real advice for beginners, if u disagree then please post

[uriykir]

if you get some cheapo detector and try to go hunting u r really wasting time. imagine if u got one that could search 5 inches deeper, u have to go all over again, plus better detector can identify and leave out junk


what u ppl think

 

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[jeff of pa]

A cheap Detector is Great for somone who Isn't sure if
they will enjoy the Hobby,
and IF they have spots where there is alot of
clad lying around.

As the Feaver Grows, then a Upgrade is suggested

 

[Michigan Badger]

I agree with Jeff. Back in the 60's when I started all detectors were cheap compared to today's machines.

But those early buzz boxes got us hooked on the hobby.

This sort of activity only seriously appeals to a certain type of person. I honestly think you either have it or you don't.

The low cost detectors make it possible for those who have it inside to at least get into the act.

But I do think it's better to start out with a top quality machine if one can afford it.

Badger

 

[rcasi44]

I think you should start with the best you can afford. I don't agree with the ID part. My detector has very good ID and is one of Whites better models. If I only dug coin ID signals I wouldn't find any gold jewelry. I've got lucky and found 4 rings in the last 3 weeks. Of course they read from foil to pull tabs. A guy without ID would have to dig more junk but might find more good finds that our ID would say don't dig. Rob

 

[re-tek]

i sort of disagree... heres my reasons...

unless you have someone willing to let you borrow a good detector, your basically forced to plop down several hundred bucks to try a hobby and see if you like it. the only alternative is to buy a cheap detector

a cheap detector will teach you alot of good technique. because of my radioshack detector, i can pinpoint fairly well. the cheap detector also taught me to swing on a level plane. sure it wont go as deep and can have some quirks. i acknowledged the fact i had a cheapo detector and stuck to tot lots so my finds versus frustration ratio stayed manageable.

i still have the radioshack detector and learned to use it effectively.

 

[MEinWV]

i sort of disagree... heres my reasons...

unless you have someone willing to let you borrow a good detector, your basically forced to plop down several hundred bucks to try a hobby and see if you like it. the only alternative is to buy a cheap detector

a cheap detector will teach you alot of good technique. because of my radioshack detector, i can pinpoint fairly well. the cheap detector also taught me to swing on a level plane. sure it wont go as deep and can have some quirks. i acknowledged the fact i had a cheapo detector and stuck to tot lots so my finds versus frustration ratio stayed manageable.

i still have the radioshack detector and learned to use it effectively.

re-tek, I like your reasoning! If we don't learn proper techniques from the start, then it doesn't matter what detector we use. I see some out there (swinging the best machines ) that have such a poor swing, they would be just as well off to walk with the coil hanging straight down and not swinging it. Swing on a level plane! Probably THE most important thing we need to do.

To try a hobby and see if you like it? Well, I knew I liked it years before I ever tried it. We either love it or we don't! It doesn't matter what unit we start out with. My $69.00 rig searved me well for the 2 years I used it. I didn't find much, but I got allot of my firsts with it. What I got from it was my good habits of pinpointing and swinging. I read articles on the best ways to detect, and I did exactlly what they said.

Thanks for that input! Good luck!......HH

 

[doozis]

If a beginner has tons of cash to blow and buys one of the most
expensive detectors out there , he will probably be so overwhelmed
with all the complicated settings and adjustments that he might end up despising the machine and the hobby. And when some 12 year old
scans around him and picks up a ring and 68 cents in clad with a 79.00 detector , Mr. high dollar detector boy will probably take up another hobby.

Doozis

 

[SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS]

I do not know.

 

[Sandman]

Some newbies just need to start swinging anything. Most start out with the thought of making the detector pay for itself and maybe making a profit. As they gain experience, the fun factor sets in and there are thoughts of upgrading to a "real detector." Soon they are happy if the price of batteries doesn't ruin them. By that time they know they enjoy just finding stuff and want to continue.

Starting with a simple machine definitely improves their search techniques if they get the proper instruction. Things get out of hand when they try to make the simple detector do more than it is capable of doing.

 

[JOe L]

Just want to poop a bit of advice in that I am really struggling with, be it with an expensive unit or cheapo, doesn't matter. My biggest problem is a search pattern. I try to avoid this but, I will be swinging and look around and think, I bet its better over there, swing again and look, I bet its better over there, and so on...... I won't ask how to stop this, I know its wrong but, I guess I just have to work on it.

My advice, which I have a hard time following, Work An AREA thoroughly, move slowly and don't skip. Never know what you may miss. Joe

 

[Montana Jim]

Ya do whatcha do... with whatcha got.

 

[JOE(USA)]

It sort of makes me a little nervous if I get a customer that has no prior experience metal detecting that wants a top of the line machine. It is also very difficult to teach a newcomer how to successfully operate a top of the line machine. His attention is better spent concentrating on just the basics. I usually recommend a starter machine for a new comer. I like my customers to be happy campers.
Joe

 

[Michigan Badger]

It sort of makes me a little nervous if I get a customer that has no prior experience metal detecting that wants a top of the line machine. It is also very difficult to teach a newcomer how to successfully operate a top of the line machine. His attention is better spent concentrating on just the basics. I usually recommend a starter machine for a new comer. I like my customers to be happy campers.
Joe

I agree Joe. That Tesoro Silver uMax is a great starter.

 

[ivan salis]

buying an expensive race car doesn't make you a race car driver if you don't have basic driving skills its rather useless--- buying a high dollar metal detectors is the same --- it will not "give" you "instant" metal detecting skills ---and often these newbies do not really understand the amount of work and effort is required in metal detecting as a hobby and that its not the get rich quick hobby that some think it is --- sadly lots of folks think just buy a "high dollar" machine and it'll do all the "work" for me --- then I can just pick up the mounds of gold and silver it will find for me --- wrongo---so its good that there are lesser expensive machines out there --- plus I found lots of goodies with my mere $200 dollar BH quick draw 2 machine in the hands of a skilled user it can make good finds -- there are bigger better machines with more depth out there I agree --but just like cars -- a ford will get you to the winn dixie just the same as a lexus

 

[Monty]

I'll use myself as an example. I knew I would like th hobby, sport or whatever you want to call it. My Dad had an old Radio Shack detector that I use to play with as a kid. I didn
't know anything about modern detectors so I asked on a forum. I got ten or twelve different answers and still didn't know anything about detectors! So, I looked online at a well know high volue mail order retailer and found a wonder machine that would do anything except mow my grass and you get an equal value in freebies with it! Wow! What a deal, so I ordered it. Had it a couple of weeks and then found this forum and found out I had an overpriced Chinese piece of junk and my freebies were mostly junk too! So, I did the only sensible thing. I returned it and the junk and ordered the only one brand I had ever heard of, a Bounty Hunter. And since I had about $400 to spend I got the extra coils to go with it. The BH was a good machine and I found a lot of "stuff" with it. Ten one day I tried out an ACE 250 and went to the same place I had been using the BH and lo and behold I found a ton of "stuff" right in the same spot that the BH had somehow missed! So, I bought the ACE and was very happy with it and it cost less than the BH! Everything was cool until I looked through a Garrett catalog one day and then I had to have the GTI 2500. The GTI is a super machine and if I am on a really serious hunt (other than just looking for clad or doing playgrounds, etc)I use the GTI 2500. Somewhere along the line I picked up a RS 3300 for about a hundred bucks and use it for a loaner. All this occured within a two year period. Conclusion? I wish I had waited a little longer and learned more abut the different detectors. I don't think I would have gone with the high dollar machine to start with but it would have been in the 5-700 dollar range. Also I think I still would have bought the ACE as backup. So, that's how I got to where I am today. The Sea Hunter II? That's another story Monty

 

[luvsdux]

The Tesoro compadre is a very capable little, one knob detector for less than $200. The depth, discrimination and sensitivity are excellent and it is very light.
Bill

 

[mastereagle22]

The Tesoro compadre is a very capable little, one knob detector for less than $200. The depth, discrimination and sensitivity are excellent and it is very light.
Bill

You can NEVER go wrong with Tesoro.

 

[EasyMoney]

I think it's pretty funny that people (including myself) have been advising people until we are blue in the face to get either a Tesoro Silver uMax or Compadre, or a White's Prism or Classic as a beginner detector instead of anything else, yet people still keep pushing Ace 250's. Low-end Minelabs aren't much better but would still be better than an Ace 250 or 150. They don't even consider where it will be used, and I suppose that that is because they don't know that the Ace 250's just about suck on beaches at the best, and in bad soil they work even worse. I know some places where they might as well be used as a boat anchor because they cannot be used at all, save for in wood chips or sawdust.

No matter who tells whom or who says what though, there will still be people who have good intentions giving "good" advice, yet lack the technical or wide-range experience to advise people in this matter considering other soils than those in the S, central, and the Eastern US. These are the ones who say "it's an excellent choice". When the poor slob lives in Nevada or Idaho or somewhere else nearby in the west who has some of the worst soil to hunt in anywhere on the planet buys one of those and it is a piece of s--t, they are more or less stuck with the thing.

As one of my martial arts instructors once said; "stick with what works instead".

White's are MADE in the bad soil area and so are Tesoros. Fishers are too. That alone should say something. The soil in Texas where Garretts are made have little or zero minerals in it and anybody who knows anything about it already knows why Garretts are seldom sold in high-iron territory.

I have a 20 year old Silver Saber that works better than the Ace 250 I bought a year ago and finally gave to my daughter as something to use as a door stop in Tacoma, Wa. It really sucked there too. It now sits in her closet. My Bounty Hunter Land Ranger worked MUCH better for her. It has a ground balance control.

Some people do have good luck with them though, but just as many complain about them just as I do, mainly because of all the problems they have with bad ground.

Just some things to think about

 

[xdanthemanx]

well heres an opinion and some logic from a beginner, I just got into this whole hobby and decided i didn't want to start with a radio shack special, whats the point if you think your going to do this then you might as well do it right and start off with something decent.
Now i looked around on this forum and read tons of posts of how this is better than that and all the hooey, obviously there are more factors involved than just picking something, what you plan on doing with it for one, and your locations come into play also, i wanted something adjustable with some versatility in the future and i ended up with a whites xlt, now for a beginner i could see how all the fancy settings and stuff could be overwhelming but after perusing the manual that comes with it decided not to mess with it and use preset stuff until i became familiar with the entire hobby and the detecting equipment, now yes there will be those guys that break out some new stuff run around for 10 minutes , find nothing and go right into screwing around with stuff, the key here i think for a beginner is patience and learning technique and what not to do from more experienced people.
I have only been out with this thing for a total of 4 hours and i allready have lil list of things i need, ive started asking others what they are using , digging equip etc.
Ive made up my mind to practice at a beach that is well picked over just for practice until i get good at using the equipment because heres the bottom line.
I have several very promising sites in mind and do not want to out there tomorrow and waste my invitation and find nothing even thought theres a lot of stuff there. again heres where the patience comes in.
To me this isnt about digging up the biggest treasure there is, its about being outdoors and the thrill of the chase kinda thing.
so far ive dug up a dozen or so pull tabs, a crap load of foil gumwrappers, and then i got one huge signal a foot and half deep that i was sure was something that gets your heart pumping it turned out to be a real old sparkplug. now im sure someone collects these things but i found myself asking how the hell it got there, how long its been there and what did it come from.
I think the 2 best pieces of advice you could possible give would be
1 get aquainted with someone thats been doing it for a while for some expert instruction
2 Have some patience and learn your equipment - dont rush in to be indiana jones.
after all i dont think i would have found that sparkplug with the radio shack deal and it could have just as easily been a gold coin. I would also like to point out that this beach is checked by several others on a regular basis so they either missed it with thier equipment or decided not to dig because of the depth which is it? i dont belive the spark plug with steel, tungsten and brass construction could have given any other signal display or audible other than DIG THIS UP.
oh and on a funny note, i attached the park plug to my lawnmower wire and pulled it it sparked
so added a nother question to my list "why would someone throw out a perfectly good spark plug
Dan

 

[doctorbb]

Buy the best you can afford that's designed for the type of hunting you'll be doing. While it's true some machines are "better" than others, a lot has to do with who's swinging it. Tiger Woods could use Walmart golf clubs and beat me because he's a better golfer than I am. I'm sure I could out-hunt a "newbie" no matter what machines we were using because I'm a better hunter that he or she would be, just learning the hobby. But there also comes a point where the detector can only do what it's built to do. If you get one you can grow into you can grow as a hunter. Notice also how I use the word hunter. Metal detecting and treasure hunting are two different things. Anybody can turn on a metal detector and find metal. It takes practice and knowledge to become a treasure hunter. And by treasure I mean whatever treasure is to you. Some may hunt clad or silver, others relics or gold. Most anyone who has ever game hunted knows that while occaisonally quarry may just jump in your lap, most hunters do research, scout terrain, develop wilderness skills, learn their equipment, etc. to bag their game, be it a buck, fowl or fish. I guess it all boils down to having equipment you trust and know how to use. Treasure hunting is a great hobby, but don't tell anyone. There's too many of us already. (It's frightening to think of all the machines coming off the assembly line at White's or Garrett, Minelab, wherever... everyday. They wouldn't be making that many if they weren't selling them.) Just my thoughts. Doc.