Late 60s-early 70s

[CASPER-2]

came across these two pics by accident - beach retrospective - there were pics of kids and surfers etc - thought it was funny they captured these and put them in there too
think guy has his coil backwards - though when I started out (1975)- knew others that used theirs that way too

 

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[RustyGold]

Probably to offset the weight!

 

[ARC]

You guys may like this...

History - Metal Detecting Gear

 

[SonnyFl]

Velly Velly interesting!

 

[OBN]

Love old pictures of all kinds...Thanks for sharing..

 

[Whydah]

LOL yes and I used a 12 inch coil that was as heavy as my whole machine today..great picture and no sand scoop to dig with, guess he used his feet?

 

[gunsil]

Here's my first machine, a 1970 Garrett BFO Master Hunter. The dual coil system was fantastic, one searched with the 8" coil selected and then switched to the 3" coil to pin point accurately. It also came with a 12" coil with a built in 5" coil to pin point with on deeper objects. Sadly the machine no longer works but I may get it fixed. One funny thing about this machine was that you could hear police car radios through your headphones. More than once I heard a squad car responding to a report of "strange activities" at a school yard and sure enough here he comes to see what I was up to. Never got bothered though, most people didn't care what we were doing, just curious about it. Those were the days when all sites were virgin and finding 20 silvers in one hunt was common, and a school yard could yield many days of such silver scores. No discrimination whatsoever so we dug every target and really cleaned areas of any metal. Although this machine looks rather boxy the balance wasn't too bad and I could swing it all day although I was much younger and stronger then.

 

[Irishgoldhound]

Wow that thing looks like an old radio. Lol

 

[lorraine]

Thanks for sharing the photos, Casper; I agree with RustyGold about the offset of weight. A few years ago, there was a post where someone suggested reversing the coil to save on back strain.

Lorraine

 

[cudamark]

There's an old guy I see hunting from time to time that has his coil backwards too. I don't know how he finds anything (or even if he does) He's hunting the beach with this tiny coil on backwards and swinging it like a pendulum 6" off the sand.

 

[Irishgoldhound]

 

[Irishgoldhound]

This guy swings his Dual Field reversed.

 

[CASPER-2]

our rods are some sort of plastic or another - rods in the 70s were metal - that machine in my pic I think is a Micronta (I possibly a Relco or Jetco)
coil is hollow and super lite - and rod is aluminum - so you would have to tune it down if coil was flipped so you would not pick the rod up

 

[slider66]

came across these two pics by accident - beach retrospective - there were pics of kids and surfers etc - thought it was funny they captured these and put them in there too
think guy has his coil backwards - though when I started out (1975)- knew others that used theirs that way too
View attachment 1201821 View attachment 1201822

1975 Wow! I envy you! I grew up here in Florida. Moved here in 1958 and left in 1973 for the military. I wish I had started detecting in 1975. It is such a great hobby. Hats off to you!!

 

[Bumpstick]

I still have my first green box Garret from the 70's

 

[CASPER-2]

I started with a Compass 94B

 

[gunsil]

our rods are some sort of plastic or another - rods in the 70s were metal - that machine in my pic I think is a Micronta (I possibly a Relco or Jetco)
coil is hollow and super lite - and rod is aluminum - so you would have to tune it down if coil was flipped so you would not pick the rod up

I think all the earlier coils were hollow and light unlike today's epoxy filled coils. I think they stopped making the hollow ones and went to the heavy epoxy filled ones to reduce manufacturing cost regardless of the loss of comfort to the users. The only heavy coil I saw in the early 70s was a large 12" underwater coil for my Garrett BFO which was epoxy filled like modern coils, but it was made that way to sink in the water. It was a kind of foolish set-up where one person operated the detector above water and another went below water with the coil which had a long coil wire and also a tether rope attached to it. I actually bought one of these (still have it) to try to find a friend's wife's ring in 10' of water in a lake. We were not successful. If the detector operator on top heard a target he had to tug on the tether rope to let the person below know he or she had a target under the coil. Very crude!! I wish they still made the lightweight hollow coils, it would be easier to get a better balanced machine, and we could all swing easier for longer periods of time.