What Inspired you to Metal Detect?

I've been loving this community, especially getting to see stuff out of the ground that's older than me. And sometimes older than most of yall XD. However, I have to wonder, what inspired any of you, ladies and gentlemen to metal detect? I know when I got into metal detecting, I always wanted to do it when I was a young lad, and actually brought my first metal detector at 19 the (Bounty tracker IV) I think that's what you call it. I never used it as much, i then brought the at pro, and still haven't used that one as much, mainly because college has been keeping me distracted.

Hope to hear your comments, have a safe day, and happy holidays.
As for me I heard about detecting a while back but was not to interested till the diggers. That Tv show got me curious enough to buy my first detector. My first detector was a Fisher F2 did not want to spend to much in case I lost interest. Well after w finding a military button at a school I got hooked. I have been having a good time ever since..
 

I was into coin collecting when I was a kid. I like technology and I like the idea of being out either on the beach or in the water finding stuff that other people walk over and have no idea is under their feet, and all of these things together is why I detect. I think it's cool. I think it's fine. I like the technology. Oh yeah, it's great exercise. That's it.
 

I got started about 8 years ago exploring some of the local parks. I started finding dump sites from 100 years ago. In one of these I found a 1917 French ten centimes right on the surface. Once I found out metal detecting was allowed I was hooked.
 

I was digging plants in my yard and found a civil war bullet. Borrowed a detector and started finding many. Found out I lived on a little known battle between Chickamauga and Missionary ridge.
Was hooked as it went hand in hand with my artifact hunting. Went deer hunting in a new spot in the mountains this last Tuesday and was glassing and saw the rock foundation of an old home site. It has a well and a weird stacked stone privy.
I will be back there soon with my metal detector.
The history and research and always learning it was keeps it interesting for me
 

I started detecting about 2 1/2 years ago in the Richmond, VA area. My son wanted a detector for Christmas, and I got hooked. Love it! (This is my first time posting on this forum)
 

I started detecting about 2 1/2 years ago in the Richmond, VA area. My son wanted a detector for Christmas, and I got hooked. Love it! (This is my first time posting on this forum)
Welcome to TreasureNet.
 

well, when my pal in Conn showed me his 'new hobby' back in '87, one of his finds was a 3Kt diamond ring est value @ $10.000---that was enough fer me !! My only regret is that back in 64, I should have turned one more page in the Heathkit Catalogue ---and built the detector instead of the SWL radio----I had always been into bottles when bein raised in the heart of the Hudson Valley, where the Rev War was all around us, and the French had a camp just down the road in the fields that are now all houses-----but, I've n]been makin up for all that lost time- with far better machines!!!!
 

I've been loving this community, especially getting to see stuff out of the ground that's older than me. And sometimes older than most of yall XD. However, I have to wonder, what inspired any of you, ladies and gentlemen to metal detect? I know when I got into metal detecting, I always wanted to do it when I was a young lad, and actually brought my first metal detector at 19 the (Bounty tracker IV) I think that's what you call it. I never used it as much, i then brought the at pro, and still haven't used that one as much, mainly because college has been keeping me distracted.

Hope to hear your comments, have a safe day, and happy holidays.
I don't own one. I would love to have one though. I'm not a treasure hunter but I have recently been looking into a place I found. It would be so interesting to take one out there. It seems like it would be hard to hike out deep with one though. They look bulky and heavy. I'm pretty small and I'm probably not strong enough to carry it climbing overboulders and what not. I struggle with my backpack! Any suggestions for a light compact one or just a decent one my husband could carry?
 

I've been loving this community, especially getting to see stuff out of the ground that's older than me. And sometimes older than most of yall XD. However, I have to wonder, what inspired any of you, ladies and gentlemen to metal detect? I know when I got into metal detecting, I always wanted to do it when I was a young lad, and actually brought my first metal detector at 19 the (Bounty tracker IV) I think that's what you call it. I never used it as much, i then brought the at pro, and still haven't used that one as much, mainly because college has been keeping me distracted.

Hope to hear your comments, have a safe day, and happy holidays.
Shiny stuff laying on the ground, which begs the question of “what is just below”?
 

wow that's a tough one after all these years. There was 'Sea Hunt' series with Loyd Bridges, and all the Disney movies about pirates and treasure etc. But I was always looking for things as a kid without a MD. I found a 12k gold ring with an amethyst stone that fit me and a perfect fern fossil in flagstone, and a pewter skeleton key with #11 on it in a bottle dump down the woods. Then as an adult, I ended up living in a 200 year old colonial with a barn, bake house, cistern, and stone bank barn foundation. I had a dream about an Indian pointing to buried gold on the property. Then I saw a TV ad for Garrett metal detectors and purchased Master Hunter 7x, and I was hooked.

Four different people would have a similar dream about gold on that property, but alas, I never found any. I did go on to find many really cool relics and coins over the years - and the rest was history.
 

I remember detecting when I was 4 years old with my father. Had to be around 1977-78. We detected a few times and never found more than a few wheat cents but it is the few memories I have of him spending time with me. I occasionally would purchase a treasure magazine here and there and then in 1999 I sent a check to Kellyco for $215 for a Treasure Ace and then dabbled from there. I always looked down and I can remember finding my first Merc on top the ground around 1980-81. It was a 1936. Then my second silver coin I found was with an AT Pro around 2012 and it was a 1942 Merc. This gave me the “bug” except now I’ve slowed down because of health reasons and I can hardly detect more than 2-3 hours at a time. That first house where I asked permission and dug the 42’ Merc on ended up being one of the best yards and I’ve probably dug hundreds of places. I ended up finding a lot of silver dimes to include an 1875 seated and it was a really tiny yard. The house next to it yielded 7 silver coins in an area about 30 x 30 feet.
 

I think the machines amazed me more than the finds. How and why they worked. What the differences were in machines and settings. Last I counted I have 17 machines, and still shopping.
Some I should sell as the sound just annoys me, (Minelab Explorer SE). The complex sounds may mean something to others, but not me.
 

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For me it's the adventure. Not only of finding things, but researching them and then heading outdoors. I've always loved being outdoors and have spent a lot of time in it. It can be exciting to hunt for items that are hidden. And that's still my main reason.
 

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When I was working I made a sales call on Marty my customer. We were talking and he ask me to go detecting the next weekend. I was hooked. We still hunt together. Marty works with the public and gets us lots of permissions.
 

Guess it would have to start back in the early 80's when I was stationed in Arizona, "Davis Monthan AFB". Guy I worked with invited me on a campout to the mountains in an undisclosed location outside Tucson. Once we pulled up to the camp, many off road hours later ;) There setting in the camp was an old guy with about 10 metal detectors leaned up against the trees/tents/wood pile/etc.... Long story short, amongst all the cool stuff we found, the most exciting was the little vile of gold nuggets we brought home that day.

Dakender Scan -0004.webp
 

I was an army engineer. I was a platoon leader in Iraq for 15 months hunting IEDs. Although I haven't had any "banner" finds from the USA, I had plenty over there in Iraq. Anyways, I liked to detect a bit as a kid but only had an old radio shack detector. After my tour I bought a few different Garrett cols and really stepped it up. Never looked back.
Thank you for your service.
 

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