Bought a cheap metal detector off Amazon for $80 and found nothing but bottle caps in my backyard for 3 months

I got really into those treasure hunting shows last winter and figured I'd try my luck. Ordered a no-name detector from Amazon for $80, spent every Saturday morning digging up my yard in Cleveland. After 12 weekends I had dug up like 47 bottle caps, a rusty wrench, and what I think was part of an old lawnmower. Has anyone actually found anything worthwhile with those cheap detectors or do you have to drop real money on them?

2 comments

2 Comments

shah.shane16h agoTop Commenter

Wait, did you dig up 47 bottle caps in one yard? That's honestly impressive in a sad way lol. But yeah man you gotta step up your game a little. Those $80 detectors are basically toys, they can't tell the difference between a penny and a pull tab half the time. I started with a similar cheap one and it drove me nuts with all the false signals. After saving up for a couple months I got a used Garrett Ace 250 for like $150 and it changed everything. First weekend with that thing I found a 1940s wheat penny in my parents backyard. You don't need to drop a thousand bucks or anything but the $80 ones just aren't deep enough and they filter out nothing so you're digging every scrap of metal that's ever been dropped.

the_uma16h ago

47 bottle caps from one yard? Oh my goodness, that is honestly a bit shocking. I can't imagine digging up that many bottle caps and not a single old coin or anything interesting. You must have felt like you were just cleaning up someone's old trash pile instead of treasure hunting. I remember my first cheap detector gave me nothing but rusted nails and foil for weeks before I finally found a 1950s dime. I think you definitely deserve a better machine after all that work.