A rating like "8.7/10" tells you a machine is good. It does not tell you whether it is good at the specific thing you care about - turning on and finding a target in the first ten minutes, or telling iron from a coin, or surviving a wet lawn. This chart breaks the single score for all ten machines in our ranking into the four things it is actually built from, side by side, so you can see where a machine earns its position and where it loses ground.
How the four scores break down
Our full methodology explains the weighting behind these numbers. In short: Turn on and go and Target ID honesty each carry the most weight, because a confusing menu or a dishonest target ID is what makes a beginner quit within a season - depth and build matter, but only after the machine is one you actually want to keep swinging.
| # | Model | Overall | Turn on and go | Target ID honesty | Depth on real targets | Build and weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Garrett ACE 300 | 8.7 | 8.8 | 8.9 | 8.4 | 8.5 |
| 2 | Minelab Vanquish 360 | 8.5 | 8.7 | 8.6 | 8.5 | 8.2 |
| 3 | Nokta Simplex Ultra | 8.4 | 8.2 | 8.4 | 8.5 | 9.2 |
| 4 | Garrett ACE 200 | 8.1 | 8.9 | 8.0 | 7.8 | 8.4 |
| 5 | Fisher F22 | 8.0 | 8.4 | 8.3 | 7.8 | 8.3 |
| 6 | Garrett ACE 400 | 7.9 | 8.0 | 8.8 | 8.6 | 8.5 |
| 7 | Minelab Vanquish 540 Pro-Pack | 7.8 | 8.5 | 8.6 | 8.6 | 8.2 |
| 8 | Bounty Hunter Land Ranger Pro | 7.5 | 7.0 | 7.4 | 8.0 | 7.6 |
| 9 | Bounty Hunter Tracker IV | 7.0 | 8.0 | 6.0 | 6.8 | 7.4 |
| 10 | Nokta Simplex Lite | 6.9 | 7.6 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 8.8 |
What jumps out once the scores are side by side
The rank order and the Turn on and go column do not move together. Garrett ACE 200 posts the single highest Turn on and go score on this chart, 8.9, ahead of everything above it - but a shallower Depth on real targets score and a plainer Target ID keep it at #4 overall. That is the chart's whole point: a machine can lead on the one column you personally care most about while sitting lower on the overall list.
Target ID honesty has the widest spread of any column, from 6.0 up to 8.9. That single number is closest to "will this machine make you dig junk you should have been able to skip," which is why our guide to using a metal detector spends most of its settings section on learning to read exactly that signal.
Build and weather is the one column where the overall #3, Nokta Simplex Ultra, actually posts the highest score on the entire chart at 9.2 - ahead of every machine ranked above it. If wet or sandy ground is your main condition, our waterproof buying guide goes deeper into which of these machines are fully submersible versus waterproof-coil-only, a distinction this chart does not capture.
Reading the chart by budget tier
Price and score are not the same axis either. Garrett ACE 200 and Bounty Hunter Tracker IV are both entry-priced, but ACE 200 clears 8.0 on three of four columns while Tracker IV's Target ID honesty sits at 6.0, the lowest number anywhere on this chart. At the top end, Garrett ACE 400 and Minelab Vanquish 540 Pro-Pack cost more without topping the overall list - they earn their price in Depth on real targets and Build and weather, not in beating the #1 machine outright. Our best metal detector for the money guide walks through that value trade-off machine by machine.
None of the numbers here are invented for this page - every score and sub-score is pulled straight from the same ten review pages this site already publishes, and every review states plainly that it is a desk comparison, not a lab test. Use this chart to shortlist two or three machines by the column that matters to you, then read the full review of each before you buy.