Starting out

Shadowhound starting out I would look at the Fisher F2, Garrett ace 250 teknetics alpha and Tesoro line. Highly suggest Fisher F2 due to lightness, fast recovery time and 5 year warranty. Any questions feel free to contact me. Bart

hey just been looking at a review online of the Fisher F2 and it looks pretty better than the garrett ace 250

How much do you want to spend? There is always a balance between not spending too much on the first machine in case you lose interest, and getting one that does not meet your expectations and then you get discouraged from a fun hobby. Also spending more money does not mean getting a better detector. You can buy new and make sure you get a warranty, or buy used (craigslist) and save some dough. If I were new in the hobby these days I would look at a Teknetics Omega or G2. The Omega tends to be a great coin machine but the G2 can fill all kinds of needs like relic hunting, gold jewelry, and it's excellent on coins. The Fisher detectors and Teknetics are made by the same company so you will see similarities in their lineups.

Throw some ideas out as to what you have been looking at and thinking about.

im looking to spend about £200 - £250 for my first detector to get into the game and i wanna search for things like jewerly, coins, WWII things like bullet cases and bullets also belt buckles from that era since i wanna try on alot of old RAF training bases

i checked a review out on the fisher F5 and the garrett ace and i did noticed even though the garrett was slower than the F5 it did provide good depth but im a little confused as to which would be best for me as a starter

It's not the brand, it's what detector will do

As much as I'd like to give you a brand or a specific detector, I won't because brand/model isn't necessarily your first consideration here. That consideration would be what features you should be looking for to shop for the right detector for **the types of areas you want to hunt.** That's why a lot of guys own more than one detector, or even *type* of detector -- because there's no "one detector fits all" detector.

The types of places you want to hunt for the type of stuff you're looking to find means you're going to find yourself in areas of lots of trash -- everything from old pull tabs to old coins to bottle screwcaps to roofing nails and everything in between and varying depths. And believe me, any old site will be LOADED with junk. You say you're interested in everything from old iron to coins. Well, that's a HUGE spread, and unless you want to spend 99% of your time digging huge, deep holes to dig up a chunk of 80-year-old sewer pipe, you're going to spend an inhuman amount of time digging tons of junk that isn't worth anything to anybody. Especially since lots of old homes on any street have seen 50-100 years of home improvements.

If you want to dig positively everything you come across, then it pretty much doesn't matter what brand or model you get. They all work great in All Metal mode. If you want to get picky (one day you want to dig everything, one day you might want to just cherrypick silver coins), then a detector with good trash separation is what you're looking for. If you're going to be digging old places with nice lawns, a detector with a meter is the best way to go because it's good to have a better idea of what you might have as well as the depth -- and believe me, no homeowner wants to see you digging giant deep craters on the lawns they spend tons of money to maintain. If you're going to spend most of your time in forested areas or on the beach (where digging deep holes isn't much of an issue), a solid detector without a meter is an economical way to go.

It seems one of the hardest habits for new detectorists is the speed you are hunting. Like you have already noted many detectors require slower sweeps. Detectors that are faster reposnding will probably give you more sucess and satisfaction until you get more experience. I would still recommend you consider buying a clean used machine to save some money. Some used ones may still have a warranty in place. If you don't like the machine you can always resell it without losing as much as buying a new machine. After time most will have different machines based on different abilities of the machines, the evironment, personal tastes, etc. If you run into a dealer or person that says XYZ machine is the best ever made, don't take them seriously. I just bought a used Fisher machine that is about 15 years old and works like a charm. It had been used one year and was put away in a closet ever since.

thanks for that guys jim u are right and give me good info im currently looking towards a new fisher f2 £133 and for a new detector its cheap and helps me get into the hobby without to many complications

F-2 would be a good choice for your first detector.