Just bought a metal detector
 

I got the PM bug bad. I just bought a metal detector. I'm tired of paying for PM's!

I'll post any cool things I find. I've got to wait 2-3 days before it comes. It's a Garrett brand, Ace250. I did a little research and for the price, it's said to be the best on the market. We shall see.

Please post city, street, and your address if you practice burying your hoard. It will be like a game of hide and seek. :cool2:

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

What part of the country do you live in? I just got the Fisher Gold Bug II but have not been able to do much yet. I am having some trouble learning the language of the detector but it is me I am sure and not the machine.
Good luck with yours.

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

You'll like that Ace 250. I had one last year and loved how well it worked. The ground around here is just too damn hard so I ended up selling it.

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

Damn!! Gold fever must be contagious. Found color in the local streams and the fire is just beginning in my gut. Gold dust is LABOR INTENSIVE. I am now looking for more efficient ways to locate richer gold content and wash impurities away. A metal detector is next on my list.

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

I bought a White's DFX over the winter. All of the reviews that I read claimed that this was the one to have. The only problem is I haven't found time to use the thing yet. I'm new to the hobby but hopefully I'll find some treasure to show off on the forum.

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

Is there a decent site to read reviews and see whats a good model to get?

I've really been wanting one for years, I think since I've gotten into coin collecting and PMs, I could justify the cost a bit better now...

I'd like one that can discern PMs from regular metals and maybe Water proof for a few feet (not the brain unit, just the pole and senser part)

How much would I need to spend to get something decent???

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

I only wanted to spend about $300 -- I ended up spending $220.

From what I've read, I got the best around for that price. Lots of people said they got the Garrett Ace 250 as a backup and ended up using as primary.

Heres some links I found useful with reviews and recommendations:

http://www.treasurequestxlt.com/community/

http://forum.treasurenet.com/

2nd site is very slow.

I haven't tested this model or any personally.

I hear the Bounty Hunter brand isn't that good. It's mass marketed.

Anyway. Good luck. Don't necessarily avoid the Bounty Hunter brand. I'm sure it brings lots of pleasure to many people and they post their finds on the above websites.

Most of the new models will suggest what they think the medal is and the depth.

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

Carl suggested this one,
http://metaldetectorreviews.net/dete...categories.php
I think there was another one also but I will have to do a search for it.

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

Thanks for the info, I'll do some reading...

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

rCurtman....
Stick some sitcks in the ground around your yard and using a trowel, cut the ground by each stick and bury some pieces of split shot sinkers, alum. pull tabs, ag half, quarter, and dime, some different size native gold nuggets if you have them. Also bury scrap steel, copper penny, old bottle cap, and other different stuff.

Practice using the detector on these targets and when you start to get good (it won't take long), just look for the different size gold nuggets and maybe some medium flakes. Bury them at different depths and it won't take you long to become an expert.

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

there are some good metal detecor forums out there, anyways dont except to find gold coins, finding a gold coin or silver coin is like winning the lottery, most times you will find rusty nails and beer cans, and if you lucky you get some older coins, like dimes and pennys.

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

Thanks Goldminer, I will set up my field course and give this a try. I realize now that I have no real little pieces of gold, just some rings. I am going to try it with some of them again until I pick up some bigger chunks somewhere. I have been busy with distractions and have not been able to get back into the prospecting. Schools out soon and I plan on hitting it hard when the kids get free. I may be heading South a little later than I wanted to, July now. I am thinking more and more of moving down to South america to set up some residence there for the winters. Somewhere plush and on the cheap if that is still available. If not, I will be invading KEEFS neighborhood.

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

best thing is to go to fields where people have just been, as in 4th of July festivities. They stay for the works and go home in the dead of night leaving all kinds of stuff.

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

Thanks for the info. I'm buying a metal detector just to help me get the junk out of the ground at my farm. It's been a farm for 100 years at least so I might find some other goodies too, otherwise the beaches are known for producing gold thanks to all the tourists. As was stated above, anywhere people gather is a good place to look. I'll settle for common pocketchange, it all adds up.

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

If I had a metal detector, the first place I would go (after becoming proficient) would be the old football field at my old high school. Now it is just used as a practice field for the high school band and occasional football scrimmages and practices for the Jr. teams. (and has been used that way for at least 30 years if not much longer.) I almost lost my wedding band there several years ago. My brother and I were back in our hometown for Thanksgiving and were playing football out there. I had recently lost weight, and my wedding ring slipped off. Amazingly we found it by retracing our steps! My wife would have killed me if she had known . . . :love:

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

A great place to find some old coins is along the edge of a driveway where people frequently parked cars, maybe adjacent to a house or some other grassy location.

Men for years have carried change in the same pocket in which they carry car keys and have frequently and unwittingly caused coins to drop to the ground when they pulled keys out to unlock a car door. Same with any ladies who pulled keys out of a purse which also held coins.

A person needs but put on their thinking cap and use their eyes and imagination. The fringes of a little league ball field; along roads through a cemetery; picnic areas; old dirve-in movie lots...and?

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

WARNING:

Metal detecting is not easy. Thus far, it has not been rewarding either. In about 4 hours of looking, I have found 4 cents, all modern era. I have also cleaned my yard of many scraps of aluminum and steel.

I went to a 100 year old building and found nothing in about 1.5 hours, unless you count aluminum.

I haven't given up yet, I still have a few places up my sleeve. But, digging a 1 foot hole by hand and trying to keep it neat as not to offend the tenants is difficult.

For me, it beats spending time on the computer, which is what I already do too much. And, digging builds upper body strenght.

The Garrett Ace 250, though highly recommended picks up a lot of aluminum and tells you its silver. This is coming from a novice, they may all do this.

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

A person shouldn't have to dig a large hole. Practice should let you more precisely locate a target so a wide hole is not needed. If you're not yet doing it, narrow down the location of a target by swinging the coil firstly side to side and then away from and the back towards your feet. This way the target can be located at the precise apex of the right/left and away and toward swing lines.

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

Thanks for the tip. It's the 8" plus holes that end up getting wide. I dig a bit, don't find anything then recheck with the detector. Often, the detector will signal a little off center of the hole so I start digging the edge of the hole, thinking I missed it by an inch. Repeat this process several times and you got a bigger hole.

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

Use a trowel for soft ground, and it and a small hand pick for hard ground & rock crevices. Also carry a 2' square piece of plastic cut from a trash bag, and a small plastic plate, shallow bowl, lid, or some similar item made of plastic.

Take your best shot at precise location and spread the plastic sheet beside where you're digging. Then place a scoop of dirt at a time on to the plastic plate, bowl or what have you item, and move the plate and scoop of dirt over the coil on the detector.

If your target is in that dirt the detector will let you know. If not, pour the dirt onto the plastic sheet on the ground and repeat the process until you recover the target. When finished dump the dirt off the plastic sheet back into the hold and tamp it down.

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

FL_RacingGal...

Welcome aboard! If you live near the east coast in FL and plan on doing some detecting, you might want to consider checking beaches at low tide, particularly after a strong Northeast storm/wind. Get one that has a waterproof coil, and especially work the small inlets both on the beach and with a mask & snorkel "onboard", wade and check the bottom under the water.

There must be a similar "best" weather formula on the Gulf Coast but I don't know what it is. Good hunting!

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

Just FWIW, I met Garrett many years ago, I guess just shortly after he began his business, and we became pretty good friends over a period of several years.

That was when I could just walk into his little semi clutered office and kibitz (is that a non-offensive word?)...or shoot the breeze about coin shooting and other neat stuff.

He showed me a stack of gold bars (looked like 10 Oz'ers) and other really unbelievable stuff which he had found...can't remember where but I think some is in off-limit areas now (C.W Battlefields, etc). He gave me a lot of good clues on where to look for different items...some of which I still remember.

Don't know much about his detectors now,(or any for that matter) but he's been in the business long enough to have stayed ahead of the curve technologically I would think.

I drive by his business every now and then. Might drop in to see if he is still there. He may have retired by now...if not I'll see if he has any more secrets to share.(but I won't hold my breath)

I recall we strategized about Maximilian's gold when it seemed to have disappeared after Poncho Villa and the US Feds converged upon him (during Monroe Doctrine period) near the Apache Mtns in or near Crane, Texas (West Texas)...We found some VERY convincing evidence where the gold Poncho Villa was getting out of Mexico was hidden. VERY CONVINCING EVIDENCE! Made one trip out there to get a feel for the lay of the land...Boy that's a big place! Is it still there or was it subsequently found and secreted out?...I digress...That's another story for another time although I think I still have my copious research notes on it.

P.S. We did find some of those HUGE wagon wheels which would have been used on wagons used to haul this type of heavy cargo...unlike any I have ever seen along with what we were really looking for...a particular surveyor's mark.

Gosh, that was fun!

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

here are two forums I visted before


http://metaldetectingforum.com/
http://forum.treasurenet.com/

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

All right, I did the research and ended up ordering one of the dang blasted Ace 250 units myself. I have a 100 year old farm and a great number of other century+ old public parks and assorted sites to search. I figured for $200 out the door I should at least be able to recoup my cost in clad coins found around the swingsets, not to mention the practical utility of helping me find any junk on my farm. After that, who knows?

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

Congrats. You will sure get a lot of beeps with the Garrett Ace 250. I was excited about it, until I tried it a couple of times. Man there is so much scrap aluminum around.

I've heard advice from dig every signal to only dig ones that give a beep all 4 ways when you pass over it in an X fashion.

I've found 20 pennies so far. Many were coppers!

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

I just to go to Venice Beach and around the monkey bars I just to clean out every night, you would not believe the stuff that I found.

Once in a while someone would call me over in order to search for the car key and would give me a buck after I found them.

Also I would find a "mine", anything over $1.00 in loose change is a mine :clap2:

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

I warmly remember my first metal detector, a sub-$70 Radio Shack model I bought in the mid 90's. The first thing I found with it was a used sparkplug. I remember thinking it was cool that it actually worked. Back then I looked for gold on the beach but gave up because the mineralization totally threw off this model. I gave up on the metal detector and instead pursued the art of dowsing/divining using a pendulum. I didn't find anything exactly because I never looked, but I did find that it actually worked which I thought was fun but strange and puzzling. I figure if I can average $6/hr detecting all day long it sure beats working for a living! :ARMS1:

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

My Ace 250 just arrived. Wo00ot! Now all I have to do is quit my job and comb the beaches! muahahahaha!

I will say this is a very lightweight, intuitive and accurate machine. The coin discimination settings have been top notch, it even detected an aluminum Finnish coin I have, but ignores other aluminum. I'm guessing the coin shape itself makes a certain magnetic signature, or there's something else mixed into my 1971 1 Penni. I have a whole laundry list of sites I've been scouting out and will be venturing deep into the heart of our ancient(110yr +) ghettos at odd hours in search of primo loot. I'll let ya know if I find anything good.

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

Sweet... Lemme know how it goes.... Thats one of the ones I'm lookin at... Its either that one or if I can get the cash together without puttin it on the ChargeCard the 1350....

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

Well, I'm still trying to learn how to pinpoint the exact location of the loot, either with the pinpointer feature or otherwise. It's a skill I am learning, not a defect in the product, I am getting better at it. Three hours in a park I didn't expect to produce much beyond trash yielded 1 quarter, 2 copper pennies, 1 zinc penny, 2 pairs of eye glasses(weird), a set of keys that read as coin, a handful of pulltabs and a worm. The worm was really super-extra weird. I guess I need to notch out worms in the future?

I did learn that when you get a strong bell tone that you can pinpoint, you have found a coin or something very very similar to a coin in metal composition and shape. It is trustworthy. If it is a wishy-washy signal that comes and goes, chances are its junk. Circular piece of metal like screw caps from bottles will register as slightly stronger wishy-washy coins. Pulltabs beep but give no bell tone. The discriminator feature actually works suprisingly well. I had no trouble finding stuff as deep as six inches, but I didn't have a trowel so I wasn't able to recover any of my deeper hits, which were almost all strong coin bell tones. Darn! I'll be fixing that this afternoon, I'm looking for a polymer trowel so it is less likely to scratch coins while digging them up in case they're something special.

So, I put my $0.28 in a big jar to see how long it takes to pay off the detector and I ate the worm for a snack. Not a bad return on investment so far! I can't wait to find my trowel and hit the more primo spots!

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

This sounds like fun. I might have to look into renting one for when I go to the beach. In the desert where I live I'm sure their isn't jack to find worthy of anybodies time.

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

Too bad about that. I have heard of guys combing the desert and finding small gold nuggets, but I guess that depends on your geology.

FYI, Target has nylon and trowels for $1. I like the polymer stuff because it won't dammage potentially good coins the way a metal blade could. It might not be suitable for all soil types, though.

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

They recently had a special on the travel channel where they said the Arizona desert had a good amount of gold in it, maybe in some old dry stream beds.

I think it was in the Apache Junction area. Don't know if I'd buy a metal detector to find out but a day's rental might be worthwhile.

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

I have not considered a metal detector, but looking at some of the posts regarding digging, made me think of a solution.

Go to a garden center and buy a tulip bulb planter. They cut a 2" wide hole and you can easily replace the core and leave the turf intact.

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

Not a bad idea.

The usual tactic is to try and make a horseshoe-shaped incision and peel it back like a flap, put any dirt you dig out on a handkerchief or similar, find your target, put the dirt back and fold the flap over. You definately don't want to leave a path of holes and destruction wherever you go.

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

I'm honest with myself and can admit that I'm officially an old fart. I drive under the speed limit, losing my hair, make endless excuses not to exercise, but yet vow to some day soon to start running (I use to run marathons), etc. :stickyman

Now this metal detector stuff has been peaking my interests. If I can't find one locally, and buy one online do I need to worry about my being 6'3"? Is the front pole telescoping enought to accomodate my height???? :D

It should be fun to walk and seek on the beach with the dogs running wild and free some early early morning. :ARMS1:

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

I'm 6'5" and I'd like my (Metal Detector) to be a few inches longer as it can get to your back after a bit....

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

My first post here and I'm an avid detectorist, that's how I became interested in PMs. You can find just about anything and I've found lots of gold jewelry in only the last 2 years but the hunt is what makes it fun. I'll be happy to help anyone with questions if I can.
Good Hunting

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

WElcome to the board RingHunter.

I'm looking at a Garret 1500GTI......what do you think of those ?

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

Andy don't tell me you had a senior moment and forgot where the stash is? :Sorry:

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

I just paid half price for minelab excalibur 1000. I'll see what I can fetch on the beach. So. Cal beaches are combed by detectorists day and night.

For me it sure beats golfing.

Garrett 1500 GTI

http://metaldetectorreviews.net/dete...1-gti1500.html

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

Welcome to the board. What area do you hunt in?

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

Garret is a good entry level machine but be careful about spending too little. If your going to do alot of hunting or are in an area where theres high mineralization of the soil you might need to go to a higher end machine. These are 2 of the better sites for a little investigation
http://www.findmall.com/
http://thetreasuredepot.com/
Everybody will be a cheerleader for what they use but join the forum and ask what people use in your part of the country since it seems to me that certain machines work better in certain areas and depending on what your hunting.
By the way what are you hunting for?,Relics, jewelry ,silver coins, or nuggets.It's a great hobby and I'm addicted but it's not for those who might get easily discouraged. You just never know what you will find!

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

That's a great machine but a word of caution,don't hip mount it even though it weighs a ton, the wires will break and cost you dearly. Even if the beaches get hunted night and day nobody gets it all (rule #1)

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

I'm in Northern Illinois but will hunt land and sea where ever I go

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

I like my ACE, it's very light and easy to use.
We've been in a drought situation and the red clay here in the south gets hard as a rock without water, although we had a really good rain yesterday,
maybe it's time to break it back out:cheerful:

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

I am a metal detectorist and a member of a website, TreasureNet.com. Its a good site for reviews, tips and sharing pics of your finds,

I only paid about $200 for my Viking V detector, and it works great for me. I'm olny detecting a year and a half and may want to upgrade at some point but I've gotten a great value out of my Viking.

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

any updates from any you metal detector folks?

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

I found about 2 ounces of gold in 2007 with my metal detector.

It aint easy, but it can be done.

Chris

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

Don't forget the Treasure Depot either. Check out Lake Washington Steve if the forum goes back that far.

http://www.thetreasuredepot.com/

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

Heres a few from this year

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

Great job!!!

I'd like to do some nugget shooting, but Chris won't tell me where the gold is. :rant:

Seriously -- I'd like to pick up the White's GMT. I understand it is the best for my neck-o-the-rockies. First I need to find consistent color so that I know I'm in a gold-bearing area.

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

quick question for metal heads. Does silver plate show up as silver or copper on your metal detectors?

su

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

either one will be a solid hit and probably something you would dig then find out, plate won't ring out like silver but good enough to investigate. Depending on your detector you tell the difference between a clad or silver dime or even a copper or zinc penny.

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

My GTI2500 arrived a few weeks back, and I'm gearing up to hit the local beaches next week after the easter holiday crowd leave.

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

New Ace 250 arrived last friday-got out a few times and still taking a bit to get used to the new tones,but I found my first silver necklace at a local park (also some clad and an old toy truck)! DING! HH

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

I have a cheap Rat Shack one which I take out once a year to scan the driveway for change dropped during the fall and winter. Lately, however, I just scan the old fashioned way - with my eyes. The other day I found an old penny, probably dropped by the water delivery people, who usually leave the water bottles there.

A few years ago, I took the metal detector out on the lawn and found some strange items. Once, I found a bunch of buried broken pottery pieces - perhaps some kids in a family who previously owned the house were playing.

Another time - and this is incredibly strange and bizarre - I found an old glass bottle buried in the ground (the detector picked up its rusty cap). There was some water in the bottle, obviously from rain and snow over the years. The bottle's shape was similar to the shape of a perfume bottle, though it was made of glass and was larger in size.

Weird. Who would just bury a glass bottle like that? I remember it being relatively deep in the ground too!

Re: Just bought a metal detector
 

Got out for an hour today with the ace...found a dime ,a nickel, 2 pennies and a timex Iron Man watch. Im only 3/4 of the way around 1 basketball court (where I found the silver necklace)!