Spending the afternoon using metal detectors to search the beach or the park for lost coins and jewelry can be a fun, and sometimes lucrative, hobby, but examining the coils can help you make sure you have the best metal detector for the job. Small coils, often found on kids' metal detectors, are 6" or less, and are well-suited for finding small fragments of metal or natural gold flecks. Medium coils, 7" to 9", are considered general-purpose coils that are good for a wide range of activities, and large coils, 9" and higher, are usually used for finding big objects.
Digging up bottle caps and screws all day can be frustrating. To help eliminate this problem, try using a metal detector with a discrimination feature that eliminates positive results from iron or ferrous objects. These detectors can also usually emit different audible tones, depending on the type of metal that's being detected. This lets you save time by only digging for items that you think are valuable.
Using the right accessories can make your metal-detecting afternoon more fun and productive. Using headphones can make tones from your detector clearer and easier to hear, so you know when something is nearby. Keeping a fresh set of batteries on hand can help you avoid frustration, and a pinpointer can help you quickly narrow down possible locations for buried items. Try splitting up to cover more ground and talking on your two-way radios.