Is Metal Detecting A Good Hobby?

Asking the question "Is metal detecting a good hobby?" from a metal detector hobbyist, expect the answer to be "Yes". 

It is really a very enjoyable outdoor activity but there's actually more than that. Unlike any other outdoor activities, metal detecting has a lot more to offer. 

It is actually very exciting, fun and can be very rewarding.

If you are the type of person who loves taking challenges then you will surely find metal detecting as an interesting hobby. 

These challenges involves physical, mental and emotional aspects.

It obviously involve physical because it is an out-door activity where you need to walk around while holding your equipment but the hardest part is digging a lot of various places pin-pointed by your MD (metal detector). 

Your mental ability is also required because you will need to do some investigative researches particularly about the places where you are going to metal detect. And for the emotional aspect, this hobby actually requires a lot of patience. 

You may be surprised to know that individuals with less patience do often easily give-up on their first day of try.

Despite the challenges that are involve, metal detecting always comes with good rewards. 

This means that either you found something valuable or just pieces of junks, you still reap many other benefits which we are about to discuss below:

1. Gain Profit

If you want to consider metal detecting as your hobby, you should not view it as a stable source of money. 

Since it is just a hobby, any valuable items that you find must be treated as a “reward” which means, you don’t get it every time you go out there in the field.

Although, some experienced individuals go extreme by treating this activity as a serious form of business or their day job. 

They are called “Professional Metal Hunters” where they choose metal detecting as their preferred profession over their regular jobs. 

For some reason, they are earning more money as compared to their regular job while others choose this kind of job because they simply enjoy it.

A professional metal hunter can actually find dozens of precious old coins, rings and relics that can be sold for a good price. 

But for amateurs, luck plays an important role to find their first single piece of precious item.

2. Good for your Health

As mentioned above, you will still reap something in return regardless whether you find something or nothing and this is “good health”. 

Since metal detecting is an outdoor activity, you get to visit various places allowing you to breathe fresh air. 

Aside from this, there will be a lot of walking around and diggings involve which is a great form of exercise for your body.

3. Stress Reliever

Many individuals claims that they are able to relieve their stress through their hobbies. It makes them feel more relax allowing them to forget the busy world of their work. 

When it comes to metal detecting, it actually offer such kind of treatment. 

Majority of individuals who are involved on this hobby claims that they tend to relieve their stress due to their full interest and engagement diverted so much on this activity.

According to most experts, stress can be easily relieved by performing simple physical exercises. 

Metal detecting is actually a physical outdoor activity involving constant body movements especially walking around the field, bending and crouching. 

Aside from the physical aspect, you also get to breathe fresh air from the natural environment which will make you feel so energized.

4. Good Way to Spend your Time with your Family or Friends

If you have some kids then you might want to try and introduce metal detecting activity to them on their coming summer vacation. 

You have to know that children are always full of curiosity which makes this type of activity perfectly suitable for them. Surprisingly, even adults are affected by the curiosity involve. 

This curiosity often occur when your equipment found something buried under the ground. Everybody wants to know what could be it and hoping to be a piece of precious item such as a diamond ring or gold coin. 

This is the most engaging part of the activity that will surely keep the whole family to participate.

If you are one lonely guy who simply wants to make some friends then you should also give metal detecting hobby a try. 

How? Again, the answer is due to “curiosity”. 

As you go around various places to metal detect especially on the parks and beaches with people around. 

You should expect that there will be some individuals who will approach you and ask about what exactly you are doing. 

In most cases, this is often the beginning of a friendship. Others who are already long involved on this activity who notices you around might even ask you to join their club or organization.

5. Gain Knowledge about your Local History

Another interesting aspect about metal detecting hobby is that you get to learn about your local history. This is actually one of the basic and most important step to achieve successful findings. 

Why? 

It’s because knowing about your local history gives you some hints or clues about the best places to metal detect.

Aside from historical places, you also get to learn historical relics of the past. Let’s say, you have uncovered a military badge. 

At first, it is most likely that you don’t know anything about it. Thus, you will end up conducting your own research. Thanks to the internet, searching for such kind of information is now an easy task.

6. Coin or Artifact Collector

As you tend to recover old coins, relics or artifacts, you may end up being enthusiastic about keeping them as your collections. 

Majority of individuals with this hobby often chooses the path of being a collector rather than to make profit out from their precious findings.

Wrong Notions about Metal Detecting Hobby

Unfortunately, majority of individuals doesn’t know anything about metal detecting activity. 

Others don’t want to give it a try because of the false notions spread by people who really knows nothing about this type of hobby.

Here are the following wrong notions about how outsiders view this type of activity:

- Metal detecting hobby are only for old or retired individuals who has nothing to do with their time.

Correction: This outdoor hobby has no age limitation. You don’t really have to wait until you reach the age of 70 before you can have your very first MD. In fact, most organizations are composed of many young members. 

Even children do love to play with MDs. The only reason why older people particularly retirees are more well suited for this activity is that, they have more free time on their interests.

- They only care about making profit from their findings

Corrections: Some individuals who follow this path often end up giving up because their true interest is all about making money. Yes, you can make money from this activity which can be very rewarding. However, the interest must come from doing the activity itself and not from the money. 

Some hobbyist don’t actually metal detect just to make money. It is more about gathering their set of collections.

- Spend thousands of dollars on their machines

Corrections: It is true that most advertised MD products costs around thousands of dollars. But, you have to know that cheap metal detectors also do exists and they are also quite effective as the expensive once.

- There are only few and secretive hunting grounds

Corrections: Perhaps, majority of outsiders views metal detecting as a form of treasure hunting. The main difference between the two is that, treasure hunters aims to recover large pile of treasures hidden in secretive places. On the other hand, metal detectorists can perform their activity at any place they want. There is no secret locations because they are targeting lost items that were accidentally dropped by people in the past.

- It is so completely boring that you are much better off watching a paint goes dry

Corrections: Some people will say that it’s a boring type of activity due to their lack of interest. But coming from individuals with interest, they will say it is quite interesting, engaging and fun. Why?

Here we are again with the topic about “Curiosity”. This is actually a human characteristic that can be quite hard to resist. This means, it is our human nature to uncover secrets. So when it comes to metal detecting particularly on a situation where you have detected something under the ground, your curiosity comes into play. You consciousness will suggest, “It could be a piece of gold or diamond”. As a result, this will cause your interest to dig it just to satisfy your curiosity.

- You need to be a techy individual to know how to operate a MD

Corrections: Back in the old days, technical knowledge may be necessary to operate a MD but today, MDs are now designed to be “user-friendly”. In fact, you don’t even need to read the manual. All what you just need to do is to figure out how to turn the Power ON and OFF. Once turned ON, you can now start using the equipment. It’s all that simple as opposed to what outsiders claim as you must be a rocket scientist to be able to operate a MD.

Moreover, the best way to for you to know if you have the interest in metal detecting is to try it for yourself. 

And as a tip, you should start by using reliable but cheap metal detectors. If there are Metal Detecting Hobby Shops near your place the better. It’s because you can try to borrow their equipment for a certain amount of fee they charge.

Metal Detecting Book for Beginners | By Mark Smith

One of the best book that I recommend for beginners is Mark Smith's "Metal Detecting: A Beginner's Guide to Mastering the Greatest Hobby in the World".

According to the book, the world is filled with treasures and I do agree with it. Through this book, it teaches you on how to claim your share of those treasures.

This book consists of over 200 pages of information that clearly explains everything on how to find and recover your own treasure.

If it happens that you already purchased one of those reliable cheap metal detectors that I recommend, the next step would be to gain a lot of insight. 

But through this book, those insights that you need are already compiled where all you just have to do is to read, understand and apply.

You might be thinking why some metal-hunters are quite good at finding valuable items such as gold coins, jewelries, relics and other worthy findings. 

The reason is that, they have the knowledge of "where" and "how" to search for them. This book will guide you in these aspect as well.

Features of Mark Smith's Metal Detecting Book

1. Not just for the Beginners

Mark Smith's Metal Detecting Book isn't actually just for the beginners. It's because there are plenty of useful tips that some professional treasure hunters may have not known yet.

2. Secrets of Metal Detecting

There's actually a hidden secret to a successful metal detecting. Mark Smith will reveal these best guarded secrets to ensure a great success on your findings.

3. Illustrated Diagrams

The book is complete with illustrated diagrams consisting of actual pictures that best describe the topic being explained. Most of these illustrations actually teaches you how to locate the treasures and safely recover them.

4. Metal Detector Explained

Mark Smith will explained everything that you need to know about metal detectors. 

You get to learn how a metal detector exactly works, choosing the best MD, metal detecting with kids, metal detecting in various places (such as private properties, creeks, rivers and lakes), and other necessary equipment that you will need.

5. Recovered Findings

You get to learn how to identify the items that you have recovered. 

Once you learned how to identify your findings, you will be able to distinguish gold, silver, copper, jewelry and other various forms of metallic properties.

Other than identifying your findings, Mark Smith will also teach you how to clean your findings and sell them for money.

 
Overall, Mark Smith's Metal Detecting Book for Beginners is a reading material that offers plenty of tips that can give you a good start.

Buying your Metal Detector Online

The best places to buy your metal detector is actually via online because it gives you all the complete lists of available products to choose from. 

Other than that, you also get to choose the best product by reading the reviews of other people who already bought and tested the item.

When it comes to buying the right metal detector for you, it actually involves several factors. It is important that you really have to choose the type of MD suited for the job.

Here are the following factors that you need to consider when purchasing your metal detector online:

1. Objects to Detect

The most common activity with metal detectors is finding old coins and other lost valuable accessories on the ground. 

These items aren't usually buried too deep because they were just most likely dropped accidentally by some individuals in the past. 

The perfect metal detector in finding these lost items are those that have good discriminating features and high-accuracy in pin-pointing the target.

Another common activity that importantly involves the use of metal detectors is hunting for gold nuggets or flakes. 

Using ordinary MDs can be very unreliable when detecting gold nuggets due to the reason that high-mineralized rocks can cause interference making the equipment very unstable. 

Thus, the right MD for the job are those that are designed to detect gold. These kinds of detectors actually operates at a very high frequency as compared to the standard MDs.

Some treasure hunters prefers to choose deep-penetrating metal detectors. It's because they aim to locate large and deeply buried treasures deposits.

And finally is the underwater-treasure hunting. Any equipment that is not designed to be waterproof or water-resistant will most likely get damaged when used underwater. 

So choose the right metal detector that is designed to be submerged underwater.

2. Ground Conditions

It is important that you need to consider the ground condition of the area that you intend to conduct your metal detecting activity. 

Ground conditions can really affect the sensitivity of a MD quite badly making it very unstable and hard to adjust.

3. Regular Use

If you intend to use your metal detector regularly then you have to choose products that are designed with high quality materials which could stand rough handling. 

With these kinds of materials used, the equipment is sure to last for a long period of use.

You should also consider buying from the manufacturers that offers "iron-clad warranties" or unlimited warranty. 

Take advantage of such offers because you can always send your equipment for repair once it started having some technical issues.

4. Technical Functionalities

Some metal detectors are designed with sophisticated settings that are quite hard to adjust. Only operators with good technical understanding can successfully handle such equipment without problem.

If you aren't that much technical, it's best to choose MDs that are user-friendly. These kind of equipment have microprocessor circuitry that already does the job of adjusting the settings automatically.

5. Budget

Metal detectors in the market varies in prices. There are those that are quite very expensive while others are cheap. 

As an advice, don't settle for the price in your decision of buying your MD. An expensive MD doesn't always mean that it's the best product out there. On the other hand, cheap metal detectors are most likely of low-quality.

Don't settle down for a MD just because it's completely cheap or it is what you can afford with your budget. 

It is actually much better to save your money until you can afford to buy one of the best reliable metal detectors that I recommend.

For beginners, I suggest that you should check this post about the best and cheap metal detectors that I recommend.

Overall, consider all those factors discussed above when buying your metal detector online and you won't have any regrets in choosing the right one that works for you.

Used Cheap Metal Detectors for Sale | Where to Buy?

Aside from the brand new cheap metal detector products, there are also some used (or second-hand) cheap metal detectors that you can choose to buy. 

The good part is that, "the older the model of the MD, the cheaper the price will be".

Some treasure hunters are actually fascinated by the latest and improve new models of MDs that are released by their favorite manufacturers. 

Thus, they end up accumulating their old equipment in their storage room that they no longer use. 

For this reason, they have to sell their old and un-used MDs to clear the room for their new purchased equipment and to make some money as well.

Other people who decides to sell their MDs are not really treasure hunters. 

They probably just gave a try on this kind of hobby if it interest them to engage on the activity. Unfortunately, they did not so they decide to sell their equipment.

Where to Buy Metal Detectors Online?

Today, the best method to search for sellers of used or old metal detectors is via online. 

Simply use your favorite Search Engine and a list of large online store websites will be provided on the results.

When it comes to selling online products, there are two best websites that I recommend and they are the following:

1. Amazon

Amazon has become the largest online store around selling various items from brand new to used items. 

Other than the largest, it is also the most trusted online merchant that when you purchased a certain item, it will surely get delivered into your specified address.

I myself love Amazon where I already purchased a lot of different stuffs from them. And through my experience, I never had any problem about their services which is the reason why I highly recommend it.

Amazon actually have several lists of used metal detectors and they come at a cheaper price as compared to their brand new counterpart. 

But before you can purchase any items, you need to create an account. Don't worry, creating an account will only take a few steps which can be completed in just a matter of minutes.

Once you have created your account, "search" for your product. On this case, your keyword is "metal detectors".

A list of metal detectors will be shown but you have to filter out the brand new from the used products. To do this, you have to look for the "Buy used" button and then click it. 

This will only show all used metal detectors on the list for you to choose and buy.

The most interesting part of buying a product in Amazon is that, you can read the reviews of other real customers who already purchased the product. 

They get to share their experience about it which can help you decide if you really wanted to buy the item or not.

2. Craigslist

Craigslist is also another large online store that sells various stuffs. There are actually a lot of people who are selling their used items at Craigslist offering them at a very low price. 

However, there's a big difference between Craigslist and Amazon. You can get scammed at Craigslist if you do not know what you are doing.

There are actually many complaints on Craigslist where the customers who bought or paid for an item didn't received their product. But, why I am recommending it?

I do recommend it because Craigslist has a good list of used metal detectors. And to avoid scammers, you really have to check for the reputation of the seller. 

Investigate to make sure that the seller has a good reputation and highly trusted.

Where to Buy Used Cheap Metal Detector Offline?

If you are afraid of handling out your credit card information to buy stuffs online, there's nothing to worry about because there are some alternative or offline method to buy used cheap metal detectors.

Newspaper

You can check your local newspaper right on the classified ads section. If you are lucky, you can find someone who is selling his used metal detector. 

But in most cases, there is none. It's because posting an ad on a newspaper requires payment. This is the reason why most sellers would prefer to post their items online because its free.

Overall, the best place to buy used cheap metal detectors is at Amazon. It's risk free because they are highly trusted where your item will surely get delivered without worries.

Cheap Metal Detector Buyers Guide

Every buyer surely wanted to buy a reliable and cheap metal detector. Since its cheap, it saves them money but there are actually some risks involve. Not all cheap MDs can meet buyer's own expectations.

Today, there is a growing number of cheap MD products in the market that are made in China. The majority of these products have tempting low prices that attracts many buyers. 

Aside from the price, another marketing strategy used on this cheap products are their attractive housings.

You have to know that what importantly matters when it comes to metal detectors is that, it's all about the quality of their circuitry where it really delivers the features stated on the manufacturer's product descriptions (not the visual appearance). 

Unfortunately, a lot of low quality imported products are now included on the market. And most likely, any unsuspecting beginner can be tempted to buy one.

Low quality cheap metal detectors products usually costs around $50 and below. Do not be fooled by the price especially when it's an imported product from China. 

A good and reliable metal detector with the cheapest price starts between $150 to $250.

I'm actually speaking through experience because I had once purchased a cheap imitation of MD made in China. 

I was very disappointed that it didn't met the depth-penetration as claimed by its manufacturer. Worst, it got broken in just a short period of time. It's just a total complete waste of money.

Finding the Right and Affordable MD

In order for you to find the right and cheap metal detector for you to buy, it is important for you to consider where you are going to use it. 

For example: if you intend to use it for underwater hunting, you should choose waterproof Metal Detectors.

Here are some other important aspects that you need to consider when choosing a MD to buy:

1. Features

The features of a certain MD are often indicated on the product's descriptions. It indicates all the interesting capabilities of what the MD can actually do. 

So if the product meets the criteria of what you need then proceed on the next aspect.

2. Durability

It would really be pointless when the MD that you just recently bought got broken in just a matter of few weeks or months. 

This is the reason why it is also important to check the durability of the product. Although, it may be hard to tell the durability of a MD unless some testing are performed right in-front your eyes before you buy. 

My best advice is to ask previous customers who bought the same type of product. Or, read user reviews about it.

3. Warranty

If you cannot confirm the durability of the product, at least make sure that the manufacturers offers a warranty. A few years of warranties is already good enough to cover most manufacturing defects.

Some manufacturers offers an amazing long period of warranties (some even offers life-time warranties) which could attract a lot of potential consumers. 

It is actually a marketing strategy. But to let you know, the warranty of any product will only remain active as long as the company is still running their business. 

If it went bankrupt then sorry, all warranties of their products will no longer be entertained.

Instead of focusing on the warranty of the MD, it's a lot much better to pay more attention into the quality. It's because a high-quality product ensures longevity of the MD.

Used or Secondhand MDs

Common to all technologies, their price tends to drop as new and better models are released by the manufacturers. Other than the age, used or secondhand items also affects the price.

Although, there are some risks involve when buying a used metal detector. It's because you will personally be dealing with the individual who owns the equipment. 

And, the most common medium today for transactions is through online.

The risk is that, you will have to send the payment first. If it happens that you made a deal from the wrong person, your item will never get delivered.

Top 3 Cheap MDs Recommendation

As I stated above, prices for reliable and cheap MDs ranges between $150 to $250. And, avoid those that are below $50 especially China products.

Here are the following top 3 cheap MDs on my list of recommendations:

1. Bounty Hunter TK4 Tracker IV Metal Detector

The top number one on my recommended list is the "Bounty Hunter TK4 Tracker IV". I made it as the first due to its user-friendly features and simplicity which are perfectly suitable for complete beginners.

Most MDs actually requires constant adjustments on their sensitivity settings in order to achieve good results. 

Adjusting the settings correctly is actually a skill gained only through experience in using the MD. Thus, a complete beginner who is seeking to achieve fast result will most likely get disappointed.

But when it comes to Bounty Hunter TK4 Tracker IV, beginners won't have to face the trouble of adjusting the settings. 

It's because this MD has an automated circuitry that automatically does the adjustments.

Aside from its automatic setting adjustment feature, Bounty Hunter TK4 Tracker IV offers three different modes of operation.

Motion All-Metals Mode
- All kinds of metals will be picked up.

Full Discrimination Mode
- Iron contents and other sorts of trash will be rejected.

Tone Discrimination Mode
- Signals an alert of either one or two audio tones of an array of different types of metals.

Bounty Hunter TK4 Tracker IV is also perfect in detecting on shallow water. It's because the search coil and stem are made of waterproof materials.

And finally, the manufacturer claims that Bounty Hunter TK4 Tracker IV is capable of detecting a 6 inches diameter can buried at a depth of 30 inches.

Bounty Hunter TK4 Tracker IV is currently available on Amazon at a cheap price of only $90.33

2. Fisher F2 Metal Detector

Common to all complete beginners is that, when detecting, they tend to swing their detectors very fast in order to cover more grounds. 

This is a bad practice because most MDs requires time to receive the transmitted signal. Thus, MDs needs to be swept at a normal pace.

But when it comes to the Fisher F2 Metal Detector, it has an impressive fast target response. What this means is that, you can sweep the search coil at a faster pace without having a problem.

Other interesting feature of the Fisher F2 MD are its eight-segment visual target ID and four-tone audio ID. It's eight-segment visual target ID allows you to filter out the trash. 

As for its four-tone audio ID, it signals different audio alert levels which is dependent on the type of metal picked up by the MD.

Above all is the discriminating feature of Fisher F2 MD. It consists of two-digit numeric target ID which starts from 0 to 99. 

Through this ID system, you will be able to determine the type of metal that has been detected.

As for its ground penetration, the manufacturer claimed that Fisher F2 MD can easily pick up coins and other small objects at a depth of around 6 inches.

Fisher F2 Metal Detector can be purchased online via Amazon at a current price of only $200.96

3. Tesoro Silver uMax Metal Detector

Not all individuals prefer to use highly-advanced technologies where they would rather best settle down on the analogs or manually operated technologies. 

If you are one of them then I would like to recommend the "Tesoro Silver uMax Metal Detector".

I actually own a Tesoro uMax MD and based on my personal experience, it has a high accuracy of pinpointing the actual spot of the buried object. 

The buried spot is always 100% located at the center of the search coil. So if you are using this MD then there's no need for pin-pointers.

Tesoro uMax Metal Detector currently have a price of $254.15 and its available at Amazon.

Moreover, our technologies keeps on improving. Manufacturers will never stop searching for improvements on their products. 

As a result, new and improved models will soon be released out in the market to replace the old versions.

Thus, cheap MDs will always be available in the market. Although, you just have to choose wisely.