New detectors

We all remember when we started out the door with our first detector with great anticipation and little or no knowledge of the basics. There are some things you will never get from the books and they are forged from years of experience and knowledge and you will have to pay the price the hard way for that. It is important just to forget for a while what ever reason drove the purchase of a detector and for a while you should just make a point to try to have fun with it. This will offset the difficulties encountered by trying to adjust to the hunting site and your new detector. It is important to bond with your machine as an extension of your own facilities and not be alienated by the strange sounds or readings you are getting. The difficult part to realize is that for every good coin their is a counterfeit piece of junk that can fool the more inexperienced operators, this is where YOU come in. You have to develop your understanding well enough to tell the difference in most cases and that will take a lot of time. No detector is fool proof and they all have their demons that you will learn about soon enough.

You must not be put off by these types of problems and just shove the new toy into the closet with the other goofy gifts that you will never use. This will be the measure of your character and abilities to persevere until you have mastered the machine and the difficult sites that lay ahead of you. I suggest that for a first detector you get a turn on and go detector that is stable and durable instead of buying the most expensive detector that will only complicate your mastery of it and may only cause you to get mad with it and quit trying. The very inexpensive detectors may frustrate you because they won't find anything very deep or the ground balance may not function well in your area and in my experience you are better off buying a better detector to start with. Some of the things for you to consider about detectors are:

Does it have a speaker or just earphones?
The lightest detectors will tire you less
What is the battery life?
Does it have a battery charge indicator?
Does it just make different tones or does it have visual target identification such as a meter or LCD?
Does it indicate how deep the target is?
How long is the warranty?
Does it have a volume control?
Does it have a discrimination knob, notch discrimination, preset discrimination, or user definable discrimination segments?
Is it simple to use or does it require you to master a multitude of knobs and settings?
Does it have a large target warning?
Can you use change coils? (Something you generally want to do before long)
If it uses multiple tones to identify the target then is your hearing very good?
Do earphones come with it?
Does it use rechargeable (nicad) batteries?
Does it have an adjustable depth or sensitivity control?
Will it work on Salt water beaches? (many don't)
Is it water proof, splash proof, or unprotected from water damage?
Does it have preset modes (coins, beaches, or all metal) or does it allow you to setup your own mode?
Does it have a threshold control?
Does it have manual or automatic ground balance?
Is it a motion based detector or non-motion
Is it a gold nugget detector, an all purpose type, a coin machine, a cache detector, a relic detector, or a pulse detector (salt water)?
Do you have a choice of sounds like belltone, bilevel, or multiple tones?
Does it have a signal boost for deep objects?
Is it designed especially for highly mineralized ground?
Is your area highly mineralized? (check with other metal detectorists)
What to other detectorists in your area find?
What will the machine cost?
Where is the best place to buy one?
Should you buy from a discounter or a reputable dealer?

These are some elemental considerations for you to mull over before you choose a detector. As you can see it is important to purchase the very best detector you can afford to obtain the best equipment and insure that you are well satisfied with your detector and to avoid the cheapest machine on the market which may not even work in your area. Match your choice to your own physical abilities so you don't get a detector which you will not be able to carry for long. Your prime concern is to get a stable unit and one that is not given to nervous tweets, whistles, and chatter. Do not be persuaded by others that tell you have a piece of junk and need a new detector but persevere until you have mastered this unit and then proceed to a better one. Most folks that are in the hobby to stay have many detectors and will tell you that each one is especially good for one type of detecting so you might want to keep your old detector instead of trading it off.

Detecting is addictive and also upgrading to newer technology because everyone likes to have the fastest car on the block, but remember to keep your abilities in step with your detector upgrades because you will not get much for your money if you can't use the sophisticated hi-tech detector effectively. Often folks will upgrade because they are not finding anything good but the reason may be more site and experience related than requiring a new detector.

You may have a single thing you want to find when you purchase your new detector but understand that you will change over time and pursue other types of treasures. Keep this in mind and buy a detector that will offer you the most possible types of hunting instead of only one. For a long time your first goal will be only to have fun and learn the machine and receive all of the many fringe benefits such as a reduction in stress, very good exercise, and something to give you a reason to get up in the morning for. Detecting is a wonderful thing for couples to share where they can grow together and a great hobby for you when your retire so you can occupy your time and get the exercise you require.

It may be difficult for you to understand motion or no-motion and in the early days more detectors were no-motion types that would just whistle when you passed over an object and get the loudest when you were directly over it. The newer detectors are mostly motion and have circuits that detect objects while swinging the coil and null out when you hold it still. You would probably want a no-motion detector for gold nugget hunting or perhaps relic or cache hunting but as far as coins and jewelry the motion detectors work just fine. The term all metal may relate to the fact that the detector doesn't have any discrimination or just a single mode of a better detector.

Most people are put off when they take their detector out the first time by either too many targets which can drive you crazy in a very short time, or a total lack of targets and just complete silence. For too many signals your choice of site may be poor for your first try and you should find a large park or school yard where you can have a little space in between the beeps. This will give you time to dig some targets and see what you are finding. At first you should dig everything and note what it indicated and what you found because this will help your understanding of when to dig. If you have chosen a site with almost no signals turn up the sensitivity adjustment or depth and keep your coil close to the ground and swing wide. Many problems with new users are site related and have nothing to do with the detector. Find a place soon that is littered with coins so you can have some fun and forget about the difficulties. Go with another detectorist or ask them where to find more coins. If you are not finding anything but trash then look elsewhere until you find a good place to start. Set the discrimination to avoid the trash and toss coins on the ground to verify you can still pick them up. Avoid laying your new detector down on wet grass or sand and protect it from the rain.