When did start metal detecting?? What Age??

[tarajudy]

n/t

 

[NiagracountyNY]

Stared at 8 after watching a fella walk ito the park i was in with a red bounty hunter(control box was red) and pluck a handful of late 1800s silver and half dollars from the ground..plus alot of silver coins which i have no clue what they were.My eyes lite up and i had vision of gettting rich over night.I saved up and got a radio shack detector with no discrimination..Then spent the next 2 years by myself digging garbage upon garbage upon pulltab and an occasinal penny or clad dime which would keep me going..lol.After begging for a new machine and never getting one i gave up. (I used a Radio shack detector....my pro pointer is strronger!!!) Then started again when i was 39 and havent looked back..I sure missed alot of years and a TON of sites i could have hunted...DARN IT!!!!

 

[Canewrap]

I did almost the exact same thing, starting at 12. I hunted with a cheap Whites, back in the early 70's, for about a year and then gave up. Started up again about 10 years ago. Yeah, came real late to the party and regret having left it when things could have been a lot better.

 

[mudpuppy]

52....4yrs ago..always was intrigued, just never had the chance up til now, so making up for lost time while I can....tough work...a person would be well advised to start this sport early in Life and be a bit spry....
Mud

 

[Tom_in_CA]

For me, at about 13 or 14 yrs. old. That was about 1974 or '75-ish. Had a Jr. high school friend, who had a Compass (either the 77b auto or the 94 auto, I don't remember). He took me out a few times with him, to be his "digger boy", to the local old elementary school. I was immediately hooked! Just HAD to have one of my own. Found a used Whites 66TR about that same time (1975-ish), and was off to the races For the first 5 yrs. (till about 1980), I was at the mercy of wherever I could ride my bike to. By 1980, I upgraded to a VLF/TR, when it became painfully obvious that guys with discriminators were leaving all the foil and tabs in the ground (parks & schools was all we worked in those days).

 

[Rick(ND)]

Started in 1973 when I was 24 years old after seeing all the stuff my dad had found and went out and bought a Jetco at the local hardware store, found a few coin with it and even silver back then and was ready to give up on detecting as this wasn't the best detector. I talk to the local Whites dealer and he let me rent a Coinmaster 3 I believe it was as it had no disc at that time and used it for a day and did OK, but not real good, so he told me to keep it another day for no charge and gave me a few tips and did much better. I was hooked on detecting as I got a gold ring and a barber half that day. Traded up to a TR detector with disc later on, but gold finds were not as good as when I used a non disc detector as we learned more about detecting by the sounds and size of a target.

 

[metalfun]

54 Im now 59 I have to agree with mud start younger while all your joints dont need Wd 40.HH

 

[mncricket]

I bought my first whites coin master when I was 15. Had to save for it myself! It was a single know threshold with no descrimination at all! I didn't drive yet and we lived in the country. I can tell you I bet there is no junk left in the yard of that house. After a while of never finding anything good, I gave it up. When I turned 30 I wanted a new detector for my birthday. Got a new bounty hunter land star for $130.00. They had it mis-marked at the store and I held them to the price. Didn't find much with that one either.....then I started having kids. Went back once in awhile, but always felt bad for digging when I had kiddos back home that needed tending. I will be 40 this month. I have a couple new detectors and a couple (well, one more than the other) kids that will go with me and dig their own treasures! Bring it on!

 

[Surfinsafari]

41 years. Dad bought me a Heathkit detector from Sears Roebuck in Joliet Illinois in 1973. I used it to find arrows at the nearby archery range because I didn't have the money to buy arrows at the time. Interestingly, my youngest son borrowed my old Whites Surfmaster to find some arrows that he and a friend had lost and he got hooked on detecting. I bought him a Ace 350 and gave him my Minelab pinpointer and off he went.

 

[ken ward]

I was either 17 or 18 when I got an BFO.. I am now retired and have a better detector now... KEN

 

[GeorgeinSC]

I started two years ago at the age of 71. I had been interested in detecting for many years but knew absolutely nothing about the various detectors and did not know anyone who detected. Brother in law introduced me to the hobby and the rest is history. A "Gentleman" from church was bad mouthing me to a new couple and he made the statement that he thought that I was addicted to metal detecting. Like that was some kind of something bad or illegal. At my age the exercise I get from this hobby in invaluable. Keeps my arthritic joints somewhat limber and functional. Love this Hobby. Just wish i had started 50 years ago.

 

[NiagracountyNY]

Bad mouthing you for metal detecting....in church...Sounds like that guy has a few issues about loving and respecting his fellow man. also sounds like hes very jelous youve found some joy in life he doesnt understand.Its a very theraputic hobby for the body and mind.The exercise is a giveme.....Those awesome chemicals that release when we get excited and happy from that cool find,or that neat site you found researching are deff good for the body and mind! You keep on diggin..we will pray for him.

 

[MetalMiner]

I started two years ago at the age of 71. I had been interested in detecting for many years but knew absolutely nothing about the various detectors and did not know anyone who detected. Brother in law introduced me to the hobby and the rest is history. A "Gentleman" from church was bad mouthing me to a new couple and he made the statement that he thought that I was addicted to metal detecting. Like that was some kind of something bad or illegal. At my age the exercise I get from this hobby in invaluable. Keeps my arthritic joints somewhat limber and functional. Love this Hobby. Just wish i had started 50 years ago.

Congrats George, I hope I'm still Detecting when I'm 71. I started just 2 yrs ago at age 55. If you're going to have an addiction MDing is a very healthy addiction. I find this hobby to be very relaxing for me, If I have a bad day at work I can come home & go MD for a little & relieve the stress.

 

[Southwind]

I was in my early 20's but didn't get serious until a good 2-3 years later.

 

[tarajudy]

Well it wasn't exactly with a metal detector, but I was about 12-13 dad made a garden rake that had fish hooks spot welded on the ends of the prongs and we would walk along the beach dragging it behind us it would pick up chains and sometimes rings. This was in 1957 used it for many years worked great till I got my first detector in about 1963

I'm still going strong today with my Garrett and minelab EX CAL Garrett AT PRO. Dad always said where there will there is a way to do anything. (RIP DAD)

 

[michael NY]

I started in 1999 at age 29,
I had a radio shack junker found trash and small tools I lost when I was a kid no coins until I graduated to the Garrett family with an Ace and started to actually dig coins! With in a few weeks went out to buy a GTA500 life is good, I really like it but more was available so I moved up to The Grand Master CX iii used this for few years.

 

[JB(MS)]

Bought a kit BFO on the night of Dec. 22 and sat up all night soldering it together. First hunt was just after daylight on the 23rd in my yard and found my first and second coins, a 1906 Barber dime and 1902 Indian head penny that were hauled in with the fill dirt when my house was built. I was 26 years old.

 

[John(Tx)]

1976 at the age of 29. Bought a cheapo, treasure tracker which couldn't find a trash can lid on top of the ground. Then got a Garrett Ground Hog and started making good finds. Still land hunt but mostly water hunt, find more gold rings. HH

 

[fowlercharles]

My 32nd. birthday, and just prior Camille slamming the Gulf Coast 25 miles to the South. I got a Garrett BFO Sidewinder that day and have been "Scratching" for goodies ever since. Best hobby ever, and even better when it takes place with some real Diggin Buddy Friends. That is where your most valued treasures will be found! HH, Charlie

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Wow, amazing that this technique would work (or have enough finds to have been profitable). I mean, no one can imagine now going to a beach with a rake like that, and having it be worthwhile. But I think that ....... back before the advent of metal detectors, if you had a truly jampacked beach, with 100 yrs. of foot -traffic in a high-touristy area, then ...... that might have worked.

Because I read somewhere that some guys in -like-fashion wised up to simply digging sand underneath the Coney Island Boardwalk, back in the 1940s/50s. They would set up a screen sifter, and spend all day shoveling random sand through it. Apparently the results were decent enough that many people were doing it. Sort of makes you sick to think how many coins and items must've been in the sand, for that to have been worthwhile.

When you started detecting in 1963, what machine were you using, and how deep could it find coin-sized items to ? What beaches were you working, and what was a typical day's finds/tallies ?