Why do some people who metal detect seem to have all the luck, and why do some continue to harvest good finds all the time? The consensus of opinion seems to be that their detector is better, especially if they upgrade very often and like anyone who finds a detector that works for them they are proud of it and everyone assumes that the detector is the reason for success. The result is that just like the U.S.A and the U.S.S.R building more and more technological weapons and trying to outspend each other the real result is busted budgets on both sides.
There are several consistent reasons for success in detecting. First of all the hunting grounds must contain enough treasure to reward the expert hunter and his machine. There is the problem for many. They are trying to repeat the success of the past at an old worked out park where they will be lucky to find a small handful of coins. When the rewards grow smaller then they decide to upgrade their machine in order to go back to the same old worked out place and find a dozen more coins. Ultimately this leads to depression and even a weakened desire to take the proper actions and find a better place to hunt.
I am asked frequently which machine to buy in order to hunt parks, beaches, relic sites, etc. Often you will find there is a specialized detector which will never be advertised for anything but general detecting and which may have a vastly superior capability for one type of hunting and may fall far short in other areas. The person who buys it may eventually find this out but there may be years of disappointments in the meantime. This touches upon the subject of experience as what to hunt with in which area, and brings up another problem. Obviously you will need more than one detector to master all types of hunting.
Success in detecting is primarily resultant from the satisfaction you may derive while hunting, but satisfaction quickly diminishes when the rewards drop. It is important to me personally to find something that excites me like a nice piece of jewelry or gold rings. For another digging rusted relics may top the list, and still another finding gold nuggets. What everyone should understand is that our fields of rewards are so wide and detecting is so different that you just can't tell someone how to do it successfully unless you show them. Even then it is the subtle differences in reading the signals and not the detector which pays off in the end because two folks walking side by side and using the same detectors will generally result in one of them finding all of the goodies while the other one steams in silence. One learns to read the signals and one depends on the detector to inform him of a find. For instance the ability to read targets and separate the treasure from the trash is derived from experience and not just the experience of years but the driving force to excel will enable some hunters to out perform others consistently . For instance my wife is an excellent dry sand hunter not just because of hunting so many hours but the drive to find something good seems to spark that something special to focus the hunter on the rewards. This morning my wife was hunting away from the logical area and I tried to tell her that she would not find anything but about that time I thought how good she does even though she does not follow standard logical procedure. Sure enough before a couple of minutes went by here she came wearing one of those grins and I knew she found the object of her search. It was a nice sweetheart gold ring with six little stones. A very nice find!
Take a look at beach hunting, there is dry sand hunting, wet sand hunting, water hunting, and winter hunting on very low tides. All of them require someone who has the correct detector and while you might think that beach hunting should just require one it takes much more than that and more hunting knowledge than many other types of detecting. If you would be a master in any type of detecting you will have to devote a lot of time and money to it, but the rewards are worth the effort and you should develop a focus on the targets and learn to read all of the subtle differences in signals other than the simple beep or target ID. If you have not found your area of mastery then put more time into it and begin by listening to the sounds and then holding down the pinpoint while you derive the target profile. What, you say? you have never heard of target profile? Well that is something that your detector no matter how expensive will not tell you. When you get a signal next time take your time and move the coil both directions across the target to see if the signal is constant and repeatable. Then hold the pinpoint down and determine the profile of the target by noting the slope and rise of the signal as you move across it in both directions. From this you will be able to determine first what shape the target is, and then the target size. Target size depends on the target depth so get a depth reading and then judge the size and shape of the target. This is a good way to reject deep cans that may id as coins and will also tell you a lot about what you are digging. Begin by observing a standard reference by taking several different coins and placing them on the ground and lift the coil several inches and perform the profile analysis because you are learning do this before you hunt at the location so it will be fresh on your mind.
Depending on your detector you will eventually decide to dig those questionable targets which you determine are worth your time and effort. Many detectors will identify coins and objects for several inches down and then give questionable signals after that. This depends on your detector as they vary widely. Some detectors will ID an out of range coin as iron but do not complain! You might have a machine which gives you no indication on out of range coins. This depends most importantly on the reward factor, or whether you feel sure that most out of range targets are good objects. Enough can not be said about this as only your quality of hunting field determines whether you will spend time on digging questionable signals. Perform a target profile and use all of the capabilities and expertise you have to study these signals and until you become expert at it, just digging everything but remember the target profile after you retrieve the object. Make notes! If you forget to repeat your successes you will be repeating failures. Detectorists who spend much of their time complaining and looking for an easy out. They expect the detector to just print out the analysis, and they do not want to have to go to the trouble to learn the subtle differences in signals. They will never master detecting in any field because the better part of detecting is up to the detectorist and not the machine.
I think that many of the successful hunters have learned on the simplist of machines and learned to rely on themselves instead of the machine. I think that a good detector to start with might be a reasonably deep tone id unit without the on board computer and meter or digital readout. I have heard of many good finds with these types of machines because the person who uses one knows that successful analysis depends on him or her instead of machine. You cannot simply walk into a field with an expensive machine and depend on it to do your job! Anyone who thinks this has missed the point. The cutting edge in metal detecting depends upon the art of the detectorist and has little to do with technology.
