Take your time and shop around for the best deal there are excellent coinshooters and Relic Hunters on the market, quality machines are designed to give you many years of enjoyment.
buying a new metal detector from a shop or reputable dealer
A good dealer will help you set the machine up and give you all the advice needed to get started, it is considered very rude in the metal detecting circles to buy a machine from one dealer then contact another asking how to operate your new machine… you may have questions such as what does the discrimination do on a metal detector, what is the difference between a concentric and a widescan coil, or how deep will a metal detector detect, so remember you need to ask these questions to the person selling you the machine….a good metal detector dealer will always offer you the best after sales service.
For good honest advice we always suggest joining a reptable forum such as the one listed on the bottom of this page.
Please please please remember £25 will not buy a metal detector it will buy you a non functional toy…If you are serious about metal detecting be prepared to pay £250.00 minimum this will get you started in the right direction.
Many people ignore this advice and to be honest I did to many years ago…It’s only when you own a good functional detector you finally realise how profitable and enjoyable metal detecting can be.
Personally I don’t search beaches so I can not give you advice on that subject, only that most machines will work on dry sand but very few will work on wet sand.
Here are some examples of what to buy and what not to buy
A Childrens metal detector
A poor quality metal detector
A good quality metal detector
It is safe to say there is no machine to suit everyone, after all we are all different, try narrowing your search by making a list here are some questions.
Where am I likely to search ? : Inland or Beaches…most machines will work on dry sand but very few on wet sand.
Who will be using the machine ? : If it’s a youngster or someone with poor strength look for a light weight model.
Do I require a meter id machine ? : Meters are not very accurate, they will not find you more targets in fact they may loose you targets due to false identification…..A pull tab has the same conductivity as a gold ring.
What is my maximum budget? I would say a good serious starter price would be in the region of £250-£500 for a new machine with a warranty, you will also need to buy headphones and a digging tool, £150 is not enough…sure you will get a machine with some bells and whistles but there is a good chance it will be manufactured in China and sold by an American company, you really do get what you pay for in this hobby.
Will dealers give me unbiased advice ? : They can do…however as with any business it’s business…they will like to sell you the machine that gives them the most profit and can very often slate the models they don’t stock.
How deep will a machine go ? : Never ask the question “how deep will it go” it is a question that can not be answered easily.
There are so many reasons why depth can not be measured correctly…for example a 20p coin in air at 12″ will probably equate to 7″ in the soil (depending on the soil) how the coin is lying etc, a large search coil will not necessarily give you more depth only better ground coverage, also some machines are designed to find small targets better than others and some are more biased to bigger targets. One thing worth remembering is a machine that performs poorly in air will almost certainly perform badly in the soil, don’t believe people that tell you a machine will work better in the soil it’s simply not possible !!
Will I get unbiased advice from metal detecting forums ? : Again it’s a grey area…lots of people sitting behind keyboards with time on their hands using false names is never a good place to hang out ! some forums these days can be very biased…. Good posts about the competitors machines can be deleted at source…only the bad posts get published…. enter with caution !!.
This is a very calm friendly forum which is ideal for beginners metal detecting forum
Will I get good advice from joining a club ? : Some clubs out there are very friendly especially the anyone welcome weekend clubs where you pay £10 to dig,
I would advise paying a visit to one of these before joining a members only club.
One point worth remembering is machines costing £500 perform every bit as well if not better than machines costing £1000 so don’t get caught in the big money trap…although you will look very important you have better or deeper finds, just a bigger hole in your pocket and loose more money when trying to sell.
In a nutshell if you are serious about the hobby and have a limited budget look out for quality names like Deeptech, Tesoro, XP, Minelab, Whites or Laser. Don’t go for fancy…go for practical.
What machine to buy ?
Here for example is the Deeptech Vista Mini priced at £275, it is an easy to use machine which is very comfortable to use, I have owned a Vista Mini for quite some time, whenever I take someone new to the hobby out detecting they always use the Mini and thoroughly enjoy their days metal detecting.
The Deeptech Vista Mini £275
Here are some examples of new machines and accessories to give you an idea of what to look for, simply click the links to purchase from Amazon.
Click the picture to view some Metal detecting products from Amazon
