Bucketfreak317
Jr. Member
- Feb 3, 2014
- 30
- 10
- Detector(s) used
- Minelab X-Terra 305 Whites BH
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
I first want to say my words are not the end all of end all's in anything I don't know it all either this post is intended only to give some helpful hints to the new guy who is interested in getting into this exciting hobby,what metal detector you by and how much you spend on it does not equate to you finding more of anything not silver coins or gold rings so do yourself a favor and put the billfold checkbook,and credit card away and consider something more important.
Ask yourself first where do you live,location will be the deciding factor in a lot of things from what type of detector you'll need and right down to what your likely to find in your area,it is my own opinion that the smartest thing to look into is the soil conditions in your area,are there a lot of minerals in the soil iron etc?
I also prospect for gold and the gold in my area is very fine I was aggravated with dealing with the black sand here so I started drying my concentrates out and use a magnet to get as much of the iron out as I can to make it easier to pan out,so if your not sure of your soil conditions in your area you might try drying out some of the soil and run a magnet over it to check this will tell you if you need a detector that works well in iron saturated soil because I learned 3 years ago not all metal detectors work well in such soils conditions.
Look into the history of your town or city is it well established (in other words has it been around for a long time)the same thing should be considered with public parks,also think have there been gatherings like for the fourth of July these are good hints that your going to at least find modern coins and maybe even jewelry.
The history of commerce manufacturing and the economy in general in your area will have an effect on what you might find while detecting if you live in a place that is pee pot poor don't expect to find much in the way of coins or jewelry.
Now once you've considered this keep in mind that there's no price competitive sales going on,no one can say I'm going to give you a better deal than the other guy,that's empirically impossible in a market that has fixed prices so don't be fooled so the smart thing in my opinion is if you've decided on a certain detector look at 2 others made by different manufacturers in the same price and ability range and then start looking for all the reviews you can even the lower entry range metal detectors aren't cheap price wise.
Most manufacturers also have the instruction manuals for their detectors posted on their web sites in PDF format so it would be a good idea to download the manual and look it over, once you've ordered your detector learn every aspect of the manual forward and backwards that way once yours comes you'll be ahead of the game.
Be forewarned also there's more white lies and BS hype being sold to people by the companies who sell these detectors than you can shake a coil at be patient pay attention to every audio tone of every target you hit along with the TID or VID displays this will help you to recognize a good target from a bad one I'm still carrying a note book with me to keep tabs on my settings and the audio tones and TID's of the targets I hit.
Just keep in mind no matter what you've seen on youtube or on national geographic this is one fact that I believe everyone who has been into metal detecting for a while will agree with if nothing else I've posted here it doesn't matter what metal detector you have your going to dig a lot of trash quite a bit more than treasure but on the other hand if you pay attention to the the signals of a good target you will eventually learn what to dig and what not to dig.
My thoughts is you do not have to spend $1300+ to have fun and find some good stuff that is not a guarantee you'll be coming home with hands full of silver half and whole dollars and gold rings by the bucket full.
Sorry for such a long post I hope these ideas are a help to someone like I said I don't know everything about metal detecting these ideas were things I put into practice though in the mean time I got the detector I have now as a birthday gift and I'm happy with it for the most part though what I have may not work for everyone else anyway GL&HH.
Ask yourself first where do you live,location will be the deciding factor in a lot of things from what type of detector you'll need and right down to what your likely to find in your area,it is my own opinion that the smartest thing to look into is the soil conditions in your area,are there a lot of minerals in the soil iron etc?
I also prospect for gold and the gold in my area is very fine I was aggravated with dealing with the black sand here so I started drying my concentrates out and use a magnet to get as much of the iron out as I can to make it easier to pan out,so if your not sure of your soil conditions in your area you might try drying out some of the soil and run a magnet over it to check this will tell you if you need a detector that works well in iron saturated soil because I learned 3 years ago not all metal detectors work well in such soils conditions.
Look into the history of your town or city is it well established (in other words has it been around for a long time)the same thing should be considered with public parks,also think have there been gatherings like for the fourth of July these are good hints that your going to at least find modern coins and maybe even jewelry.
The history of commerce manufacturing and the economy in general in your area will have an effect on what you might find while detecting if you live in a place that is pee pot poor don't expect to find much in the way of coins or jewelry.
Now once you've considered this keep in mind that there's no price competitive sales going on,no one can say I'm going to give you a better deal than the other guy,that's empirically impossible in a market that has fixed prices so don't be fooled so the smart thing in my opinion is if you've decided on a certain detector look at 2 others made by different manufacturers in the same price and ability range and then start looking for all the reviews you can even the lower entry range metal detectors aren't cheap price wise.
Most manufacturers also have the instruction manuals for their detectors posted on their web sites in PDF format so it would be a good idea to download the manual and look it over, once you've ordered your detector learn every aspect of the manual forward and backwards that way once yours comes you'll be ahead of the game.
Be forewarned also there's more white lies and BS hype being sold to people by the companies who sell these detectors than you can shake a coil at be patient pay attention to every audio tone of every target you hit along with the TID or VID displays this will help you to recognize a good target from a bad one I'm still carrying a note book with me to keep tabs on my settings and the audio tones and TID's of the targets I hit.
Just keep in mind no matter what you've seen on youtube or on national geographic this is one fact that I believe everyone who has been into metal detecting for a while will agree with if nothing else I've posted here it doesn't matter what metal detector you have your going to dig a lot of trash quite a bit more than treasure but on the other hand if you pay attention to the the signals of a good target you will eventually learn what to dig and what not to dig.
My thoughts is you do not have to spend $1300+ to have fun and find some good stuff that is not a guarantee you'll be coming home with hands full of silver half and whole dollars and gold rings by the bucket full.
Sorry for such a long post I hope these ideas are a help to someone like I said I don't know everything about metal detecting these ideas were things I put into practice though in the mean time I got the detector I have now as a birthday gift and I'm happy with it for the most part though what I have may not work for everyone else anyway GL&HH.
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