Best Metal Detectors
The trick to discovering the best metal detectors is normally overlooked by prospective buyers. The reason for this is that they look for the cool gadgets and super complicated descriptions and not the key feature that comes with all of the best metal detectors . The smart detectorist simply finds a detector that he or she is comfortable with, as metal detecting is a complicated hobby to become an expert at, it becomes important to be comfortable with your metal detector.
As with anything in life being comfortable with your metal detector can mean different things to all metal detectorists. Whether you think the best metal detectors are made by one particular brand such as Minelab or Garrett or Fisher etc, or maybe its simply how it feels to use and hold, or even just how deep it detects, everyone has their own view to what are the best detectors.
One thing does run true though as in most of life, the comfortability and quality is normally in correlation to the metal detector price.
Nowadays we can have a much better idea as nearly all the modern best detectors are either motion or VLF discriminator types. Although you can upgrade a standard test is held on detectors using a search coil of around 8″ diameter. Using the wrong sweep-speed will also have a bad effect on depth, but a rough guide to the depth on a middle level detector is as follows.
Best Metal Detectors – Depth
Nickel-Dime size target – 4 inches to 8 inches
Half Dollar size target – 6 inches to 12 inches
Jar lid size target – 8 inches to 16 inches
The most important advice i can give you to get the most depth from your detector is to become familiar with it and ensure your sweep-speed is correct.
Many long time metal detectorists believe the best detectors normally come from specific brand or brands. The older models were not built for ease of use, and you had to learn their responses but in turn give good depth and discrimination. Each metal detector company uses their own electrical parts therefore the audible and visual guides to finding targets varies between brands. Some brands I dont find easy to set up to get the best from them and therefore i would miss targets because of it and therefore will not all into our best metal detectors category.
Another important factor is how it feels in your hands and the ease of the sweep-speed. A detector with good balance will allow you to use it all day without you getting tired. The best detectors of the modern day have made this an important part of their designs and are well balanced. Older detectors, may not be so comfortable in terms of all day use, but you can convert them to hip mounted so that relieves the balancing problem.
Comfortability can also be expressed in how complex a metal detector is to use. If you are just starting out you may want a simple machine to just turn on and go detecting. Many newer metal detectors are computer controlled and made to literally switch on and go, but they do come with more complex features in case you want to become more efficient as you gain experience.
The type of detecting can make a difference, one detector may be superb at finding old coins in the ground while useless at finding rings on a beach. Some brands are targetted at specific niches and therefore finding the best metal detectors that relate to your treasure hunting niches may involve a different brand for each.
Best Metal Detectors – a summary
Also remember if you buy the best metal detectors of one brand it doesnt mean its the best as it may be very poor when compared to a mid-range model from another. Also, some of the best detectors I have used are the older models that you can only get second hand these days.
You may need to use several so called best metal detectors over time before you find the right one for you, but once you have you wont leave home without it.