There are so many different metal detecting accessories on the market – as they say, too many choices leads to much confusion. I will give you an insight as to what accessories I have found most useful in making my hunting easier but ultimately you will need to decide for yourself what will work best for you and your style of detecting.
- PRO POINTER
The pro pointer will help you locate a target quickly and easily.
I know I mentioned in a previous blog post that you probably wont use this at the beach (as you will use your beach scoop instead) but I was very very wrong! Even at the beach, the Garrett brand I use works wonders in both the dry and wet sand as an addition to the scoop when I am battling to find the target. A little handy tip, if you switch on the pointer and place it in the wet sand, you will get false signals. Switch it off, place it in the wet sand and then only switch it on – this allows the pointer to adjust to the wet sand environment and it will then search with no false signals.
So at the beach, park or wherever else I may be digging, this is one invaluable little tool that comes with me everywhere. Highly recommended.
- BEACH SCOOPS
Most of us enjoy beach detecting, probably the easiest place to pick up gold / silver jewellery and modern coins – so when your detector picks up a signal, you gonna need to dig that sand! The idea is really simple, scoop up sand in the target area, let the sand fall through the scoop holes and your gold ring (or more likely a pull tab or bottle top) remains in the scoop.
The little hand scoop comes in two varieties, a metal and a plastic version. The plastic version some prefer as it wont interfere with your detector but this scoop is good for the dry sand only. The metal scoop is more hardy and will work better in the wet sand but still not ideal. Firstly, it becomes a bit of a back breaker to bend over on each dig and scoop up the sand, and secondly with the wet sand, the sand is not going to flow out the holes with ease – it takes a lot of effort to shake the scoop and get the wet sand out through the holes.
That brings us to the metal scoop with long handle. This is what I have been using of late, mine being made of steel and is pretty darn heavy but rock solid. The idea is you can scoop without bending down, so much more comfortable and I find this method the easiest for both dry and wet sand. The drawback is you carrying an accessory that is more likely the same size in length as your detector, and slightly more heavy! I am sure there are much lighter ones on the market compared to the one I use but I like the fact that mine looks indestructible…
- BEACH BOOTIES
In summer, it really does not matter, you can go bare foot if you wish, but in winter my feet would freeze especially at some of the Cape Town beaches on the Atlantic side so I decided to get something thats gonna keep my feet warm. I found a pair of Reef diving booties at Sportsmans Warehouse for around R400 and they do the job perfectly. They have rubber grip at the bottom, a zipper on the side with neoprene material behind it so no water or sand gets in. It is important to note that I only detect on the wet sand and not in the water, but this way when I am detecting on the wet sand and the water runs over my feet as the wave breaks, my feet stay completely dry.
- LESCHE DIGGER
There are many choices when it comes to digging and I started off using a cheap mini garden spade. After research, it quickly became apparent that the Lesche digger was the industry standard with exceptional reviews all round. I quickly ordered one and it did not disappoint. Extremely tough, I doubt I will be able to bend or break it even in tough conditions.
Be careful when purchasing though, the digger comes in two options, with the serrated edge on the left or on the right side of the digger.
It does not necessarily mean that if you left handed, you get the serrated edge on the left, you need to figure out how you dig and which side will work best for you. For me it was even more confusing, I am right handed but unlike most people, when I eat food, I have the knife in my left hand rather than the right. Most people think thats weird, I think its normal and that everyone else is just weird!
So be careful when buying…
- TREASURE POUCH
Your pockets will soon become very full if you don’t have some sort of a pouch for your finds and trash. Most pouches are divided into two sections, one for your finds and one for your trash. I used to have an open pouch but I was a little paranoid that I could lose some of my finds when bending over that I decided to get the Garrett Camo Treasure Pouch. It zips closed, so no chance of losing anything, is made of high quality material and the pro pointer and accessories fit nicely on to the front of the pouch. Once you open the first zipper, there is place for a large amount of trash and then there is a second zipper inside with a smaller section for all your finds. So it’s really secure – not sure why they made the smaller section so small though, I thought it could have been a little bit bigger but I am yet to prove that I need more space than provided for my finds.
So those are the basic accessories that I use and recommend but again you will need to find things that work for you – at the end of the day it’s all about making your digging experience that much easier.