how did YOU get into the hobby

[tpmrcp]

I was 9 years old in 1985 and had just moved to Cottonwood Arizona. I joined a church and they had a metal detecting club. I was the only kid who went and they treated me so good. Let me borrow detectors and go on hunts with them. They even hid a few goodies for me to find I am sure. One of the members owned a stamp and coin store right by the church and when he retired he gave me books and books of stamps and coins. Great people. I never found anything valuable back then but it got me started.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

How to Research for Treasure Hunting and Metal Detecting From Lead Generation to Vetting - Grab it through Amazon!

[birdman]

My father had one when I was a kid and I remember my brother digging a musket ball with it. all I found it was iron. Later I bought one but it had no depth and I would go relic hunting with a friend and he would dig musket balls while I would find shallow nails.
2005 while stationed in Germany I found Tnet and bought a used CZ5 off the classifieds. My first real good machine .On my first hunt the day after I received it in the mail I dug several WW2 spent rounds and a couple of Nazi coins and I was way hooked.

 

[illinidigger]

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

This is a great example of why we should exercise patience, when dealing with pesky, a million and one question kids! They are the future of the hobby. I love to share the passion with young people but at times can get distracted, but who knows who we will leave an impression on when we are out there.

 

[CoastalSChunter]

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

This is a great example of why we should exercise patience, when dealing with pesky, a million and one question kids! They are the future of the hobby. I love to share the passion with young people but at times can get distracted, but who knows who we will leave an impression on when we are out there.

Great point!

My mother bought me an old radio shack detector back in the early 90's, searched around the old house and found some broken china that had gold around the outer ring. so its always amazed me, but after a number of years and seeing how much technology has changed i decided to give it a shot as a serious hobby, and i love it! Sometimes when were out, my kids ask me 500 questions and it gets old after a couple hours, but digger made a great point!

 

[kayden]

Needed a hobby ( exercise) Now its an addiction!

 

[caius_gauge]

Hi,

I had been planning on quitting smoking, I had "set the date" to quit for july 2011, back in aug 2009. I knew it was when I would be ready. I knew some people had taken up hobbies to keep them away from the bad habbit, so I started looking into ways to pass the time. I started researching metal detecting online, and spent a good 6 mos looking into every aspect of the hobby. I started saving money from not smoking, and saved enough to buy my first detector, my Ace 250. I have been using it since late July, and have not had a cigarette since July 2nd~! I have found much much more than my detector or my other coils are worth, and I was "hooked" on metal detecting from day 1! Without lending my attention to detecting and searching, I may not have kept at it. I guess I traded one addiction for another

 

[treasurepirate1]

great story's everyone! keep posting

 

[CoilFisher]

My Dad brought home a detector (it was his friends) and was using it to check some old sites he suspected there may be something on. As well, he tried some coin shooting around our yard.
I was very interested, and I am sure I was begging to try it. In any case, he let me have a go. I must have been 9 years old. I found a couple handfulls of foreign coins I remember. He said the neighbor's kid was running across the yard with a coffee can full and spilled them years ago. I remember being fascinated with the analog meter and all the dials. And I was fiddlign with them
everytime he was in another part of the house. I could not leave it alone.
He even took me on a cache hunt to an old foundation that we had to hike to way back in the woods.
I remember actually going on two with him. But, the one that stuck in my head was the one that we went to off an old farm property, and the farmer telling us to be careful of the old well as if you fell down it--it was very dangerous. I am sure my heart was pounding. I remember asking him tons of questions of what we were looking for and he was not being very clear. I remember being very excited.
However, my Father would not buy me one because he feared I would be digging up everyone's yard. I remember hearing him say this as I recall.
I never had the money to purchase one until I got out on my own and had a decent job and we did not have alot of money when I was a youth.
((I can only look back to KNOW what I would have found if I had one as a teenager...the places we went..and no fear...OMG)). I ended up finally buying one when I got my own apartment. After a while upgraded to a better model. Did it casually over 4 years then gave it up. 10 years later I am back at it and loving it like I never knew. Should have never given it up. I am a lifer now.
With age comes wisdom...and enlightenment/knowing yourself.

I love Frankn's story. That is awesome!

 

[fossis]

I got started collecting arrowheads & rocks, then bought a $15.00 Jetco Huntmaster at a yard sale, used it even when I first joined Treasure-net, for a while I was called (The King Of Rust), now I have a Whites Prizm 11 & a Whites Spectrum.

Fossis............

 

[tncreeker]

When I was 6 years old I spent the summer living across the street from my Great Grand Father. He had a "Treasure" shed next door to us. It was probably like 15X30. It was full of tea cups and saucers, pitchers and bowls, mirrors, toys, you name it. It was packed, all treasures he had salvaged from the dump. Grandma wouldnt let him bring it inside the house. He took me to the treasure dump and I brought treasures home too. A trivet that I found still hangs in my mothers kitchen today 40years later. Grandpa Josh taught me that treasures could be anything. If its free and you can use it or like it or know someone else that will,,,its a treasure. I have collected 10 lifetimes of treasures. Collections from shells to those rhino beatles, sharks teeth, rocks and fossils, marbles and buttons, golf balls, crystals, a few arrow heads, deer bones (gonna make a red neck wind chime), walking sticks, all free, most of it given away to someone that really wanted them. I dont have a MD yet, maybe I`ll sell the golf balls (8 or 9 hundred) and get one. My jewelry collection is getting low I`m the only one that hung out with Grandpa Josh and the only one with this sickness,,,,,SO, I guess he is to blame.

 

[Gunny71]

This website got me into detecting!
Always had an itch, this site made it chronic.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

When I was around nine or ten, (1979 or '80) my grandfather decided to dig out the old cistern under his house. After he dug out all the silt, he brought out an old radio shack detector and started going through the pile. As soon as the first lead toy soldier came out I was hooked. I started bugging my mother for treasure magazines, and finally a couple years later my dad bought us a Whites detector, I can't remember what model, and I was off. I've been digging up old dumps, and relic hunting in one way or another ever since.

 

[littlebear]

When I was 8 I was visiting my grandparents and like a kid I was board so a great uncle said come go with me. When we walked outside I ask him where are we going and he said were going to dig dirt. Well not understand i went couldn't be as bad as sitting in the house listing to everybody talking about there last operation. we drove to areally big playground by a lake. My uncle opened the trunk and I saw for the first time a metal detector. He told me this thing finds things like money. Well he had my at tition and he pulled out a box with I don't know how many but there must of been thirty rings gold silver with diamonds and all kinds of colored stones and another box full of coins. He got the machine ready and we started searching I was the official digger of the dirt which was OK. When I dug up my first coin you would have thought I had found a million dollars. We found all kinds of stuff some trash and some goodies but all in all it was a real mind opening experience. I had that first coin for many years but now cant find it. The last thing he said when he left is son keep digging dirt that's why I allways say at the end of my noted keep digging dirt in remembrance of a great men.
Keep Digging Dirt littlebear

 

[olekyground]

I just kind of fell into it. My uncle use to do it a lot and I was thinking back one day on when I went with him to a hunt. It made me want to try. So I bought a Bounty hunter 464 or something like that and had it for a while. Then decided to sell that and with a little more money buy my Matrix M6 which I love!

I can say that I really like the bouny hunter as well though. I found my best find with it! A 1861-1866 Civil war medal!

 

[Buck Rabbit]

A friend invited me to hunt an old homesite where the state was widening the road. I borrowed a Bounty Hunter from another freind and about five minutes into the hunt I found an 1872 seated liberty dime and have been hooked ever since

 

[sandtrout]

some gal at work brought in some magazines: lost treasure, treasure and some other metal detecting magazines and during a break, I read them.