Abacus
Antique Dealers: Let’s Get A Metal Detector
Summer
vacation at the beach, basking in the sun, the kids
frolicking in the water…. Your mind’s at
ease in this oh so pleasant environment. Sigh. What’s
that guy doing? Oh yeah, he’s got a metal detector.
Now that looks fun. Wonder if he finds lots of coins
and jewelry. Surely he does. Those things have been
around forever and…..look, he’s stopped
to scoop up some sand.
Shake,
shake, shake…. the sand falls out of the scoop
and something’s rattling. Metal on metal. He
got something! He’s quick too. What is that he’s
wearing, a nail apron? Didn’t even see what he
dropped in there. What do you think he heard through
those big ‘ole headphones? Watching as he plucks
object after object out of the sand you suddenly remember
a tale of buried treasure told by your Granddaddy
as he was helping build your first tree house. Hey!
Now that’s a thought. He said it was buried on
the Hamilton’s home place, that forever old house
over on Clement Street. Now I bet Jim wouldn’t
mind if I hunted there since we’re old fishing
buddies and all. “Honey, let’s get a metal
detector. Look how easy it is! I’m sure it’ll
pay for itself in no time at all.”
……….
So you think you’re ready to buy a metal detector.
Upon entering the local detector shop you’re
overwhelmed by the brand names, colors, styles,….and
look at all the accessories. Whew! Which brand do
I want? What accessories do I need? Look at these
prices! Do I get a cheap one or go all out for the
top end? What now? You realize maybe this is going
to be a much bigger decision than you initially thought.
Choosing
a metal detector should be approached in the same
manner as with any other major electronics purchase.
Do your homework! Talk with detectorists, surf the
Internet for info, check your local library for books
on the subject. An informed shopper is a happy shopper.
Buying a detector can be an enjoyable experience or
a nightmare. Get the wrong one and it will spend more
time in the closet than “in the field”.
You wouldn’t get a Corvette to go 4X4 ‘ing
so get all your ducks in a row first. There are some
key issues that are paramount in this decision making
process and I ‘ll try to cover the main ones
in this article. By no means should you rely solely
on my opinion as this will be a quick course study.
First
of all, you must decide what type of hunting you’re
planning to do. There’s beach and shallow water,
underwater, relic, gold nugget, and coinshooting.
Jewelry is found by all machines. :)
There
are detectors made specifically for each category
and some that are multi-purpose. Generally, underwater
machines are category specific and would not be good
for land hunting. And conversely, you would NEVER
completely submerse a coinshooting machine as most
are not water tight. Beach and underwater machines
are designed to deal with the high mineralization
of the sandy beach area. Gold nugget machines are
also in a class of their own. They’re designed
for hunting small flecks of gold. And there are relic
machines made primarily for hunting buttons, buckles,
bullets, etc. on historical battle sites. Lower end
coinshooting machines are made to, you got it, search
mainly for coins, jewelry, caches of gold/silver/coins.
If you want to search for coins, jewelry, caches of
gold/silver/coins, relics, maybe a little nugget shooting,
maybe the dry beach from time to time, a shallow fresh
water swimming hole, this brings in the mid to higher
end multi-purpose detector.
Most
beginners consider a “coinshooting” or multi-purpose
machine. The thrill of finding coins or maybe a Mason
jar full of old coins/jewelry fuels their fire. Be
wary of very low end machines like the ones for under
a hundred dollars. Sure they’ll find metal but
having the ability to discriminate between a piece
of scrap iron and say a dime is a crucial issue. No
one wants to spend all day digging bottlecaps, nails
and junk. Discrimination and the ability to pinpoint
(narrow the target down to a precise area) are must
have features. You would do well to consider spending
roughly $400 and up for a quality new detector. Top
end detectors run well over a grand. And that’s
just for the machine. Accessories will unload your
wallet of another few hundred, easily. Don’t
be afraid of considering a used detector, especially
if it’s still under warranty. They generally
sell for a tad over half of their value. A great bargain.
Generally speaking, the more greenbacks you fork out,
the better the detector gets. But isn’t that
true with most things?!
Metal
detectors have been around for almost 50 years. They’ve
come a long way in giving the user more information
to help decipher what’s in the ground. Most machines
have knobs that allow the user to determine, through
discrimination, if the object is “trash or treasure”.
Cutting edge machines have an LCD (Liquid Crystal
Display) screen showing representative icons, graphs,
and depth of the target. A gold ring and a soda can
pulltab are hard to tell apart, no matter which detector
you use. This still isn’t a perfect science.
Desirable targets generally emit clear crisp tones
through your headphones. The “perfect detector”
has yet to be invented. Each will excel in some arenas
and each has its pitfalls as well. Forewarned is forearmed.
Also
must take into consideration where you live. Different
parts of the country have different climates, humidity,
and terrain. Soil conditions, i.e., mineralization,
have a profound affect on all detectors. A detector
I use here in Alabama may or may not have the same
effectiveness to say someone living in Oregon. There’s
also the issue of wet soil or dry soil. Some detectors
like it wet, some like it dry.
Consider
warranties. They’re very important to you the
consumer. You’ll find them for 1 year, 2 years,
5 years and lifetime. Personally, I would go with
2 years or more. If the detector hasn’t broken
in that amount of time chances are it won’t.
Also look for transferable warranties. After a given
amount of time you may decide to sell and move to
another model/brand. You’ll have a much easier
go at selling your machine with some kind of warranty
still intact.
Service
after the sale. As with any major electronics purchase,
know where you stand. Ask around for first hand experiences.
Generally, all major manufacturers give superb service.
Weight.
You’ll be swinging this machine for hours on
end. Arms tire. During your selection process try
and pick one that has a hip or chest mountable control
box. You’ll be thankful you did. Standard weights
vary from roughly 2 to 5 pounds.
Depth.
Here we enter one of the most hotly debated topics
of our hobby. Every manufacturer claims to have the
deepest seeking machine on the market. Coil size (the
round thing you swing close to the ground) and user
tweaking of machine controls for optimum performance
play the biggest role in how deep a machine will see.
Older coins generally reside between 4 and 6 inches
on land. Any good detector will see that deep. Most
will see 8 inches or more. Top end machines are known
to find small targets at well over a foot. Quite recently
I was told of a fairly new beach detector retrieving
a penny at 2 feet with an 8 inch coil and the 10.5
coil going considerably deeper than that. Amazing!
Supposedly with any higher end machine a man-hole
cover can be found at roughly 4 feet and a car at
between 10 and 20. Just so you’d know.
When
browsing through your local detector shop you can
perform a quick and easy test to see for yourself
roughly how deep a machine will go. It’s called
an air-test. Have the dealer turn the machine on and
hold a coin out in front of the coil. See for yourself
how far away you can wave the coin and still hear
the machine beep. Coins generate a completely different
signal when in the ground due to mineralization, how
its laying, etc. but this test will give you a rough
idea of how machines stack up against one another.
No
matter which machine you choose, you must learn its
idiosyncracies and way of telling you what’s
in the ground. You’re the brain behind the machine.
It’s not going to say, “Hey, there’s
a 14k gold diamond broach laying on edge right beside
two rusty nails at 6 inches”. With LOTS of practice
at learning to decipher the difference in tones that
are emitted for each and every target you encounter
only then will you become one with your detector.
That means digging EVERY beep at first to know what
the machine is telling you. Practice makes perfect.
Concerning
brand names…..some of the major ones are White’s,
Fisher, Minelab, Garrett, Tesoro, Bounty Hunter, Troy,
Teknetics and others. Detector owners are fiercely
loyal and can give a thousand reasons why theirs is
better than the next but then aren’t Ford and
Chevy owners? Deciding on which manufacturer to choose
is up to you. Do some research, ask some questions
of happy and unhappy detector owners on Internet forums.
After doing my own research, I purchased a White’s
Spectrum XLT for its diversity, user customizable
features and technological advances in design. It’s
a high end machine that requires time and energy to
truly appreciate its capabilities but for someone
who’s serious about metal detecting/treasure
hunting, I highly recommend it. And no, I don’t
work for White’s Electronics, just a happy end
user. :)
