My first detector story.. Add yours!!!

[Detectorist143]

Hey Diggers,

I looked for a similar thread but could not find one.
Soooo....
Add your first detector and FIND story,

I bought my first detector about 16 years ago for my daughter.
It is a no name brand I bought off ebay. On/Off only. Hard wired coil and
no head phone port. CHEAP....
At that time my daughter was 4 and wanted to be an archeologist.
So I of course wanted to help promote her dreams.
Well the detector showed up and like any good dad I had to make sure it worked. RIGHT??
I slapped a single 9 volt bat in it and headed to the back yard with the wife right behind me.
"She is a history major"

I only went about ten feet off the back deck and started to swing this little thing.
It beeped all over the place.. then it went crazy in one spot.
Yippy it works...

I turned it off and headed back in. Then the wife who was watching from the deck said "well what is the beep?"
"I don't care" I said "it works."
That's all I wanted to know. So she pushed a little more. "Hmm" she said "I wonder what it could be??"

OK Ok it did not take much. I turned the little toy back on and head to the crazy beeping spot in the yard.

I swung the detector over it and it screamed again. I did not know it at the time but the size of the target was HUGE...
So I got a shovel and started to dig.

Well the TARGET was about 7 inches down. I was shocked at the depth but finally found the target.
As I hit the target with the shovel I realized it was big I started to fill the hole back in.

Again the wife pushed "Really your not going to see what it is?"
Ya ya ya OK.... I'm easy hehe

I started to make the hole bigger. It was just about at this point when I realized this is like HUGE!!!!
It end up being close to 2 feet wide in all directions by the time I opened the hole all the way.
But as I kept widening the hole. All I could think of is "this is going to be a Lid to and old SEPTIC TANK... OHHHH GOD!!"

Well after a lot of encouragement from the wife and about 20 minutes of digging I finally freed the target on all sides.
After it was loose in the hole I figured it could not be a lid to a septic tank. It was to thin.

I jammed the shovel under a side and lifted it up Half praying....

It started to give and move upwards to the world of the living again. It was heavy and rusty. I struggled abit with the shovel and finally grab it and pulled the huge piece of metal from its resting place for only God knows how long it was there.

"IT's HUGE" my wife says "What is it?"
I was just happy it was not a septic cover,

Well I man handled this Muddy, Rusty, Heavy, Huge piece of Iron over to the hose.
As I started to wash it off some fancy designs started to appear.
I turned the hose on high and blasted the mud out of it and slowly it started to take shape.

Big and Square. Cast iron and fancy, It has pillars on the side and claw feet? WT

I had no clue what the heck it was. Then the wife reappeared and said with one look.
OHHHH WOW its and old Fire place back... "WHAT??" I said....

Sure enough after a lot more cleaning and some TLC, it is indeed a fireplace back for reflecting the heat back into the living space.
Well I still have both the detector and the fire back. The fire back sits out in our shed now. Because it's HUGE.
I do not use the detector any more. I think you can guess why, and the daughter decided to study animal behavior instead of archeology. I am totally fine with that being a dog trainer myself LOL.

That stupid cheap toy detector and HUGE fire back all those years ago, did not create the worlds best archeologist. But it did create
a new hobby and passion for me.
So that's my first detector story. Hope you enjoyed it and PLEASE POST YOURS....

PS. I'll try to add pics of the fire back to the thread later.

 

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[FreeBirdTim]

My girlfriend bought me a used Radio Shack metal detector in the late 1980's. All I remember about it is that I had to buy three 9 volt batteries and headphones to get it to work. Either it didn't have an external speaker or it didn't work. Nothing worse than a gift that costs you money! I tried it a couple of times and dug junk and no coins. Sold it a couple of years later at my yard sale.

I bought an Ace 250 in 2013 and got hooked, but I wasted 23 years where I could have been detecting. Can't kick myself too much. That Radio Shack detector was pretty junky..

 

[trdking]

I bought my first metal detector at a yard sale when I was a pre teen.Maybe 10 11 12? I saw it in all its chrome glory in a tan leatherette satchel It was a chrome head that looked like a hair dryer that clamped onto a base full of batteries and connected with a piglet cable about 3 feet long. I saved my money to buy the 6 volt batteries that it needed and went immediately detecting about the yard. I found nothing, not even a beep or the motion of the built in swing needle. It turned out to be a geiger counter so that was probably a very good thing. The end

 

[GB1]

i got my first detector for Christmas when i was 7 or 8 i went in my yard the first signal....pull tab

 

[trdking]

i got my first detector for Christmas when i was 7 or 8 i went in my yard the first signal....pull tab

Coming from a beer drinking family raised in the Agriculture area of Whittier Calif. We had a big property. Dad and older brothers all drank beer and rode Harleys. Because of the size of the property it was prime for Biker gatherings. Never got to metal detect it but I would bet dollars to doughnuts that it was pull tab central.

 

[SusanMN]

I bought my very first detector, a Bounty Hunter, around 1982. I think the depth on it was an inch or less and it had no discrimination so my first finds were bottle caps. But eventually I did find some small change and a few rings. I gave up the hobby at that point because I felt too self conscious out detecting and didn’t get another detector until 2007.

 

[Leann]

My husband had a Garrett 350 and his buddy an AT Pro. It was around Christmas time, and I received a digger and pin pointer from him. Had no clue as to what was about to unfold. He had bought himself an AT Pro and ga e me the 350. He said now you can go with me. Kinda wasn't interested at first. After a couple of hunts and digging square nails, I found my first treasure, a silver thimble! I'm hooked now! I guess that's how you validate a big purchase to your wife, get her addicted too!

Thank you jdsly!
I also need a new shovel!

 

[Kace]

I too started at 6-7yrs old with a Radio Shack, adjustable shaft, needle and tone detector. I still have it and it still works. I was immediately hooked on it and kept it at the farm... it found a lot of iron relics, sinkers, mini balls and old fishing lures...which led to my first collecting hobby and also coins that weren't deep. Well... nothing I found was really deep... but still a lot of fun.

It went on every trip we took as have the others that followed.

Kace

 

[trdking]

My husband had a Garrett 350 and his buddy an AT Pro. It was around Christmas time, and I received a digger and pin pointer from him. Had no clue as to what was about to unfold. He had bought himself an AT Pro and ga e me the 350. He said now you can go with me. Kinda wasn't interested at first. After a couple of hunts and digging square nails, I found my first treasure, a silver thimble! I'm hooked now! I guess that's how you validate a big purchase to your wife, get her addicted too!

Thank you jdsly!
I also need a new shovel!

Hash tag Get your own shovel? ROFLS

 

[Texas Jay]

My childhood friend and I caught treasure fever early in 1969 when I was 14. We read all the treasure and old west-type magazines we could get our hands on for a couple of months until we just had to each get a metal detector and seek our fortune. Neither of us had any money so we mowed yards all around our neighborhood at Lake Brownwood and saved every penny for our metal detectors. We got a mowing job, mowing the property around the cabins at a marina. The owner of the marina was impressed with my hard work so he offered me a "permanent" job for the summer in his diner, peeling and slicing potatoes for french fries, and washing dishes. The pay was 50 cents an hour. By the end of the summer, I had saved enough to buy me a Jetco GTO Searchmaster (BFO) and my friend bought the less expensive Jetco Mustang. I sent my money order in for the detector and then the agonizing wait, for the mailman to deliver it, began. Those next two weeks were the longest two weeks of my life. Finally, the mailman showed up with the box from Jetco Electronics. I was thrilled! By the time my dad and I assembled it, it was only a couple of hours before dark. I immediately went out into the yard to the bottom of our outdoor staircase and started working near a big tree near the base of the stairs. I got a strong signal, dug down about 2 or 3 inches and came out with a 1943-P silver war nickel! I just knew I was going to be a millionaire in no time at that rate. ha. Next, I went over to where my parents and visitors parked their cars and started working the spot under where my mother always got out of our car. Geez, it was one loud constant whining when I waved the magic wand over that spot. It was beginning to get dark but Dad helped me dig with screwdrivers. We were digging coins as fast as we could when it got dark. Dad went in the house and got a flashlight and the digging continued for the next 10 or 15 minutes until we had two handfuls of change and the detector's signals stopped. Needless to say, both my friend and I were hooked for life on metal detecting. In 1981, we co-founded the Central Texas Treasure Club in my duplex apartment in Brownwood. At our first meeting, we had the two of us and one guest, who fancied himself as a "professional treasure hunter". At the end of the short meeting, we asked if he wanted to join for the $5 a year membership fee. He stood up, said "I'd better not join because I'm afraid that joining an amateur club would tarnish my reputation", and walked out the door. ha. We didn't let that stop us and, with the able assistance of my friend's wife (who did the secretarial work and helped recruit members at our rattlesnake roundup booths), we soon picked up a dozen or so members. The funny thing is that once the "professional" saw that we were growing and showed no signs of slowing down, he decided to join our club.
~Texas Jay

Central Texas Treasure Club

 

[trdking]

My childhood friend and I caught treasure fever early in 1969 when I was 14. We read all the treasure and old west-type magazines we could get our hands on for a couple of months until we just had to each get a metal detector and seek our fortune. Neither of us had any money so we mowed yards all around our neighborhood at Lake Brownwood and saved every penny for our metal detectors. We got a mowing job, mowing the property around the cabins at a marina. The owner of the marina was impressed with my hard work so he offered me a "permanent" job for the summer in his diner, peeling and slicing potatoes for french fries, and washing dishes. The pay was 50 cents an hour. By the end of the summer, I had saved enough to buy me a Jetco GTO Searchmaster (BFO) and my friend bought the less expensive Jetco Mustang. I sent my money order in for the detector and then the agonizing wait, for the mailman to deliver it, began. Those next two weeks were the longest two weeks of my life. Finally, the mailman showed up with the box from Jetco Electronics. I was thrilled! By the time my dad and I assembled it, it was only a couple of hours before dark. I immediately went out into the yard to the bottom of our outdoor staircase and started working near a big tree near the base of the stairs. I got a strong signal, dug down about 2 or 3 inches and came out with a 1943-P silver war nickel! I just knew I was going to be a millionaire in no time at that rate. ha. Next, I went over to where my parents and visitors parked their cars and started working the spot under where my mother always got out of our car. Geez, it was one loud constant whining when I waved the magic wand over that spot. It was beginning to get dark but Dad helped me dig with screwdrivers. We were digging coins as fast as we could when it got dark. Dad went in the house and got a flashlight and the digging continued for the next 10 or 15 minutes until we had two handfuls of change and the detector's signals stopped. Needless to say, both my friend and I were hooked for life on metal detecting. In 1981, we co-founded the Central Texas Treasure Club in my duplex apartment in Brownwood. At our first meeting, we had the two of us and one guest, who fancied himself as a "professional treasure hunter". At the end of the short meeting, we asked if he wanted to join for the $5 a year membership fee. He stood up, said "I'd better not join because I'm afraid that joining an amateur club would tarnish my reputation", and walked out the door. ha. We didn't let that stop us and, with the able assistance of my friend's wife (who did the secretarial work and helped recruit members at our rattlesnake roundup booths), we soon picked up a dozen or so members. The funny thing is that once the "professional" saw that we were growing and showed no signs of slowing down, he decided to join our club.
~Texas Jay

Central Texas Treasure Club

View attachment 1605861

How AWESOME is that story! Are you still running the club? I would join just for S&Gs

 

[Texas Jay]

How AWESOME is that story! Are you still running the club? I would join just for S&Gs

In the first early years, I was elected Vice President and served for a year or two before turning that position over to another member. After that, I was content to just be an active member. After our club suffered a slowdown in memberships and a severe dip in our treasury during the past year or so, our President resigned without warning, leaving our club in a precarious position. The other officers contacted me and said that they thought we should disband the club after 36 years. There was no way I was going to let that happen so I was elected President in January and our club has started to prosper and grow again. My main goals this year are to recruit new members and to focus on getting some young people involved in our hobby and in our club. In the early years, our membership included several members from throughout the central Texas area but lately, our membership area has shrunken considerably so, in order to expand our club's reach, we are actively recruiting members throughout the region and even have decided to accept members from anywhere in the U.S. who want to join. We are having an Open Competition Hunt on October 13th in Brownwood and we've started to have regular club events (like in-the-field workshops and field trips) throughout the year. You are more than welcome to join and we'd be honored to have you as a member and as our most distant member so far. We send out a monthly newsletter to all members and one or two special notices each month. Membership information on the Homepage of our website (link above).
~Texas Jay

 

[GB1]

i would like to join i'm in East TX

 

[Texas Jay]

i would like to join i'm in East TX

Hi gold boy. We'd be very happy to have you as a member of our club. Check our website's homepage for membership information. Please include your contact information (mailing address, email address, phone number) in your letter with your 12-month dues. We hope to have several people from East Texas participate in our Oct. 13th Hunt. It promises to be a good one!
~Texas Jay

Central Texas Treasure Club

 

[GB1]

crap don't have a phone i'm only 15

 

[Texas Jay]

crap don't have a phone i'm only 15

You really don't need a phone as we send our information (newsletters, special events announcements, and reminders) out by email.
~Texas Jay

 

[GB1]

ok i think about it i will have to ask my mom if it is ok to join

 

[DizzyDigger]

My first metal detector?

Wow...for that we need to go back in time about 50 years..

At the time my older brother played on a pop warner football team,
and I had to go along when he had practices. There was an older fellow
(when you're 8, everybody is older) who had a metal detector, and I
would follow him around and watch (aka: pester) him while he searched.

Had the bug..bad, so, asked my dad if I could get metal detector.

Couple weeks later we went to a Heathkit store, and he bought a kit
to make me one. He spent a few hours soldering up the board and
designing the coil, etc. He made the coil from an 8" reel-to-reel tape
holder, carefully winding the copper wire so it would perform well.

I recall it had an on-off switch, and a "tuner", where I would tune
it to the "dip" in the constant tone.

Found a lot of junk, and even a few coins with that Heathkit machine.

Wish I knew where it wound up...kids grow up, several house moves, etc.

 

[ThatOneDude]

My first target was trash, but my first keeper was a 1854 large cent.

 

[Detectorist143]

Great stories all! It a great way to get to know each other and its always awesome to hear how we all got started.
Thanks for all your stories