The "BEST" Detector - A Message For Beginners

"Which is best?" No such animal actually. There are a lot of good detectors on the market these days, and most of them will do what they claim (within reason).

There really is no "best" detector for every situation and detecting interest. You need to carefully consider what kind of detecting you will be doing, what kind of ground conditions you expect to encounter, terrain, vegetation "problems", salt water or fresh water beaches, wet or dry areas, and so on.

There are some detectors more suited, but not necessarily "better", for different conditions and expectations. While you may not expect a coin detector to detect large objects several feet in the ground, one of the two-box type detectors may work for that purpose. On the other hand, one of those type detectors cannot realistically be expected to detect a small coin.

If your primary interest does happen to be in hunting for old (and new) coins, for example in parks, schoolgrounds, parking lots, old drive-in theaters, etc., you will have a somewhat large and confusing assortment of detectors by several manufacturers to choose from. Your best bet in this case is to stick with the better known companies who have proven their stuff over time by remaining in business for several years. Reading posts such as these on the Tesoro forum will also provide you with abundant information to consider in making your decision.

Beginners to the hobby may want to consider a simple "turn-on-and-go" detector with a minimum of controls and adjustments to give them an opportunity to get a feel for detecting without being overcome or confused by all the technical aspects of the more advanced machines.

Most manufacturers have what can be classified as basic, intermediate, and advanced machines available. Most of the turn-on-and-go machines would fall into the basic classification, however this does not necessarily mean that they are any less capable of good performance in comparison to the more advanced models.

As you move into the "intermediate" range, you will notice more knobs, buttons, etc. which give the operator a bit more control over the machine, where the basic machines may have most of these adjustments "pre-set" internally by the factory at what they believe is a good "average" for most conditions.

While this "pre-setting" makes for a much easier to operate machine, there are certain conditions, which you may encounter where you may want or need a certain amount of adjustable control over your machine that you cannot easily get using a pre-set machine.

The most common of these "conditions" will most likely concern variances in ground mineralization and machine sensitivity. Normally only the more advanced models will have manual ground balancing capabilities, sensitivity and threshold adjustment, and so on. Even the most basic of the discriminating detectors will have user adjustable discriminating levels for various "trash" concentrations.

As you move into the advanced level of detectors, you will notice that these machines have more user adjustable features such as the above mentioned manual ground balancing, sensitivity, threshold, discriminate level, mode of operation, and possibly even motion - no motion operation and S.A.T. or self adjusting threshold speed (more common to the specialized gold detecting machines).

The infinite combinations of tuning with these machines and the user "control" over these adjustments make them popular with the more serious and experienced detectorists and closer to a universal or "all-purpose" machine than the turn-on-and-go pre-set models.

Once you have determined your level of interest or need in detecting, it is time to do some hands-on testing at your local metal detector dealer's shop.

Most areas of the country have one within a reasonable distance, and most dealers are more than willing to walk you through a demonstration of a few models to help you decide which is right for you. Be cautious, however, of letting any dealer "push" any particular model on you as "the best".

What is best for you and your particular hunting interests is ultimately YOUR decision, and you should use the machine that best suits you and that you are most comfortable with.

Some dealers "push" or "hawk" whichever detector happens to make him the largest dollar profit without really taking your needs into consideration. Too often, the highly touted machine he is hawking this particular week may be a factory closeout model or something he has some extra "incentive" in moving. Seldom will you find a good, popular metal detector "on sale" for some unusually low price or in some wholesale catalog at 80 percent off retail.

A good detector will sell itself by it's own reputation. You also should always consider the reputation of the company and the warranty it provides for its product line. Ask around, talk to other detectorists, READ THE FORUMS, send to the various company's for product literature and study it all with an open (but logical) mind, but base your final decision on what YOU want, need, and like best.

Once you have made your purchase, it is best to read and LEARN the operators' manual thoroughly before you make your first outing.

This is not to say before you start handling your machine. "Doing" is a necessary part of the learning process, and you should perform each and every suggestion made in your operators' manual as you study and learn the features and capabilities of your detector.

Learning by doing is fine, but UNDERSTANDING as you learn will give you much added advantage once you are out in the field. Make it your goal to learn everything you possibly can about your machine, what it can do, and just as importantly, what it cannot do.

Lastly, don't expect more than is "reasonable" out of your metal detector.

It will not find "treasures" that are not present in the first place. But the more time you put in detecting, the better your chances become of finding those more valuable items that ARE being found all over the world on a daily basis.

Just like any endeavor, the more time you spend at it, the better you will become, and the more ground you cover, the better your odds become of finding the rare or unusual.

Good luck, and I hope this will help some of you along the way......

Ralph Bryant

Thanks Ralph that is a pretty good post. (Did you copy it off of the Tesoro forum?) The only thing I found exception to was the part about the dealers. I only buy from the small dealers (not the mega line mail orders) and I have found them not pushy and willing to give 10 or 20 percent off any of their products and valuable assistance AFTER the sale. This may not happen in the bigger cities though. B)

I may have posted that over on one of the older Tesoro forums in the past, but it was originally written for and posted on my NuggetShooter's Forum back on May 19 of 2000.

Ralph

Valuable information-thanks! B)

You said.......... Some dealers "push" or "hawk" whichever detector happens to make him the largest dollar profit without really taking your needs into consideration. Too often, the highly touted machine he is hawking this particular week may be a factory closeout model or something he has some extra "incentive" in moving. Seldom will you find a good, popular metal detector "on sale" for some unusually low price or in some wholesale catalog at 80 percent off retail.

With 2000 Dealers coast to coast, I'm glad you said 'Some' because most of the dealers I know, especially the mom/pop- cottage based are professionals who help the customer in choosing the detector that BEST suits his needs not the one that has the highest profit. I can think of one that does Bait and Switch to a more profitable detector should the Customer Ordering it 'OPEN THE DOOR' by asking the Order taker if Detector W is the BEST one.... next thing you know, their talked out of Brand W and Switched to a Chinese Made Piece of S@$T because of the profit margin and excess inventory numbers.

I don't know where you get this 80% off Retail... are you referring to MFG Costs in producing them? I'm lucky to make 20% on a typical detector package if you consider shipping costs and less considering the amount of time spent with the customer and time is money.

These are metal detectors, not furniture or jewelry.

NOW where your allegation of 80% does HOLD TRUE is on certain overseas detectors that have sub-standard performance, like Chinese Made Detectors which I've seen HYPED on U know that Kelly Whats It Store.... who puts a INFLATED Retail Price of $695.00 and then Puts it on sale for $295 to $395 and the cost per unit is as low as $45.00. Same thing with the Headphones: 69.95 and it costs them 3.50 a unit in large quantities.

When your talking the Four Professional MFGs, the Wholesale Costs start at about 25% off and not too much deeper.