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When did start metal detecting?? What Age??

At 47, this is my first year to detect.... let alone own one. I've always been fascinated by the very idea of metal detecting but growing up, we were too poor. during high school and college, too poor. while in the Navy, too busy. during college, too busy. after college, again too busy. now that the kids are grown and I've broken the plates, I've just now slowed down enough to occasionally get out and relax with the detector a bit. must be an inviting sport as the wife has now taken an interest. maybe the two of us can share many a year together MD'ing.... HH <Spider
 
Started around 13 in the early 70's. Hunted now and then with a Whites detector and made some good finds. Silver was fairly easy to find back then. Wish I would have stuck with it. Got back in a few years ago with my M6. Lots of coins, a few rings, but I miss the 70's silver. Need to hunt some better areas.
 
Eight, I am a month shy of thirty eight now and going stronger than ever. So just about thirty years. Can't wait to see what the next thirty years will be like..
 
Begged my parents for a detector for my 10th bday. The bought me a white's. A month later I took it to the beach on vacation and found tons of clad. At 10 years old I was in my glory.
 
My Dad bought me a used Metrotec-220-A Metal Detector for my 15th Birthday. I am 61 now and have never looked back. I was born and raised in Huntington, West Virginia. Spent 7 Years in the U.S. Army from1972-1979. I am a 100% Disabled Veteran and for the last 5 months live in Moyie Springs, Idaho. Now I have Ghost Towns and Gold Miner Camps to search. 46 Years and still going strong. The Greatest Hobby and History lessons in the Whole World. Thanks!...Jesse W. McComas.
 
How deep could you get a coin-sized target to, with that metrotech ? And when you first started in 1968, I'm assuming you bumped into fellow hobbyists, and began to know others who were also in it at that time, eh? If so, how early on did any of them allude to, for being into detecting ? Like did any other hunters you know of at that time, say they'd begun in the 1950s, for instance ?
 
We used a similar idea over in Britain about the same time but had a mesh welded on. I made a bomb off Southport beach where the Fun Fair had an entrance/exit directly onto the top of the beach. The old guys would "dig and sieve" and on shingle beaches such as Portland, Dorset would sell you a bag of coins for half their face value. It was then up to you to clean them.
 
About 1963 when I built a Heathkit detector. I was 8 years old at the time and my brother helped me with how to solder. The next machine was a Sears (Whites 5000 D) about 1983. Still have that one as well as a stable of 3 other machines.
 
This is a pic of my first detector (Chrismas of 72) I was 10 it was light weigt, all the electronics in the coil, and I had a blast finding junk !! Move ahead 42 years and I have a XP Deus it is light weight,, all the electronics in the coil , and I have a blast finding junk LOL!!!
 
haha, I remember that exact machine! With the silly red light, etc... When I was about 12 yrs. old, I begged my dad for a metal detector for Christmas. And ........ him being the "frugal" sort, bought me one of those toy store cheapies. I distinctly remember that the ONLY way that machine would find a coin, was if you rubbed the coin to the bottom side of the coil. Thus realistically, it would only find larger items (horse-shoes, flattened cans, etc....) An utter piece of junk. Needless to say, I quickly lost interest. It would be another few years (about 1976), that I was to run into a Jr. High school chum with a Compass 77b that COULD find coins. I realized then that the detector I'd gotten a few years earlier was junk. Doh!

I often wonder how much more I would have been ahead, if my dad had gotten me a *real* machine, in about '73 or '74, when he'd gotten me that machine instead , haha
 
Post-script:: Another thing I remember about that machine, was that it was advertised as being able to go underwater. However, when you read the instructions, HERE was the way you could "take it under water" : You were supposed to wrap it up in plastic bags, wrap up the ends in black tape, etc.... Presto: "water proof". And then you could simply watch the red light under the water. YEAH RIGHT! haha
 
I started at about age 20 in about 1975. I had a cheap BFO detector which then cost about $75 I think. I cashed in a savings bond or two to get it.
My Dad and younger brother started about a year before me. My brother had a Bounty Hunter and my Dad had a Garrett TR-type. My Dad at the time was showing early signs of Parkinson's Disease, so it was very therapeutic for him, until the disease eventually got the best of him. My detector soon got stolen and I got to use my Dad's Garrett for a while, until I lent it to a friend and never got it back (GRRR!!!). I wish I still had that detector, for sentimental reasons.
I somehow left the hobby in th late 70's or so, but then got back into it in the mid-80's, when I purchased a new Tesoro Silver Sabre uMax, which I still have as a backup to my new Minelab Safari. I can't seem to get enough of it lately.
 
I was the only one around when I went out. I was getting about 6 inches on coins and deeper on Civil War Relics. I did meet one guy about a year before I went into the army that told me he started out in 1960 with an old Army Mine Detector that he bought at an Army-Navy Store, and it worked great for him. At that time he had a Whites 66TR. I still have that old Metoitech 220-A in My Closet. And it still Works. Thanks for the question...Jesse.
 
in October, 1997. The 'original' Silver Sabre was introduced in Oct. 1983, the Silver Sabre Plus in August of '86, and the Silver Sabre II in September of '91. So I'd guess your Silver Sabre was one of the first two, if you got it in the mid-1980's. If it is the Silver Sabre µMAX, then it would seem you got back into the hobby in the latter '90s.

Either way, sorry to read where you and others missed out on about 10-20 years between when you got a taste of the sport and went through a period of inactivity. You missed out on a lot of good finds and a lot of 'fun.'

Monte
 
I started in 1990 mainly to get away from my wife who drove me nuts. 24 years later that wife is long gone but I'm still detecting more than ever. Now I'm getting away from the second wife and 3 kids! :bouncy:

I was 27 at the time.
 
Started when I was 19...in 1974. Traded a CB for a cheap BFO (Relco or Jetco, I think), didn't find anything. Well, found a dime on top of the ground by seeing it...but the BFO wouldn't pick it up. :) Then built a Heathkit, found everything (bobby pins, nails, bolts, an iron, and 3 pennies).
Then tried an A.H. Pro discriminator, and started finding coins and silver. Lived off of it for a couple of years.
I've been hooked ever since.

mike
 
Monte said:
in October, 1997. The 'original' Silver Sabre was introduced in Oct. 1983, the Silver Sabre Plus in August of '86, and the Silver Sabre II in September of '91. So I'd guess your Silver Sabre was one of the first two, if you got it in the mid-1980's. If it is the Silver Sabre µMAX, then it would seem you got back into the hobby in the latter '90s.

Either way, sorry to read where you and others missed out on about 10-20 years between when you got a taste of the sport and went through a period of inactivity. You missed out on a lot of good finds and a lot of 'fun.'

Monte
Click to expand...
Monte, thanks for the Silver Sabre info. You are right. I did buy the Silver Sabre uMax, in 1996. I would like to get some of those 10-20 years back. I was more into fishing at that time than anything else (got married, also).
Trojdor's message reminded me that my first BFO detector was a Jetco. It got stolen right out of my folk's garage when the door was left open for a short time.
 
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