Yesteryear detecting.

[JBM]

Where were you nearly 40 years ago?

I hope this comes out OK it worth a read.

Happy Hunting,

Jerry.

[Keith67]

Ah the pioneers !!  I was 9   

[Peter]

OH I remember the Wilson Neuman Daytona ,It was a Silver color  If I`m correct . A USA jobbie that was not very reliable according to a few owners at the time. It never really set off over here  because of that.
But funnily enough there was one on E bay for sale last week. It went for £21  >>  if you want to see it ,put in 
" Wilson Daytona metal detector "  then click on  " completed listings ".

[Redfoot]

BFO and VLF they looked weird people thought we were all anoraks as if anything has changed 

[redkite]

I still found some real goodies with my Candlelight International ( C Scope) BFO.

[Peter]

BFO and VLF they looked weird people thought we were all anoraks as if anything has changed

Nope ,your still a anorak

[Keith67]

I seem to remember a comment about the very early machines only going down about 3 or 4 inches.  Can anyone educate me in regards what the real game changing moments have been through the years?  New tech came along, more research etc ?

[Peter]

I seem to remember a comment about the very early machines only going down about 3 or 4 inches.  Can anyone educate me in regards what the real game changing moments have been through the years?  New tech came along, more research etc ?

 I`m sure Jerry will endorse me when I say,.......

From the early days of BFO detectors , which I believe was pioneered by Mr Charles Garrett,wern`t deep at all.  To the best of my knowledge ,the first as you call it " game changing " technology brought in was TR machines. These really kicked ass in progression of detectors as they made it wonderfully possible for the detector to be able to tell the difference between a ferrous and nonferrous object, as before the BFO detector detected EVERY metal with no exceptions.
 The next progressive main step was the introduction of the VLF detector.Things really started to take off then on that technology. CScope really went to town with that and brought out some great models. The 1220B, the CS3000 ADC, the Promet and the Metadec were outstanding models and their depths were as good if not better than some of todays modern day detectors . Without going into essays of discussion, I can tell you that then came the big turning point when the American s  introduced the new style of detector called the "   motion detector  ". This was the turning point of the next phase in advancement of detectors. Up to their introduction we had the non motion detector  apart from the odd couple of attempts by a few British attempts. These  motion American detectors  were not subject to threshold drift and they handled mineralized ground much much better than any non motion detector ever could. They wasn`t initially deep as the VLF /TR detectors such as The Arado 120B or the Promet or Metadec but progression through the years improved their depths as time went on. At this point I have to admit ,they had to drag me screaming and kicking to relinquish my love of VLF/TR CScopes as my pride and joy was my Cscope  Metadec mk2 which was outstandingly deep seeking.
But I eventually gave in and ordered a Fisher 1265x . I was then hooked!
 Todays detectors are a far cry from the first ones we had, but as ever..... in tempore confectis ! and we are where we are now.

[Keith67]

I seem to remember a comment about the very early machines only going down about 3 or 4 inches.  Can anyone educate me in regards what the real game changing moments have been through the years?  New tech came along, more research etc ?

 I`m sure Jerry will endorse me when I say,.......

From the early days of BFO detectors , which I believe was pioneered by Mr Charles Garrett,wern`t deep at all.  To the best of my knowledge ,the first as you call it " game changing " technology brought in was TR machines. These really kicked ass in progression of detectors as they made it wonderfully possible for the detector to be able to tell the difference between a ferrous and nonferrous object, as before the BFO detector detected EVERY metal with no exceptions.
 The next progressive main step was the introduction of the VLF detector.Things really started to take off then on that technology. CScope really went to town with that and brought out some great models. The 1220B, the CS3000 ADC, the Promet and the Metadec were outstanding models and their depths were as good if not better than some of todays modern day detectors . Without going into essays of discussion, I can tell you that then came the big turning point when the American s  introduced the new style of detector called the "   motion detector  ". This was the turning point of the next phase in advancement of detectors. Up to their introduction we had the non motion detector  apart from the odd couple of attempts by a few British attempts. These  motion American detectors  were not subject to threshold drift and they handled mineralized ground much much better than any non motion detector ever could. They wasn`t initially deep as the VLF /TR detectors such as The Arado 120B or the Promet or Metadec but progression through the years improved their depths as time went on. At this point I have to admit ,they had to drag me screaming and kicking to relinquish my love of VLF/TR CScopes as my pride and joy was my Cscope  Metadec mk2 which was outstandingly deep seeking.
But I eventually gave in and ordered a Fisher 1265x . I was then hooked!
 Todays detectors are a far cry from the first ones we had, but as ever..... in tempore confectis ! and we are where we are now.

I really enjoyed reading that,   and thank you for taking the time to explain all the changes.  Those BFO machines must have needed the patience of a saint when you consider how much iron there is in our fields !

[Peter]

 The first mass produced BFO detectors actually were great fun to use and the fact being ,your comparing the latest up to date detectors to them Keith ,but we were not,and the reason we wern`t  was, we had nothing to compare them to, so we thought they were absolutely great.
 If my memory serves me well, I think on average they had around a two inch depth on coin sized objects and obviously bigger Iron objects would be found deeper .They were exactly what we could only dream about having in our possession  ....a real `live `working metal detector . You have to realize , a metal detector was something we had only dreamed of owning from first seeing them initially for sale in the cube boxes  or rectangular boxes on the back page of the Marvel or DC comics from the USA from the ACME  range of products along with X ray glasses and  other wonderful things to buy, you couldn`t buy over here.
 Then all of a sudden they were here . The fact they had no discrimination was neither here nor there because, Discrimination !! what was that ?  We didn`t know what discrimination was, because even then it hadn`t been incorporated onto a detector , so we didn`t crave then what we hadn`t been invented then.
 The fact was, that it was a metal detector, that actually found metal things ,and nothing could take that away from us.It was a dream that had actually turned into a reality.

[Keith67]

Certainly puts it into perspective.  The first has no comparison, makes sense. Still waiting for my X-Rays specs and I daresay the school nurse ain't what she used to be