Come on, get in

Trejo

Junior Member
Joined
Dec 6, 2017
Messages
87
Location
Bloomfield, Nj
I stumbled upon Deep Digger Dan’s YouTube channel four years ago and got hooked. I found a cheap bounty hunter on craigslist and off I went. How did everyone else start metal detecting?
 
About 10 years ago dad introduced me into the hobby, he was more into gold prospecting, but he also had another detector which he allowed me to use on the beaches and playgrounds. For my 9th birthday I got the xterra70, after he saw I was interested in the hobby, and recently I bought the CTX.
 
I can't remember why I started metal detecting but I got my first metal detector when I was 9 or 10. it was some cheap metal detector that my parents got at tjmaxx or something. I can remember looking for quarters and pennies that my parents planted around the trees in my yard. Found some more that I missed when I got my ace 250 :cool:
 
About 45 years ago I remember going out with my Dad searching old schools when detectors just started coming out in the main stream. I remember my Dad calling my brother a "little !!!!" and laughing when my brother found the first mercury dime of the day..:grin: it has always been in my blood since then.. Miss you dad:grin:
 
I've always liked metal. Been drawn to metal statues and artworks for as long as I can remenber. I like welding things to create new stuff too. Figured it was a good way to find my own little metal. I could really care less about clad and such, I just like finding little trinkets and the anticipation of what I might find next!
 
I swung a gent's White's xlt for around 15 minutes in a site.
Found a pull tab in an old site.

That did it for me.

Didn't realize what I was getting into either.

More to it than I first thought.
 
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...
 
When I was a little un back in the 70's I inherited my grandfathers Mustang detector. Had a poor rock road right next to my house with tailings from the old copper mines of Michigan's UP. I'd spend hours walking up an down that short road finding little pieces of copper. After a season or 2 the batteries got left in it over the winter and it died on me. Ever since wanted to get back into it. Told my wife about it a few times here and there and about 5 years ago there was a Bounty Hunter Quick Silver under the tree on Christmas morning. Swung that for about 6 months or so, got my first silvers, a gold ring and some piles of clad and been addicted ever since. Slowly upgrading the equipment over the last 5 years. Currently with the ATP which will I'll probably stick with for another year or 2 and then go from there.
 
In about 6th grade for me (1974-ish), a kid in my school had seen an old man swinging a detector on the school lawn over a weekend . Back in the days when school yards were defacto playgrounds of the communities. He had followed the man around watching him, and became interested. He went home and asked his dad for a detector for his birthday gift. Soon he was the proud owner of a heathkit type metal detector . I followed that kid around the lawn of our school and saw him dig a few pennies.

So I went home & begged my dad for a detector for Christmas. My dad, however, got me a $19 "toy" that was scarcely capable of finding any item small than a soda can. Doh! To get a coin to give a signal, you had to hold the coin right to the bottom of the coil. Aaarrgghh. Needless to say, I immediately lost interest.

Fast forward to 7th or 8th grade (1975 or 76-ish), a Jr. high school fishing buddy friend of mine had a detector: A Compass 77b, if I recall. Because his older brothers (who were 15+ yrs. older than him) had been into the hobby since even the 1960s. I soon found myself tagging along behind this new friend, at a local school blt. in the 1920s. On a typical day, we might find 15 to 25-ish coins, of which a few would be wheat pennies, and ..... if we were real lucky, a mercury dime, or buffalo nickel. I was hooked ! I realized that the one I'd gotten a year or two earlier was junk.

So in about 1975 or '76-ish, I found myself the proud owner of a used Whites 66TR. That was JUST when discrimination was starting to arrive on the scene. So ... within a few years, I upgraded to a Garrett Groundhog. But that was JUST when motion disc. was arriving on the scene. So I upgraded to a Garrett ADS II. And so forth, and so on, to the present.
 
always been interested, then one day stumbled across aqua chigger and deep digger dan and such on you tube. Decided it was time to try it. Found nothing but a merc an indian and trash for a few months, and only hunted once in awhile.Then it all changed when went to long island when I found out an old college buddy had gotten into detecting. Found all sorts of great stuff (with a old bounty hunter at that), buttons and an 1802 one duit coin, jews harp, musket balls. Been all down hill after that.
 
My dad ordered a Whites back when I was 12. The whole family used to go to old house sites with him. He knew where lots of old foundations were. Don't recall ever finding coins, but one time we found an axe head under a huge rock and speculated if it was hidden there for some criminal reason.

One time he found a friend's Mason ring that had been lost and got a write up in the paper.

Don't know if it's nature or nurture but i feel the MD interest was passed on to me.
 

Attachments

  • DSC00244.JPG
    DSC00244.JPG
    162.5 KB · Views: 371
The seed was planted when I was 17 and lost my class ring in the lake. For years I thought about getting a detector and trying to find it. The tree sprouted when I was in CostCo a few years ago and saw a stack of Bounty Hunters. I don't know how the adventure will end but I am enjoying it so far.

BCD
 
When I was about 16, we lived near the Fairgrounds. The aircraft company my father worked for went on strike and he got a job part time at a Radio Shack to keep some funds coming in. One day he came home with a basic Radio Shack metal detector. We played with it in the yard a bit and although it interested us, we didn't really find anything of value so interest in detecting waned a bit. While at the fair that fall, we were walking past one of the carnival rides that turned the riders upside down. We could hear the coins as they fell though the metal cages and made their way to the grass below. We decided then, that this would be a great place to bring the metal detector once the carnival rides and games packed up and moved on. We were right... especially the grass areas where the coin toss games had been. We must have found $50-60 dollars in change that first time. It became a annual event once the fair left town. Eventually the "carnies" got their own metal detectors, but we still always found plenty. I've been hooked ever since, and it's still a thrill to find a coin or ring and wonder who lost it, when and how?
 
Last edited:
I work in a group home for troubled teenage boys. We are constantly on the lookout for things to to do with the guys that will get them outside and active. About a year and a half ago one of the other staff picked up a used ace 250 and propointer at a yard sale and brought them in. Soon enough about 5 of the residents were hooked as well as myself. I initially bought a used bounty Hunter but after a friend told me he had an ace 350 he had and didn't use I passed the bh onto one of the kids and used the 350 until I bought my own ace 400. The guys in our program cycle through about every 9 months but we have created over a dozen avid detectorists many of which have continued after leaving us. I found some amazing things with the 350 and that has continued with the 400. I probably will upgrade to an at pro before spring and pass the 400 onto one of the residents. Probably our biggest barrier has been pinpointers. We usually have enough detectors to go around but only 3 pinpointers between a few of us staff so it's usually a couple of kids taking turns running one between a few kiddoes when one yells "I need a pointer"! Lol.
 
I started collecting coins in the early 60s. In the 70s I started to read coin mags and saw metal detector ads in them. My dad was a ham and built his own heathkit radios. I found out heathkit also had a detector kit. My brother (engineer) offered to build it. That was my first detector. Then in 1990 I quit smoking and used the money to buy a Fisher 1265. 1992 I bought my first metal detector for use in water; a Fisher 1280. 18 detectors in all (some are my wife’s, she started in 95 with my 1265). Still cheaper than smoking.
1b72efb137b17f0b0527cff2cc57878f.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I always had detecting on the back burner....until one day met a gentlemen at his garage sale....he gave me a stack of detecting books. We became friends and go hunt together. Sadly he died early from cancer.

I watch the Youtube gang also, but can watch only a few at a time before their antics get to me.
 
Back in about 1968, I went to a auction with my dad. There was a detector of some kind. I twisted his are to buy it for me. Well, we got it for $15.00. Had to fill it up with many batteries. I don't know what the name was, because some one painted the box brown. I do know it was an BFO. You talk about digging everything. If something was in the ground that was not dirt, It made a noise. Back than most of your coins were silver. All kinds of silver. I later upgraded many times. You do not find silver any more like you did back than.. KEN :D
 
My brother (Torpedo) had owned a metal detector for several years. I enjoyed tagging along when he used it, but was never more than passingly interested.

Then, one day last fall, he and Wolf-Dog (also my brother) showed me some YouTube videos they had come across, by NuggetNoggin. At first, I saw them only as amusing, for I could not understand what was quite so exciting about finding a button or a marble in the dirt. :lol: However, the more we watched, the more intrigued we became; and before long, we could not wait until the ground thawed so that we could begin our own adventures. By continuing to watch NuggetNoggin through the winter, I learned much of what I would need to know before I even started detecting, including the fact that not every "beep" meant treasure.

My two brothers and I detect as a team and have a lot of fun. My favorite find and "claim to fame" :laughing: is a small ring that I uncovered at a tot lot this past summer.
 
I've always been interested and enjoyed going with my Brother (Torpedo) to MD at beaches and tot-lots, but mostly found a couple coins and tons of nails, canslaw and other trash. :mder:

Earlier this year (Jan. I think) we were watching unrelated videos on YouTube and came across a video of someone MDing. Remembering what fun it was, we looked up another MDing video. We quickly came across NuggetNoggin and after an hour or two later of watching his videos it was supper time so we had to be done. :eat: :eat3: :eat: Within the next week Torpedo had bought me & my sister (Princess) a Bounty Hunter Jr. About 4 months after that, he bought us the Harbor Freight 9-Function. :mder: I love this hobby and have no intention to drop it. :D I've learned a lot about MDing from this Forum as well as from watching NuggetNoggin.

Some of my favorite finds are a Wheat Penny (1945), Steven's steel guitar slide, bullets & casings, toy train, & some cheap jewelry. :D
 
Right before a family vacation to Myrtle Beach in 2012 I bought an Ace 250 just for fun and to kill some time at the beach during the week. 10 adults and 17 kids. I thought the kids would get a kick out of it...they lost interest after about 15 minutes...but I was hooked. I had no idea how much I would enjoy it.
5+ years later and my biggest regret is that I didn't start when I was younger.
 
Back
Top Bottom