streak

@cudamark I am also in San Diego. You may have seen a bunch of my posts about getting into the hobby. I don't have enough privileges yet to message you but please can you message me and I will be able to reply. I would love to connect with you to learn from your local experience.

Thanks again to all of you for the great advice and guidance. I have reached out to a local group at the state level and will try and find one at the city level as well. Like with all of my other hobbies I See also that there are some YouTube resources that folks love and some with huge followings - not so much. It's really funny how that trend exists with almost all hobbies. I keep a fairly open mind, try to see through the BS and try and get the most out of all of them.

Thanks @TTT2866 and @rvpopeye for further input. Just when I thought I had the machine narrowed down to the D2 now I am having to look at all of the D2 vs Manticore comparisons thank TTT!! Keep in mind I will be mainly searching beaches and the D2 does appear to be highly recommended there but I see that you do have experience of these an other machines so do value your input. Great advice on checking at Goodwill. I will pop in to my nearest one to see what they may have.

I see that @BeachHunter is also in SoCal. Looking forward to some great tips. What gauge scoop works best in our type of beach sand?

Thanks for the welcome. Please see ny post here https://www.detectorprospector.com/topic/25403-should-i-get-started-with-this-hobby/

Ready to start my journey. Already some great advice to help me on my way. Any tips from other beachcombers then please chime in! Thanks

Thanks all for great input. I am not looking for social media media fame or instant gratification. I guess all I was trying to find out is if the whole beach prospecting scene is over done or of there is still room for a newbie like me. I have lots of patience, after all I am a fly fisherman and walk the beaches for miles reading the water looking for places that could hold fish. All that would happen now is that I would be holding a different instrument (or should I say tool!) while walking the beaches. I am tech junkie and enjoy all types of technology so look forward to learning the different settings. I also live on the edge of a canyon with trails where I run and hike. Who knows what they may hold? As mentioned I also need to budget for the various accessories like scoops, pin pointers etc. or look for a package deal including the Deus II or other detector.

As often happens I was researching something else and stumbled upon metal detecting. I have a lot of hobbies and spend many hours researching before buying any gear. I have already done the detector research but the bigger question is is it worth getting involved at all?? I live in San Diego and have easy daily access to the various beaches which would be my hunting grounds. I am an open water swimmer and surf salt water fly fisherman and have seen folks detecting from time to time but not very often. I have watched many videos and read a huge numbers of posts on various forums and understand that most of the time one finds junk and coins but now and again a nice piece of jewelry shows up. How over done is the hobby? Is it worth getting involved in 2024 as opposed to many years ago when the pickings were probably much richer? Is there a lot of stuff missed by folks using older detectors that may get picked up if I got say a Deus II with it's great beach performance? Go on, talk me in or out of getting involved!! Thanks in advance!