Ok in the past three years I have gone from a Fisher F2.F75,cz&A Pro, up to include Whites V3i, minelab . I had an Atpro x2 times a coinemaster,mxt,explorer se. I thought I could buy experience and better finds. After spending a !!!! load of money. I have come to the painful realizations:
a) experience and education is the keys to success in this hobby.
b) you can't buy (a).
All I did was confused the heck out of my brain jumping from machine to machine. So if I could give myself some advise three years ago buy once stick with it and don't get sucked up into thinking your missing good finds becuase you have XYZ machine over PDQ machine!
I can't say I came to this epiphany all alone. I had few old heads at local club beat it in to me...lol
Quite an admission!!
Bravo to you here.
Being honest with ones self,,very important,,and better late than never.
A few comments.
Trying different detectors.
I encourage folks when they do use one,,,try and only take it to a few sites,,actually challenging sites,,,sites with nails,,modern trash,etc.
Keep using this detector in these few sites,,,to keep a baseline of sorts.
If you decide to just go out and go site to site,,,sure you may find some real easy, and perhaps good finds,,,but these kinds of finds,,,,are telling you little about the querks of a particular detector.
Those eye candy signals,,will indeed keep you busy digging,,,but much less learning will take place in the long run.
Read up on a particular model detector tendencies,,ask questions,,,especially about soil minerals levels of folks responding to your questions,,especially about ground balance and depth,,as well as ID of targets.
You will hopefully if enough folks respond,and with additional reading of threads and posts,,,start to see a pattern.
Next,,,going the stepping stone route with detectors as far as performance.
If a person can afford try and start with a mid grade performing detector at least.
More accurate data usually is available because these kinds of detectors have usually a better following with at least intermediate level experienced detectorists or even higher in some cases.
Don't be afraid to ask questions....there are no dumb questions.
Try hunting with a bud or 2 if you can,,talk about what you are seeing and hearing with your buds,,compare signal,,have FUN.
No one should be buying a detector and offing it in a months time,,,way too soon.
Don't feel pressured into buying another model just because your bud has.
I think a lot of folks can learn from your experience.
The amount of time a person has to detect comes into play too.
A person who is full time employee,,,being moreso a weekend warrior detectorist,it is common sense an overall longer time calendar wise would be needed to learn any detector even to a satisfactory level.
