Just got my first metal detector

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qtdivergirl

Contributor
Messages
225
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0
Location
Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, United States
# of dives
50 - 99
Hi - I just got my first metal detector two weeks ago - it's a White's PI dual surf detector. I tried it in my backyard the first weekend I had it and found an olf horseshoe nail and some piece of old metal with a handle on it (I live on the Brandywine Battle Field in Kennett Square, PA). i also took it to Rohoboth Beach in DE the weekend after Hurricane Sandy and found a bunch of bobby pins lol! It's very tricky trying to figure out the tones and learning how to set the knobs to get maximum detection. I plan on taking it diving with me and would love to do some dives with it off Key West. Does anyone out there have one of these? Where's the best places to treasure hunt off the Florida coast (we are going to Florida next year)? Is there anyone in the Kennett Square, PA area who metal detects?

Thanks,
Michelle
 
Hey QTdivergirl, check out Treasurenet.com. Look in the Beaches and shallow water forum and in the brands/whites forum. You can post all your questions there and also get tuns of tips on useing your detector on that site.
FL has some restricted beaches so if your planning a trip you can find out there which beaches have restrictions.
WARNING: Metal detecting is like crack cocane, very addictive.
Happy hunting
ZDD
 
You can treasure hunt on the beach down to the low tide line. You will need a permit to take the machine in the water. All of the good areas are leased to long time treasure hunters like the Fishers. I hunted underwater for 15 years at Sebastian Inlet. We were sub-contractors with Mel Fisher's group. It cost us $1000 per year for our lease plus all of our equipment, boat, fuel, food etc. We found some things, a few good things, and spent a lot of time and money. But it was fun!
 
A PI detector is a Pulse Induction style. Which means you'll get great depth but......you will hit on nails and junk too. I use a Minelab Excalibur on the beach and diving and love it.

Good luck with your detector and post up some finds~!!!!!!

---------- Post Merged at 02:14 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 02:00 PM ----------

One other thing that will help you to learn your machine is to build you a target garden. Have differnt coins at different depth in , well a garden lol if you will be doing beach detecting make you a 10'x10' area dif about a foot deep and fill it in with sand. Or just use the dirt you have and bury targets. Mark them so you know what is where and at what depth and then play with your machine with the different settings until you get to know your machine and fine tune it.

On land I use a Whites MXT with several different coils, it jsut depends on what I am hunting, relics, coins, cannonballs, etc. I love my Tesoro Tejon for buttons, it is a button magnet. On the beach and water I use my Minelab Excalibur. All machines are different so you need to put in the practice to learn it or else you will get frustrated.

Last year my buddy found a nice servant slave tag, a James Type II unfire projectile, and a solid 22mm gold coat button. Me? I found a few things but nothing like that, mainly buttons, bullets, coins, and a 4 lb solid confederate cannonball.

Good Luck~!
 
Here's a resource you might want to print out.

It covers all the 1715 beaches. Douglas Beach is the one with the most gold finds. Go to treasurenet.com as was mentioned earlier and type in 1715. You'll get the bug and be driving 20 hours straight after the next northeaster

http://www.mdhtalk.org/articles/beaches/1715-fleet/1715-article.pdf
 
Thanks - we are going to drive down to Port St. Lucie Florida in march, which is about 1 hour south of the 1715 beaches - I can't wait! thanks for the great advice and links!

---------- Post added November 19th, 2012 at 11:02 AM ----------

You can treasure hunt on the beach down to the low tide line. You will need a permit to take the machine in the water. All of the good areas are leased to long time treasure hunters like the Fishers. I hunted underwater for 15 years at Sebastian Inlet. We were sub-contractors with Mel Fisher's group. It cost us $1000 per year for our lease plus all of our equipment, boat, fuel, food etc. We found some things, a few good things, and spent a lot of time and money. But it was fun!

I would kill to treasure hunt for a living - lucky you!
 
Congratulations , when you start thinking of a pinpointer have a look at the vibratector , I have the 730 and for places where you cant get a good sweep with the larger detector its great ,also works very well as a pinpointer and saves alot of digging ,as both are PI you have to turn your main detector off or at least keep the head well clear of the vibratector when its on
Good hunting dig everything
 
Hey qt, howd the treasure hunting go? Got my metal detector excalliber 2 havent really found anything with it, only tried couple times on the beach here. Wish I could bring it to cuba in dec.
I hear they have some strict policies there about finds. :(
 
Hi Qtdivergirl,
just a few tips on using the metal detector , 1 bring a container with a screw lid to collect stuff in ,
2 use a trowel (plastic if possible so you can pass a scoop of dirt under the head to see if there is metal in it )to dig with not your hands till you can see what you are grabing (some sharp stuff there)
3 nothing burns air more that digging
4 Trowel works as a fan too
 
Thanks for the tips - I've done a lot of digging so far but it is still VERY exciting!

Hi Qtdivergirl,
just a few tips on using the metal detector , 1 bring a container with a screw lid to collect stuff in ,
2 use a trowel (plastic if possible so you can pass a scoop of dirt under the head to see if there is metal in it )to dig with not your hands till you can see what you are grabing (some sharp stuff there)
3 nothing burns air more that digging
4 Trowel works as a fan too
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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