The right metal detector comes down to four things: what you want to find, where you will use it, what matters most to you, and what you want to spend. Answer the four questions below and the finder lists the detectors we carry that fit, from Minelab, Garrett, XP, Nokta, Fisher, Quest, AlgoForce, Falcon, GroundTech and OKM, with a line on what each one does well. The detectors that match what matters most to you are listed first, followed by the others that fit your answers. For most people starting out in parks, yards and on the beach, the Minelab VANQUISH 360 and the Minelab X-TERRA PRO are good places to start.
Which metal detector for how you hunt: the quick answer
| How you hunt | Good place to start | Why |
|---|---|---|
| First detector, parks and beach | Minelab VANQUISH 360 | Multi-IQ, three simple modes, waterproof to 16 ft |
| Learning, and want to tune | Minelab X-TERRA PRO | 5, 10 or 15 kHz on land, Beach mode, full adjustment |
| One detector for everything | Minelab EQUINOX 900 | Park, Field, Beach and Gold modes, two coils, wireless headphones |
| Flagship coin and relic machine | Minelab MANTICORE or XP DEUS II | Most power and information, or fully wireless and light |
| Diving on a budget | Nokta PulseDive | Handheld pulse induction, waterproof to 200 ft |
| Serious diving | Minelab EXCALIBUR II | Whole detector rated to 200 ft, waterproof headphones |
| Small gold, first gold detector | Minelab GOLD MONSTER 1000 | 45 kHz, runs automatically |
| Gold in hot, mineralized ground | Minelab GPX 6000 | Automatic pulse induction, two coils |
| Caches and large, deep targets | XP XTREM Hunter | XP rates it to 16 ft on large targets; highly insensitive to small ones, per XP |
| Kids | Nokta Midi Hoard | 1.9 lb, waterproof, built for ages 8 to 12 |
Waterproof coil or waterproof detector: why question 2 matters
"Waterproof" means two different things on a spec sheet, and it trips up a lot of buyers. On some detectors only the search coil is waterproof: the GO-FIND series, the VANQUISH 340 and 540 Pro Pack, the GOLD MONSTER 1000 and 2000, the ORX, the original DEUS and the Nokta Impact. Their coils can go in a puddle or the wet sand, but the control box has to stay dry. On the fully waterproof ones the whole detector is sealed, so you can wade and dunk it.
Among the fully waterproof detectors, most of the Minelab and Nokta beach machines (VANQUISH 360, 460 and 560, X-TERRA PRO and ELITE, EQUINOX, MANTICORE, Simplex, Score series, Legend 2, Gold Kruzer) are rated to 16 ft (5 m). The Garrett Vortex VX5, VX7 and VX9 are rated to 16 ft (5 m) too. The CTX 3030, SDC 2300, Magnetar 9000 and Garrett's AT Pro, AT Max and AT Gold are rated to 10 ft (3 m). For real diving you need a detector built for it: the EXCALIBUR II, PulseDive and Scuba Tector Pro go far deeper, and the DEUS II reaches 66 ft with its RC remote and BH-01 headset. Check the headphones too. Several detectors are waterproof while the headphones in the box are not.
Which metal detector for coins, jewelry and relics
For most people the answer is a multi-frequency detector. It sends several frequencies at once, so it reads small jewelry and deep silver in the same sweep, and it stays steady on wet salt sand where single-frequency machines get noisy. Minelab calls theirs Multi-IQ, Nokta SMF and XP FMF.
My advice to most first-time buyers: buy the detector you will actually carry. A machine that weighs 2.6 lb gets swung for four hours. Spend the money you save on a pinpointer; it saves more time on every hole than any upgrade in the detector.
Single-frequency detectors still have a place. The X-TERRA PRO lets you choose 5, 10 or 15 kHz, and a fixed frequency is easy to learn because a target sounds the same every time. For iron-heavy relic sites, see our relic detector guide.
Which metal detector for gold nuggets
Small gold is a weak target, and gold country is usually mineralized ground. That calls for one of two technologies. High-frequency VLF detectors like the GOLD MONSTER 1000 (45 kHz), Garrett Goldmaster 24k (48 kHz), the Gold Kruzer (61 kHz) and the Fisher Gold Bug 2 (71 kHz) light up small nuggets and are lighter and cheaper. Pulse induction detectors like the GPX 6000, SDC 2300, Garrett Axiom, Magnetar 9000 and AlgoForce E1500 Plus see deeper through hot ground but give up target ID. Minelab's GPZ series uses its own ZVT technology for the deepest gold. The GOLD MONSTER 2000 sits in between: multi-frequency from 12 to 76 kHz at once. Several all-purpose detectors also have a gold mode, among them the EQUINOX 900, MANTICORE, Nokta Legend 2 and XP DEUS II, and the finder lists them in their own group under gold.
The AlgoForce E1500 Plus is sold as a control box and shaft; the base listing has no coil or power bank. It takes Minelab-style 5-pin mono coils, so buy it as a setup with a coil and battery unless you already own them. For the full rundown, see our Best Gold Metal Detectors guide.
Which metal detector for diving and underwater
Under water you either want a handheld pulse induction detector or a full-size detector built for diving. The PulseDive (rated to 200 ft) and Scuba Tector Pro (rated by Quest for dives to 60 m) are handheld and simple, but pulse induction gives no target ID, so you dig everything. The EXCALIBUR II sends 17 frequencies at once, the whole detector is rated to 200 ft, and its hard-wired headphones are waterproof. The XP DEUS II reaches 66 ft with the RC remote's red cap and the BH-01 headset, and is a full land detector the rest of the week. The XP ICON and ICONX are waterproof to 16 ft but need XP's BH-02 headset for use under water. Our underwater detector guide goes deeper.
Detectors for deep caches and large targets
Caches, buried tanks and large relics need a different tool. The XP XTREM Hunter is a two-box detector that runs from the DEUS II remote: XP rates it to 16 ft on large targets and says it is highly insensitive to small surface targets. The Nokta JeoHunter 3D and Invenio add imaging, so you see the shape of what is down there before you dig. GroundTech GR-3, GR-4 and A2 are 3D ground scanners that map what is under the ground, and the GR-4 Dual version and the A2 also have a built-in pulse induction metal detector. None of these replace a standard detector for coins.
Common metal detector buying mistakes
Buying a coil-only waterproof detector for wading. The coil survives the creek; the control box does not. If water is part of the plan, answer question 2 honestly.
Buying a park detector for gold. A coin detector finds big nuggets, but the small gold that makes up most finds needs a gold detector or an all-purpose detector with a gold mode.
Buying the biggest machine first. A flagship you do not understand finds less than a simple detector you do. Start where the finder puts you; you can always step up.
Ordering the AlgoForce E1500 Plus without a coil. The base listing has no coil or power bank.