It seems inconvenient to me to swing with my strong arm, and then have to take the detector off to pinpoint and dig. So, I'm thinking of swinging with my weak arm and just leaving the detector on and pinpoint and dig with my strong arm. What do you do?
I carry my Lesche and pinpointer in my left hand (pinpointer on top of lesche handle, back to back, with the blade of the Lesche pressed against my forearm [hides it a little better from other looking... just looks like I'm holding a pin pointer from most angles])
The right hand swings the detector.
When I first got started, with my ACE350, my arm would get TIRED from swinging, after 15 minutes, then 30, then an hour, etc... Definitely built up muscle.
Then I upgraded to the AT Pro, and it started all over again (The soreness). Then upgraded the coil to the NEL Hunter (and started over again with the extra ounces at the end of the pole).
And then, this year, I upgraded to the NEL Thunder... and AGAIN started out with the 15 minute soreness stuff. I quickly went back to being able to swing for an hour, but it was much longer with the NEL Thunder to being able to hunt for 3-4 hours without soreness. Now I can go 4-6 hours without problems (but I'll "Feel it" the next day).
In the meantime, my arm is stronger than ever, and my bicep is a freaking rock on my arm. I also no longer have lower back problems (Which plagued me for a decade), since I'm basically doing squats when I'm out detecting.
There's some definite health benefits to metal detecting... I'm just trying to make sure I'm not destroying my rotator cuff later in life. Shoulder surgery would be nasty at this point! A total setback, for sure.
Now... I should note that I'm still 42 years of age. I don't know how long it would take an older or younger person to build the muscle required to swing for that many hours, or even if I could do it after 60... I just don't know.
There are days I switch off on swinging left/right hands, but not often, because I find that the difference in muscle use actually causes me to be MORE sore in my shoulders/arms than before. My left arm excels at carrying dead weight (Lesche and pinpointer), and my right does a banner job swinging.
One advantage I've noted to carrying the lesche and pinpointer is that when I go to the beach, dragging around a scoop is no big deal. It's about the same weight on the arm.
