Always wanted to have a metal detector. Found one on CL at a screaming deal. Friend and I hit a circa 1840 house on his property this week.
Share your stories.

If you want inspiration, go to youtube and search for the Hoover Boys.

Awesome finds.

No detector other than my eyes here so far......

2 10K rings from inside a rusty parts car;

Yep, watched a number of their vids.

I own one basic (cheap) "metal finder" for property corners, dropped fasteners, nails in driveway, etc. Owned a nice nugget finder and found little so sold it. Very important to get a detector that works well in your geographic area. Find a dealer and talk with them so time spent is productive.
As a hobby I used to hunt for old bottle dumps. Access old "Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps" at the Library of Congress and find areas to search. Beware historic / archeology laws.
Beaches and areas where people congregate for picnics, fireworks, etc are usually good hunting too.

Happy hunting!

Thanks guys.
I'm not wanting to get into it hard core just have some fun with it.
In my photo above, you can see my first coin find. I was about an hour into the day.
Turned out there was another coin right with the two in the photo.
Weird to have 3 coins right there together about 8" down.
While I would like to tell you they were 1800 coins, it wasn't so, just some 1960's, LOL.

I used one every day when I was in NAM.. I dont know about cheap ones.. I even wondered about
the military ones.. specially when it was my life on the line.. I did find a mine about every day
and I'm still here

I have been using a metal detector since the late 70s. What would you like to know?

I'm mainly wanting to hear some of your detector find stories if you have them though nothing will top landmines.

I have been into metal detecting since 1981
If you want to read about finds I suggest this web site

http://www.treasurenet.com/

Thanks!

And I like this site..
https://www.findmall.com/

Good one too. Even has a Garrett forum.

Always enjoy reading finds on different forums, but never got into it heavy. Used one for work to find evidence, and my dive team has underwater Fischer .

We used a very basic White for finding spent casings etc. Then Garret produced a "CSI" model that discriminates different casings somehow. Its actually one of their higher end commercial units, that they put a different menu on- rather than settings to discriminate out tin, aluminum, whatever, it has has calibers.

It has been useful.

I went from using a Garrett water machine to a Minelab Excalibur water machine
Found some good stuff with both.

Ed

I have a Minelab Equinox 800. Really like it.

I have an Equinox 600 and a Minelab Explorer SE with the Pro coil. Each machine has it's place.

I've read good things about the above machines.

Although I don't currently have one I will when retirement days come around.

My Dad got me a cheap one when I was a kid, found a dateless Standing Liberty quarter in our front yard. It was so cool it kicked off my love for American coins. Been collecting for over 40 years since then and my dad was always digging up stuff for me with his detector. Still have that quarter.

I bought the Equinox 600 because it is light. It also goes quite deep after you get used to what the machine tells you. I am happy with both Minelabs but I use the 600 most of the time.

I'd like to expand a little on sourcing locations. The fire maps are good as are early GLO (government land office) survey maps and also the notes they logged. Find some locations and talk with the owners of the property and offer to split whatever you find. Most won't care unless you fond something very valuable.My best finds were several bottles worth 40-50 each. The best a very nice gold ring (likely 14k or better although not marked) from the mid 1850 or 60's with one of the original state seals on it, very similar to the "official seal" but the components are within a shield shaped field rather than a circle. I found it when I returned to a digging spot and the rain had washed mud/dirt aray leaving it fully exposed on the surface. Other notables a 1878 (iirc) silver dollar and a silver pendant that pulled apart and when the body inserted into the cab became a usable pencil. I can post up pics later. Right now I feel like going out and detecting. It's a rush finding stuff.

Appreciate the stories guys and look forward to pics of your finds.
I've always wanted to have a detector and now that I am retired, decided to go for it.
Friend of mine lives in the country and has three circa 1800 homesites on his farm property.
We tried to find the remains of one of them a couple of weeks ago with our detectors.
Ended up with ticks and poison ivy so I said well try again this winter.
I'm headed back to his place next week to help with putting headers on his truck. We'll try the standing
circa 1840 house in my first post again in the afternoon. Hopefully I can show you guys an 1800s coin.

I couldn;t locate the 1850-60 silver, must have stashed it good. This one I found in my back yard playing horseshoes in a pit I filled with top soil stripped from a construction site. I don't consider it a coin quality , basically scrap., Besides these items I've found numerous cast iron toys, inc cap guns and doll house furniture, pieces of and complete dolls, lots of bottles and clay beer bottle stoppers, poker ships, arrowheads, literally buckets of the stuff picked up before it became "illegal" to pick up discarded trash.

Some of my finds from the water back in the 80's and 90's

Includes an 1847 large penny

Wow!!! Scary!!!

Thank you for your service!

Very nice finds. Thanks for posting the pics. Love seeing the old stuff.
We hit the old house in the country I mentioned in my OP yesterday.
Found some old iron mostly before we had to call it quits.
The gnats were so bad and impervious to the deet I was using, we had to retreat.

Nice finds esp that 1800's coin.
Right now any 1800's coin I find will make my day.
Thanks for posting the pics!

I went out yesterday for a bit. Got a pretty good handful of modern coins. Nothing old. Rain is on the way so I will be able to hit it again. Ground is pretty dry.

Hard ground would be tuff going. I know you know this but I read that more moisture in the soil makes for better detecting.
Still hoping for that old coin.
I also have found out YouTube videos and reality don't often match, LOL.

Moisture is good! The park I was in used to be a town square in 1875. Last fall I pulled a V nickle out of there and a Buffalo nickle. My oldest coin out of there was many years ago, 1875 CC dime.