any advice appreciated

[hawgdawg]

been curious about detecting for a while, couldnt decide what type of detector to get,decided to start low, and see how it goes, hope to get up to gold detecting, for now, i bought one off ebay, a pioneer 202, for 65.00, any words of advice would be thankful

[dfxing virginia]

hey hawgdawg,

welcome to the forum and the hobby, im still fairly new at it myself but you might want to tell the folks on here what type of ground your looking at hunting and you said work up to gold hunting but are you going to hunt beaches, parks, schools, till then. just some things the guys on here might ask. but good luck to you and your hunting.

[devros]

The Pioneer 202 is not a bad machine. It is not going to be a depth monster, you wont find things really deep. There are a lot of people around here that use a 202 I believe, Believe it or not i use a 101 a step down from yours and i really like it, like i said it don't go deep, so i am upgrading to a 505, 65.00 for the 202 is a good price, wish i would have seen it i would have gotten it. I'm no expert around here but I really like Bounty Hunters, they are under rated machines. I think you will have a lot of fun with it, and after you decide that you like MD'ing you will want to upgrade to a little nicer machine that gets some depth.

[Lowjiber]

Welcome to the hobby and our forum family from California.

Here's what I often offer to new folks in the hobby who ask for advice...

1. Read your detector manual (twice).
2. Take some various targets to the yard and swing over them, noting how the MD responds to each. Practice pinpointing, noting where the targets are in relation to the coil (it's not always the center).
3. Go back inside and repeat step #1.

Now...head out to a simple place to find easy targets such as a tot lot.

4. Practice steady, level swings. If the detector is giving "false" readings...decrease the sensitivity until it becomes stable. (Stability is a major key to success.)
5. Repeat step #1.

Good Luck...don't be afraid to ask anything here. Lots of people will be glad to help you.

[o4petesake]

I think that would be a fine machine and that was my thought too.
BUT.........after detecting for a month,(and buying some nice accessories for my 505)I bought a used "Whites MXT" on that big auction site.
I'm currently unemployed,(a Michigan resident)so I really can't afford to hold onto my Bounty Hunter 505.
8 and 10 inch coils with padded carry case.
As soon as I've been here 30 days I can put it on the classifieds here,so watch for that.

....this is NOT an offer to sell.

[randwool]

Glad to see you joined up. Hope to read about some finds.

[hawgdawg]

thanks to all, i think the advice on reading the book about 42 times will be helpful,im also in n.c.,ive been told of high mineral soil, thanks again