how did YOU get into the hobby

[treasurepirate1]

How did you get into the treasure hunting hobby? lets hear your story's about it! here's my story,

Around 2006 i got a simple kids metal detector for Christmas called "Off The Map". I used it in the gravel driveway and found nails, and each time i found one i was really happy . i even found my great grandfathers lost boat anchor with it and some really cool leather horse equipment at a cellar hole. A couple years later i asked for a better one for Christmas , i ended up getting a "Bounty Hunter VLF",
i used it on our lawn found allot of old coins, than i took it to the same cellar hole as i mentioned before and i got allot of relics like, a crotal bell, musket lock plate and hammer still intact and a verity of other miscellaneous iron relics. I liked detecting so much i started looking for another new metal detector to get, i looked on youtube and many websites and thought the fisher f4 or f2 were good for there low price and performance, than i thought the f5, then i started to lean towards an f70 than my Dad and i knew i liked detecting so much so we made the decision for me to get a fisher f75, and now i'm hooked.

That's how i got into the hobby, If you would like to tell your story lets hear it!

 

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[Dwight S]

Back in 1990 my dad bought a really cheap Bounty Hunter at a yard sale in hopes of finding his iron property stakes. He and I went searching and we did indeed find them. Dug down to expose them. After that he handed it to me and told me to go find my aunt's class ring that she lost in 1956 in my parent's yard, planting flowers. I went searching and within 15 minutes, I had her ring in my hand. I cleaned it up and took it to her. She was so happy to see it. She was dying with cancer and within a month she had passed. But it was good to know that I had found and returned it... From that point on, I've had a desire to detect.

 

[pennyfarmer]

1996 and I decided that I wanted a detector for Christmas. I found a dealer near me and went to speak with him. I picked out a Tesoro Bandito II and told my wife about it. I purchased the book "The Detectorist" and I read it forward, backwards, and even sideways. When I got my machine I had a difficult time knowing if my ground balance technique was good. I asked everyone I knew, even an uncle who was a big treasure hunter. I eventually just had to trust my self. It took me about 2 months to find my first wheatie and a few weeks later I had my first silver dime.

I then joined a local club and at the same time a park was getting removed. I found so much with my first machine it was unreal. I hunted with it for 3 years until I upgraded.

I have fell in and out of detecting for various reasons. I have had eight kids since that first machine. I always love to talk treasure and I tell people not to get me started unless they have a few spare hours.

 

[DigDugNY]

Im 21 now...but when I was around 13, I kept seeing the Whites commercials on TV about metal detecting. I was always curious about digging in the ground and finding stuff, so I ended up getting that spark and got a Whites Classic II as my first detector. I've had my ups and downs since then..and have been out of the hobby for the past year and a half...but I've missed it too much and invested in a Tesoro Vaquero which will hopefully be here by tomorrow or thursday

 

[Chug And Red]

Back in 1990 my dad bought a really cheap Bounty Hunter at a yard sale in hopes of finding his iron property stakes. He and I went searching and we did indeed find them. Dug down to expose them. After that he handed it to me and told me to go find my aunt's class ring that she lost in 1956 in my parent's yard, planting flowers. I went searching and within 15 minutes, I had her ring in my hand. I cleaned it up and took it to her. She was so happy to see it. She was dying with cancer and within a month she had passed. But it was good to know that I had found and returned it... From that point on, I've had a desire to detect.

Great recovery and Story HH Chug and Red

We will Work on our Story and Post It Later!!!! Red Is the Best Treasure I have But we will Write The Other Side!!!!! LOL Chug

 

[baywalker]

1956 I was 10 years old A guy was using A md on the beach letting us kids dig for him letting us keep all the coins and he would keep the jewelry. By the time I was 18 I had my first one , haven't stopped yet.

Jonnie

 

[Goose-0]

I was collecting coins for many-a-snow when my kids (eight of em) thought I could really collect if I had a metal detector to find them. They purchased a Whites Coin Classic II for Christmas of '90. I started in the spring of '91 and detected for a yr before I upgraded. I used that detector for 10 yrs before I upgraded again. I'm now in my 10th yr with that detector......my 21st yr overall. Items found? You name it.

 

[gleaner1]

I cant say that I got into the hobby, but somehow the hobby got into me.

 

[seekinginfo]

I found this site years ago doing a search on antiques. I signed up just to read about antiques. Never came back. But I kept getting e-mails from here. While digging a new flower bed, we found an old metal sock shaper/dryer thing. I wondered what else there might be on our property. It has been in the family since the early 1900's. There used to be an old livery stable here. I decided to click on the link from the e-mail. Read the forums for a few weeks. Ended up buying a Tesoro Compadre last week.

So this forum got me metal detecting!

 

[Seamuss]

I wanted to do an electronic search for gold about two decades ago and now I use a detector for gold, coins, relics and pipe lines leading up to a house. Even lost rings and such for friends and friends of friends. It's a great hobby and past time now.

 

[relichunters]

The thought of finding a treasure chest peeked my interest. I never even thought about finding coins, iron, trash, relics, etc as a kid. Didn't know all that existed. I thought I'd go out and hit the mother load.

 

[HUNTER12]

My best friend Larry, Rest in peace bought a whites md. We used it a couple of times and i was hooked.That was back in the mid 80"s.

 

[Frankn]

When I was a kid many years ago there was an old abandon mansion near my home. I use to play in there. One day when I was sitting outside it under a big Oak beside a stream, I looked down and saw a $5 gold coin on the ground. That's where the idea was planted in my mine. Years later in the 70s I saw an ad for a detector in a mag. I found the only dealer in the area and looked at some used detectors. He had a BFO which sounded like an old motorboat and a big S63TR goldmaster by Whites. I ask him which would go deeper. He said the Whites so that was my first and I have never looked back. Frank

 

[RGINN]

It was in my DNA I guess. I was blessed (or cursed) to have a great-great uncle, an old Scottish fiddler, who constantly searched the Wichita Mountains in sw Oklahoma for one particular treasure. Never found it I guess, but he would disappear for days into the Wichitas and return. I saw him have a lot of secretive conversations with one of his nephews, but I never found out what they were talkin about. But it was treasure related. I heard a lot of treasure tales from the old folks. Cave with the Iron Door, Jesse James 17 burro loads of gold, and directions to a lot of signs in SW Oklahoma that would make you rich if you could decipher them. My great grandma gave me a lot of info on a site near Ghost Mound in Oklahoma and specifically told me, 'Go out there, find this place, and you can find the gold.' She was pretty specific about it. Never made the search, but I still remember the info. I saw some of them waste a lot of time on that, but it was only natural I might follow in their footsteps I guess. They relied on obscure maps, markings, particular times of the day to look at things, conversations with ancient Mexicans, and other types of dubious alchemy, but I got a metal detector. So far I'm about even up with the past generations in the find category.

 

[rockhound]

I was helping my brother in law work on an old car. He had parked it in the grass and when he lost some of the bolt, nuts and whatever, we couldn't find them. At that time, the only place we knew to buy a metal detector was at Radio Shack. He bought hte cheapest one they had. It was made for a kid, but it did find all those parts. It didn't have enough power to reach more tha about an inch on a coin, but after using it in his driveway, he found all kinds of change. Since his house was much newer than mine I wondered what might be in my yard and driveway also. I went to Radio Shack and bought the most expensive one they had at that time $99. It would find a quarter almost 6 inches deep and I found enough money in that one year to pay for the detector. Then I was ready for a better machine so I was lookinf through the local tading post and found a Fisher for sale. I purchased it and the rest is history. I now have owned many form all the major brands except Tesoro. One day I will try one of them also. Good Luck. rockhound

 

[Navy Dude]

I have been watching the "meteorite men" and started lookng into it and found out that I could get a 1/2vdecent md () one for $100 bucks, so I went on C-list bought it, Found a penny (and alot of trash) on first day. 2nd day (today) I found a beer can with 1 morgan silver dolar, and 3 silver dimes in it. Holy cow, i do believe I am hooked.

 

[kenley]

In the early 70's, I was driving my Jeep in Garland, Tx. when I broke a upper radiator hose. I could see a large fountain down the street in front of some kind of mfg. building. I needed water. I was scooping water from the fountain when the owner came out. It was Sunday afternoon, and he was the only one there. He took me to a parts house for a new hose. He invited me in to wash up and had a display of treasures in his office. He was Bill Mahan and it was the D-Tex factory. I bought a "professional" on the spot and took it home with me. Still have it. I also bought a bunch of "Gold Mountain" from his son in later years and resold them. If I remember, that first one cost $225.00. About two weeks wages.

 

[RGINN]

Too cool that you got to meet Bill Mahan, Kenley.

 

[umrgolf]

In '95, at age 13, a family friend of ours asked my parents to detect the yard.. Done deal for me


I was so hooked that I begged my parents for a detector with no luck, and eventually the family friend let me borrow his older analog White's machine.. what model I don't remember..
On my first hunt in my uncle's yard (victorian home), I found a 1906 Barber Half and I think that's what truly sealed the deal.

Didn't get back into it until 2007 when I received a Prizm II for a birthday gift, and later moved on to a Fisher F75, and now the Fisher Gold Bug

 

[kenley]

Too cool that you got to meet Bill Mahan, Kenley.

Somewhere in all those boxes of photographs, I have a pic of Bill Mahan and Charles Garrett posing with what I believe was their first discreminatin metal detector.