Whats your metal detecting history?

[twotap]

Thought this might make an interesting topic. My history started in 1975 with the purchase of a Whites 2 hip mount metal mineral machine which I still have Used it with some success on some old home sites and in the water. Some coins and a few rings some very good. My son found 4 Indian heads and a large Canadian cent in the same hole using that machine. 1980 purchased a Whites 6000d which I still have. Had much more lumber town finds swinging that machine. Around the same period purchased a Garrett's ADS deep seeker and a Garrets ADS Groundhog. Used that deep seeker near Sebastian inlet and recovered a piece of eight from the offshore sunken Spanish shipwrecks. 1998 purchased a Tesoro Bandido 2 umax along with Silver Sabre umax. Found many coins at lumber camps Indian heads, seated dimes, shield nickel's, large Canadian cents, a couple silver 3 cent pieces, and the one I call my favorite a flying Eagle cent. Around 2000 I pretty much quit metal detecting went to other outdoor activity's boating fishing hunting etc. This summer I took the two Umax machines out of storage and headed for my favorite old northern Mi ghost town which just happens to be a 7 minute drive from our home. Son and I had a great time and he pulled an 1882 Indian head with the SS Sabre. A week ago I ordered and received a new Vaquero to supplement my Umax machines and have been having great success in a hunted out area of the above mention ghost town. Today weather in the 40s no frozen ground I will be heading out again.

 

[kaolinwasher]

I liked to dig up arrowheads and old farm dumps back in the early mid 70,s and one chrismass i got a bounty hunter metal detector I think it was a 150 i went to the beach and right off the bat found a standing liberty half dollar, and standing quarter 1917 and a merc dime and a buffalos nickel. , I went back and found pull tabs and quit, and did not really take it up until 2007 when i lost my pottery business hobby. I Wish i would have kept digging as i was in on ground level .

 

[machineman]

My dad would take us out gold mining all through my early years. I remember him hunting parks with his Garret ADS master hunter. Then he got a gold master 2. He found some gold with it but never a lot. I didnt care for mining much back then, but I had the bug, I was more of a fisherman, he would pan and I would fish. I started dredging for gold in the early 2000s and then they banned it. When I moved to the city fishing was out and with dredging banned I took up detecting. I have found way more gold in city parks than I ever did mining. I love trying new machine and modifying the ones I have. I just ordered a Mirage PI from Sven. Should be a good project. I lknow Kaolinwasher has one.

 

[tomtomnc]

When I was five my up stairs neighbor came running into the apartment building with a hand full of silver and gold coin. He was a young teenager at the time so when I asked him if I could have one of the coins he quickly closed his hand and ran up stairs. I asked him where did he find the coin and he said under the fig tree in the back yard. I quickly ran to the fig tree to search for any remaining coins and managed to find one Indian head 1906 penny and a red leather draw string pouch with a hole in it under the fig tree. I gave the penny to my father and to this day he treats the penny like a gold coin ,tucked away in his dresser draw. That is what lit the fire and the rest is just history. I bought my first detector at the age of 27 (Bounty hunter Land Star) and have never stopped swinging 22 years later.

 

[Tim Traffanstedt]

I started hunting with whites coin master in1972.Then got Garrett At pro about 1 year ago.Then Tesoro tiger shark.Now looking to buy another Tesoro v or maybe outlaw.Been doing some studying on these two but don't know yet .Would like to stay around this price range.Would really appreciate all help on this I would take advise on these two or other Tesoro. Thanks. Tim

 

[hatpin]

I bought a Garrett Fortune Hunter in 1980. I did not have anyone to teach me , I just did the best I could with it . I think with the proper instruction I would have found a lot more with that machine as it was deep . It quit working sometime in the 80's or early 90's and I purchased a Whites Eagle II.I still have the eagle and loan it out occasionally. Once again I never got competent with it as there was no one to teach me . It was a heavy unit with no arm brace and I developed tendinitis in my elbow and had to quit or get a new unit .Four years ago I bought a Vaquero and had no more tendinitis problems ,also discovered the internet , so the instruction was there [this forum] .In four years I have found more old coins with the Vaquero than in thirty years with my other units . All the members of this forum have been my teachers .

 

[twotap]

-- moved topic --

 

[Tom_in_CA]

In about 1976, a kid in my Jr. High school let me tag along with him, while he swung his Compass 77b at a school yard. I was his "digger boy". I recall we got some wheaties, a buffalo, some clad, etc.... I was hooked! Went out and found a used Whites 66TR, and the rest is history

There was discriminators being introduced to the market at this time in 1976 -77-ish, but we didn't know any better. Didn't get a discriminator till 1980: A Garrett Groundhog VLF/TR. But those were ALREADY EVEN THEN becoming dinasours, because machines like the 6000d, and Red Baron where far-&-away spanking TR disc. guys. Doh! So I upgraded to Garrett's answer to the 6000: A Garrett ADS II. It was *ok*, but the whites guys continued to out-hunt , go deeper, do better on wet salt, etc...

As a side-note: The school chum who got me into it , had brothers who were ~15 yrs. older than him, who had actually started in about 1963 in our town. To anyone's knowledge they were the first ones to swing detectors at the school yards. The BFO's they were swinging probably did good to get 3" on a coin, but ALL the coins were silver in those days. They got a lot of halves and quarters in those early days.

 

[Sataro]

Graduated from high schools in 1976. Living in Texas & my folks took us kids on a trip to Canada. We saw some old gold mines & the bug hit me. We stopped in Durango, CO & I saw a metal detector shop. I bought a Compass detector. Cannot remember the model # but I had a lot of fun on that trip digging everywhere we stopped. Found a neighbor back home who liked to hunt so we got some hunting time in together. Later in the late 80's, my buddy & I decided that if one would buy a detector then the other would buy one. We both bought White's 2500s. We tore the old school yards up with those machines. Later upgraded to a Fisher 1265. That was a nice detector in the day. Really enjoyed using that machine. Upgraded to a White's XLT Spectrum. Thought I was on top of the world with that visual screen to tell me what was there before I dug. Bought a Fisher 1235x for competition hunting. The XLT was my favorite machine before I left the hobby in the middle 90s. My buddy kept hunting for a while but like he quit digging & life took us a different direction. Years later we are both starting back hunting together. I'm now using his Fisher CZ7 Quicksilver.