School me on what to look for. My youngest son is wanting to get into it and give it a try, i thought it would make for a good christmas present. I dont want to go whole hog and spend a pile of money but would like to get him a decent starter one. Just something we could do together walking around our land, we have a old county road that use to run through our land and it was a farm for alot of years so may be some neat stuff burried around here

I bought Joseph one a few years ago under $100. It was a piece of crap. You might have to spend a bit to get something he will enjoy using. Ernie bought a pretty good one a few months ago. You might ask him about it.

My wife has a good one I can check tomorrow and see what hers is. She also got the additional carrot stick and it is a must have for detecting. I don’t think hers was too bad expensive. But we have used it a bunch and found a bunch of cool stuff.

https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/minelab-vanquish-340-metal-detector?searchTerm=2835656

I bought my son this one for his birthday. He used it at the beach and loved it. It works pretty good and waterproof. Not submersible but can be used skimming across water at the beach.

Get hit a Garrett ace 150 or 250 and a pinpointer.

mindlab get one at lest in the 800 range

Hey buddy get him if he doing anything outside your ahead of the game 🙏

Whites

I'd go with a Garrett Ace 250. Not expensive and good quality with a digital display that's easy to understand and work. I've also heard their customer service is good but I haven't had to use them because I haven't had any problems out of mine.

I bought mine a cheap bounty hunter few years ago, I'm not sure how old yours is but it worked pretty good for a 5 yr old for a few years

I bought a Fisher F22 when I got into it a couple of years back. Pretty simple to use, but has some nice features. about $250. It would be a good starter one. Most people end up like me, using it alot for a few months then it sits in the corner of the closet......

Iam sure it will be a great thing for a year or two with him but seems like something we could do together, i spend alot of time with my older 2 playing 3 sports each in high school seems like i leave him behind alot more than i should. So if it gives 2 years of time together that he likes to do then it will be more than worth it

Just pry that wallet open and buy the boy a good one.

Whites only way to go

Bought a cheap one $200ish, it had the detector and some kind of wond and it's been awesome for the kids at the camp they find all kinds of crap with it

I had a nice Garrett few years back. Let someone here borrow it and can’t remember who has it.

I wanted to get a good detector 10-15 years ago. Before I pulled the trigger I decided both sons would probably want one each, also. Wound up buying 3 of the Garrett ace 250's. Haven't used them in a while but had fun with them.

And it looks as if Whites has shut down.

Whites are the best IMO

I would not spend over a couple hundred. You can easily get a Garrett ACE that will do everything you and he wants.

Buy a used MXT, very good detector