Metal Detectors | SouthernPaddler.com

Metal Detectors

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Kayak Jack

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
13,976
171
86
Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
A few years ago, I started to begin to think about beginning to commence to consider planning to perhaps explore wondering if maybe playing with a metal detector might be fun. Lots of advice and information came in. Well, that was a few years ago, maybe ten of'em. By now, all of that information is both lost and outdated. So, a search begins again.

With all of the collective experience and expertise on here, there has to be a few guys who know something that will be helpful. So I adk:

1. What features are really useful in actual field conditions?
2. What festures are mostly fluff, and not very useful in actual field conditions?
3. What brands produce units that are both effective and reliable?
4. What brands are mainly toys or junk?
5. What is a reasonable price range for a serious starter unit?
6. Any other reasonable information, suggestions, and recommendations you may have?

Thanks.
 
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oldsparkey

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2003
10,479
123
Central , Florida
www.southernpaddler.com
I have two made by Garrett Metal Detectors and they are really nice ones. I had a Fisher and the girls claimed it since it was really simple to use , just set the discrimination you want to reject trash and go.

You can get them with a ton of bells and whistles and the more they have the more the detector will cost you.
1. You do want some form of metal discrimination......IE: Pop top and trash metal rejection.
2. Coin identification
3.Depth indicator
4.Metal identification , Gold , Silver
5.Battery life.
6.Automatic ground balance.
7.Waterproof ( rain ) but not submersible over a few feet. The ones for divers are really costly.

The one trouble with that # 1 is if you have it set real high then it can reject any rings you go over so a good adjustment on that is necessary.
All detectors will register metal , the good ones will tell you what the metal is and even if it is a coin along with the denomination of it and the respective depth it is in the ground.

I would suggest a Garrett with metal discrimination , automatic ground balancing , coin identification and pin pointing ( the little X on the coils head is directly over the item it is registering. )
Waterproof and the less batteries the better.
A mid range one would work for what you want to do.

I like Garrett for one simple reason , I got there top of the line one back in the 80's and it is still as good as when I got it. It has found a lot of stuff ( from rings to Florida Highway Trooper 10 year { anniversary } pens) folks have asked me to locate for them. Plus it has found a lot of stuff for me. :D

I can't suggest a price since I go to Kellyco and can get them at a discount from them. They are a fem miles from my place in Winter Springs.
You might want to check there web site.........http://www.kellycodetectors.com/products/topselling/#P1

Garrett , Fisher and White are the major brands
 
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oldsparkey

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2003
10,479
123
Central , Florida
www.southernpaddler.com
It's addictive , especially when you find that 1st coin , no matter what the denomination of it is. Its also good exercise since you have to walk , then bend over to find what the detector has located or even get down on a knee to dig then stand back up and repeat the process every time it beeps.

Here in Floria many years ago ( late 70's ) I read about this guy that was walking down one of our beaches finding flat , black , stones and skipping them out over the surf.

P.C. worked in warrants with me and I was telling him about the flat stones this guy was skipping in the surf and that weekend P.C. and I went over to the beach with our metal detectors and started working the beach from the surf line to the dunes and down the beach.

We must of walked 3 miles or more down that beach slowly swinging the detectors from side to side and then back to the vehicle , it took all day and we got plenty of exercise. We also found a few items along the way.

The flat black stones the guy was skipping in the surf were Silver pieces of eight from the 1715 fleet. Silver in salt water turns black over time , gold never changes.

A Law Enforcement Officer told us that two girls walking down the beach a few days before found three gold pieces of eight sticking out of the sand in one of the dunes. I never have luck like that. :evil:
 
M

mike

Well-Known Member
Jun 29, 2009
694
9
TEXAS!
I want a diamond detector myself. I've found 3 diamonds in the past five years. Now I have to check every time I see something sparkling on the ground.
 
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dawallace45

Well-Known Member
Aug 27, 2003
1,067
1
66
Oakhurst , Queensland , Australia , 4650
Don't know much about relic and treasure detectors , but for gold detectors go for a Minelab , I have several mates and acquaintances who are professional prospectors and they all use the Minelabs , most are using the GPX5000 , it sells for around $6700 here , Australian designed , these guys only use the best available in the world and they are good ,

Back some years ago I had a Minelab SD2100 and it was brilliant , the previous model the SD2000 was so far above any thing else on the market it was like it come from another planet

My first detector was a Garret A2B and they were good when they hit the market but when I got my Minelab GT16000 it was unbelievably better and the XT18000 was just so much better again but the SD's were just unbelievable , they would handle mineralised soil so much better than any thing on the market at that time and they were sensitive for small gold ,

I've found small stuff half the size of the head of a match and it would go deep as well , I found the head off a stamp battery over 4 feet down , and shoe tacks down a over a foot

I'm told by my mates the new GPX5000 is far superior to any thing they have seem before , they are going over ground that was thought to be totally worked out by the SD's and finding good gold

I'm also told that their hobby and relic detectors are very very good as well , I haven't used the relic detectors but they are the only ones you see around here and on the beaches

David
 
K

Kayak Jack

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
13,976
171
86
Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
Now beginning to look quite promising! I'm anticipating finding, say, $4-5,000 worth of stuff the first morning out.
Well, maybe by the sevond day at leadt.

Evidently, these MineLab folks have figured out how to do this, ehh!
 
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oldsparkey

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2003
10,479
123
Central , Florida
www.southernpaddler.com
You can find loose change at school yards around the gym sets just about any time or any school.
Beaches are good areas for rings , watches and naturally change.
For some good stuff that is normally few and far in between , it just depends on how much research you have done or how good your luck is.

One guy walked into Kellyco , bought a bear bones model and went to the beach.
He put down a blanket and set his cooler on it and started working the sand , nothing , keep working , nothing , walked all over , nothing. Getting disgusted he walked back to the blanket and setting the metal detector down it started beeping like krazy.
Under the corner of the blanket he dug down a few inches and found a glob of Spanish , Silver, Pieces of Eight fused together from the salt water.

Another guy bought a detector went over to the beach and turned it on and when the detectors head touched the sand it went krazy , A nice 2,1/2 caret Diamond ring. He had not taken the 1st step with the detector. :roll:

Then you have the folks who walk miles everyday , go to all sorts of places and try different things and strike out all the time but do get some good exercise.
As the realtor folks like to say ...Location , Location , Location.
 
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Wannabe

Well-Known Member
Apr 5, 2007
2,645
2
on the bank of Trinity Bay
I just went to the site provided and had a severe case of sticker Shock. These toys are for the Very serious. If I had the money to burn it would be fun, but I'll stick to my brazing rods and coathangers. They do what I need.
Bob
 
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dawallace45

Well-Known Member
Aug 27, 2003
1,067
1
66
Oakhurst , Queensland , Australia , 4650
Most people who buy detectors never find any thing more interesting that old nails , but some do make a living from it , I have several friends and acquaintances who do , but remember most don't

Also if you want to do good then you need to do your home work , lots and lots of research and then you have to put in the hours on the ground , I've found gold but only a few thousands of dollars worth , bad health and old injury's kept me out of the field too much , I bought a $4500 detector and only did a bit better than break even with it , after paying for fuel and food for my trips out scrub I really only made enough to cover the original cost and expences and enough left over for a new rifle , just too many bouts of pneumonia , then the knee went then the shoulder and elbow , remember a serious gold detector is quite heavy , the good relic detectors are much much lighter

In the end I decided that I'd rather spend my time in the scrub walking around with a rifle than with a detector

I had a friend some years back who specialised in tracking down the old mining towns and old gold fields then find the sly grog shanties and pubs from old photographs , maps and such would work out where the old crappers were , then he would dig out and detect them , seems the rot gut rum and home brewed beer had a tendency to come up again after drinking and many a man if that drunk would chunder in the long drop and even if they weren't that far gone they would often drop their stash down the hole while trying to take their trousers off or on , either way he made a good living out of it and after a 100 years the crap had just turned to soil , he also found many , many coins and gold and silver pocket watches

Some years back , a mate who was a professional prospector and detector operator bought a detector shop , when he was busy he would often get me to teach the beginners class he run for would be fossickers , the course covered how to get the best out of your machine , tuning , rigging and such , dealing with highly mineralised soil , clay domes and such , recognising a signal , recognising obvious false signals and what to look for in the right sort of ground , the right way to swing a detector so not to miss any ground , the correct to grid the ground so you don't miss any thing , the correct way to way to dig a target and a variety of other small but very important things , it never seized to amaze me how excited people got when they found some thing , but the one thing that 90% of the people who don't do any good do is to move too fast , move slow and even , make sure your swings over lap so your not missing a inch of ground and make sure you keep the coil close as possible to the ground and parallel to it , don't lift the coil at the end of your swing

David
 
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