Seeking advice

[Cimoncez]

This hobby is just what the doctor ordered. I'm old but not ready for a walker yet and I need a new adventure like treasure hunting to keep me going
for another few years. I still have to buy the equipment and I was hoping to get some advice. I plan on hunting old cellar holes, parks, beaches, back yards and miles of fields with rock walls. Would a Garrett 250 be the best all around unit? What kinds of relics, coins, etc am I likely to find in the environment I'm searching in

Thanks.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

The kinds of things you'll find, depend on the exact places you hunt, how many other hunters are there competing, how good you are, how tolerant you are of junk (ie.: how much time you put in to it, how high you run the disc, etc....).

The 250 is a beginner machine. It's certainly not going to compete with a power-house machine like an Explorer, for instance. But then again, the Explorer drives some people nuts at the start, with all the hard-to-learn tooty-fluty sounds. A 250 is, of course, easier to learn. It's not going to be very good on wet-salt beaches, but will do "ok" on the dry sand.

A good place to start, is to go where targets are prolific, and no one else has hunted before: namely the yards of old homes (assuming the grass is un-disturbed/original). So anyone you know who has a home that dates to the 1950s or earlier, is a good place to start. Contrast that to the "rock walls" you speak of (fences of yesteryear, that stretch for miles in some back-east states), there may not necessarily be much of anything there. Unless there was a specific home or habitation or gathering (camping, etc...) spot there.

 

[tcornel]

I would recommend the AT Pro. When I bought mine the company talked me out of the 250 because they said I would most likely want to upgrade within a year. I feel they are right.

Depending on your budget I would also get a Pistol Probe AND a Propointer. They are very different in the depth of what they can detect. As you learn to use your large machine there will be times when you miss the exact location of the target by 5 or 6 inches. If the target is withing 3 inches or so of the ground the Pistol Probe will give you a pretty exact location of where to dig. The propointer shines within an inch of the target. Having both of these will save you hours and hours of time

Go to Lowes and get a tool holder that slides over a 5 gallon bucket. Lots of pockets for things and the bottom of the bucket holds the trash. Pick up a couple knee pads while you are there. Gardening glove that are vinyl on one side also. They have a 10 in one gardening tool that will do until you buy a Lesch.

The cost would be about 550+150+125+10+10+5+10=860. About 1/4 the cost of outfitting a golfer.

With these you should be good for years.

Tom

 

[Cimoncez]

Thank you very much for the great advice you guys gave me. I know I will enjoy this hobby even if the only thing I get out of it is exercise.... Well maybe not.

 

[Brian C.]

You have picked one of the best hobbies going, if you are looking for a good machine that is not to expensive and it will find iron relics such as trade axes which are really a nice find, you need a detector that can find all kinds of relics. The digital detectors that are sold to day will go by some items that you might like to find if you are hunting old sites. I have found pewter 1812 buttons that most detectors will pass by as junk, you will need to learn your detector and Evan then it can be a gut feeling if you should dig the target. Most relic hunters will detect in all metal, you dig more nails, but the rewards can be nice. I would if you can, to go onto some of the different companies web sites or goggle on Utube for videos on people using their machines and this might help you decide what you want in an all around detector. I use a 18 year old Garrett freedom ace plus, it is a great relic machine and a really good coin and ring detector. You might look at whites, they have some really good machines. Do some research, and you will be happy. Here is one of my finds from last fall, it was one of those gut feelings, it came from an old distillery site, it weights 24 pounds, I think it is a nice find. I hope this helps. HH