Your New Metal Detector, Tips for Finding Treasure

Metal detecting is a fun hobby which lets you spend time enjoying the outdoors while searching for the treasure of a lifetime. While few people actually find that buried treasure, a chest full of gold coins, many people do find jewelry, coins and other small treasures which can make the hobby very addicting. However, nothing is worse than buying your first metal detector and spending hours searching only to find a few bottle caps and gum wrappers. That is why knowing the right places to start your search is so important. The best place to begin your quest is at the local school playground. These playgrounds are the perfect place to begin because they are high traffic areas, the ground is easy to search, and the quantity of items lets you practice and familiarize yourself with your new metal detector.

The first reason the playground is the perfect place to start is because of the high volume of traffic. Every day, hundreds of kids and their teachers or parents frequent the playground. Each of these people could be carrying change or wearing jewelry that could possibly be lost. After all, on the playground people are running, climbing, swinging and sliding. All of these activities make it easy for coins, jewelry or other small objects to be lost, often without the person even knowing they have lost something.

The second reason why the playground is such a good place is because the ground is so easy to search. Today, most playgrounds have woodchips, possibly sand, covering them. When coins or jewelry are dropped, they easily fall between the woodchips and are out of sight. However, the items often only go down a few inches, at most, to where the woodchips meet the sold ground beneath. When you discover one of these lost objects with your metal detector, moving the woodchips aside is done quickly and easily. Also, as any good detector knows, you should always cover your holes and moving the chips back is very easy as well.

Finally, because of the variety of objects dropped or lost on the playground, it becomes the perfect place for you to practice and get to know your metal detector. Different detectors do different things. Some just beep, some let off different tones depending on what you find and some can be set to tone out certain objects, like scraps or wrappers, altogether. The playground will have wrappers, pennies, nickels, dimes, toy cars, zippers, quarters, and who knows what else. As you come across each of these different items you will get a better feel for your detector, the sounds and the sensitivity. And because the ground is so easily searched it won't bother you when you find the occasional piece of junk like it would if you were digging a six inch whole in solid ground or in a root infested backyard.

While striking it rich is probably not going to happen on the playground, it is the best place to start your metal detecting. The large number of people, the ease in searching and the variety of items all make it very worth while. Practicing here can help you become a more skillful detector, one who is ready to search the old homesteads or trails without wasting your time digging up junk. Plus, you are more than likely to find at least a couple of dollars in change on the average size school playground and maybe even something nicer like a necklace or ring.