I've dug in the dirt my entire life. First 40 years fruit orchard farming, next 27 years as a utility worker for a small town. I've found a lot of artifacts simply by the amount of earth I've looked through and the interest I have in finding them. I had always been jealous when I saw someone using a detector, I felt that I just couldn't justify spending money to have one myself. In 2017 I made a dumpster rescue. It was a 1982 Fisher M-scope VLF 555-D, new in the box, 35 years old and never been used. Manual and everything. I should have sent it to a museum but I took it home and was more excited than any little kid could possibly be. I read the manual until I was thoroughly confused, put batteries in the machine and fired it up. It was horrible. It made noise but it wasn't doing it right. I researched and went out on a limb and bought some Deoxit D5 and F5. I worked the Deoxit into the pots and that machine came alive! I cleaned all of the nails, foil and wire out of my own yard. Then on my first true hunt in a local park I found a very pretty silver ring about 8" deep. That ring went on my wife's finger in 2017 and I haven't seen it come off yet. Oh, I was hooked. I loved that machine, used it a few years and still have it. I've moved along in the usual detectorist fashion and still get the same thrill of the hunt whichever machine I'm using.