The Complete Guide to Metal Detecting

Chapter 1: What Is Metal Detecting and Why People Love It

Imagine it's a Saturday morning in early autumn. The grass is damp, the air has that crisp edge to it, and you're standing in a city park that's been there since the 1940s. In your right hand is a metal detector — a long pole with a round, plastic disc at the bottom, a control box in the middle, and a padded arm cuff at the top. It weighs about three pounds. You've got a small digger in your back pocket, a pouch strapped to your waist, and a pair of headphones on, though you can still hear the birds. You switch the machine on, hold it so the coil is parallel to the ground a few inches above the grass, and you start to walk. Slowly. In a straight line, swinging the detector side to side in a steady arc, like a slow windshield wiper. You've been at it for fifteen minutes, and the machine has been mostly quiet — occasional soft chirps that you've learned are usually bits of rusted bottle caps. Then the tone changes. It's higher, cleaner, and locked on. You stop. You take two steps back, then two steps forward, to find where the signal is strongest. You pull your digger, cut a neat three-sided plug of grass out of the ground — about the size of your fist — flip it over, and probe the hole with the coil. The target is in