My first detector story.. Add yours!!!

[Scooterjim]

The wife had been watching abandoned property videos on you tube, somehow that led her to Nuggetnoggins river detecting videos. I think she may be a little sweet on him. She keeps saying "He's a good kid" in the same way she calls the puppy a good boy. She ended up watching him and Aquachigger quite often. I have little say about what's on the tv, but I was happy to watch, detecting videos are so much better than royal family videos, not as much fun as baby goat videos, but it's close [except Digging With Britt, she beats baby goats hands down]. We were sitting on Dad's Christmas check, we normally try to get something fun for both of us and my wife asked if I thought I would enjoy detecting. Since we are river rats it seemed like a good fit with our kayaking. A little bit of research and watching Chigg find treasure with the ATPro and I became the proud owner of a ATPro and a TRX and a ridiculously high price $20 digger. It took the wife about 20 minutes to get bored with detecting, but I haven't gotten bored yet.

 

[dsorgnzd]

Back in the late 1970's I was living in Virginia Beach and had a friend who had a Fisher metal detector. He liked to hunt for civil war relics. I caught the bug, and ordered my first detector, a Compass (remember them?) Relic Magnum 7A from a gentleman named Ty Brook who had a shop in, if I remember correctly, Montgomery Alabama. And while waiting for it to be delivered, I was like a little kid before Christmas. I must have had a dozen "false alarms" from seeing people with weedeaters that I was sure, at first glance, were metal detectors. Finally mine arrived, and I think I went out four or five times before finding my first coin (a modern penny, which is still glued to the detector for luck). Eventually I learned to use the Compass, and I got a lot of enjoyment from it. I still have it, it still works, but I don't use it much because the soil where I live now is mineralized enough that it forces me to use the Compass in all-metal mode, and in most places I need discrimination.

 

[Skippy]

I had a similar kind of story. My first find was a WWII ammo dump where my friend and I pulled up a few live 7.62 rounds. As kids, this was scary and exciting at the same time. However, what we found next scared the living daylights out of us. It was an anti-personnel mine... You should have seen us run!

 

[georgeinsc]

I started detecting later in life. Had always been interested but had no idea what machine one might find useful or where one would detect. My brother in law visited for a few days and he brought his detectors with him. So we went detecting. I found a few zinc pennies but the seed was planted, watered and started growing. I had to have a detector.

On his advice I purchased a Minelab Sovereign Gt which minelab discontinued six months later. I started in my front yard. Aluminum cans up the yazoo. But I did find a few coins to go along with all the trash. I could not understand anything that the machine was telling me. Even though I was finding the occasional coin I was becoming more and more disgusted with the machine and the amount of money I had invested. I came very close to introducing it to a large tree more than once. Then I discovered that a gentleman in Michigan made a meter that worked with the machine. So I decided to give it a try. It did not take long for my good finds to outweigh my junk finds. Even having profound hearing loss I can still find the occasional nice item. Since one can not have only one detector I got the Xcal for the beach. I enjoy the hunt and digging anything of value out of the dirt and or sand. Plus it is good exercise for one of those seasoned citizens like me.

 

[Princess]

My personal "first find" story is not in the least exhilarating or inspirational; still, it's a fun memory....

Having previously accompanied my older brother on multiple detecting excursions, my story actually begins later, after Torpedo, Wolf-Dog, & I really got back into the hobby. It was the middle of February 2017, and our "frozen tundra" was undergoing a heatwave, with temperatures in the 30s and 40s. Ever optimistic and impatient to use our metal detectors for the first time since getting "re-bitten" by the bug, my two brothers & I headed outside with our hopes high (yet assuring one another that we, of course, likely wouldn't find anything great). Our speculations were correct, considering that the ground was still almost as frozen as it gets. Nevertheless, we went home excited to have made our first "eyeball" finds: washer, pull tab, and a rubber ball.

Fast forward, then, to several days later when our astoundingly "warm" weather was enough to thaw the ground a little bit more. The three of us headed to a nearby woods, armed with detectors and shovels. I remember the thrill I felt that first time the detector beeped... I couldn't dig that plug fast enough! Just for fun, we recorded this momentous occasion on video. Folks, the very first find I recovered that day with our new Bounty Hunter was... (drumroll please!) a nail!

So, there you have it! As it turned out, we didn't uncover anything really great that day, but we had a lot of fun, and that was, in many ways, just the beginning of our detecting adventures together.

when I was 4 I built one ( a pvc pipe full of bb's) lol

How did that work for ya, Levi?

Just kidding; that's pretty funny. So, when did you get your first real one, I wonder?

 

[Usa]

Haha. A couple years ago.