Metal Detecting Tips and FAQs: Practical Answers from Working Detectorists

Most metal detecting advice on the internet is too long, too generic, or too obviously written by someone who has never dug a plug. We're going to do something different here: short, specific, practical answers to the questions we hear at the shop most often.

This page is part of a larger set of guides at Serious Detecting. If you're looking for a comprehensive starter walkthrough, see Getting Started with Metal Detecting. If you want help picking a machine, the Best Metal Detectors guide is the place. This page is for everything else: how to actually use the detector once you have it, where to hunt, what to do when something goes wrong, and the dozens of small questions that come up in your first year. Skim it, bookmark it, come back to it when you hit a wall.

Table of Contents

  1. The Real Truth About Metal Detecting
  2. How to Use a Metal Detector: Proper Technique
  3. Reading Your Detector's Signals
  4. Where to Hunt: Finding Productive Sites
  5. Tips by Target Type
  6. Tips by Environment
  7. Common Beginner Mistakes
  8. Troubleshooting Common Problems
  9. Frequently Asked Questions
  10. Other Guides You Might Need

The Real Truth About Metal Detecting

If you only take one thing away from this page, take this: metal detecting is mostly a research and patience hobby with a metal detector attached to it. The detector is the smaller half. Where you swing it and how methodically you cover the ground is the bigger half.

This is the part that confuses beginners. They think a better detector finds more stuff. It doesn't, not in any way that matters. We've watched skilled detectorists pull silver coins out of a $250 Garrett ACE 300 from sites that other people had walked over with $1,500 flagships and missed. The difference wasn't the machine. It was research, technique, and the willingness to dig the iffy signals.

The other big truth: this hobby rewards repetition. Your first hour with any new detector will produce mostly trash and confusion. Your tenth hour will produce a few good targets. Your hundredth hour will produce a hunting style. Your thousandth hour will produce the kind of intuition where you can read a piece of ground from twenty feet away. Plan accordingly.

If you're brand new to all of this and want a structured walkthrough, start with our Getting Started with Metal Detecting guide. If you haven't picked a detector yet, read the Best Metal Detectors guide or the Best Cheap Metal Detectors guide for budget-friendly picks.

How to Use a Metal Detector: Proper Technique

If you watch experienced detectorists swing, the first thing you'll notice is that they swing slowly. Painfully slowly to a beginner's eye. There's a reason. Modern detectors need time to process each signal, and a fast sweep gives the electronics less chance to identify a target accurately. Slow down.

Sweep speed

Aim for two to four seconds per pass, end to end. That's slower than it feels natural at first. If your detector is sounding off chaotically and missing targets, you're swinging too fast. If you're not finding anything in a known-good area, you might be swinging too fast or too high.

Coil height

Keep the coil parallel to the ground, about one to two inches above the surface. Two of the most common beginner mistakes are lifting the coil at the end of each swing (which masks targets at the edges) and swinging the coil at an angle (which reduces depth on one side). Imagine you're scrubbing a floor with the coil, smooth and level the whole way through.

Sweep pattern and overlap

Walk slowly and overlap each sweep by at least 50%. If you can see your previous swing path, you're doing it right. The biggest source of missed targets is not weak signals, it's gaps in coverage. Hunters who walk too fast and don't overlap are leaving 30% of the ground uncovered.

For systematic ground coverage, work in a grid pattern: walk parallel rows in one direction, then come back and walk parallel rows perpendicular to the first set. You'll catch targets that were oriented in a way that didn't ring up clearly on the first pass. Some of the best finds come on the second-direction pass.

Pinpointing

When the detector tells you there's a target, you need to find the exact center before you dig. Most detectors have a pinpoint mode, a non-motion mode that helps you home in on the target's center. Engage pinpoint mode, sweep slowly over the target from two perpendicular directions, and mark the spot where the audio is loudest. That spot is where you cut your plug.

Better yet: use a handheld pinpointer once you've cut the plug. A pinpointer is a small handheld detector that lets you find the exact target inside the dirt. They cost $80 to $160 and they will save you so much time you'll wonder how anyone hunted without them. See our Best Pinpointers guide for which models we recommend.

Recovery: digging the plug

How you dig is as important as how you find. The goal is a clean, replaceable plug that leaves no trace.

  • For grass and lawn: Cut a U-shape or a half-moon flap with a serrated digger like a Lesche. Fold the flap back, attached at one side. Recover the target. Replace the plug, press it down with your boot, and step on it. Done right, the next person to walk over the spot won't see anything.
  • For fields and open dirt: A T-handle digger or compact spade works fine. Browse the shovels, diggers, and picks collection.
  • For beaches: A sand scoop is the only tool that makes sense. Browse the scoops and diving tools collection.

The leave-no-trace rule is not just etiquette. It's the reason private landowners and parks departments allow detectorists at all. One detectorist who leaves an unfilled hole costs the rest of us access to that location. For the full breakdown of laws, permissions, and the detectorist code, see our Metal Detecting Code of Ethics and Laws guide.

Reading Your Detector's Signals

A modern detector communicates with you in three ways: audio tones, target ID numbers, and discrimination behavior. Learning to read all three is the difference between digging trash all day and finding good targets reliably. (For deeper definitions of any term in this section, see our Metal Detecting Terminology reference.)

Audio tones

Most modern detectors use multi-tone audio: low tones for iron, mid tones for foil and pull-tabs and gold, high tones for high-conductivity targets like silver and copper. The exact tone scheme varies by detector, this is what your manual covers and what an air test reveals.

Listen for repeatability. A target that gives the same tone from two perpendicular sweep directions is more likely to be a real, identifiable target. A target that sounds different on each pass is often a piece of buried iron or a fragment that's hard to identify, and probably trash. Most experienced detectorists dig the repeatable signals and pass on the iffy ones (with one exception, see below).

Target ID numbers

Most detectors display a numeric target ID, usually on a 0 to 99 scale. The number is an estimate of the target's electrical conductivity. Lower numbers (0 to 30) are typically iron, foil, and small or low-conductivity targets. Mid-range numbers (30 to 70) are aluminum, pull-tabs, gold, and nickels. High numbers (70 to 99) are copper, silver, and large brass.

Important caveat: a target ID is an estimate, not a fact. The same coin can read 80 in one orientation and 76 in another. Soil mineralization, target depth, and adjacent metal can all shift the number. Use target ID as one input among many, not as gospel.

Discrimination

Discrimination is the detector's ability to ignore certain target types so you don't dig them. Set discrimination too low and you'll dig endless iron. Set it too high and you'll miss good gold and nickel. Most beginners run discrimination too high.

The pro move: in productive areas, run discrimination as low as you can stand. The exception we mentioned earlier, the iffy signals, those are where good gold and small jewelry hide. A detectorist who only digs the obvious 85+ signals is leaving gold rings in the ground. A detectorist who digs the marginal mid-tones is digging more trash but finding more jewelry. The choice is yours.

Iron Audio

Iron audio is a feature on many detectors that lets you hear iron targets at a different (usually quieter) tone. It's especially valuable in trashy old sites where iron and good targets are mixed. With iron audio on, you can sweep through a Civil War campsite and immediately tell when you're over a junk nail versus a brass button. It's worth learning.

For a deeper look at how detectors actually generate and process these signals, see our How Metal Detectors Work page and our Metal Detector Technologies reference covering VLF, PI, and Multi-Frequency.

Where to Hunt: Finding Productive Sites

This is where most beginners lose interest. They buy the detector, they spend an afternoon in their yard, they find a few coins and a lot of bottle caps, and then they wonder where to go next. The answer is: research, then ask permission, then go.

Research methods that actually work

Productive sites are usually old sites where people gathered. The trick is finding which ones in your area are old enough, accessible, and not already hunted out.

  • Local library local-history room: Almost every town library has a local-history section with old maps, town histories, and photo archives. This is gold for detectorists. Look for old churches, gathering places, fairgrounds, swimming holes, dance halls, train stations, schools, and homesites that no longer exist.
  • Old maps and atlases: Plat maps from the 1800s and early 1900s show buildings, roads, and property lines that have disappeared. The David Rumsey Map Collection online is a free, searchable archive of historical maps you can compare side by side with modern Google Maps.
  • Old newspaper archives: Newspapers.com and your local library system often have searchable old newspaper archives. Search for things like "picnic," "carnival," "dance," "fair," and the name of your town. You'll find references to gatherings at locations that may not exist anymore.
  • Aerial photography from the 1940s to 1960s: The USGS and many state university libraries have free historical aerial photos. Compare them to today's satellite views to find homesteads and structures that have been demolished.
  • Old-timers and local historians: The single best research source is a person. Talk to elderly relatives. Visit the historical society. Buy a member of a local detecting club a coffee. The verbal history of a region is full of "the old swimming hole used to be down by the bend in the creek" type clues you'll never find in a book.

Permission

You must have permission to detect on private property, and you should check the rules for any public property. Most federal land, state historical sites, and known archaeological sites are off limits. City parks vary, some allow detecting freely, others require a permit, others prohibit it entirely. For the full legal breakdown including state-by-state context and ARPA, see our Metal Detecting Laws and Code of Ethics guide.

For private property, ask the landowner directly. Be courteous, professional, and specific. Show them your detector, explain that you fill every hole and leave no trace, and offer to share interesting finds. We've seen detectorists secure access to incredible sites just by being polite and persistent. We've also seen detectorists lose access (for everyone) by being sloppy and leaving holes. Don't be that person.

Top sites for beginners

  • Your own yard. Start here. Especially if your house is older than 1970.
  • Permission from friends and family. Their yards are unhunted and they trust you. Easy first sites.
  • City parks (where allowed). Look for old shade trees, original picnic areas, and ball fields.
  • Old schools and ball fields. A century of recess change adds up.
  • Beaches. Public beaches are usually the most beginner-friendly site to learn on. Lots of recent drops, easy recovery, and no permission needed in most coastal states.
  • Old churches and meeting houses (with permission). Especially churches over 150 years old. Sites this old can produce pre-1965 silver if they haven't been hunted hard.

Avoid these on your first year: known historical sites (off-limits in most jurisdictions), cemeteries (off-limits and disrespectful), and Native American or archaeological sites (off-limits federally and morally). Stick to clearly legal, clearly permitted sites.

Tips by Target Type

Tips for finding coins

Coins are the most popular target for beginners and the most forgiving for new equipment. They give clear repeatable signals on most modern detectors and they show up almost anywhere people have congregated.

The frequency sweet spot for coin shooting is 6 to 10 kHz, which is exactly where most general-purpose detectors operate. The Garrett ACE 300 at 8 kHz is dialed in for clad and silver. The Nokta Simplex Ultra runs at 15 kHz, which trades a bit of depth on big silver for better overall sensitivity to small targets and gold jewelry.

Where coins hide: at the base of old shade trees in parks, near former concession stands, around old picnic tables, along the foul lines of old ball fields, under former bleacher seating, and in the worn paths between buildings on old school properties. Anywhere people stood, sat, or transacted, coins fell.

Tip: when you start hitting clad coins, slow down. A "clad spill" is often the surface evidence of a deeper, older coin spill below. Dig the clad, then keep working the immediate area carefully.

Tips for finding silver

Silver coins (anything pre-1965 in the US for dimes and quarters) are the unicorn beginners chase. Silver reads high on the target ID, usually 75 to 95 on a 0 to 99 scale, and it gives a sharp, ringing tone that you'll learn to recognize.

The biggest tip for silver hunting: hunt old sites. Pre-1965 silver only exists at sites that were active before 1965. That means churches over 75 years old, original homesites from before WWII, original picnic groves, and old shade trees in town parks. Newer sites won't have silver no matter how much you swing.

Set discrimination low when hunting silver. Old silver coins on edge can read down in the 60s, and clipped or broken silver pieces can read in the 50s. A discrimination setting that filters out everything below 70 will miss legitimate silver.

Tips for finding gold jewelry

Gold jewelry is harder than coins because gold reads in the same target ID range as junk metals. A gold ring might read 50 to 70, which is also where pull-tabs, foil, and aluminum read. Gold-hunting is mostly a discipline problem: you have to dig the iffy signals to find gold.

The best places to find gold jewelry: beaches (especially the high-water mark in the wet sand), swimming holes, public pools and surrounding grass, basketball and volleyball courts, and any place people sweat and play. Sweating shrinks fingers, lotion makes rings slide off, and active people lose chains.

Frequency matters more for gold than for coins. Higher operating frequencies (15 kHz and above) are more sensitive to small gold than low frequencies. The X-TERRA Pro at 15 kHz, the Simplex at 15 kHz, and the Vanquish in multi-frequency mode are all good gold-jewelry options. For dedicated small-gold and nugget hunting, see our Best Gold Metal Detectors guide.

Tips for finding relics

Relic hunting (military buttons, buckles, bullets, household items from old homesites) is its own discipline. The frequency sweet spot is lower (5 to 10 kHz) because most relics are larger lower-conductivity items.

The most important relic-hunting feature is iron audio. Most relic sites are full of iron junk: nails, horseshoes, rebar, broken tools. Without iron audio, you'll dig hundreds of nails for every brass button. With iron audio properly set, you can mentally filter out the iron and focus on the brass and lead.

The Minelab X-TERRA Pro at 5 kHz with iron audio enabled is one of the best cheap relic detectors on the market. For a deeper look at relic-specific machines, see our Best Relic Metal Detectors guide.

Tips for finding gold nuggets

Nugget hunting is its own world. Most cheap general-purpose detectors run at 7 to 15 kHz, which is too low for sub-gram gold. Tiny natural gold needs a high-frequency machine, ideally 30 kHz and up. The Nokta Gold Kruzer at 61 kHz and the Fisher Gold Bug Pro at 19 kHz are both strong cheap picks. For serious nugget hunting in highly mineralized soil, you'll eventually want a Pulse Induction machine.

Where to nugget hunt: known goldfields. Arizona, Nevada, California, Idaho, Alaska, and parts of the Southeast and Appalachia all have active gold districts. Research USGS records, talk to local prospectors, and join a prospecting club before you commit to a region.

For the full lineup of gold-capable detectors and our recommendations by skill and budget, see our Best Gold Metal Detectors guide. If you'd rather pan than swing, see the Best Gold Panning guide.

Tips by Environment

Tips for park and yard hunting

The bread and butter for most beginners. Parks have constant deposits (people drop change every day) and old parks have layered history.

  • Hunt the old parks first. If your town has a 100-year-old central park, hunt that one before any of the newer ones.
  • Work the trees. Old shade trees collect coins like nothing else. Sit-under spots, swing-from spots, picnic-near spots.
  • Map the original layout. Modern park layouts often differ from the original layout. Look at old aerial photos. The original picnic area is often the most productive spot, even after it's been moved.
  • Move slowly. Heavily-used century-old bench areas have produced dozens of coins for patient hunters. Don't rush past.

Tips for beach hunting

Beaches are forgiving for beginners (no permission needed in most coastal states, soft digging) and rewarding (people lose jewelry constantly). They're also where saltwater interferes with single-frequency detectors.

  • Hunt the high-water mark. The line where the tide reached its highest point on the previous tide is where the lightest debris (and a lot of jewelry) ends up.
  • Hunt after storms. Big surf rearranges the beach. Two or three days after a major storm is often the best window for the season.
  • Hunt the wet sand and surf line on saltwater beaches with a multi-frequency detector. Single-frequency detectors will chatter constantly. The Vanquish line was built for exactly this.
  • Use a sand scoop. Don't try to dig sand with a hand digger. A proper aluminum or stainless scoop will make beach hunting infinitely faster. See the scoops and diving tools collection.
  • Watch the tides. Low tide opens up acres of new ground. Plan your hunts around the tide chart.
  • Hunt the towel line. The strip of beach where everyone laid out their towels for the day is where rings and chains came off and got buried.

For the full breakdown of which detectors handle saltwater, wet sand, and surf, see our Best Beach Metal Detectors guide.

Tips for old homesite hunting

Old homesites (buildings that no longer exist, especially pre-1900) are some of the most productive sites you'll ever find. They're also some of the trashiest, full of nails, horseshoes, broken tools, and household debris.

  • The dripline of where the house stood. Coins fell from porches, pockets, and clotheslines and ended up in the strip of dirt right at the edge of the original roof line.
  • Old footpaths. The path between the house and the outhouse, the path to the well, the path to the barn. People dropped change walking these paths every day for decades.
  • Trash dumps. Every old homestead had a dump pit, usually in a low spot or a corner of the property. Old bottles, household items, and the occasional coin live there.
  • Around the original tree line. Old apple trees, old oaks, anywhere shade made people stop and rest.
  • Use iron audio. Old homesites have an iron-to-good-target ratio of maybe 50 to 1. Without iron audio you'll spend the whole day digging nails.

Tips for field and farm hunting

Plowed fields are the most productive sites in older parts of the country (the East Coast, the Midwest, the South). Centuries of plowing turn the soil and bring deeper targets to within detector range.

  • Hunt freshly plowed fields after a rain. The rain settles the soil around targets and dramatically improves detection.
  • Get permission and stay in lawful ground. Many fields are private property. Some are protected archaeological sites. Always confirm before swinging.
  • Use a larger coil. A 12 to 15 inch coil covers ground faster and goes deeper, which matters when you're working acres of farmland. See our Search Coil Selection Guide for which size fits which job.
  • Mark your finds and keep records. Some field finds matter historically. A documented find with GPS coordinates is more valuable than a mystery coin in a coffee can.

Tips for woods hunting

Woods detecting is harder, slower, and often less productive than open ground, but it's where some of the most interesting historical finds come from. Old roads, old homesites, and old logging camps that have been reclaimed by forest.

  • Bring extra gear. Bug spray, water, a backpack, a good knife, a phone with GPS. Woods are unforgiving.
  • Look for unnatural features. Stone walls, rectangular depressions, old foundations, sudden treeless patches. These are signs of past human use.
  • Take a smaller coil. Roots and rocks make a 15-inch coil unusable. A 6 to 9 inch coil is ideal for navigating tight terrain.
  • Tell someone where you'll be. Woods detecting is the easiest detecting to get hurt or lost doing. Always have a check-in plan.
  • Watch for hunters in season. Wear bright orange in deer season. Hunters and detectorists rarely cross paths but when they do, it can go badly.

Common Beginner Mistakes

Years of working with new detectorists has shown us the same handful of mistakes over and over. If you avoid these, you're already ahead of most beginners.

  • Buying the cheapest detector on Amazon. A $59 toy detector will detect a quarter in a sandbox and almost nothing else. The price difference between a toy and a real entry-level detector is the difference between sticking with the hobby and giving up. See our Best Cheap Metal Detectors guide for picks that are actually worth buying.
  • Skipping the manual and the test garden. The first hour of setup saves the next ten hours of frustration.
  • Swinging too fast. Beginners always swing fast because they want to cover more ground. Slow down. You'll find more.
  • Setting discrimination too high. Filtering out everything below 70 means you miss small gold and gold jewelry. Run discrimination low and learn to read the iffy signals.
  • Lifting the coil at the end of swings. The classic beginner habit. Practice keeping the coil parallel and level all the way through.
  • Not using a pinpointer. A $100 pinpointer cuts recovery time from minutes to seconds. Skipping it because it seems optional is one of the most common beginner mistakes. See the Best Pinpointers guide.
  • Hunting the same site over and over. Detectorists who only hunt their yard plateau within a few weeks. Get to new sites.
  • Leaving holes unfilled. The single fastest way to lose access to good sites for yourself and the rest of the community. Always fill your holes.
  • Quitting after the first month. Most beginners give up before they've found their tenth silver coin. Push through the first few months. Year two is when this hobby gets really good.

Troubleshooting Common Problems

"My detector won't stop chattering"

Three usual causes:

  1. Sensitivity too high. The fastest fix. Drop sensitivity by 20% and see if the chatter stops. You'll lose a little depth in trade for a stable detector.
  2. Electromagnetic interference. Power lines, radio towers, electric dog fences, cell phone bases, and other detectors all interfere. Move at least 100 feet away or change frequency if your detector supports it.
  3. Mineralized ground that needs ground balancing. If the chatter stops when you stop sweeping, you're hearing the soil. Ground balance the detector (auto or manual depending on your model) and continue.

"I dug a target and there's nothing there"

Several possibilities:

  • The target broke up during digging (rusty iron is the most common).
  • The target is at the bottom or in the wall of the hole. Re-scan the hole and the dirt pile carefully.
  • A piece of mineralized rock (a "hot rock") sounded like a target.
  • The target leached chemicals into surrounding soil over decades, creating a halo that reads but isn't a target itself.
  • The target reburied itself when you cut the plug.

Rescan the hole and the loose dirt with both your detector and your pinpointer. If nothing shows up after a careful sweep, fill the hole and move on.

"The detector picks up signals when nothing's there"

Air signals (signals over empty ground) usually mean external interference. Power lines, generators, radio towers, and other detectors are the most common culprits. Try changing frequency or operating in a different mode. If air signals only happen near the end of your swing, you might be lifting the coil, which the detector reads as a sudden change in distance from ground.

"My detector won't pick up gold chains"

Fine gold chains are notoriously hard to detect because each tiny link is its own micro-target. The detector sees a thousand small links instead of one chain. The clasp and the pendant are usually larger and detect more reliably. High-frequency detectors (the Gold Kruzer at 61 kHz, for example) are noticeably better at thin chains than coin-frequency detectors.

"My detector picks up coke (charcoal) as a target"

Coke is carbonized coal. It's actually conductive, similar to a coin in some respects. Old coal-burning sites and certain industrial areas will have coke in the soil and your detector will hit on it. There's no setting that perfectly filters it out, you just learn to recognize the signal pattern (often inconsistent and dispersed across an area).

"My detector won't ground balance"

If auto ground balance won't lock in, try manually ground balancing on clean ground away from any metal. If manual ground balance won't lock either, you may be on extremely mineralized ground that requires a multi-frequency or pulse induction detector to handle.

"How do I know what coil to use?"

The basic rule: smaller coils (5 to 8 inches) for trashy ground and small targets. Standard coils (9 to 11 inches) for general hunting. Larger coils (12 to 15 inches) for open fields and depth. For the full breakdown of coil sizes, shapes, and configurations (DD vs concentric vs monoloop), see our Search Coil Selection Guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

How deep can a metal detector detect?

Most general-purpose detectors will reliably find coin-sized targets in the 6 to 10 inch range in average soil, with bigger silver coins and larger relics detectable at 10 to 14 inches. Mineralized soil reduces depth. Larger search coils increase depth on bigger targets but lose sensitivity on small ones. For a deeper dive on detection depth and the variables that affect it, see our How Deep Do Metal Detectors Go guide.

What kinds of things will a metal detector find?

Any metallic object: gold, silver, copper, brass, aluminum, lead, iron, nickel, tin, bronze. Metal detectors will not find non-metal items (gemstones, diamonds, pearls, bone, paper, ceramics, stone). A detector that "finds gold" finds the metal in the gold object, which is why it can also find aluminum that has similar electrical properties.

Can I use a metal detector anywhere?

No. You need permission for private property. Most federal land (national parks, monuments, designated archaeological sites) is off-limits. State and local rules vary. Always check before you swing. See our Metal Detecting Laws and Code of Ethics guide for the full breakdown.

What's the best metal detector for beginners?

The Nokta Simplex Ultra at around $299 is our most-recommended beginner detector. Garrett ACE 300 and Minelab X-TERRA Pro are equally strong picks in the same price band. See our Best Metal Detectors guide for the full lineup, or the Best Cheap Metal Detectors guide if you're focused on value.

How long does it take to get good at metal detecting?

Plan on a weekend (eight to ten hours of hunting) to feel comfortable with your detector's audio. Plan on three months to start finding consistent good targets. Plan on a year before you really know your machine and your local sites. The learning curve is real but every weekend gets better.

Can a metal detector detect gold specifically?

No. Gold has electrical properties similar to aluminum and other low-conductivity metals, so any detector that detects gold will also detect aluminum, foil, and pull-tabs. There's no setting that finds only gold. The trick is learning your detector's tones and accepting that gold-hunting means digging some trash.

Do I need a waterproof metal detector?

If you'll hunt creeks, lake bottoms, beach surf, or rainy-day sites, yes. Most modern detectors offer full waterproofing at no premium. Browse the waterproof metal detectors collection.

Will multiple detectors interfere with each other?

Yes, if they're operating on the same frequency within about 100 feet of each other. Most modern detectors have a frequency-shift feature that lets you offset slightly to eliminate interference. If you're hunting with friends, have at least one person frequency-shift.

Why does my detector pick up coke?

Coke (carbonized coal) is conductive and reads similarly to a coin or other metal target. Old coal-burning sites and industrial areas often have coke in the soil. There's no perfect filter, you learn to recognize the signal pattern.

How often should I service my detector?

Only when something goes wrong. Modern detectors are sealed electronic devices with no field-serviceable parts. If yours starts misbehaving in a way that simple troubleshooting doesn't fix, contact the manufacturer or an authorized service center.

How often should I clean my coil cover (skidplate)?

About once a month with regular use, more often if you hunt wet or sandy ground. Dirt, sand, and moisture trapped between the coil and the cover can cause false signals and reduce performance.

Why do I sometimes get a signal at the end of my swing?

Almost always because you're lifting the coil at the end of the swing. The detector reads the sudden change in distance from the ground as a signal. Practice keeping the coil parallel and level all the way through each pass. Slow, low, level.

Can I extend my coil cable?

Generally no. The coil cable is electrically tuned to the coil at manufacture, so extending it usually degrades performance. Some manufacturers sell official extension cables for specific detector and coil combinations. If you need more cable, contact the manufacturer to see if they offer a tested extension. Don't splice your own.

Are after-market depth-boosters worth buying?

No. The depth on a well-designed detector is determined by the detector's electronics and the coil. After-market boosters that claim to add depth either don't work or add audio amplification that doesn't actually find more targets. The only real way to increase depth is a larger coil or an upgrade to a better detector.

This page covers practical tips and the questions that come up most often. For deeper dives on specific topics, here's the rest of the guide cluster.

Buying guides

Top picks by brand

Learn the fundamentals

Still Have Questions?

If you can't find your answer here or in the other guides, call us, chat with us, or email. We sell every major detector and accessory mentioned across these pages and we'd rather help you pick the right setup than the most expensive one. Browse the full metal detectors collection, the beginner and intermediate detectors, or the specials and promotions for current deals. Free U.S. shipping on orders over $100, hassle-free returns, and factory-trained detectorist support on every order.