Myers Depot Metal Detectors

How You Got Started Detecting

Martin_V3i

Martin_V3i

Elite Member
Joined
Oct 27, 2010
Messages
5,143
Location
North DFW, TX
I remember when I first started metal detecting in 2010. I had a gifted Whites 5900SL in the closet which my momma found in a yard sale and gave to my older brother Mike who detected for 20 years, using an old Fisher beep and dig 1260, and Mike let it sit in his closet. He was not a techie type and just lived with beep and dig. I took in the 1990sit I never tried it until 2010 when a buddy asked if I could help him find a ring in a volley ball court. I ordered and bought a battery pack for it, but before I got it running, another friend of his with a detector found the ring. The rest is history. I never slowed down detecting. I never left my home yard for the first month when I started.
 
In about 1975-ish, while in Jr. High school (7th grade ? 8th grade), I met a kid in my school who had a 77b (or 94b ?). I followed him out to one of the local school yards, and watched him dig a few coins. Including a wheatie or two ! I was immediately hooked, and the rest is history :)
 
I developed an early interest in coins and treasure hunting, around 1973. Asked for a detector for Christmas and next thing you know I owned a Jetco. Pretty basic but I was only 11 years old.
 
Trained as an Army Combat Engineer, and used some vintage mine detectors, like the An/PSS-11. That was decades ago. Fast forward to the past few years, and I realized there might be other things in the ground aside from anti-tank and anti-personnel mines. Finding coins and relics is more enjoyable and a little safer than the other way of detecting.
 
SirFrancesDrake said:
i got started in 2017 when hurricane maria hit Puerto Rico. There was no power for 5 months at my house and I needed something to do. Id go out on the beach every night after relief-work and hunt. It saved me from quite a bit of debauchery/boozing and became a passion.
Click to expand...
Did you say debauchery? I need to use that line on my wife - honey, I'm going out detecting again to help YOU - by detecting, I am saving myself from the lure of debauchery...you're welcome dear.
 
FLOOD said:
Did you say debauchery? I need to use that line on my wife - honey, I'm going out detecting again to help YOU - by detecting, I am saving myself from the lure of debauchery...you're welcome dear.
Click to expand...

Haha, Yes: When you look around at the sad state-of-affairs that some men fall into (vices, unjustified expenses, wild-women, etc...), then : Our wives ought to be praising us for having a hobby that keeps us "fallen feeble men" on the straight and narrow. And ... shucks ... it even pays for the equipment and the gas most of the time. Doh ! :roll:
 
I was about 8 years old, around 1971-72. I was always an explorer as a kid. Always a "plunderer". Really into science, chemistry and anything electronic. My mom got me a metal detector from Radio Shack for my birthday. I am now 58 and retired military and retired firefighter. Still all the same interests as when I was a kid. Love to explore and plunder. I wish I still had that old Radio Shack detector. The military causes one to lose things in moving for years. But since that old detector I have had Garrett's, Whites, Fisher, and Minelab. Currently have a Minelab E-Trac and just got the Equinox 900. Love the old E-Trac and the new Nox 900. Still learning it. I also have an older Fisher F2 for a loaner or if I take a kid. Love the hobby as well as most people I meet in the hobby. I am from Kentucky, but retired in eastern North Carolina.
 
:digginahole:The more time I spend detecting is less time I’m home messing up the house, so my wife is all for it.

I started detecting when my friend that new I had a cheap detector, that my aunt had gave me a couple it years earlier. Asked me to bring it over to help him find some live ammo that he drop in his yard next to his house. I found them in about 15 minutes. When I got home I though let me try this thing I my yard. I only went about 20’ and found my first clad dime and I’ve been hooked ever since!
 
KT was given $100 for Christmas and toLW…..spend it on whatever you want! I was a mineral collector for over 50 years and loved being outdoors, and I saw a similarity to rock collecting, so I bought a BH Tracker IV and in the first year of hunting local totlots I recovered over $650 in change. Unfortunately I have bad knees and all that up and down finished them off, so I was into CRHing for several years, recently I dusted off my old Tracker and started teaching my niece how to use the new machine she got for Christmas a couple of years back! Loads of fun, that’s for sure!
 
I started about fifteen years ago. I had always wanted to from a young age maybe as far back as the 1950's. I'm 71 almost 72. I wanted a Whites machine back then. I also wanted to go to Oak Island. I would show them ... HaHa. Well after the service and getting married, and four kids (ruined my figure) I waited until my kids were bored with me. I got my Whites machine (M6) and off I went. Later on I got the White's MX Sport that I use now. I have not been happier, even when I see the cool things you guys find that I don't. Now as for the debauchery, my wife was an operating room nurse. She explained to me that I would be missing something if I debaucher-ed or pretty much anything else she did not approve of. Still married 44 years and counting, and intact. I'm on a list for the manticore.
 
FLOOD said:
Did you say debauchery? I need to use that line on my wife - honey, I'm going out detecting again to help YOU - by detecting, I am saving myself from the lure of debauchery...you're welcome dear.
Click to expand...
SirFrancesDrake said:
i got started in 2017 when hurricane maria hit Puerto Rico. There was no power for 5 months at my house and I needed something to do. Id go out on the beach every night after relief-work and hunt. It saved me from quite a bit of debauchery/boozing and became a passion.
Click to expand...
How was it hunting in PR? I've visited the island several times over the past year and a half. I was thinking about taking my detector next time. Any PR-specific laws to know about?
 
I got started in the 70s on a BFO I bought at a garage sale. I had hopes of finding a fortune. Soon my love for history took over my wants to find money, and my detecting changed from an occasional hunt to an obsession. I started buying all the monthly treasure magazines and was hooked. Went from my BFO, through the TR, VLF technology, and did quite well.

Over the last 50 years I have found some amazing things, but, what I have found is that the relics/coins/jewelry I find is just stuff. The real treasure is in the hunt...
 
nkmu said:
.... Any PR-specific laws to know about?
Click to expand...

Doesn't PR, like any governmental entity structure, have their laws & rules available somewhere for viewing ? And in this wonderful digital day & age, it's invariably on-line , eh ? And if you see nothing there that says "no metal detecting", then presto: Not disallowed. Do not become the latest victim of "no one cared UNTIL you asked" phenomenon.

And yes, this can happen on the national and state-wide scale. There's a humorous (yet sad) story of this happening when Fisher Co , when going to answer a customer's inquiry, went down this deadly rabbit trail. And ended up creating a big mess of 'swatting hornet's nests'. So : If you are skittish, look it up yourself. Or, as you have done here, ask fellow hobbyists. But beware, I have even seen where we "ask fellow hobbyists" (who, perhaps never gave the matter a moment's thought , since, shucks, no one ever bothered them before). And so guess what THAT person does ? Yup, you guessed it : Swat hornet's nests.

So please folks, look it up for yourself. Thankfully we live in a digital age when this is child's play to do.
 
I've been a bottle digger my whole life, but one year I received a bounty hunter for Christmas. Maybe 2013? Before long I was ready for an upgrade. I moved up to the Ace 250, then the AT Pro, AT Gold, Minelab Explorers, Etrac, CTX, and finally settled down with the Equinox. It took me awhile to realize that machine choice plays a very small part in the big equation. Location was most important for me. Once I found the older sites, I could take even the bounty hunter and find good stuff. Can't believe it's been almost a decade already 😳
 
I have to give credit to my wife actully. She was into gold sluicing and panning. I was into fishing and hunting since 8 years old. She kept asking me if I wanted to go into the foot hills and learn how to look for gold...She went a couple times on her own and took some lessons from a private party that does that sort of thing. She would bring back these tiny flakes of gold and show me..I wasn't very impressed but one day she brought back this magazine I'm thinking GPAA and it had an add with a Garrett ATX and some huge gold nuggets pictured. Now thats what im talking about I told her....So I bought us both a metal detector and I havent been fishing since..

strick
 
I was a bit late to the game!
My wife gave me a Bounty Hunter Land Ranger the Christmas before I retied. I retired that coming January and the rest is history!
 
Started out with a Radio Shack kids detector like this one around 1981 at age 11. We lived on an old farm and I remember finding rusty tools and car parts but nothing valuable. Lost interest for many years then bought an Ace 250 in 2012 which reignited my passion for finding history. Now a decade later I am hooked on this hobby and try to get out twice a week or more with my Equinox.
 

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Tom_in_CA said:
Doesn't PR, like any governmental entity structure, have their laws & rules available somewhere for viewing ? And in this wonderful digital day & age, it's invariably on-line , eh ? And if you see nothing there that says "no metal detecting", then presto: Not disallowed. Do not become the latest victim of "no one cared UNTIL you asked" phenomenon.

And yes, this can happen on the national and state-wide scale. There's a humorous (yet sad) story of this happening when Fisher Co , when going to answer a customer's inquiry, went down this deadly rabbit trail. And ended up creating a big mess of 'swatting hornet's nests'. So : If you are skittish, look it up yourself. Or, as you have done here, ask fellow hobbyists. But beware, I have even seen where we "ask fellow hobbyists" (who, perhaps never gave the matter a moment's thought , since, shucks, no one ever bothered them before). And so guess what THAT person does ? Yup, you guessed it : Swat hornet's nests.

So please folks, look it up for yourself. Thankfully we live in a digital age when this is child's play to do.
Click to expand...
My deepest apologies for burdening you specifically with this question. 😄
 
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