Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Metal detectors

Gentlemen,
I have no experience with brands or types of metal detectors.
I have been thinking about getting a good one to play with, although I don't know why.
I have some old foundation stones on a few farms and just thought that it might be fun to find old square nails or tools or whatever.
Probably just find junk.

I don't want to spend money on crappy equipment.
Is there a make or model that equates to Remington, winchester, or higher end types?
Are there models that discern between types of metal??

Thanks for your input,
Bill

I know whites used to make good ones, my dad always enjoyed metal detecting, when I was about 10 they were tearing down an old abandon house that had been deed back to the county so we went down with his metal detector and found a Morgan Dollar, he also found a diamond ring and several other coins and small jewelry, but the number of pop tabs I dug up for him would fill a truck bed

Minelab.....look no further.

I'd look into the 705 for what your doing.

Take a close look at Minelab. We have an Exporer and it's a dandy. You can set them to ignore whatever you want. Very nice machines. And look for the places kids played. I found a huge maple in the timber that was surrounded with indian head pennies and mercury dimes. I figured that is the tree the kids climbed and played on...

Minelab is good but there are better

The best I ever used has not been made for five years. Is a Troy Shadow X5 followed closely by a Nautilus DMC IIBa.

The Shadow works great in my local sandy soil and worked really well in England.

The Nautilus is a specialized relic machine but works well with everything.

From what I hear the Fisher F75 is nice.

A drop down in price, as well in performance, is the Tesoro (several different models available). Probably the most popular metal detector going now.

My uncle was big into metal detecting. He always had cool stuff he had found in western Nebraska. Old cavalry pins and buttons, cartridges, even revolver frames were the norm. He also found some old coins worth a bit of cash. I forget what brand he ran but at the time it was top of the line. My father might remember. I'll talk to him and find out more.

White is the only brand mentioned here that I've heard of. A friend of mine ran a couple White's and was very satisfied with them. Good luck with your purchase.

A great thing to locate on an old homestead is the ancient outhouse. People lost all kinds of things in those that they decided they didn't want to recover - coins, eye glasses, guns, knives, etc. The 'soil' has turned to soil by now so they're not nasty to dig through.

I use a Fisher Quicksilver. I like it. Check under old clothes-lines.

I've got the White's DFX and couldn't be happier. But for an entry-level, the Garrett Ace 250 will do all the things you want for a fraction of the price. Success with metal detectors has alot to do with the person swinging it and a little to do with the tool. To do some pricing go to Kellyco and compare models. Have fun!

My son does some metal detecting as a hobby. He says besides enjoying it, it's also a great stress reliever for him.

He started out when he was young with an inexpensive, basic Radio Shack detector. Once he decided he liked metal detecting he upgraded to a better White's detector which he still has and still functions just fine. Currently he owns and uses as his primary one of the mid-range Tesoro models that he says he is quite pleased with. He also uses a little hand held gadget he calls a "pin-pointer".

His finds, besides the usual pop tabs, rusty nails and food/beverage cans, include all kinds of stuff from useless unidentifiable junk to the interesting. He also finds lots of old and new coins. So far the most valuable single object he's found was a Barber Quarter in real nice condition valued at around $200+. He recently sold four small trinkets on ebay he dug up for a total of around $100.

As relatively inexpensive as it was, even that first little Radio Shack metal detector helped pay for itself locating lost aluminum arrows.

I've found plenty of coin with my White DFX that others missed.

Plenty of good machines out there. It all depends on how you tweak the program to fit what you're looking for.

Best advice for starting out, get a Garret Ace. The thing with detectors is that each one has strengths and weaknesses, and you'll have to figure out what detector is best for your soil, the type of targets you are looking for, and the depth they are found at. The only way to figure that out is get a decent basic unit, start using it and then you'll have an understanding of what features you'll want on a top of the line unit, or if you are sufficiently interested in detecting to justify the cost of such a unit.

Here are the answers. Go to Kellycodetectors.com and start looking. I have a Garret, have owned White's and Fischers in the past. Minelab is the Cadillac. There ARE some Rolls Royce level detectors out there, but you have to ask yourself how much money you want to spend for your first detector.

Happy Hunting!

Ed

Regardless which model you chose, be sure to order a vibra probe.

Sure makes locating objects easier.



A lesche digging too is a must have too

This seems like an intriguing hobby. I imagine site selection correlates to what you find. ?

I tend to hunt old home sites and areas where people congregated in earlier times. Last summer I was the first to jump a home that was a bed and breakfast for Chicago folk prior to WWII. The first house that went up was in 1903. As I understand it, there was a dance hall built following WWII that burned down in the '60's.

I dug up scores of coins with the earliest being an 1892 indian cent. Plenty of wheat pennies, buffalo nickel and silver quarters followed.

Was my best dig site to date.

Directly behind the house was a steep hill. Thats where my second hobby originated. I figured that was their dump and hauled out many antique glass medicine bottles and such.

Interesting thread.I've always wanted to check out an old dog fighting pit I found 20 years ago.It was a 4' deep 8' dai. perfect circle with metal walls with nails facing inside about 2" apart all the way around.It was old enough that the metal and nails would crumble to the touch.

I always wondered what men would loose when drinking and possibly fighting.