hit any of them past 5" but then wasn't a dig signal and now you can see why it's a surface feeder. Those big depth claims about the elite is bogus BS. I will bet any sovereign elite fan 1000.00 if he or she can beat my gtax1250, gti1500 with stock imaging coil or 2500 in my test garden.
I will be at steels creek park at 9am on july 10th if there is any challengers. You must have money up front before testing begins. Coins has been in the test garden over 4 years. HH
Max Depth: 4 inches on US quarter
Overall Rating
Durability
Ease of Use
Would you recommend this to a new user?
No, not really.
Bobby from
Kingsport TN
341
Tried and trued!
November 09, 2013
The Minelab Sovereign Elite..
I was lucky enough to purchase this excellent machine at Famous Treasures (brand new) a few years back for around $300 less than retail! With a 10" double D coil, every time I take this detector out it amazes me. One of my first finds at a skate park near my house (the parks been around since the late 60's), was a beautiful 14k gold, diamond and ruby cocktail ring at around 4" underground with a perfect signal!
Within the first 3 or 4 years of using it (when I can), it has already paid for itself. I have found everything from gold jewelry, silver jewelry and coins, 100 plus years old coins and artifacts or relics, including indian head pennies, other various coins, railroad uniform buttons, railroad stakes, colonial buttons, spoons, mirrors, horse tack, bullets(including musket and WW2) plus 100's of odds and ends at depths you would think only a pulse machine could reach.
I once found a 1965 dime in low tide, salt water, at a depth of 2 feet up to my elbow. (it was not in the sinking dug sand. It was actually embedded in the bottom of the hole, so it was a true 2 foot or so). I actually thought it was a piece of Spanish silver, since it was covered in a blackish crust.
Great inland machine and excellent machine for salt or freshwater areas!!. Get use to the tones and use headphones!. This detector has 17 frequencies so you must sweep slow!. What's your rush anyways?. You want to find out what's in the ground right?. This detector will literally find everything depending on your setting.
All metal mode is unbelievably deep!!. The only 2 problems you're going to have with this detector is finding another place to hunt after you've searched out the area you're detecting and it's hard to put down, but you may have to because it does become a bit heavy after a few hours of detecting.
No place is ever searched out huh?. Let the Minelab Sovereign be the judge of that!. Oh,if you use double A batteries, make sure you change them out after about 8-10 hours for best results. Let me finish by saying I am very experienced with metal detecting technique and the way they work and you will not be let down!..If you cannot afford a Sovereign, go with the Minelab Musketeer which you will find at a bit lower price, but is an excellent DEEP detector!!.
Happy digging my friends!
Max Depth: 18 inches on US quarter
Overall Rating
Durability
Ease of Use
Would you recommend this to a new user?
Yes, absolutely!
Dave from
Florida
151
Elite good for relics also
January 12, 2013
Hey all, I think most people know that the Elite is a fantastic beach
hunter but today I took mine to a CW camp I have been hunting with my
Etrac. I am very impressed with this machine. I have pounded this camp with my Etrac in TTF mode and on my first pass I found a 3 ring bullet and a small buckle. I also found 6 percussion caps, several button backs, lots of camp lead, 10 bullets total and best of all my first Calvary coat button all in 4 hours of hunting. I expected to find almost nothing!
The Etrac has a bit more depth in (TTF mode) but the Elite did do better on small brass items.
I also picked up bullets that I know I had walked over with out digging on previous hunts. It and the 10 inch tornado coil found stuff I was not expecting. Yes, I thought this place was hunted out, I am impressed with this machine.
Overall Rating
Trent Nunley from
Seymour Johnson Afb
70
Unbeatable on the beach
December 17, 2012
I bought the elite just for beachwork. I was using an explorer xs and
loved that but balance was poor in my opinion and after a couple of hours
swinging you knew!The sovereign elite is worth its weight in gold on the beach.
Very easy to use. Flick it into disc, get the threshold just audible, personally I'm dropping disc and notch to zero so I'm digging everything thats not iron, and thats it.
You can tell the rings, coins and fishing weights by the nice round pulse of sound.
This machine is deep! I'm getting fish hooks at over a foot right at the sea edge, how many other detectors can do this?
Only negative I can find is the batteries need to be fresh, or fully charged.
I've never used it inland, I have another machine for there, but for the beach the sovereign elite is in a class of its own.
Overall Rating
Alan from
England
101
Good detector
September 03, 2010
Easy to use switch on and go machine thats what I like about the Minelab
Elite and its very powerful deep machine. Have not yet used mine on the
Beach but will be trying it out next week.It is a little on the heavy side, I had a Tesoro before but you do get used to it.
It feels lighter when the control box is mounted at the rear of the stem. Battery life is good. It is a good all rounder for pasture and beach. You can get used to the controls very quickly, I recommend this machine.
Overall Rating
James from
France
241
Great Depth
September 24, 2009
I have had this machine almost a year now and Im still amazed at the depth
it can reach even at full disc. Sometimes I think my pinpointing must be
off but I just keep digging into soil that in all probability has never
been disturbed and there the object appears. If its copper/bronze its
obviously unrecognizable but I found a nice William lll sixpence at a depth
I thought was impossible. One thing I cant really understand is that even allowing for the "halo" is why I can dig miles for a rusty piece of metal which once out of the ground wont register, but these are mostly recognizable as a slightly more broken sound. Nevertheless they must be dug as coins on edge have a similiar sound. If you never want to see a ring pull you wont but as always you wont see gold either. Really does not work that well on half power batteries, threshold needs a lot of tuning and both shaft mount positions seem a little awkward to me when switching to all-metal but overall if I dont want to miss those deep coins this is the one I take. Unusable in high trash areas. I take my 250 to them.
I would definitely recommend this machine. I have no experience of e-tracs, nautalus etc, but they would have to go some to out depth this one.
Overall Rating
Rob from
Penrith,UK
321
THE SECRETS-OF-THE-SOVEREIGN ELITE ///
May 21, 2009
HI ALL, the sovereign elite, this machine is like using a(dyson hoover!)
tip: use in fix-tone turn (disc knob) anti-clockwise until it cant go no
further, and do the same with (notch knob)and use in disc mode, put
(headphones on) raise coil off the ground about 1ft, turn volume button
(clockwise) as far as it will go, click (sensitivity) out of auto into
manual range then turn back anti-clockwise as far as you can with out going
back into (auto mode) then you can leave it set there!(threshhold) to 12o'clock turn back anti-clockwise until the tone just disappears, rather than a (steady quite hum!) it gives this machine better sensitivity to smaller items and greater depth!
PS slow your sweep down to just below walking pace. \awesome/// INLAND OR BEACH
Overall Rating
Russell from
ENGLAND
863