What a great hobby. How many pasttimes have the opportunity to pay for the cost of the equipment and more?
Play golf and you’re constantly buying balls and equipment, paying fees and rentals, etc.
Fish and you’re looking at boats and baits and lures and rods and reels and on and on.
Hunt and there’s guns, shells, licenses, and assorted other ongoing expenses.
Metal detect and you pay for the detector. Consumables are pretty much in batteries, maybe a digging tool if you don’t have something suitable already. There’s just not a lot extra you have to buy to do well.
One of the most important things, of course, is buying a high quality detector to begin with. A good machine that is well maintained will usually last for many years and if it works well for you and is comfortable to use then there’s no need to get caught up in the fever to get a new model every couple of years.
There are five major types of hobbyist activities involving metal detectors:
Coin shooting is looking for coins after an event involving many people, like a baseball game, or simply looking for any old coins. Serious coin shooters will spend hours, days and months doing historical research to locate long lost sites that have the potential to give up historical and collectible coins.
Prospecting is looking for valuable metal like gold and silver.
Relic hunting is very similar to coin shooting except that the relic hunter is after any type of historical artifact, relic hunters are usually very determined and dedicated not only to the research and hunting that they do but also to preserving historical artifacts. Coins, minnie balls, buttons, axe heads, and buckles are just a few of the items that are commonly found by relic hunters.
Treasure hunting is looking for valuable items in general.
Beach combing is hunting for lost coins or jewelry lost on a beach. Beach hunting can be as simple or as complicated as one wishes to make it. Many dedicated beach hunters also familiarize themselves with tide movements and beach erosion.
On this site, we provide links to the best brands of new metal detectors. We hope you find one to suit your taste and needs. Also, enjoy the great videos showing a number of detectors in field testing and use. Random videos will be shown every time you visit this site.