Metal detectors: where to buy
A metal detector finds the gold that pans and sluices never see: nuggets lying under the surface of desert washes, hillsides and old diggings, and meteorites too, most of which contain some iron. Detecting for gold is harder than hunting coins. Gold country is often mineralized, hot ground full of iron that makes a detector chatter and can sound like gold, and most nuggets are small.
Two kinds of detector do most of the work. VLF detectors send a continuous signal; the higher their frequency, the more sensitive they are to small gold close to the surface, and they are usually lighter and cheaper. Pulse induction (PI) detectors send short pulses and listen in between; they handle heavily mineralized ground much better and reach bigger nuggets deeper, at the cost of weight, price and some sensitivity to the tiniest gold. With either kind, ground balance, the setting that tunes the detector to the soil, decides how well it performs.
Tell the dealer what ground you plan to hunt, and look for one who offers lessons or field days: knowing your machine well matters as much as the machine itself. Detectors are not allowed everywhere, since national parks and many state parks ban them, so check the rules for the place you plan to go.
7 shops across the US that sell metal detectors. Each one links to its own website, so you can compare them one by one.
History Seekers Metal Detectors
Dealer · Online or by order · Heflin, Alabama · Ships nationwide
Online metal detector dealer run by Heath Jones, a relic hunter who has been detecting since 1992 and films his hunts on the History Seekers YouTube channel. Authorized dealer for Minelab, XP, Nokta, Garrett and Fisher, including gold detectors such as the Minelab GPX 6000, Gold Monster 1000 and Fisher Gold Bug 2, plus pinpointers, coils, digging tools and Gold Cube concentrators. Help choosing and setting up a machine by phone.
Also sells: Picks, shovels & hand tools · Fine gold recovery
Other gear
Gold pans & classifiers · Sluice boxes · Highbankers & power sluices · Dredges & parts · Drywashers · Sniping & crevice tools · Rocker boxes · Trommels · Picks, shovels & hand tools · Fine gold recovery · Assay & refining supplies · Paydirt · Mineral specimens · Rough & slabs · Lapidary equipment · Fossils · Meteorites · Petrified wood · Classes & training
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