Come on, get in

Have always loved coins. Don't know why but I have always been intrigued with them In the mid 60' I did some coin collecting and of course the vast majority were silver When the Hunt brothers tried to corner the silver market I sold them at 18 times face.

For many years I have been interested in Detecting but had no idea what type of machine one would need and even where one would find information about the hobby.

In 2012 my Brother in Law stopped by for a few days and he had his detectors. We hit the beach and a couple parks. I Was Hooked.

On his recommendation I Purchased a Sovereign GT which in six months Minelad decided to discontinue. I used the GT for parks playgrounds and at the beach

Got interested in water hunting so I purchased an Excalibur II.

I try to get out a couple of times a week.

Wish I had started the hobby much sooner but better late than never. Wish I had not waited intil I was OLD.

The past four years I have been caring for a parent with dementia, so between working nights and helping out with my mother’s care I found I only had time for walks to get out and relax a bit. I saw the Hoover Boys on YouTube a few months ago and that got me interested in the hobby and figured why not get off the boardwalk and onto the sand and see what I can find. My detector arrived just before Thanksgiving and I found my first small gold ring and cross the 3rd time out, so now I’m hooked. More importantly I found a hobby I have time to do and enjoy, it is relaxing just being able to get out for a few hours with the headphones on.

Back in the '60's I found an ad in the back of an old Popular Mechanics for a free booklet about Oak Island. It got me interested in lost treasure and i even made a report about it in school. Later a friend's father got an old military mine detector. He showed us all that he had found in their yard, including some coins. It renewed my interest in lost treasure. Not long after that I found a Jetco in a local OTASCO store. That was my first detector and I found enough to keep me interested. My first real detector was a Fisher 555 that I found in a pawn shop. I took it down to Tulsa to the area distributors and had it checked out and converted to a hip mount while I waited. They explained a lot about detecting and I have been hooked ever since.

I've been talking/thinking about getting into the hobby and buying a detector off and on literally for decades! The seed was originally planted inadvertently by my Dad - he apparently was interested in detecting in the 70s, but never had or made the time to buy a machine and get into the sport. What he did do was buy detecting magazines every so often, and they ended up piled in our basement where I found them in the early 80s as a pre-teen. I leafed through them occasionally, fascinated by the finds - but for some reason I never talked to my Dad about detecting. If I had, I'd be willing to bet I'd be a 30 year veteran of the hobby by now! If he knew I had an interest, that would have been enough incentive for him to get us started in a pastime we could enjoy together.

Instead, other activities and responsibilities came and went, diverting my interests. Every now and then I would think about trying detecting - I remember after Dad passed away in 2001, I ran across a few of those detecting magazines in the basement again while helping Mom get the house ready to sell. That sparked my interest again and I got as far as investigating some machines, but I still never pulled the trigger. Time always seemed too limited or finances a little too tight to invest in a new hobby: college, then working 60-80 hour weeks as a young environmental engineer, a career change to aviation in the early 2000s, marriage and a new family after that - there was always an excuse for putting detecting off for another day.

Regardless, in late 2014, I started looking at detectors again, and I was talking seriously enough about it that my wife assumed I was going to finally buy one. She was so convinced that she bought me an original Garrett ProPointer for my birthday! But our youngest daughter was born that year and I told myself the time wasn't right - so still no detector purchase.

To make a long story longer, this year I finally took the plunge - I knew my youngest daughter would be starting preschool later in the year, so more time would be available. Plus I knew it was absurd to own a pinpointer for a couple years with no detector!

When my Mom heard that I bought one, she was ecstatic: "Ohhh, your Father always wanted one of those...for a while that was all he talked about!" Like father, like son I suppose!!

I've had a tremendously enjoyable first year detecting - why on Earth didn't I do this sooner??

I always loved treasure and gold prospecting for as long as I can remember. I got a membership to the gpaa when I was a kid in the early 80's it came with a pan and sniffer bottle etc. And there used to be a gpaa show on pbs on Saturdays. Most of the shows featured panning or slucing but on one episode they took a metal detector into an old gold mine. They found so many nuggets with ease and the machine/ technology just seriously peaked my interest. Fast forward to last year when the trigger was finally pulled last Christmas. I started with an f2 3 months later upgraded to a AT PRO. I'm hooked! The hobby is so awesome. It's the thrill of the hunt, the meeting new people, time spent with family and friends. The fact you can be literally standing on top of something,doesn't even matter whether it's a gold ring or a stupid zincoln and you would never know it without that beautiful device. It's amazing! I'm looking forward to the years to come and finds. Even without the detector now my eyes are always on the ground now. I've found cash and surface change that I never would have seen if not for the hobby. My finds aren't vast two silver coins, a silver necklace, five or six wheat pennies, some pet licenses, a cool U.S. modern button, lots of keys etc. The usual, oh and tons of trash lol. But each and every one is an awesome memory. Happy hunting everyone!

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Always the coin collector and someone that loves finding things, New Years Eve 2007 for some reason had me on line looking for a detector.. Bought my first an ACE 250 that night and was so amazed the next day that it actually found my first quarter.. The rest they say..

Saw some detectors in Big 5 around 2009 and thought hmmm might be fun. Did research and they said buy a slightly better detector than you want. It was a bit of a stretch buying one
at $200.! But It was a new thing for me and exciting.
I found lots of coins and when I found a merc I was really hooked!

remmy said:

In april of 2015 I walked into my back yard to find a surveyor standing there. We got to talking and he told be that there are sometimes property marker pins in the center of the road that can be found with a detector. I was curious if my property was marked so I borrowed my fathers cheap radio shack detector to look for them. I did not find the pins but started finding coins in the yard. I bought my ace 250 a month later, my AT pro 5 months later and my deus a year after and I am still swinging. never did find the pins in the road...

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HAHAH! @ pins...

I'm enjoying the reading of this thread...Its doing my soul good...This Sport unlike any other Outdoor Pursuit I have experienced, attracts and holds a certain reptilian amygdala...

Dreamers, Explorers, the Curiosity inclined, Free Rangers, Subsistence Hunters, Trail Walkers...We are the 'Payers of Attention' to the History of Mankinds vast roving herds, tracking them through the fog of Time....Lonely Wanderers, comfortable being outdoors...these rigs give us a mildly understandable socially acceptable reason to do so....You just cant be caught outside wandering around with no readily apparent intent or reason...Thats for Hobos, Bums or Hippys!! LEO is keen on this, so a guy has to come up with a viable camoflage, and just having a stupid metal detector in hand is the ticket to label us as a harmless old booboo!!...

The Forum has become a campfire where we gather and share successes, dangers, observations, a fellowship of dreamers, hunters and wanderers...We like and understand each other by this common genetic bond, from bottlecaps to Brashers, pulltabs to pennies, it dont matter.....Restless Spirits outdoors and hunting!... ....reminds me of a poem by a guy named Salvatore Ferragamo..

"I am blessed or cursed, depending on how you look at it, with an incurably Restless Spirit, and the ability to work hard"...That right there is Metal Detecting!

Its about having a valid reason for being outside wandering around thats somewhat explainable to the others that 'dont get it'....Like bankers and accountants and 8hr pay/day Eddie Punchclock, Lenny Lunchbucket kind of dealies, toiling away roboticon under florescent lights at the Dirt Factory......Other folks 'get it' on a smaller level, like the ..Geocachers and PokemonGo Hunters, Mushroomers, Fossicers, Couponers, Garage Sailers, Prospectors, 'Sangers, things like this...'Outdoor Pursuit Oriented Amygdala' people do not belong or meet their full potential in a Lenny Lunchbucket kind of World......

Yeah..Its a recessive genetic Neanderthalic Birth Defect....cant help it, gotta go, Like our Patron Saint and Metal Detecting Troubadour Lady Gaga so melodically and eloquently stated in support of us mentally defective metal detecting societally stigmatized penny picking perpetually palsied planet walking personphonetic perambulators! It aint our fault! ...We were "Born this Way!"......"You are on the right track baby! You were born this Way!"

I bet Lady Gaga swings a Compadre?...something light anyhow, Shes not a big gal, and has skinny arms, so its definitely not a Minelab!... Something cheap and simple...fast and shallow with a quick recovery, easy to operate, no frills, EZ turn on and go, stands in the corner comfortably for long periods,...Or In the trunk, flat out basic performer, weatherproof with a baggie over its brains, with some infield reputation and legendary acknowledged punch? ...Holy Krap! Thats Me!

For Christmas 2013, I was given a bounty hunter tracker IV. I used it very little, I was mainly a bottle digger previously since I was 14. Not sure what happened but it took a turn for the worse, to the point where I was telling my wife I was working late and really looking for deep silver in a city park the rest is history! This was my best season in all categories except gold and large coppers. GL&HH in 2018 everyone!

ChrisR910 said:

The past four years I have been caring for a parent with dementia, so between working nights and helping out with my mother’s care I found I only had time for walks to get out and relax a bit. I saw the Hoover Boys on YouTube a few months ago and that got me interested in the hobby and figured why not get off the boardwalk and onto the sand and see what I can find. My detector arrived just before Thanksgiving and I found my first small gold ring and cross the 3rd time out, so now I’m hooked. More importantly I found a hobby I have time to do and enjoy, it is relaxing just being able to get out for a few hours with the headphones on.

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Yep... gold will do that. LOL

Have fun with your addiction. I know I do. Embracing it is so much better than denying it.

cellrdwellr said:

For Christmas 2013, I was given a bounty hunter tracker IV. I used it very little, I was mainly a bottle digger previously since I was 14. Not sure what happened but it took a turn for the worse, to the point where I was telling my wife I was working late and really looking for deep silver in a city park the rest is history! This was my best season in all categories except gold and large coppers. GL&HH in 2018 everyone!

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Just give in to the dark side, and start telling your wife the truth. I was worried my honey wouldn't accept my addiction, but then she named my detector.... Lucy.

When I asked her why she was so comfortable with me going out and detecting, she said, "it's a metal detector, designed to detect metal. I ASSURE you, love... it doesn't attract women... have fun with Lucy!"

My wife is awesome like that. LOL

I had been a coin collector at an early age. I received a Jetco Mustang about 1973. Didn't find much at all with it. About '76 or '77 I stepped up to a WHite's Coinmaster II. At that time I was about 15 and also became hooked on bottle collecting and dump digging.

Skippy SH13 said:

Just give in to the dark side, and start telling your wife the truth. I was worried my honey wouldn't accept my addiction, but then she named my detector.... Lucy.

When I asked her why she was so comfortable with me going out and detecting, she said, "it's a metal detector, designed to detect metal. I ASSURE you, love... it doesn't attract women... have fun with Lucy!"

My wife is awesome like that. LOL

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Normally my wife is like, "You can't go detecting today, you have to get this or that done or whatever" I just wait for her to get on her computer or get involved with something else and then just hang over her shoulder asking as many stupid questions that I can come up with. It usually turns into "Don't you want to go detecting today, why you bothering me?, be back home in time for dinner"