I have been interested in metal detecting for a couple years now, but haven't pulled the trigger on actually buying one until today. A good deal popped up on craigslist so I braved the 'rona and arranged a meet. It was literally used 3 times by an older gent who had a friend who was into it, but he decided he would rather fish on his free time. It's a practically brand new Garrett AT Pro with headphones and pinpointer.
So today I started searching my yard, which is about a acre and a half. Found two lincoln memorial pennies on my first dig, then proceeded to find junk consisting of an electrical lockwasher, an old tractor bolt that has been in the ground so long it had barnacles, and a big slab of a cast iron pipe that must have originally been 36" in diameter (man that rang up loud). All of these targets were within feet of each other, and everything so far has been about 6 to 8 inches deep.
My immediate plan is to explore on my property and get really comfortable using it and anticipating what the finds will be. There's not a real friendly attitude toward metal detecting in the public lands around here, and I'm not experienced enough to even think about making a side job out of it, but I expect I will have some fun piddlin' around the yard making the neighbors wonder if I have a treasure buried somewhere.
Since no thread is complete without pics, I present my first finds:
(Note that I only cleaned these because I could immediately identify them as worthless Lincoln memorial pennies. I was just trying to get a date off of them, one looks like 1968, the other is unknown.)
I have a really cheap detector that I bought used & likely overpaid for at $20, but I've still not taken it around the yard. It's one of those things I know I could really get into, but also realize I have enough other things to occupy my time & money...
That said, the 1699 French settlement was just a mile east of here, so I'm sure there's some small treasures to be found from the last 321-years.
11GTCS
New Reader
4/5/20 7:08 p.m.
The one and only time I used one it was a life saver. I was doing fall yard cleanup, cold and my wedding band came off. We rented a detector and I found it in under 15 minutes. I wear gloves now, lol.
In reply to EastCoastMojo (Forum Supporter) :
So you finally took the plunge! That's awesome. Sounds like you've done well for yourself, the at pro is a really decent machine, it was one that I looked at when buying mine. I'm a little jealous of the pinpointer, it an item on my to buy list. You can work without one, but from what I've experienced so far, damn they make things easier once you start digging.
I'm still getting the feel for my machine (nokta simplex), but enjoying it alot. I might go for a bit of a dig today, it's been raining for a few days so the dirt on my empty lot will dig alot easier than it was last time I went searching. Plus, I've staked out a site for my new shed and I want to make sure its completely clear before it ends up covered in concrete.
Nice first finds, it's crazy how deep things can get in such little time isn't it? I'll be interested to see what else you turn up, there's definitely more opportunity for older relics in the states than Australia given the respective age of our countries. Happy hunting mojo.
We're still up for a bit of treasure finding if we ever get off of lockdown. We used ours a bit in the yard and got a bunch of rusted nails all over. I keep telling the kids not to go barefoot. They don't listen.
I should dig ours out and make them find more nails so they get the idea.
In reply to Pete Gossett :
1699?! Wow, I bet there's a ton of great finds out your way!
In reply to daeman :
Man, the pinpointer is awesome! Once you get a few inches down and have essentially disturbed everything it really helps to know if the target is further down, in the plug or still in the side of the hole you just dug.
In reply to Brett_Murphy (Forum Supporter) :
I'm looking forward to getting together, y'all should come over to my place. We can all spread out and social distance together. 
Once we get off this lockdown deal let's make a plan to do this. Life's too short - dig it!
Got some more diggin' in today, had a small window in between other obligations this afternoon. I am getting better at predicting the finds based on the sounds - I was able to surmise that the three iron targets were substantially larger than a coin, and I knew the penny was a coin before I dug it.
I think I have successfully found an old farmhouse work area where someone fiddled with tractors with varying amounts of success, and threw pennies at the dirt. Behold a 1975 penny, two large tractor nuts and a chisel.
In reply to EastCoastMojo (Forum Supporter) :
Nice! Looks more like a railroad spike to me though?
In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :
I thought so at first, but it does not have the large head that the RR spikes I have seen have, although I suppose that could have been damaged at some point. They are pretty similar, so who knows? Here it is next to an old spike I had laying around for comparison:
In reply to EastCoastMojo (Forum Supporter) :
Definitely keen on a pinpointer. My detector has a pinpoint function, but it's very cumbersome to try and use it the way you would a handheld one.
Looks like you're having fun, even old junk is kind of fun to find as it tells a story.
I've been trying to clear the area where my new workshop will be going, but I'm pretty sure it's an old trash dump site for the house, sooo many small iron hits and pretty much anything I'm digging is bringing up broken glass and ceramics too.
EastCoastMojo (Forum Supporter) said:
I'm looking forward to getting together, y'all should come over to my place. We can all spread out and social distance together. Once we get off this lockdown deal let's make a plan to do this. Life's too short - dig it!
Once the lockdown is over, let's do it. I'll talk to my wife, she seemed on board last time I mentioned it, but the current situation has her squirrely.
Great fun!
I bought a Garrett ATPro before Christmas. Unfortunately I've had little time to play with it. My finds so far are lots of scrap iron, a wheat penny from the 50s and some brass hardware.
Pretty sure that there is a Briggs and Stratton head gasket in that pile.
This is the check valve out of a piston water pump.
This we aren't sure of. It's possible it's out of a tobacco leaf press. My father seems to remember his dad having one. There would be two of these, one with a crank and the tobacco leaves were run between them. No one knows for sure.
1954 wheat penny.
All of these were dug in my parents yard. Their house was built in the mid 1800s. Also on that property is another house site that dates from the 1700s. One of these days I'll make the time to go search them.
And the pin-pointer is the bomb. Well worth the money spent.
What brand pinpointers are you all using?
10 year old me is very jealous.
So is 49 year old me.
Do you have a chemistry set too?
Anyone else eagerly click on this thread every new post in anticipation of new treasure pics?
In reply to daeman :
I dropped the coin on the Garrett. After doing some reading, the cheaper ones available on Amazon are supposed to work pretty decent as well.
In reply to Appleseed :
Mine is currently loaned to a friend so he could find a pipe in a wall. No hunting for me this weekend.
11GTCS
New Reader
4/11/20 8:56 a.m.
Next door neighbors sons were at her house earlier this week to take down a couple of sketchy maple trees for her. After dropping them I noticed they kept picking up this black thing. The handle was too thin to be prybar, finally it dawned on me at it was a metal detector and they were scanning for nails and so on before making cuts. Brilliant!
In reply to Toyman01 (Forum Supporter) :
That sounds like a great spot to dig! Cool finds, especially that grinder/feeder thing.
In reply to daeman :
I'm pretty sure mine is a Garrett Pinpointer Pro AT, although I'm not 100% sure.
In reply to ZOO (Forum Supporter) :
Chemistry set is long gone!
Sorry, no digs today, but I should have some new finds for yas tomorrow! 
In reply to Brett_Murphy (Forum Patrón) :
Ha! Ok, point taken
Decided to get my dig on and have some new finds for ya. First dig of the day yielded a 1972(?) penny, good start.
Next up was an interesting iron mystery find consisting of three parts. Not sure if they were all one thing at any point in time but they came out of the same hole.
Then a couple feet away I found a vintage AC 44S spark plug with a cracked insulator (that was loud even though it was about 10" down).
Then I moved to a different part of the yard that has less roots and got a beautiful 84 tone, 4" depth, sounded like a coin for sure. Dug it and when it popped out I almost had a heart attack...it was round and the size of at least a fiddy cent piece. Looked old. Dirt was even stuck to it in a way that, at first glance, looked like small stars around the edge. Holy E36 M3 I found a...
big ol' threaded washer. Womp-womp.
Had time for one more dig and found another promising 85 target, 8" deep. I'm getting better at digging. Popped out a 1977 Washington quarter that looks like it was painted red?
Biggest coin so far so, win!
After dinner edit:
I had just a few minutes after we ate before the rain moved in, and selected a 79/80 tone that was right next to the driveway. I had been putting this one off since it's so hard to dig there due to the gravel, but managed to pull out a 1970 Lincoln penny right as it started to sprinkle. I've found 30 cents so far, this thing will pay for itself eventually lol!
That's a quarter I lost in 1978 in Wake county. I painted it red so that if I ever lost it and someone found it, I could identify.
Sounds like the Garret pinpointers are the go to. Might have to wait a little to get myself one though given they retail over 200aud. Minelab pointers also review well and are a bit more available here, might get lucky and pick one up on sale.
In the meantime I might take the plunge on a knockoff and see how they behave, if it's adequate I can always keep it around as a spare.
Seeing as people are thirsty for finds, I might have to go for a bit more of a scan of the shed site, I'm not even a quarter of the way done with it.... Did I mention it's trashy as hell hahaha.
