Welcome to the TNet Forum, Linda!
It's good to see someone new in here that doesn't even have a Detector yet and are still all excited, and charged up like you seem to be, here in your posts.
I hate to ruffle a few feathers in here for a minute or two, enchantedhiker, but according to what I think you are telling us, in that :
"My primamry use would be going around foundations,cellar holes,rock walls and early 1800s sites out in the woods...and it's just for fun...I think the novelty may wear off and I won't be driving all over the state looking for places...just need something that will locate things I can easily dig to."
...then, it's my opinion, for whatever that's worth, that you need something light, inexpensive, non-technical, no steep learning curve or great time element involved and something that won't be too costly, if in the future you lose interest or whatever in the whole, poking around out in the woods, thing.
Any detector, you try or buy even, will take more than a few minutes to start figuring things out. That's with one live, right in your hands. No difference in make, model, frequency or cost in that regard. Manuals alone, have been known to confuse a large number of people over the years and even stopped more than a few of them from becoming detecting people. So even if you have a Well written manual and you have a good (accepted brand name) detector, you still could be stopped before you get out of the gate.
Anyway, what you need to do first, as you are doing right now, is you really want to gain as much info as you can get, about the basics of detectors, from this forum and or anywhere you can learn first, through the writings of others, before even picking up your first machine. 8)
So if you follow some of the, you will see why I highly recommend a little tour to where ever it is that they sell Bounty Hunters. Now, for the younger folks on this forum, whoo may not know this, Bounty Hunters have been around since before many of you were born.
They've been bought and sold a few times over the years and have followed along with the detecting technology and bringing out many, many models over their long history. Anyway, I purched my first metal detector years ago at the only place in my town at the time, that even carried MD's. They happened to have 3 different models on hand back then. All were made by a company called Micronta and sold under the Tandy label or Radio Shack as everyone new it as. So because I had been reading a pile of TH'ing magazines and had spent more than a few hours at 4 different libraries, lounging around them and soaking in as much detector and TH'ing info as I could jam into my poor ol' brain, I was ready to make a choice. First consideration was moola!
I didn't really have a wad of greenbacks in my pocket back then, so price was an important factor. Turns out, the cheapest one, only had 2 knobs on it and I already knew that I needed at least 3. Then their top line unit at that time was a 6 knobber plus a little red button so you could retune it. Picked it up, and it seemed to weigh a ton. Could have had something to do with the fact it needed a big whack of batteries to make it all work, or mostly I think the $129.00 price tag, but anyway I picked up the middle of the line guy and checked him out. Hmmm. Three knobs, red auto-tune button, battery check switch, nice clear analog meter, totally light weight, extendable aluminum shaft, waterproof search coil, and a one warrenty. Well, under all those circumstances and presented with those particular choices, I picked the one in the middle. Cost me $69 and I treated it immediately as an investment and dug out the little booklet that came with it as soon as I got home. That, like a few other manuals (cars, motorcycles, bicycles etc) that I've had to refer to in the past, was vauge at best and at the least it was quite confusing if you tried to follow it word for word. However, again, armed with the knowledge I had been researching for months, I started putting into practise what I had been reading about.
After a fairly short while, I had that little Micronta wailing at silver, gold, pennies, dimes, pull tabs, keys and everything else made of metel in my studio. My air tests got pretty technical for a bit and my eyes were further opened to just what this el'cheapo little unit was capable of. For the money, compared to what I had been reading, this was quite a decent little detector. It covered my needs at the time, better than Most would EVER expect from such a so-called piece of junk or no-name toy thingy. 8) 8) That neat little machine has been with me on many trips over time and it has paid for itself many times over and does it's share of snaggingg the booty for me still, to this day.
I've bought and sold even a few other machines in the past and I still have this one and two other detectors in my life. None fancy. None complicated. None costly. All effecient. All totally cost effective for folks out there on a tighter budget than others.
So remember the old saying, knowledge IS the key to success, no matter how you interpret success! Bone up in here as much as you can, then weigh it all and go from there, to make a smart decision to fit your lifestyle, hunt style, pocketbook etc. 8)
Your friend in detecting,
LarryB
If you have to have a disease, this is the one to have. Hope it helps and let us know what model you decide to buy.
