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The wife's asking me what I would like for christmas this year and I'm leaning towards a metal detector. But knowing little about the brands and what accessories I should have I'm asking for a little insight. Price range is between 150-250. Let me know what ya think I'm all ears. Thanks

The Tesoro Compadre, Bounty Hunter Tracker IV, and Garrett Ace 250 all seem to get good reviews in that price range. I have a slightly more expensive Tesoro and I like it. I think you would be doing the right thing though staying in that price range. Make sure you are going to use something before shelling out a pile of money. Stay in the price range and buy you a Garrett Pro Pointer to go with it. It will make tracking down that little piece of metal much easier.

http://metaldetectorreviews.net/

Tesoro Compadre. Great tool. can discriminate, life time warranty.

I have a lobo super trac. Tesoro is right here in my town. Great folks! They care about their product.

Several years ago I messed around with metal detecting, and my advice is to spend a little more money, it's worth it.

Buying a budget model is not recommended. Good technique is still the most important, but a middle range model will have useful features that save you time and let you find more subtle targets.

Also, get one with a weighted coil so you can use it in shallow water.

Tesoro compadre. And personally as my first detector I wouldn't want any more bells and whistles. Youtube

I have a couple of the more high end whites and garretts myself, but I bought an ace250 for my girlfriend a couple years back and she loved it. Gets good depth has some nice bells and whistles (notch discrimination, etc) and is light weight. I have seen quite a few comments on it in several metal detecting forums, and have yet to see a bad one. Price is generally around $225 for a new unit, Kellyco (online site kellycodetectors.com) has them for $212.

I have an ACE250 and some accessories i might sell. I like it but i have back problems so i haven't used it as much as I would like. Very easy to use and came well recommended.

2 accessories you should consider are a handheld pinpointer and a metal hand held sifter bucket scoop thing. in soft ground like sand you can use it to dig - it has holes so the sand or dirt falls out and anything solid stays in. speeds up work and ensures you don't miss any pieces.

I won an Ace 350 about a month ago and so far I like it. I am comletely new to metal detecting and I have only have about 7 hours of use. My finds are a grand total of 5 zinc pennies and a few beer bottle caps from my front yard. I do need to get a pinpointer so the wife quits yelling at me for diggin BIG holes in HER yard.

I traded my Ace250 to Mercuryman here on the forum. I found lots of stuff with it.

hirbonzig wrote:I do need to get a pinpointer so the wife quits yelling at me for diggin BIG holes in HER yard.

If you have good technique, you can dig with very minor disturbance to a grass lawn. The trick is to use a sharp trowel or more specialized digging tool to cut a "U" shaped hole in the sod, then peel up the flap. Once you've found the target, replace the flap. This way the lawn will appear undisturbed and the roots will quickly grow back to "stitch" the flap in place.

That's probably one of the best tricks I learned from a couple of months of messing around with a detector.

Dr. Cadmium wrote:

hirbonzig wrote:I do need to get a pinpointer so the wife quits yelling at me for diggin BIG holes in HER yard.

If you have good technique, you can dig with very minor disturbance to a grass lawn. The trick is to use a sharp trowel or more specialized digging tool to cut a "U" shaped hole in the sod, then peel up the flap. Once you've found the target, replace the flap. This way the lawn will appear undisturbed and the roots will quickly grow back to "stitch" the flap in place.

That's probably one of the best tricks I learned from a couple of months of messing around with a detector.

Just make sure the grass is not dormant...

Diggin4copper wrote:

Dr. Cadmium wrote:

hirbonzig wrote:I do need to get a pinpointer so the wife quits yelling at me for diggin BIG holes in HER yard.

If you have good technique, you can dig with very minor disturbance to a grass lawn. The trick is to use a sharp trowel or more specialized digging tool to cut a "U" shaped hole in the sod, then peel up the flap. Once you've found the target, replace the flap. This way the lawn will appear undisturbed and the roots will quickly grow back to "stitch" the flap in place.

That's probably one of the best tricks I learned from a couple of months of messing around with a detector.

Just make sure the grass is not dormant...

Exactly, that is why I quit searching parks that were not watered. I mainly concentrated on beaches and non-manicured fields.