So you don't know which detector to buy hey?

Buying a metal detector is a somewhat traumatic experience in most cases.

You can find yourself wondering around the wide world of detectors for days or weeks trying to make the decision of "which one?" to buy.

Here  I will try to give a usable process of making that decision, which should help in most cases.

Firstly clear your mind of any preconceptions you have about brands and models. It can be very troublesome if you rule anything out of your thought process at the start of your journey, only to find a great machine (of a brand you had discarded) at the correct price when you are about to part with your hard earned.

Firstly you will need to decide if you are going for a brand new machine or a used machine. Once this decision is made you can then begin to eliminate the machines out of your range.

Secondly, set your minimum to maximum budget of what you need to spend on the machine.

Thirdly you will need to choose either Beech Land or combination machine.

Now here comes the hard work. You will now need to start listing all of the detectors within your budget range, be they new or old. That is if you have a budget of £300 with a minimum spend of £200 and are going for a second hand land machine, you will need to write down all of the machines listed on forums and web sites (for sale) in that range.

                                                                                     Used Land Detector list June 2012
Type of machine
BRAND
WHITES
whites xlt £300
LASER
laser rapier £270
laser power max II £200
laser scout £250
C-SCOPE
c scope 3mx £200
c-scopre cs1220 £250
c-scope 1220 xdp £255
TECHNETICS
technetics omega 8000 £265
MINELAB
etera 30 £265
FISHER
fisher f4 £299
fisher 1236 £265
GARRETT
euroace £225






Regton used machines
Metal detecting forum sales link
Joan Allen used detectors.
Staffs detectors, very good site for used machines.
Established Mike Longfield detectors.

Now it’s time to get some revision done, if you have not already done so.

There are plenty of places to glean information from. Metal detecting forums are a very good source of information. You could also use You-tube videos which are plentiful. At this point you will start to put a pencil line through one or two of the brands or models.

The late great Norfolk wolf, legendary  youtube detector reviews. © John Winter.

You will soon have whittled down the numbers to the final 1 or 2 machines. You now could do with giving the machine a test run. If the seller is serious enough about metal detecting, he/she will let you have a go with it somewhere, maybe a garden or local piece of scrub land. This is where you will get a feel for the machine, and how easy/complicated it is to operate.

My advice would be to spend as much as you sensibly can on your machine.

I hope this helps with your choice of machine, it’s always difficult to know if you are doing the correct thing when buying a detector.

good luck and god bless.