what got you started in metal decting ?

[kawalabear]

well we got started from my mother, as i said before she sold them in the 80's
when we moved to MD. they were put away . i though it was boring as a kid and only went if she was going to a park.

then i saw one she still had. it was pretty old. so we started playing with it ..

then found out my dad actually had a few newer ones , so now we are using those, he still has his top one but he lives in fl. so don't get to play with it much.

but we are pretty happy we got 2 fairly good mach. to use as we want.

and of coarse with beginners luck , the first time we used the newer one we found an 1877 silver seated dime.. HOOKED

i love doing the research and a little detecting , benny does most of it and then i try to find out what it is . we got a good system and every time we think of a new spot we cant wait to try it out.

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

In the early 1970s when I was in elementary school, a few men showed up at a local elementary school plying the lawn. Some friends of mine (as pesky kids often do) followed them around watching them. Word circulated around the school yard the next day that some guys had dug coin, keys, etc.... from the grass! As an 11 or 12 yr. old, I was spell-bound and simply hooked on the concept So I asked my dad, for my next birthday, for a metal detector. He goes to the toy store and buys some $19 piece of cr*p toy, that could scarcely find a coin, unless you held the coin right pressed on to the coil :P Needless to say, I lost interest.

A year or two later, in Jr. High (mid 1970s by now), a school chum of mine had a metal detector (A compass 77b or 94b) which could actually find coin-sized items. He would let me tag along and dig for him. We'd find coins, including even wheaties, silver dimes, etc..... I was hooked again, and have been for life. Started out with a used Whites 66TR (circa late 1960s, but that wasn't too old in the mid 1970s, haha)

 

[RGINN]

I had a great-great-uncle in Oklahoma who was always searchin for Bob Herrin's lost loot around Flat Top Mtn. in SW OK. He was very serious about this and devoted a lot of time to it, but he was in the time before decent affordable metal detectors. If he ever found it, he didn't spend it before he died. I always heard a lot of lost treasure and found treasure stories growin up in Oklahoma. I got a cheap detector with the idea of gettin rich in a day or two, but that didn't and still hasn't happened after a couple of more detectors. Although now I have a pretty good idea of what's there before I dig, it's still pretty cool whatever I dig up.

 

[jeff of pa]

My Grandmother Late 60's or Early 70's
she used to TreasureHunt the Beach in Florida

 

[Produce Guy]

The lady across the street gave me her husbands after he died and said put this to good use,I wasn't sure how to work it but i got the hang of it and was out digging coins and scrap before to long. I belive it was a Mustang,that name was on the detector,it had a neddle that went back -and - forth when it hit something.I sold it to a friend years later for $50.

 

[Baggins]

When I was 4 or 5 my grandpa would take my brother and I over a couple towns to get our hair cut....once we were done getting scalped, we would go to the dime store next door, and I would always get a treasure magazine....I have always been fascinated by treasure, fossils, arrowheads, anything with a fair amount of age....got my first radio shack detector when I was about 12, and I haven't stopped looking for treasure since! I was born for this!
Baggins

 

[ivan salis]

my pop detected --runs in the blood

 

[Tank69]

this is who gave me the illness ....JuJu...thanks Bro

 

[kawalabear]

thanks for sharing , it neet to hear all the storys .

sounds like alot of us picked it up through our familes , our 10 year old goes with us alot so i guess i better plan on bying him one for x-mas in a few years.

 

[extractor]

I sold a sport bike that I diden't ride any more and bought a metal detector.

 

[Monty]

I retired and needed something to keep me busy. I remembred playing with my Dad's old radio shack detector when I was a child. It was all metal all the time but I had fun with it. So, I bought a midpriced BH and started coin shooting. Been at it for over 4 years now. Will keep at it as long as I can. Monty

 

[vayank54]

Up the road from us was a farm that had been in the same family since the civil war. The old fellow that owned it showed me a couple foundations and told me that was where the slave cabins were. My brother and I for some reason decided to dig them out and got some flat buttons and other odd and ends. Not long after my dad bought me a kit detector and put it together using a first aid box, a wood dowel and a tape recorder reel for the coil. About 6 months later I moved up to a Metrotech and have been at it ever since

 

[mcdpoor]

I come from a poor background and we would go junking and sell scrape metal, copper, brass etc..So I always was in the junk piles finding anything that could be sold or fixed or was just plain couldn't live without at the time.. So it progressed from my childhood treasure hunting into Metal detecting and being a packrat of collecting about anything collectable.. Always looking for something for little or nothing.

 

[TexasTrash]

I've always been a collector of things. Bottlecaps, cards, comics, etc. Bought a Radio Shack detector a few years ago to play around with. The idea of finding old coins and relics and learning about their history just pulls me in...

I LOVE history.

 

[RON (PA)]

A paramedic that I used to work with would bring in his old treasure magazine and some things that he would find. He recommened my first one. Great guy and he is now a dealer too.

 

[bigtim1973]

My brother got one back in the early eighties that cost about 75.00 new......I cannot remember the name of it then but I believe it is what is now Bounty Hunter. I would dig for him and we found old hot wheels cars and old toy metal airplanes and cap guns too.........I was hooked on just digging the stuff up as a kid.........A little later we dug up an old concho off of a Spanish saddle and then I got more excited about it. When I got a little older I got interested in history and stuff so I got my own and have enjoyed it ever since.

 

[rjw4law]

Relic and cw hunting got me started.

 

[Tnmountains]

I had an old bounty hunter hunter that had a big dial on it. It never worked. Am surrounded by battlefields and enjoyed the history. Bought a tesoro and have enjoyed digging up everything that goes beep.I can not tell you how many times I dug my water line when I first started.
Great fun than and old indian relics.
HH
TnMtns21

 

[rmptr]

.
I thought a detector might be beneficial on my placer claim and borrowed a fisher lunchbox from a friend.

It did nothing for me on the claim, but I played with it in some tot lots and summer camp properties that had been abandoned... it was fun !

I think there may be 7 or 8 detectors here now.
Tesoro is my goto machine.

Best
rmptr

 

[treasurefiend]

As a kid I always wanted one, then I joined the USMC as a Combat Engineer. One of our jobs was working with landmines and that was the 1st time that I actually held a detector. Well a few years later the thought of metal detecting crossed my mind so I looked on youtube to see if there was any videos and BAM!!!! I saw all the cool stuff everybody was finding so I went and bought a detector from eBay and have been loving life ever since.