What Was It That Got You Started With Metal Detecting?:shrug:

[John-Edmonton]

A buddy of mine took me out with his old Garrett ADS, and I already saw the potential there. Money was tough at that time, so I bargained with my wife to quit smoking, and buy a decent metal detector. My first real detector was a Garrett Ultra 500 (had a cheap Radio Shack Model Before.....not worth mentioning) and the rest is history. I have stuck with Garrett for over 20 years, and have done very well with their equipment.

 

[Orion42]

A Michigan History class field trip to one of the many "Ghost Towns" in the area. Someone brought metal detectors for us to use and I caught the bug. Was several years before I could get one myself and after much research I decided on Garrett Detectors and never looked back. Currently four Garretts in the arsenal and 2 Pro Pointers.

John

 

[John-Edmonton]

The bug is easy to catch! I spoke with the only detector store in Edmonton about 20 years ago. He told me that 90% of the detectors he sells end up collecting dust in someones home a year later. Glad that a lot of the 10%'s post here.

 

[slingshot]

I was a grocery stocker/clerk and another clerk( who turned out to be my best friend for life) would always chat with me on breaks. One day, the usual slackers ( there always seems to be one or two) started pickin' on my new friend for his honesty in length of breaks,etc. and I told them to get lost that he was my friend. Nothing else was said. A few days later, after work, he said he had something to show me in his camper. I had never seen a detector before! It was a Whites (1967) and I remember you had to get a coin directly in the center of the coil to get a signal! Then came the treasure mags with pics and suddenly I was a treasure hunter- worldwide!. My first detector was a Dtex Mighy Mite (sp?), but after reading Karl Von Mueller and others, I was on the Garrett bandwagon. The Garrett factory visits were exciting and a fellow named Dorian Cook was a dealer par excellence! And then, when I met Mr. Garrett at the first International Treasure Hunt and saw the man he was- I was really hooked. ( It didn't hurt that I also won TWO Garrett detectors). One interesting story that's stuck with me thru the years. My Dad would frown when I went detecting- said I was wasting my life. One day he lost a treasured , irreplaceable pocket knife in his garden. The look on his face when I found it (along with the spark plug he had just changed on the tiller!) was priceless!

 

[Skillet]

It was an old yard-sale find; a hardback book titled "Treasure Under Your Feet"
Volker/Richmond.

Read it cover to cover many times before I bought my first detector

 

[dan b]

I happened to see a small book at the library about treasure hunting. My wife (at the time) got me a cheap Radio Shack detector. Her uncle would come visit occasionally, and when he heard I had a detector, he brought his down, He had a Fisher, but I don't remember the model. Obviously he did well while I didn't. But the bug was planted. Within a few months I had a Garrett Freedom Plus 2, and that was it. As the marriage deteriorated I used detecting as a reason to get away from her, She's long gone, but the bug lives on.

 

[John-Edmonton]

Good to hear from you old buddy! Hope all is well.

 

[woody]

I just wanted to get rich. I did . I retired when I was 19. ( yeah, sure!).

 

[Skillet]

Yup, still kicking (just not as hard as I used to!)

 

[mdetek]

Hmmm... for me, I think it was a combination of things.One was my strong interest in colonial American history. Then I read a couple of von Mueller's books. I was a Journeyman Meatcutter at the time and my manager was into it. This was in the 70's. I started with a Fisher, model I don't remember, then moved up to a Garrett Groundhog ADS. My wife was against it so I eventually stopped (mid-80s). BUT, I recently retired and am getting back into it. I just bought a Garrett AT Pro though I still have the Groundhog with 6" and 12" coils. Recently I read that the Groundhog with 12" coil is still unbeaten for depth;.While I found quite a few coins back then, my most prized finds were a brass harness hook at the site of a long gone hotel in the Pine Barrens of S NJ, a U.S. Army Dragoon button that was government issue during the War of 1812, that I found on the grounds of a farmhouse in Media, PA that was built in the early 1700s, and a "two-pounder" cannonball I found at a site of a Revolutionary War skirmish known as the Battle of Signal Hill. So now I have an AT Pro but I have yet to take it out of the box.