Hi I'm New to this site and looking to buy a detector..

[KennyfromGA]

Hi All,
Please tell me what kind of metal detectors you guys would suggest for me. What are your favorites, and why...
I live in Georgia, near Kennesaw. So I will be looking for Civil War Relics, but also coins, etc. So I need an all around multi purpose unit.
Also, where is the best place to buy from? I've seen Kellyco and metaldetectors.com Any others? I look forward to talking with yall.

Thanks alot!

Kenny

[NB Digger]

Welcome to the forum Kenny. You will find it an excellent place to come find answers to questions, show off your stuff, or just plain chat. I suppose the simplest answer to you detector questions is; how much can you or do you want to spend! Then ask how much time do you want to spend learning a machine. Then take into consideration the ground your covering and how much has it been hunted. I personally use a Fisher 1270 and find it to be a great relic machine. It didn't require a lot of time to learn before I was finding relics with it. I have also had a Whites, years ago, but it was an older model and probably not as good as what Whites puts out now. I have bought detecors from private dealers and also from Kellyco. I actually really liked Kellyco, but never had a problem from private dealers either. Just do your research before you buy, read field test reports on the machines you consider, and keep asking questions.
Best Regards,
Travis

[Loadmaster]

I think Travis pretty well covered your question. I really can't add anything to that, but I sure did want to welcome you to the forum, Kenny. You'll meet a bunch of nice folks here.......

Loadmaster (Ed)

[KennyfromGA]

Thanks Travis and Ed,

I am looking to spend around $300 MAX. So your suggestions on what to buy would be great! Do you think a good place to search would be land that was previouly wooded and has just been cleared for a subdivision? There's quite a few big pieces of land around me like that.

Kenny

[NB Digger]

Kenny, anytime a dozer is removing top soil or trees then I would hit it hard and quick like. Especially there near Kennesaw. If you can go slightly over $300 then go to Kellyco and look at the Whites Classic 4 or the Fisher 1236 X-2. The nice thing about Kellyco is the free stuff you can get with the detector, like headphones!!!
Travis

[bill(de)]

Hi Kenny,

I agree the 1236x2 is a very good detector and has good depth and can expect to hit a quarter in good clean ground to about 8"or 9".The discrimination circuit is outstanding and really locks on to accepted targets above the set discrimination points. The silencer circuit really works in areas where there are bits and pieces of iron debris such as nails around old foundations and really quiets the detector down from a lot of pops and pings.It's lightweight and easy to swing all day. The only negative in my opinion is lack of manual GB and no DD Coil option but thats my preference.

Another pick could be the Minelab Advantage and in my opinion is one of the best coin and relic nonmetered detector values on the market today.I 've picked out wheat pennies at 9" in loamy soil with a 7 1/2 " coil and it also has a super discrimination circuit and quick recovery speed which is great when hunting in high volume target areas. The Advantage also has a manual Ground Balance which adds to it's versatility in difficult areas and i like the DD Coils and Minelab from i read developed the electronics around the DD Coil . The only negatives on the Advantage is the weight when the control box is mounted ahead of the handgrip but a simple solution is to mount the control box under the arm cuff and it is very very well balanced and can be used all day with little discomfort and my other negative is the cumbersome pinpoint process but i hardly need it with the stock coil as it's just so easy to locate targets.

The whites classic series are also great detectors and love the IDX Pro. Never had a Tesoro but may want to look into them also.

Welcome to the forum and good luck with your purchase and finds. HH Bill

[KennyfromGA]

More thanks-- to boobie and Bill,

This is great info. I really appreciate it! I talked to Sondra at www.metaldetectors.com and she highly recommended the Garrett ACE 250 that is in the $300 range, actually $279 I think.. Would this one be a good choice also. It comes with an extra coil for "free." Sorry, but being a rookie, I am very ignorant on the terminology like DD and some of the other terms you used Bill. I look forward to learning though! This is a cool site!!


Kenny

[Toadie]

Dunno how the Ace 250 works myself, but I have an ace 300 and a GTA 350 that are really good. The GTA 350 is a little picky at times though. I do a show and tell at the local Elementary and the Pre-Kindergarden students seem to have no trouble using these detectors. They are turn on and go with an average depth of about 6-8" in the Blackland gumbo we call dirt here. It is actually black clay I think. Both go alot deeper in sandy loam and are almost always accurate in target ID.

My father in law recently bought an ACe 250 but I haven't talked to him since he got it a few days ago so I am not much help there. Sorry.

[PAPPY]

KENNY, I have an ACE250 and I LOVE IT. 99% on target all the time with different push and go features such as COINS, RELICS, JEWLERY, ALL METAL....LOVE MINE.....PAPPY

[bill(de)]

Sorry about throwing the confusing terms at you, i hope i didn't confound you further but i get carried away at times. When buying your first detector i guess it's best to keep it simple so simple it is and if you want a general purpose nice detector then the Ace 250 is probably your best bet as a first detector and if you want a truely nice relic detector that is is equally good on coins and goes very deep and will slice through trashy areas very well due to the coil design and thats all i'll say about coils then the Minelab Advantage is about as good as it gets for the money spent in my humble opinion. There are many detectors to choose from and everyone has opinions but i will not give up my Advantage. Ask all the questions you feel necessary and try other forums but only briefly then come back and tell us what ya bought and there really isn't any bad detector if you stay within the respected manufacturers models. HH Bill