Metal Detector Buyers Guide
Basic Rules:
1: Stick with the mainstream brands – Tesoro, Viking, Minelab, Garrett, BountyHunter, White’s, Laser, Adventis, C Scope, Teknetics. Does the brand name have its own company website? These do.
2: Unless you are buying a Childs toy, avoid the cheap Chinese imports – of which there are many. An hour spent with a cheap quality metal detector will put you off for life!
3: Anyone claiming to have a metal detector with over a meter or 1.5m reach is lying – avoid these sellers/products/claims.
4: Try and spend a minimum of between £100 - £300, for a serious entry level detector (New price)
5: That’s not to say you can’t get a useful detector for under £100! That’s one of many advantages of buying second hand through eBay!
Questions to ask yourself:
1: What’s my budget – what can I afford?
4: What is my level of experience?
2: What type of metal detecting do I want to do?
3: Am I physically able?
There is a huge range of metal detectors on eBay – different price ranges, ages, makes and special/general purpose detectors. It helps to narrow down what to go for by knowing what your spending limit is. Also, if you are a novice, it’s pointless going for a top of the range model with all the latest features if you haven’t a clue what most of them do.
There is a lot to be said for starting with a basic, good quality metal detector, learning how to use it - while getting experience in the field. This way you can:
- 1: Develop an instinct for the varied sounds you hear from different buried targets.
2: Develop your own instinctive sense of discrimination according to what you hear through the headphones – this way, the automatic features, combined with your own developed 'ear' for different signals, will have more meaning and use to you on your next upgrade.
3: Give yourself time to decide what field of metal detecting you enjoy the most, gold hunting, coin shooting, relic hunting, beach detecting etc – then you can go on to buy a top range metal detector based on your experience.
You will have far more success and less frustration if you actually take time to hone your detecting skills and develop these instincts rather than buying a fancy first time detector and just relying on the technology – jack of all trades or master of metal detecting?!
You should be able to get a general purpose metal detector with multi mode functions (gold, coin, jewellery, silver, relics etc) sensitivity and discrimination settings, depth adjustment and signal pinpoint function for under £200
For example – the Garrett Ace 250. It’s a microprocessor controlled detector with all the above features. There are loads on eBay from between £100 - £180 on buy it now prices – no, you don’t even have to bid! I have read many good reviews about this model. It is a feature rich, low price, sturdily constructed, ideal first metal detector. That seems the general consensus anyhow.
Take a look in the Links section to see what other people are saying about different metal detectors. ( erm - links section is coming soon!)
What type of Metal Detecting?
General Metal Detecting – in parks, gardens, public places. Usually for modern coinage, lost jewellery and other valuables
Beach Hunting – Salt or Freshwater environments for a variety of targets – modern coinage/valuables, the traditional ‘buried treasure’, long lost gold and silver coins, jewellery and other historic, non valuable but fascinating relics.
Gold Detecting – as in raw nuggets. More applicable to the US metal detecting scene but we have our own placer deposits in the UK.
Underwater Metal Detecting – much more specialised, especially if it involves diving old ship wrecks etc for lost gold and silver bullion or coinage. Also includes detecting along sea and lake shorelines as well as rivers.
For obvious reasons, you need a metal detector suited to the proposed purpose. There are many general purpose, multi mode metal detectors but many are made for specific functions. For example, the US based DetectorPro ( eg HeadHunter Pirate) company makes specialist underwater metal detectors for scuba use –as does Tesoro ( eg Tesoro Tiger Shark) Fisher make a range of specialist gold nugget detectors ( eg Fisher Gold Strike )
How Able am I?
You may think all metal detectors weigh around the same amount – but you would be wrong! It depends on construction materials/technique, search coil size, battery number/weight, number of functions and overall size. When you are pacing up and down a field for a number of hours, holding and swinging a metal detector in front of you, you will soon notice the weight. A well balanced detector with a decent stabilising arm rest is worth its weight in gold compared to an unbalanced thing you will constantly have to compensate for. This is a decision you must make for yourself based on your age and fitness level.
Buying through eBay:
When buying anything off eBay, always check the feedback history of the seller. Look at the username of the seller on the top right of the auction page and you should see a number which refers to their total sales/purchases and then a percentage positive feedback summary. A person who has made say 40 sales/purchases and has 100% positive feedback means that 40 eBay members he has dealt with have left 40 positive feedback comments for him – 40 happy customers. Someone with a 10 sales/purchase figure and only 90% feedback approval means he has upset someone – after only 10 transactions. A power seller with say 10000 sales and a 99% feedback rating has still managed to please 9900 people – sellers make mistakes too! - Especially over time and a great number of sales. It’s worth going into an eBay seller’s feedback to check what people are saying about the seller – find any negative feedback comments and see if there is a trend. Slow shipping? Bad communication? Or maybe someone is just being unreasonable as a one off?
By following these common sense hints, I have never had any real problems on eBay and I’ve never had to leave bad feedback. The majority are so protective of their feedback rating, and therefore their reputation, they behave well to one another in business. My own feedback profile is 70 at 100% so far.
