Buying your first metal detector
New to the metal detecting hobby this page may help
How to buy a new or used metal detector, learn how to operate a metal detector and become a professional treasure hunter.
Choosing your first machine can be very confusing, take good advice and start your metal detecting hobby the correct way.
What is the best metal detector to buy for beginners ?.....good question the metal detectors recommended on this page are popular starter units and suitable for beginners of all ages.
Take your time and shop around for the best deal there are excellent coinshooters on the market designed to give you many years of enjoyment.

While we are on the point of buying a new machine from a dealer
A good dealer will help you set the machine up and give you all the advice needed to get started, it is considered very rude in the metal detecting circles to buy a machine from one dealer then contact another asking how to operate your new machine...so remember a good dealer will always offer you the best after sales service.

For good advice please read the section below before E mailing me or click the link below to visit the
Friendly metal detecting forum where beginners are more than welcome to post providing it is not about Chinese machines they have just purchased from E Bay.
Also take a look at my metal detector frequently asked questions page.

Please please please remember £25 will not buy a metal detector it will buy you a non functional toy...If you are serious about metal detecting be prepared to pay £250.00 minimum this will get you started in the right direction.
Many people ignore this advice and to be honest I did to many years ago...It's only when you own a good functional detector you finally realise how profitable and enjoyable metal detecting can be.

Personally I don't search beaches so I can not give you advice on that subject.

What to Look For When Buying a metal detector
My advice would be to avoid cheap machines especially the Chinese models swamping E Bay normally with names like, Langer, Rander, md 3030 or md 3036, these are known as Shanghai specials after a small amount of reaearch you will be familiar with their appearance and know what to avoid.
Dealers and electrical shops give them their own names and purchase a 1000 at a time from China for around $10 each and sell them between £99-£150 they have a very high failure rate, basically nasty toys which will not perform well, the depth claims of 2 meters is total bull...try 4 inches on a coin to be more realistic... although they will probably fall apart before finding a coin.
Buy one of these and you will soon be disappointed with metal detecting and give up the hobby for good...you have been warned !!!




Good quality machine

It is safe to say there is no machine to suit everyone, after all we are all different, try narrowing your search by making a list here are some questions.

Where am I likely to search ? : Inland or Beaches...most machines will work on dry sand but very few on wet sand.

Who will be using the machine ? : If it's a youngster or someone with poor strength look for a light weight model.

Do I require a meter id machine ? : Meters are not very accurate, they will not find you more targets in fact they may loose you targets due to false identification.....A pull tab has the same conductivity as a gold ring.

What is my maximum budget? I would say a good serious starter price would be in the region of £250-£500 for a new machine with a warranty, you will also need to buy headphones and a digging tool.

Will dealers give me unbiased advice ? : They can do...however as with any business it's business...they will like to sell you the machine that gives them the most profit and can very often slate the models they don't stock.

How deep will a machine go ? : Never ask the question "how deep will it go" it is a question that can not be answered easily.
There are so many reasons why depth can not be measured correctly...for example a 20p coin in air at 12" will probably equate to 7" in the soil (depending on the soil) how the coin is lying etc, a large search coil will not necessarily give you more depth only better ground coverage, also some machines are designed to find small targets better than others and some are more biased to bigger targets. One thing worth remembering is a machine that performs poorly in air will almost certainly perform badly in the soil, don't believe people that tell you a machine will work better in the soil it's simply not possible !!

Will I get unbiased advice from metal detecting forums ? : Again it's a grey area...lots of people sitting behind keyboards with time on their hands using false names is never a good place to hang out ! some forums these days can be very biased.... Good posts about the competitors machines can be deleted at source...only the bad posts get published.... enter with caution !!.
This is a very calm friendly forum which is ideal for beginners metal detecting forum

Will I get good advice from joining a club ? : Some clubs out there are very friendly especially the anyone welcome weekend clubs where you pay £10 to dig,
I would advise paying a visit to one of these before joining a members only club.

One point worth remembering is machines costing £500 perform every bit as well if not better than machines costing £1000 so don't get caught in the big money trap...although you will look very important you have better or deeper finds, just a bigger hole in your pocket and loose more money when trying to sell.

In a nutshell if you are serious about the hobby and have a limited budget look out for quality names like Rutus, Tesoro, XP, Minelab, Whites or Laser. Don't go for fancy...go for practical
What machine to buy ?
Here are some examples of new machines to give you an idea of what to look for, simply click the links to purchase from Amazon.

Coil plug costly mistake
When you buy your new machine, please don't make this simple mistake so many people make.
Never attempt to remove the pig tail from the coil...Ok it looks like it can be unscrewed but a slight turn will rip out the coil wires from the sealed resin and cost you a lot of money as this will not be covered by warranty.
The picture on the left shows the pig tail, the picture on the right shows the correct place to remove the coil below the control box *note some machines have the coil "hard wired" so they can not be removed from either end.



Deeptech Vista Mini


My best entry level machine 2011 only £280.00

Rutus Jupiter £499 new for 2011
I have included this machine into the beginners section as it is so easy to use and packed with features.

The Rutus Jupiter is a machine you will never out grow as it is suitable for every inland search scenario.

Laser Rapier II

Excellent performance and build quality

Tesoro Compadre



The Tesoro compadre is very easy to operate, great fun, super little coinshooter, It can reject unwanted targets such as foil and ring pulls, you will start finding coins instantly with the Compadre. Simply turn on, set the control to the targets you want to reject, Iron foil, pull tabs etc and search.
Don't be put off by the lack of controls, this little machine is very good indeed !!.
3 piece stem
Powered by 1x 9 volt battery
1/4 inch headphone jack

Laser Scout

The Laser scout is ideal for all ages, excellent performer easily on par with the Rapier , again an analogue system very simlar to the old Tesoro silver sabre plus with precise user discrimination and sensitivity settings
3 piece stem
Powered by 1x 9 volt battery
1/4 inch headphone jack
Separate discrimination and sensitivity controls

Tesoro silver U/max

The Tesoro silver u max is easy to operate with a polo search coil as standard like all Tesoro's very sensitive to small targets.

Tesoro Cibola

The Cibola is the very latest "hot" Tesoro,it's now called the Laser Trident 1 here in the UK,
Lightweight and easy to use with the same power as machines twice its price. Suitable for professionals or novices, works great on Roman sites watch this space.
The Cibola (Trident 1) has been given the thumbs up from us, very popular in the UK.
Tesoro Cibola review
Laser Rapier

The laser Rapier is a little more expensive it's the last of the analogue machines so in my opinion worth the extra.... very sensitive to small gold and silver.
Controls include : sensitivity, discrimination, target pin-point button, 3 piece stem, powered by 1 x 9 volt battery.
The laser Rapier Plus is now available with a 9x8 web coil
Laser Rapier review

XP ADX 100

The ADX 100 from xp is very lightweight with fantastic Iron rejection, easy to operate, 9 inch 2d coil as standard.
3 piece stem
Powered by 8 x AA batteries
1/4 inch headphone jack
Separate discrimination and sensitivity controls


Garrett 150 or 250 Ace

Super little coinshooter with a LCD display, very easy to operate with 3 different search options.
All metal.. Jewellery ..coins
The Garrett ace 150 is very easy to use excellent fun for finding coins in the local park.
Garrett ace 150 review

Garrett Treasure ace 100

The garrett treasure ace is a good all round machine,superb value for money.
2 piece stem
Powered by 2x 9 volt battery
1/4 inch headphone jack

Viking 5

The viking 5 is a good starter machine, excellent value for money probably the best cheap metal detector for searching the River Thames forshore and other junky areas.

C Scope CS 2M

C scope cs 2m, rugged build quality good starter machine

How to buy a new or used metal detector" and "how to operate a metal detector"
Choosing your first machine, how to start detecting for the first time.