So i bought myself a metal detector!

No advice, but bumping the thread because I have always wanted to get a metal detector.

Yeah, i did it as a kid and it was fun.

Always get permission for the property you're about to detect on. People are funny and greedy enough to involve the law even though they'll never metal detect their land.
Use an ear piece it takes less battery usage than the speaker.
If you find something valuable, always always always, keep it to yourself.

YAY! Me too, I love finding lost stuff.

Gary Drayton, from the Curse of Oak Island series, has a lot of books on his website. It looks like some good reading.
[link to www.garydrayton.com]

What type of metal detector did you get?

I've got this for only 100 Euro's NEW.

I know it's not professional, but it's ok to start.



[link to www.youtube.com (secure)]

Yeah, most of the time i'm still on GLP that time.
But thanks

Thanks

Be careful where you go in the water. FL has very strict laws regarding the use of metal detectors on the beach in the water line, as well as in any lake or body of water. You can get arrested for this. They passed some sort of law regarding antiquities and that means you almost can't do anything here in FL with them.

Many good youtube metal detecting experience out there.

Save all of the aluminum cans. Eventually you will be rich.

A detector on the coast of Texas in places can get you into troubles if those laws are still active.

They don't work real good detecting mines.

Just a friendly heads up.

That is really good advice to check the laws first.

I just checked for my state, Louisiana, and there are a lot of laws as well. However a post from 2013 states that in the many years that the laws have been written, there has never been a ticket written. So, take it for what it is worth.

Kids work better than metal detectors anyway. A neighbor kid dug up a Mexican sword from the Battle of San Jacinto.

Did he get to keep it?

Good luck digging up bottle caps and other junk...
Least that's what I found.

Anyway it's fun and you might get lucky!

Yes, the family still has it. It was dug up on private property by a kid digging holes with a shovel.

Get a pinpointer, When my son was young his grandparents got him a cheap pos national geographic metal detector that did not work so well so I bought him a low end bounty hunter for about 100 dollars. I took the handle off the cheap one and use it as a hand held pinpointer so when you hit on something use the pinpointer to get it out of the ground. We were up against someone using an expensive detector and were more efficient using the low end unit with the handheld vs having to dig and retarget with the larger unit. Got several gold rings and lots of coins paid for itself several times

Set it to ignore things like pull tabs and other junk, unless your into making jewelry out of pull tabs and like constantly digging holes. Save some money to upgrade to a higher quality detector, you wil eventually want a better one.

When you want to sell your old detector, shallowly bury a bunch of change scattered around and demonstrate the detector to the potential buyers.
And always remember to fill your holes.

If you find old coins don’t polish or clean excessively, it ruins potential value of coin. Happy hunting, I was just recently digging my detector out of storage for some spring hunting.

I got one last year. Great fun. I live in a 200 year old farmstead and have already found some old coins, giant a cheap antique brooch and some buttons.
I won’t bore you with the pull can tabs, bottle caps but I’m getting better at understanding what I’m detecting. I need to order a pointer for sure, but have to finish spring cleanup before I start digging up the yard...can’t blame that on the moles...
I have a neighbor who is a historian. He’s recently bought an old farm with a questionable history. He plans on excavating most of the site. Rumored to be a hideout for some notorious thieves...

Now you can join the ranks of the balding, beer gut, middle aged men walking up and down the beach looking for cheap costume jewlery and pocket change. Congratulations on accepting your role on the beach.

i used to have one, the best thing i ever found with it was an old rusty horseshoe. all i ever dug up with it was iron junk.

Hmmm I also was not aware of this.... and I do it all the time. Its a big deal to the locals in my area, I know a lot of people that do it. Also your typical entry level detector will not suffice on the beach. You need one that can differentiate between the minerals in the sand and actual metals. It can be done with a low end one, but rarely will you get anything good. pulse induction

If you are going to detect in the woods and have a better chance of finding something old then avoid pine trees. If you see pine trees then you know the land has been plowed over many times in the past.

You want to find an area with large hard wood trees because you will know that the land has not been plowed for farming. Also it is much easy to dig where there are hardwoods.

I would also look for high spots as people way back always camped on high ground.


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