Guides & Tips
36 articles covering every feature and technique.
How to Use Old Maps to Find Better Detecting Spots
Historical topographic maps from USGS reveal old homesteads, vanished roads, and forgotten settlements.
Guide6 minPermission Letter Template + How to Approach Landowners
A free template that works, plus tips on what to say at the door and how to track your permissions.
Guide4 minHow to Track Your Detecting Sessions with GPS
Stop wondering where you already walked. GPS tracking shows your path and lets you overlay past sessions.
Guide4 minDetecting as a Group: Live Positions with Radar
See your detecting buddies on one live map, with distance, shared waypoints, an SOS, and a shared base point.
Beginners7 minMetal Detecting for Beginners: What You Need to Know
From picking your first detector to digging your first target, without the overwhelm.
Tips4 minBest Weather for Detecting (And When to Stay Home)
Soil moisture, temperature, wind, and pressure all affect your detector. Learn what conditions are ideal.
Tips3 minHow to Organize Your Detector Settings and Presets
Different fields need different settings. Save, name, and share your configurations.
Beach5 minBeach Detecting: Tide Timing & Where to Search
Low tide is when the gold comes out. Learn how to time your sessions and where to swing.
Tutorial4 minDetecting Forecast: Plan Every Session by the Numbers
0-100 Detecting Score for any location, any day up to a week ahead. Soil moisture, wind, temp, humidity, and smart tips.
Tutorial3 minSetting Up Perimeter Guard: Stay Within Your Zone
Draw a boundary on the map. Get vibration alerts when you approach and audio when you cross it.
Tutorial5 minUsing the Permission Vault to Manage Permissions
Track landowner approvals, draw site boundaries, set expiry alerts, and generate PDF permission letters.
Tutorial3 minDownloading Offline Maps for Areas Without Cell Service
4 tile sources. Pan, zoom, download. Detect confidently with zero cell coverage.
Tutorial3 minUsing Track Overlay to See Where You Already Walked
Load past sessions onto the live map as color-coded overlay paths. Ten cycling colors make coverage gaps obvious.
Tutorial3 minCloud Backup: Never Lose Your Detecting Data
One tap to back up sessions, presets, permissions, and settings to Google Drive.
Tutorial2 minNight Vision Mode for Dawn and Dusk Detecting
Red-on-black display preserves your eyes. Toggle it for early morning and late evening sessions.
Tutorial3 minLogging Finds with Photos and Audio Notes
Six find types plus a one-tap Unsorted drop. Pin depth, value, weight, photos, and audio notes to every find.
Tutorial3 minComparing Sessions: Overlay and Split View
Stack past sessions or compare side by side to track your progress over time.
Tutorial3 minExporting Sessions as GPX, KML, or CSV
Full Google Earth support. Export individual or multiple sessions in the format you need.
Tutorial4 minUnderstanding Your Session Statistics and Personal Bests
Distance, finds, duration, averages, personal bests, top sessions, and weather insights.
Tutorial3 minShare Card: Show Off Your Session on Social Media
Shareable PNG session summary with path preview, stats, find breakdown, and weather.
Tutorial4 minImport and Align Your Own Maps Over Satellite
Pin a scanned old map, plat, or aerial photo onto the live satellite map at true scale, by hand or with control points.
Tutorial4 minFinds Intelligence: See What Your Data Tells You
A Pro dashboard that reads your logged finds to show your best ground, your best hours, and your best detector.
Tutorial3 minUsing the Tide Table to Time Beach Sessions
Read high and low tides from the nearest NOAA station so you reach the wet sand at the right hour.
Tutorial4 minMarking Sites with Waypoints
Drop, categorize, and navigate back to named map pins for promising sites, with GPX, KML, and CSV export.
Tutorial3 minReading a Session's Elevation Profile
Turn a recorded session into a smoothed elevation chart with ascent, descent, and range over the ground you covered.
Tutorial3 minBrowsing Every Find Photo in One Gallery
Every photo, video, and audio note from all your finds in one date-grouped gallery you can filter and zoom.
Location5 minBest Places to Metal Detect in Texas
Gulf Coast beaches, Spanish mission areas, river beds, ghost towns, and ranches. Texas detecting rules explained.
Location5 minBest Places to Metal Detect in Florida
Treasure Coast beaches, old Spanish shipwreck areas, freshwater holes, and state forest rules.
Location5 minBest Places to Metal Detect in Ohio
Civil War sites, canal towpaths, Lake Erie beaches, farmland, and old schoolhouse locations.
Location5 minBest Places to Metal Detect in Virginia
Colonial homesteads, river fords, and tavern sites. ARPA warnings for federal battlefield areas.
Location5 minBest Places to Metal Detect in California
Gold Rush sites, SoCal and NorCal beaches, mining towns, desert ghost towns, and BLM land rules.
Location6 minMetal Detecting Laws in the UK
Treasure Act 1996, Portable Antiquities Scheme, Scheduled Monuments, and the Code of Practice explained.
Location6 minMetal Detecting Laws in the US
ARPA, National Parks, BLM land, state parks, beaches, and the state-by-state patchwork explained.
Location5 minMetal Detecting Laws in Australia
State heritage acts, Aboriginal heritage protection, Crown land rules, and gold prospecting overlap.
Location5 minWhere to Metal Detect Near Me
How to find detecting spots anywhere: old maps, school yards, churches, fairgrounds, river access, and more.
Gear7 minBest Metal Detectors Under $500 in 2026
Nokta Simplex+, Minelab Vanquish, Garrett Ace 400, XP ORX, Fisher F44, and Nokta Legend compared.
Additional guides are added regularly. Beginners can start with the beginner's guide.