Magnetar Terror 2000LB 360° Kit — The Smart Step Down
The Magnetar Terror 2000LB 360-Degree Kit gives you full-circle magnetic coverage and serious pulling power for $244.99 — a premium setup without the premium-est price tag.
The Magnetar Terror sits in this interesting spot where it's genuinely premium gear — 2000LB pull force, full 360-degree coverage — but it's not the most expensive thing in the lineup. That gap between it and the Beast is real, and it matters.
I've been using 360-degree magnets long enough to know that not all of them earn the label. This one does. The coverage is actual coverage, not marketing coverage.
If you've been doing this a while and you're ready to stop messing around with single-sided magnets, this is the kit I'd point you toward.
I want to talk about the moment I switched to 360-degree magnets, because it's relevant. I'd been running a single-sided setup off a bridge over the Lehigh for about two years — decent results, nothing wild — and a guy fishing downstream pulled up a bicycle on his first pass with a 360. Not a bike frame. A whole bicycle. Handlebars, wheels, the works. Presumably parked down there since sometime around 1993. I went home and ordered a 360 that week.
The Terror is what I'm running now. And here's the thing — I almost bought the Beast. The Beast is Magnetar's top-end 360 and it's legitimately great, but it's also $320, and when I looked at what I was actually giving up by going with the Terror instead, the answer was basically... not much. You're still getting 2000LB of pull force. You're still getting full omnidirectional coverage. The $75 difference buys you bragging rights, mostly.
The magnet itself is dense. Like, pick-it-up-and-be-surprised dense.
I dropped it off a canal bridge on my third outing with it — early March, water was high and murky from snowmelt — and the first pass came up with two bolts, a rebar chunk, and something that used to be a padlock. The second pass snagged what turned out to be a cast iron drain cover, which I nearly couldn't haul up. The 360 design absolutely contributed to that. A single-sided magnet drags across the bottom in one direction. This thing finds stuff on the swing up, the swing out, the side angle — it's a different experience.
The rope that comes with the kit is fine. Not the thing I'd write home about, but it's not the embarrassing afterthought you sometimes get with combo kits either. I've replaced it anyway because I have opinions about rope, but if you're not there yet, the included rope will do the job for a good long while.
The case is adequate. It's not going to survive a truck getting run over it, but it keeps everything together.
One thing I'll say plainly: this isn't a beginner kit. Not because it's dangerous or complicated — it's just that at $244.99, you're spending real money, and if you haven't figured out your technique yet, you're going to spend a lot of time untangling rope and not understanding why you're not finding more stuff. The 360 design rewards people who know how to work a retrieve. If you're just starting out, get a cheaper single-sided setup, spend a season learning where to look and how to move the magnet, and then come back to this.
For someone who's already past that phase, though — already knows their spots, already has a system — the Terror is the kind of upgrade that actually changes your haul. Not because of some magic. Just because more magnetic surface area facing more directions means more contact with more metal. It's not complicated. It just works.
I've taken it out maybe fifteen times since March. Lost a few finds to bad knots that were my fault, not the magnet's. Found a fire hydrant cap, three knives (two of which I kept), and something my girlfriend refuses to let me bring inside until I identify it. The Terror had nothing to do with the identification problem, but it definitely contributed to creating it.
