New to metal detecting

You should think about saving some money in your budget for a pro pointer, good headphones and a decent digging tool. I ended up upgrading along the way but those 3 things are just as important as your detector. Not sure about any other brands but Tesoro is what I chose to go with when I was in your position 2 years ago. Although I didn't have as big of a budget. But yeah learning your detector, having good ground, being patient and putting in a lot of hours is more important than the brand I think. Good Luck in whatever you choose.

There really are no best overall detectors necessarily but when you factor in everything the AT pro and AT gold have to offer and then throw in waterproof as the icing on the cake they stand out as probably the most versatile detectors on the market , atleast the under $1000 market. Depends on how you look at that whether that equals "best" to you personally or not but in terms of versatility + price they look pretty darn good to me.

JamieNH said:

You should think about saving some money in your budget for a pro pointer, good headphones and a decent digging tool. I ended up upgrading along the way but those 3 things are just as important as your detector. Not sure about any other brands but Tesoro is what I chose to go with when I was in your position 2 years ago. Although I didn't have as big of a budget. But yeah learning your detector, having good ground, being patient and putting in a lot of hours is more important than the brand I think. Good Luck in whatever you choose.

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oh my gosh, listen to this man. I was lucky and scored a Silver uMax for $150, so got in really cheap, but a pinpointer and GOOD digging tool will save SO much frustration. You need a tool sharp enough to cut a "flip lid" out of the soil and not mess it up, and a pinpointer so you make the smallest hole possible, instead of ending up widening the sides until it looks like a gopher on meth was there.

I've had some sudden unexpected expenses, so the Propointer has to wait. I grabbed a $16.99 pointer from Harbor Freight Tools to tide me over, since the Silver uMax doesn't have pinpointing built in.

So many of us got started without a pinpointer and still dont use one. I wouldnt mind having one but Id still rarely need it so I wouldnt use it all the time. They are useful , but far from necessary. Rather than recommending someone new to detecting spend money on one right away , I usually say put all you have into the detector to get the best one you can afford , it is the single most important factor in the hobby. You can get by without a pinpointer until the point you yourself decide its needed ( from your own experience ) , or until you can afford another purchase after the detector. You need a good digging tool but there are some fair to really good ones available for cheap anyway so thats not a factor. Sorry to be negative on the pinpointer idea but I think it does someone new to the hobby a great disservice to tell them they really need a pinpointer at the expense of possibly shorting what they can afford to spend on a detector. Thats almost like telling someone to get a cheaper car if they have to so they can also get a killer stereo to put in it , and that the stereo is an absolute must have.

Sometimes you guys kill me with the stories of how hard it is to find targets without a pinpointer It can be frustrating at first , but then you get good at it.

Now to be clear , Im not saying dont get a pinpointer , Im not against them. Just saying the wise choice is to make the detector priority one. Unless cost is not a problem , then by all means get it all at once.

You can pinpoint fairly well with most any detector, with or without that function built in. It's a skill to be learned, but will save digging time, or fooling around on the ground with a seperate pinpointer, not to mention save a lot of money. Once you initially get a beep, you stop walking, pass over the area with the coil, until you get the beep repeatedly in the same spot on the ground. Take note of that spot, and the line your coil traveled over it. Now do the same, from a different direction, over that spot, say 90 degrees. Where those to imaginary lines cross, should be right over the target. I shove a small stake in that spot, before setting down my detector, and grabbing my digging tool, so my mind does wander a few inches. Takes some practice, need to train your mind a little. I learned on a Bounty Hunter QuickDraw II, and got close enough to gouge coins, and a few other things, which is where I decided really small holes, weren't the best idea for me. I'm not hunting for scrap to melt, and would be a little upset to destroy a nice silver coin, just to save a little time or effort.

Now, a hand held pinpointer isn't such a bad idea, there is a lot of trash in the ground, compared to treasure. A lot of that trash is sharp and pointy, not a great idea to blindly grope dirt, with your bare hand. Gloves will protect you some, but you lose some sensitivity to touch. Not to mention summer in Florida is hot and sweaty... Less mud you get on your hands, the less you have to clean off you clothes and gear later.