For every story like the one about the guy who found an Anglo-Saxon hoard important enough to rewrite history, there are thousands of folks who spend years finding nothing but bottle caps. The actual process of treasure hunting is, in all honesty, time-consuming, repetitious, and rarely rewarded with truly special or valuable finds.
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That doesn’t mean it isn’t fun. And who knows—you just might find some gold in them thar hills. But before you lay out the cash it takes to get started, you should know whether treasure hunting is right for you.
That’s why our first bit of advice isn’t about buying anything. Contact a local club or store and ask if you can attend a meeting or get in touch with a committed detectorist who might take you out for a trial hunt. Many clubs also hold occasional public events to encourage the curious to give detecting a try. If you’re friendly, patient, open about your interest, and willing to learn, you’ll likely find someone who will give you some hands-on guidance. Then be honest with yourself: If you don’t catch the bug after a trial hunt or two, metal detecting is probably not your thing.
If it does grab you, you can look forward to many adventures, including specialized detecting trips—specialist tour operators in the US and UK secure the rights to search farms and other private land that hasn’t already been picked clean.
One other thing to know: It’s probably more accurate to describe detecting as a sport rather than a hobby, in that mastering it means mastering equipment, techniques, and rules.
The machines themselves pose a fairly challenging learning curve. Understanding how they work, where and why they can fail, and how to coax the best performance out of them takes time. Though the techniques aren’t terribly complex, you do have to get them right to make your detector work well. Early detecting trips, as a result, can be frustrating, but they get more fun as your skills improve.
Metal detecting is like a sport in another way. The writer John McPhee once wanted a synonym for sport and found this definition in an early-20th-century edition of Webster’s Dictionary: “a diversion of the field.”
Alan and Sandy Sadwin usually search Long Island’s Jones Beach, where not much of great monetary value ever shows up. But they regularly see porpoises, dolphins, and sharks in the waves, and they’ve spotted the endangered piping plover nesting in the dunes. I once apologized to Alan for taking up so much of his time, and he said, “Don’t. You’re my excuse to get out there and have fun.”
You can find ultra-basic metal detectors that cost under $100 and ultra-specialized metal detectors that cost $4,000 or more. As the price goes, so do the features—a bewildering array of them.
But this guide is for people wanting to dip a toe into the metal-detecting hobby. My goal was to find a machine with user-friendly features and go-anywhere capabilities that would help first-timers enjoy the experience—whether they were exploring at the beach, on old farmland, or out in the wilderness—and wouldn’t cost so much that it seemed like a long-term commitment.
Calls to manufacturers and store retailers helped me identify promising contenders. But even though I found the people I spoke with to be candid, I wanted disinterested advice too, so I looked for local enthusiasts and discovered the Atlantic Treasure Club, “Long Island’s oldest metal detecting club.” I booked train tickets to join the club’s next meeting.
The club members were generous with their time and greatly helped me refine my options. They knew that I was looking for an affordable machine that a novice could handle but also had some advanced features that a novice could grow into as their skills developed. With their insights, a few key features came into focus: a water-resistant or waterproof design, the ability to adjust the machine for different locations and for the types of metals sought, the size and shape of the detecting coils, a clear display visible in bright sunlight, and an ergonomic, lightweight build that’s comfortable to carry for extended periods. For metal detecting on the beach, everyone told me that headphones are a must to block out the noise of the waves and to hear the detector’s pings more clearly—and preferably Bluetooth headphones, since the cable of wired headphones is prone to tangling as you swing the detector back and forth.
I began by going hands-on with all three contenders at home. First I set the machines up—an easy job consisting of attaching the detecting coil, armrest, and cables—and then I went through the various quick-start steps that the owner manuals suggested, toggling through settings, adjusting the volume, and so on. Afterward I scattered a handful of small objects made of different metals on the ground to see how well (or even if) the machines would detect them and give me a clear audible signal that they’d found something.
After that, I did what’s called a seeded hunt. I dug a hole 8 inches deep in my backyard and put in a steel bolt, a short length of copper pipe, and my gold wedding band, the latter two strung on neon-pink shoelaces so that I’d be more sure of getting them back. I backfilled the hole, tamped down the dirt, and put the machines through their paces.
This test allowed me to try out each machine’s “discrimination” features: By using preset modes or manually adjusting a detector, you can make it ignore, or at least downplay, certain metals. Doing so can be useful if you’re hunting in an area with, say, a lot of rusty steel junk, like many a farm field—and, it turned out, my yard—but you’re looking for stuff made of brass or precious metals.
As a complete novice, I also wanted to spend some time detecting with experts. So, after a 15-month pandemic pause, in spring I reconnected with Alan and Sandy Sadwin, who generously took me on a pair of morning-long outings at Jones Beach on Long Island. They taught me the proper techniques for searching and digging, as well as a dozen other valuable tips from their decades of experience.
I used these skills again when I retested in , spending a day trialing three new detectors in my backyard and in the sand and surf on the Jersey Shore.
Top pick
This lightweight, ergonomic, and waterproof detector offers versatile preset modes for treasure hunting on beaches, in parks, and in the forest and field.
The Nokta Simplex BT is our pick for a first metal detector. It has four effective preset modes that are optimized for hunting on the beach, in open fields, and in parks, plus an all-metal setting that emits different tones depending on whether it’s picking up iron, precious metals, or copper and brass. It’s also fully waterproof to 16 feet, so you can use it right on the shoreline without having to worry if a rogue wave gives it a soaking.
The built-in battery lasts about 12 hours on a full charge, and you can extend that by plugging it into a portable power bank. And the machine works with Bluetooth headphones, which let you hear its beeps and bloops more clearly than through the built-in speaker and don’t get tangled like wired headphones do.
It’s extremely lightweight. The main shaft of the Simplex BT is made of carbon fiber, reducing its total weight to just 2.6 pounds. The otherwise similar Minelab X-Terra Pro has an aluminum shaft and weighs 2.9 pounds. That 5-ounce difference may not sound like a lot, but it is palpable, and it compounds quickly: In an hour-long hunt you can swing your detector to and fro a thousand times. Compared side by side with the X-Terra Pro, the Simplex BT is noticeably less tiring to use and puts less strain on the arm and shoulder.
It sees deeper into the ground than competitors. Of the three machines we tested, the Simplex BT has the largest detector coil, an 11-inch circular double-D (95 square inches). Generally speaking, a larger coil can sense objects at greater depths than a smaller one, and so it proved in our testing: The Simplex BT easily picked up a gold ring, a steel bolt, and a small piece of copper buried under 8 inches of dirt.
The Minelab Vanquish 440 (10-by-7 elliptical double-D, 55 square inches) and X-Terra Pro (12-by-9-inch elliptical double-D, 83 square inches) also picked up those items, but less clearly and strongly. Smaller coils have some advantages, including sharper pinpointing of an object’s location, but we’ve concluded that a bigger, deeper-sensing coil is better for first-time detectorists, as it can find more stuff and is more forgiving of imperfect technique.
The handle is particularly comfortable. A fully padded, ergonomic grip makes the Simplex BT less fatiguing to use than the competitors we tested. As with its low weight, that’s a big plus when you’re swinging your detector thousands of times during a hunt. The handles of the Minelab Vanquish 440 and X-Terra Pro are thinly padded and unergonomic—not uncomfortable, per se, but not as easy on the hand in comparison.
The screen is bright. Metal detecting means long days in the sun—and the rain, if you become a die-hard—and the Simplex BT’s well-lit, high-contrast LCD is easy to read even on a blinding noonday beach.
The manual is exceptionally useful. As you get more skilled at metal detecting, you’ll likely want to customize your detector’s settings. The Simplex BT’s manual is clear, detailed, and thorough, making customization, along with general setup and troubleshooting, much easier. A printed version comes in the box with the detector, tucked in a resealable bag so that you can bring it with you on hunting trips. Of course, it’s also available online, but you may find yourself without a signal out there in the never-never, or you may (like me) just prefer analog manuals to cramped screens. In any case, the Minelab detectors come with merely perfunctory quick-start booklets; the full manuals are digital-only and not as detailed.
The Simplex lineup is established and well regarded. The Nokta Simplex+ (now discontinued) was our pick in the first version of this guide, in . It was new then and had few reviews, but multiple members of the Atlantic Treasure Club encouraged me to put it on my list of detectors to test, and when I told Alan Sadwin that it would be our pick, he said, “Good choice. It’s got a great reputation, and I know a lot of people who use one.” (It went on to receive hundreds of excellent reviews from both new and experienced detectorists.)
Similarly, the Simplex BT, one of the newer, second-generation models, as of mid- has yet to garner extensive reviews. But between the original Simplex+’s history and our own experience with this model, we’re confident that the Simplex BT is a great choice for a first machine.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
The charging cable is an odd one, USB-A to 8-pin GX20 (I had to look that up). Not an easy item to replace if you lose it. On top of that, the Simplex BT comes without a charging adapter, so you may need a USB-A–to–C dongle to hook it to an existing power source.
Nokta covers the Simplex BT with a three-year warranty, but some owners complain of poor or unreachable customer service from the company; it’s based in Turkey, which at the least introduces a time difference that can make communication slow. Many online and brick-and-mortar detector shops carry the Nokta lineup, and they may be the more effective route for getting your machine checked and fixed if necessary.
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Also great
This is a multifrequency detector, like many high-end models, but maximizing its potential takes dedication.
The Minelab Vanquish 440 has a feature that the Nokta Simplex BT lacks, and that all of the retailers and detectorists I spoke with rated very highly: It’s a multifrequency detector. That means it emits electromagnetic fields at several frequencies at once, instead of at a single but variable frequency, which allows it, in experienced hands, to distinguish between different metals with better accuracy and to sift out unwanted stuff (typically steel objects and iron-rich soil or sand).
Multifrequency functionality is uncommon on detectors that we consider to be entry-level in price, but the value that experts put on it was so consistent and so high that we wanted to give readers the option in this guide.
That said, in my testing, I didn’t find the Vanquish 440 better at finding objects in my yard or on the beach than the variable-frequency Simplex BT (or the Minelab X-Terra Pro, another variable-frequency machine). It didn’t seem to distinguish more clearly between objects of different materials, either. But I chalk much of that up to the fact that reading a given detector’s signals takes a lot of time to become really expert at, just as coaxing the best out of any new tool or musical instrument takes time.
Like the Simplex BT, the Vanquish 440 comes with preset search modes for different scenarios. In this case, however, they’re optimized for the type of object you’re interested in (coil, relic, or jewelry) rather than the environment you’re in (beach, field, park). And it also allows you to manually customize it to fine-tune your searching.
Physically, the Vanquish 440 is more rough-and-ready than the Simplex BT, with a smaller but still easy-to-read LCD screen, a few simple buttons to toggle between its functions and settings, and a functional but unergonomic grip. Instead of a rechargeable built-in battery, it uses four AAs, so you may want to pick up some rechargeable versions of those. You can use it with headphones, but only wired ones.
Keep in mind that it isn’t fully waterproof—only the search coil and the pole are. Many people use their Vanquish 440 on the beach, but you need to be cautious at the water’s edge, because a splash could fry the control box.
Since we first wrote about metal detectors in , Minelab brought its warranty and repair service back in-house. The contractors Minelab had been using had developed a reputation for slow and poor work, but recent reviewers and Bob and Sandy Mault of Lacey Metal Detectors—both of whom personally own Minelab detectors and sell many to their customers—give the in-house service top marks for speed, care, and professionalism.
As we noted above, in our tests the Vanquish 440’s smaller search coil didn’t detect deeply buried objects (8 inches below the surface) as effectively as the Simplex BT’s larger one did, but small coils can be better at pinpointing objects, and their narrower focus can be an advantage in areas that are full of “trash” such as bottlecaps and nails. Although it isn’t our top pick, it’s a detector with a lot of adherents, and if you enjoy the challenge of getting the best out of a highly capable tool, it may be the right pick for you.
All three detectors we tested are of the VLF (very low frequency) type. That technology is the most common, it works well with most ground conditions, and it’s used in both the cheapest models and some of the most expensive machines. (The other main type, pulse induction, is strictly high-end.)
A VLF detector works by generating oscillating electromagnetic fields via the coil. The field penetrates the ground, reverses polarity, and then, in a sense, echoes back to the coil. If the field encounters a metal object in the ground, it induces an electromagnetic field in the object. That, in turn, alters the nature of the echo, and the electronics in the control box can interpret the change and indicate the likely identity of the metal—all metals respond differently to the electromagnetic field, yielding different echoes.
To generate the response from a metal object, however, the coil needs to be in motion. That’s why you see detectorists constantly swinging their machines in wide arcs. There’s a technique to doing it right: You have to keep the coil parallel to and close to the ground throughout the swing. I found that it takes more of a torso action than an arm motion: You rotate your hips and spine, keeping your arm and wrist in a roughly fixed position. If you use your arm alone, the detector moves like a pendulum, rising off the ground at either end of the swing; as a result, you get readings only in the center of the swing, when the coil approaches the ground, thus missing lots of potential targets.
Doing it right takes practice. I heard Alan and Sandy Sadwin calling out to me time and time again when I was just starting out: “Lower!” “Closer!” “Near the ground!” But I got better quickly.
One of the chief rules in the detectorist’s code of ethics is: Don’t leave a mark behind. That means filling the holes you dig, including on the beach. In grassy areas, you should preserve the grass as well as filling the hole. To make the task easier, make a semicircular cut through the sod, slice horizontally through the roots underneath, and fold the semicircle back like a flap. After you’ve dug and then refilled the hole underneath, pull the flap of sod back into position and gently tamp it down.
Other parts of the code are just good sense and common decency: Don’t destroy property. Don’t trespass. Do ask for permission to dig on private property (farm fields are popular hunting spots). If you dig up trash such as bottlecaps and beer cans—and you will—pack it up and dispose of it properly.
Also, be aware of and follow existing laws. There are strict laws against metal detector use on federal property, so national parks, monuments, wilderness areas, and other enticing places are a complete no-go. (Technically, it’s a felony to even possess a metal detector on federal property, unless it’s broken down into its component parts and thus rendered temporarily unusable.)
Most states and municipalities also have restrictions on where you can hunt on public land, such as parks and beaches. Try calling the state and local parks departments to learn the rules in your area. You may need to get a license, and sometimes pay for it. (The actual process is rarely more than filling out a form with your name and address—it’s not an FBI background check.)
Generally, you are required by the terms of these licenses to turn in to local authorities any find worth more than a few tens of dollars. In practice, “we don’t know anybody who does,” Alan Sadwin told me. But most detectorists make a good-faith effort to reconnect a valuable with its owner. A member of the Atlantic Treasure Club once returned a pair of platinum-and-diamond rings to their owner—a story that made the BBC.
The Minelab X-Terra Pro is similar in almost every respect to our top pick, the Nokta Simplex BT: It’s a waterproof, variable-frequency detector, it has a bright LCD screen and multiple preset search modes for beach, park, and field hunts, and it’s easy to use right out of the box. The charging cord is superior, as it clicks into place magnetically, which is far easier to do than lining up the 8-pin connector of the Simplex BT. But the Simplex BT has a larger search coil that penetrates a bit deeper into the ground, and most important, it weighs less. Although 5 ounces doesn’t sound like a big difference, over the course of a hunt, when you’re swinging your detector back and forth hundreds or even thousands of times, it swiftly becomes one.
The Garrett Ace 300 is a well-regarded, well-priced metal detector, as evidenced by its strong reviews. It was recommended by several shop owners, as well as by Garrett itself, when we explained our criteria: the best value under $300 for someone new to the hobby. But as our tests of this model alongside the Nokta Simplex+ (our former, now discontinued top pick) proved, the Ace 300 simply isn’t comparable in features, design, interface, and ergonomics.
The Bounty Hunter Tracker IV is the best-selling, most-reviewed metal detector on Amazon. It typically sells for $100 or less—but it isn’t worth even that. One shop owner told us, “People use it once and put it away in a closet forever,” and we saw why when we tested it. Most frustrating is the fact that the Bounty Hunter model lacks an electronic display to help identify objects in the ground. Instead it uses a needle that moves along a dial, like a speedometer. The result is almost impossible to read, because the needle moves too quickly for the eye to follow, and every indication is exactly the same: a wild, off-the-charts paroxysm. The needle jumps so fast from zero to off the charts and back, it’s difficult to pinpoint where the object you’ve detected actually is—by the time you notice the needle jump, you’ve moved the coil another foot or more. Put bluntly, the Bounty Hunter will turn more first-timers off the hobby of detecting than it will ever turn on.
We dismissed any other metal detector we encountered that, like the Bounty Hunter, had an analog dial rather than an LCD screen; they’re simply not helpful. We also stayed away from brands lacking an extensive history of making metal detectors—and predictably, two of the four that showed up on Amazon’s most-popular list in had vanished by .
This article was edited by Harry Sawyers.
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