6 Best Metal Detectors for Beginners (Sept 2023 Review)

Bounty Hunter TK4 Tracker Metal Detector Review

The Bounty Hunter TK4 (great name!) is the best metal detector for beginners on the market!

It has an 8” concentric coil that’s waterproof and fully submersible, but the control box is not. Look out for those larger waves and stay standing in freshwater.

The Bounty Hunter has three search modes – all-metal, tone discrimination, and full discrimination. They don’t take too much understanding so technophobes will get the hang of them quickly. Especially as it has the coveted autotrac ground balance – more on that later.

The modes are switchable. Choose which you want and off you go. All metal will obviously detect everything, full discrimination will ignore low-value targets like iron, and tone discrimination will emit a different tone for each find.

Out of all of my recommendations, I find this one easiest to hold and swing. Its ergonomic setup really suits me and lots of reviewers agree. I’m not sure why because it isn’t the lightest, but it’s certainly well balanced.

If you’re looking for exciting treasure over trash turn the adjustable sensitivity down. Turn it up, and the detector will alert you to everything – sometimes even minerals in the soil.

A good trick is to hold the detector over an item you want to find, maybe a coin for example, and see how far you can turn it down before the detector doesn’t register.

So, the ground balance – this is a real bonus on an entry-level model.

Automatic ground balance sets the Bounty Hunter to your soil conditions and figures out whether it’s highly mineralized or not.

This is a great feature that will save you time and aggravation. Highly mineralized soils tend to give out lots of signals that metal detectors love to pick up. Ground balance means your machine will behave.

The Bounty Hunter measures 28.2 x 10 x 6.2 inches and weighs 3.7 lbs. You’ll need two 9V batteries.

If you’re looking for the best metal detector for beginners that’s fantastic value for money – look no further than the Bounty Hunter TK4.

Garrett Ace 300 Metal Detector Review

The Garret Ace 300 is recommended everywhere as one of the best metal detectors for beginners.

This machine is simple yet informative and a great place to begin.

It has a large 7 x 10-inch search coil for better depth and discrimination and runs on an 8kHz frequency that you can adjust. 8 kHz means you’ll pick up pretty much everything if you listen closely, but using the kHz finds objects with greater conductivity such as gold.

The search coil is submersible which is a great benefit as you can search in freshwater for dropped jewelry.

Know what you’re searching for? Simply flick a switch to the relevant search mode. There are five to choose from – Jewelry, custom, relics, coins, and no discrimination.

The modes work by turning off segments from the Target ID scale. Other targets will still show up on the digital readout but the audio won’t alert you to it.

And speaking of audio – there are three tone IDs of low, medium, and high so you know what you’ve uncovered without beginning the dig.

The digital target ID function is really handy and not always featured on beginner models. Target ID will provide you with a numerical scale from 0-99. High-frequency metals such as gold register a high reading whereas low frequency like iron will fall lower on the scale.

This helps you pinpoint valuable stuff rather than junk and tin foil.

When you are ready to dig the depth indicator shows how far down you need to go. This is a handy pro and makes the hobby of metal detecting so much more pleasurable.

This package also gives you free headphones, a search coil cover, and an ACE environmental cover-up.

The ACE Garrett 300 weighs 2.8lbs and measures 22x11x6 inches. Its light, ergonomically designed, easy to swing, and sturdy enough for the more professional hobbyist.

You’ll need 4 AA batteries to power up.

For a more detailed Garrett ACE 300 review see here.

Fisher F22 Metal Detector Review

The Fisher F22 is another one of the best metal detectors for beginners and well worth your consideration.

It has a 9-inch search coil that’s waterproof and a superfast re-tune speed. Fast re-tune speed means once you’ve found and rejected a signal you can move on to the next without fuss.

Only the best entry-level metal detectors retune themselves quickly, which the Fisher F22 does with ease. It’s a major plus point that reduces boredom.

Discrimination levels are reliable. You can choose between jewelry, coins, artifacts, and custom.  This helps you locate the types of objects you most interested in.

Category ID numbers further help you along by indicating the type of metal you have found, such as iron or gold, and the two-digit number target gives a readout of 1-99. High numbers indicate gold, low numbers usually mean junk-type iron.

All this is displayed on a large LCD screen with simple controls.

Audio is a helpful feature and the Fisher F22 had four audio tones you can set to preference.

Audio tones alert you when you’ve found a target. If you set the audio to a high pitch for gold and bass for silver you don’t even have to look at the screen, just keep your eyes applied to the soil.

Other menu controls include a target depth indicator which shows how deep to dig for the target, and a battery level indicator so you’ no caught short.

It measures 22 x 8 x 5 inches and weighs 2.3 pounds – very lightweight and maneuverable. You’ll need 2 x AA batteries to power the detector.

If you’re looking for the best metal detector for beginners that’s ideal for all weathers, the Fisher F22 is a must-have.

Teknetics EuroTek PRO Metal Detector Review

Waterproof with an 8-inch concentric coil the Teknetics EuroTek PRO is capable of hunting for treasure in wet conditions and in freshwater streams. It’s the best metal detector for beginners that takes iron discrimination to the next level!

Stopping every few feet to dig up iron is what makes or breaks this hobby, so it’s important to get yourself a detector that can discriminate well.

The Teknetiks PRO has variable iron discrimination that you can adjust from 0-39, and FEtone which allows you to adjust the tones emitted from targets. This gives you a better indication of what’s under the soil before you sweat it out digging down.

This machine really doesn’t like iron! It also has an iron identifier LED that lights up when you swing it above yet more coke cans and trash.

Pinpointing is easy too – in some basic models, and more expensive ones, you need to continually move the machine over your suspected target to get a signal, but this one has pinpointing capability that allows you to hold it steady and locate the target easily.

3 tone audio identification can ping out audio tones set to differing metals, so set gold to high for example, and listen for the high-pitched tones.

There’s an adjustable sensitivity so you can fine-tune the machine to suit the soil conditions and your preferences. The very high sensitivity will pick up small earrings for example, but also iron particles in the soil. Not all entry models have this so it’s a top-rated bonus.

Last but not least it has a large no-nonsense LED screen that’s simple to understand.

The Teknetiks Pro measures 50 x 8 x 14 inches and 2.4 pounds. You’ll need a 1 x 9V battery to power up.

Lots of serious hobbyists recommend this machine saying it’s underrated, and that they keep one as a back-up in case their million-dollar machine breaks. That’s got to be a good review!

RM RICOMAX Metal Detector for Adults & Kids Review

If you are looking for a metal detector that detects all metals, this is a reliable one. This metal detector detects copper, aluminum, zinc, gold, and silver on the All-Metal mode. 

Reading this metal detector is super easy due to the LCD display. All of the metal detector’s key features are clearly displayed in use so that you can be sure that you are searching for treasure on the modes you desire. 

Winbest Pro Edition Metal Detector by BARSKA Review

This metal detector has two operation modes that allow for custom detecting. The detector also has highly sensitive detectors that have the ability to adjust to different terrains, letting you treasure hunt anywhere you like. 

If you are concerned about the detector being too loud and alerting others around you when you have a hit, you can use the device with headphones for more privacy. This is ideal for anyone thinking of metal detecting on beaches and in other busy public areas.