Metal Detecting Field Guide: Choose, Fit, and Learn
Everything we have written to help you choose, fit, and use a metal detector, in one place. The guides below are written by people who detect every week, built from the manufacturers' own documentation, and kept honest by the same rule that governs our listings: if a fact is unverified, we leave it out. Start with the question you are actually asking, then follow the links into the machines and accessories that answer it. And if reading is not how you decide, call 256-284-2247 and describe your ground; that is how most of our customers choose.
Choosing a detector
- Detector Finder: answer three questions about where you hunt, what you want to find, and what you want to spend, and get a short list.
- Compare Metal Detectors: every same-brand comparison, side by side, organized as ladders from first machine to flagship.
- Metal Detectors Under $300 Buying Guide: the real machines at the entry price, and what you give up there.
- Can a Metal Detector Find Gold?: the honest answer for every machine we sell, from coin machines to dedicated gold detectors.
Fitting your detector out
- Shop by Detector: pick your machine and see every coil, headphone, battery, part, and accessory verified to fit it, with the mix-ups spelled out.
- Metal Detector Accessories Guide: which accessories fit one machine only, which fit everything, and the three questions to answer before you order.
- Search Coil Buying Guide: coil type, size, shape, and frequency, once you know which coil family your detector takes.
- Pinpointer Buying Guide: waterproof ratings, wireless pairing, and the current picks.
Gold prospecting
- Gold Panning Equipment Guide: pans, classifiers, and fine gold recovery, and what to buy first.
- Gold Monster 2000, GPX 6000, and SDC 2300 fitment pages: the coils, chargers, and recovery gear for each gold machine.
Field articles and news
- The History Seekers Field Guide blog: longer reads, including our Manticore vs Deus II comparison and the best metal detectors roundup.
- The Detectorist's Code of Ethics: the rules we hunt by, and ask you to.
- Recommended Resources: research maps, land records, clubs, shows, and identification help we actually use.
How these guides are written
Specifications come from the manufacturer's documentation, checked against the archived manual for that machine. Fit claims are verified against the manufacturer's compatibility information before they appear on a fitment page. Comparisons stay within one brand, and the one cross-brand comparison we publish says so plainly. Nothing here is written for search engines that a person would not read the same way. The story is more important than the artifact.