My Dad introduced me to metal detecting at the age of 10. He was a multi line dealer back in the 70 and 80 carrying brands like Tesoro, Bounty Hunter, Garrett, Whites, Wilson Neuman, Fisher, etc. I got to try many different metal detectors growing up. But for the park and yard hunting we did, I gravitated towards Whites. The Whites 6/DB was the first metal detector I owned and used a lot. It was a ground balancing VLF that required motion to discriminate. I found hundreds of silver coins with that machine and my first barber quarter. I actually used that detector until after I graduated from college in 1991. But detecting was limited while I was in high school and college so I saw no reason to buy something else at the time. After College I started to get more interested in metal detecting again and bought a Fisher CZ 6a. At that time I started detecting ghost towns and the GSL. It was great at the lake but not so good in ghost towns because it loved bend nails.

Enter the late 90's. The water levels at the GSL really started to go down to the point that many of the old beaches were now huntable. So my attention was primarily beach hunting at the time. My Dad was using a Minelab Sovereign at the time and was finding gold rings like crazy. I was struggling with the Fisher CZ 6a and after comparing a few of this deeper targets that I couldn't hear with the Fisher, I decided it was time to upgrade. So I sold some of my finds to finance the purchase of a new Minelab Sovereign XS 2a. Now the finds really started to come in with the extra depth I was getting. I later purchased a Minelab Explorer 2 and then an eTrac.

It wasn't until about 2016 that I started to get back into ghost town hunting and relic hunting in general. All the machines I had at the time weren't that great for either. So I started doing research on the XP Deus and purchased one that year. The first place I went was to an old site that was both a military camp and ghost town I had hunted with both the Explorer and CZ 6a with some success. The very first hunt I pulled a 3 cent piece and a seated half dime. I thought I was in heaven. Later hunts resulted in about 12 additional very old silver coins, including cap bust and Spanish coins.

In 2017 I was still hunting the lake but needed even more depth so I started looking into pulse induction machines. My first purchase was a Whites TDI and yes it found more gold rings. Then I looked into the Minelab GPX and found yet more gold rings. So now were talking depths of 16 to 18 inches depending on the coil used and there is still stuff deeper. Depth for me is the number 1 priority in a metal detector when hunting the beach.

Today I hunt gold nuggets, ghost towns/relics and the beach. Each of these types of hunting require different metal detectors and some cross over as multi use machines. For gold nugget hunting I use the Minelab Equinox and GPX 6000. For ghost towns I use the Nokta Fors Relic and Deus 2. For military relic hunting the Equinox and GPX 6000. For the beach the Deus 2 and Manticore (which by the way are better than any pulse induction machine coil size to coil size)

So everyone has different needs when it comes to metal detecting. I prefer to use the latest detectors available even if the improvements in performance are minimal.

Andrew

XP Deus 2-Minelab Manticore, Equinox 800 & 900-Minelab GPX 6000