20 stories about cool finds made with a metal detector (22 photos)

To feel like a treasure hunter, you don't have to go into the deep jungle or dive into the bottomless ocean. Sometimes adventures can be found in your own yard, you just need to arm yourself with a metal detector and a healthy curiosity. Treasure hunters from around the world shared how they did it in the comments of a popular Reddit thread, and here are the best stories.





1.



“My friend and I went in search of an old gold mining camp. We followed the maps and eventually ended up in the right place, only to discover that the town was actually on the other side of the canyon. We had to fight our way through bushes about four meters high, and after that we started finding different things just at every step. A friend found a pocket watch right on the side of an old wagon road. We realized that all the abandoned things were still in their places. It's as if they forgot about this place and ended up marking it on maps on the wrong side of the creek years ago. We even called off the search and reported the find to the Forest Service. We met with the archaeologist and took him there. He was delighted because all things remained in context. It was pretty cool to find a whole city.”

2.





“I found a meteorite in Kansas. There is an area outside of Greensburg where a meteorite exploded in the air before hitting the ground, scattering dozens of small pieces for miles. "They are very deep, so it took a lot of work, but my dad and I dug a 2-meter hole and recovered an almost 30-pound (13.6 kg) iron-pallasite meteorite that is worth almost $2,000 per pound."

3.



“Some Germans, who are keen on searching for everything related to World War II, found with metal detectors parts of my grandfather’s B-24 Liberator bomber, on which he was shot down. They were able to identify the plane by its serial numbers. Somehow, miraculously, my uncle ended up on the same forum where they wrote about their findings, and contacted them. They sent my grandfather the pieces of his plane."

4.



“I literally tried my luck with a metal detector only once in my life, on the beach with a friend when I was a teenager (my friend and his father were into this activity). We found a watch worth $20,000 (in 1995 dollars). I don't remember the manufacturer, but it's not Rolex. We took the watch to a jeweler who made a couple of calls and found the owner. He was delighted because it was a gift from his wife. He sent us a check for $1,000, and the jeweler gave us an awesome gold chain right on the spot. Denim shorts and high top sneakers need the perfect accessory, and we've found it!

5.



“I was walking along the beach with a metal detector when a desperate South African man came up to me and said that he had lost a chain that his mother (now deceased) gave him when he was little. His friend wrapped her in a towel and went for a swim, and upon returning shook her off the towel along with the sand. He had to leave, but he showed me where he was sitting, and I started searching. 15 minutes later my metal detector went crazy when it came across a beautiful silver chain. I then told this guy that if he had not asked me to find the chain, I would definitely have found it later, when he would have already left, and there was no way I would have been able to return it. There are coincidences in life."

6.



“I’m not into this myself, but a couple of years ago my brother was wandering around with a metal detector downstream from a popular swimming spot on the American River in California: looking for fallen watches, phones, cameras, etc. One day his metal detector was on something reacted, he turned the stone over and found an 11.5 ounce gold nugget underneath. Gold miners have been combing these rivers up and down since the 1849 gold rush, and since then amateurs have been regularly searching for gold here, so to find such a large piece was simply incredible luck.”

7.



“I found an old blacksmith shop in the middle of a farmer's field. I was researching for a historical society and their local expert told me to comb a certain area where he figured there would be a blacksmith shop. I searched a 3x3 meter area and found only small pieces of slag. I doubted that the forge stood exactly there, but the expert didn’t even want to listen to me. At noon, while everyone was resting, I continued to search in a spiral, going further and further from the place he had calculated. After about 30 minutes and the same number of meters, the signals became stronger, and the pieces of slag became larger. I even found one clay brick. One of the members of this society began excavations at this site. Eventually he came to rest against the corner of the forge's foundation. They unearthed the hammer, the anvil tools and the rest of the forge.”

8.



“I was working on a farm and using a metal detector I found a 600-year-old coin under a tree in almost perfect condition - as if it had fallen out of the pocket of the person who planted the tree while he was sitting down for a snack.”

9.



“I once found an old Roman coin. There are a lot of them, so they are not very valuable, but for me, as a lover of Roman history, it was really cool.”

10.



“I’m a little smart now, because I was at university then and working on excavations in the north of England. I found the tip of a Roman dagger and a relatively intact shoe with a bunch of nails. I also found a piece of a beautiful glass bracelet; beautiful turquoise blue glass with a bright yellow wave pattern painted on it. A classmate found an urn full of silver coins. Lucky asshole."

eleven.



“15 years ago, my brothers and sister and I found a World War II bomb in the Belgian Ardennes using a $30 toy metal detector.

I remember we wandered off-road in the forest for hours until we came to a place that looked like no one had been there for a long time. We found a couple of bullets almost immediately, and while I was examining them, my younger 9-year-old brother noticed something sticking out of the dirt.

At first we thought it was a rusty metal can, but when he pulled it out, it only took us a moment to realize he was holding a bomb. We didn't know if it had ruptured, so I told him to put it down slowly so it couldn't roll down the hill and hit something.

We didn't have cell phones then, so we rushed to the nearest road, which we followed to get to the village for help. Along the way we marked trees so as not to forget where we hid the bomb.

When we arrived at the village, we explained what had happened. Luckily, they believed our story and called the local police. When the policeman arrived, we couldn't understand a word he was saying (he spoke French and we only knew Dutch), but he eventually followed us deeper into the forest.

When we arrived the bomb was luckily still there and after inspection the policeman ordered us to leave as it was apparently too dangerous and needed to be dealt with by the bomb squad - but not before we had taken a photo for the local newspaper, posing next to the bomb. I still have this photo. Here it is (a cheap metal detector is also in the photo).”



12.



“When I was 10, I went into my grandparents’ garden with a metal detector and found buckshot from the Civil War. And of course she got lost while moving a few years later, damn it. Since then I haven't found anything cooler.

To compensate for this, I spent the next ten years studying wartime battle maps showing the positions of every regiment and battery during a particular major battle that essentially affected the entire area, and comparing them with modern topographic maps, serious study of primary sources, etc. d. In the end, I found out from which hill the grapeshot was fired, and from which side.

I'm glad that I was able to at least find her, even though she was lost. This played a big role in my becoming a history buff at an early age.”

13.


“I used to live next to the train tracks near the airport and an old industrial area. There used to be a station there to transport workers to the area (late 1800s, early 1900s). The station was demolished in the 30s and 40s when a highway was built nearby. My dad would take me metal detecting and we would find railroad spikes, pocket watches, wristwatches, antique silver dollars and other coins. The best prize was a gold locket with a photo of someone's wife/girlfriend and the words "Love, Annie." It wasn't the prettiest locket, but I bet someone was definitely kicking themselves for losing this piece of jewelry."

14.



“I usually only find lost little things on the beach. But one day I happened to find a diamond ring. The wife of a friend who was serving overseas at the time claimed she lost him on the beach with her GIRLFRIENDS. It took me all day, but I was able to find it. She was very grateful to me. It was only when he returned that I learned that she had lost the ring because she had taken it off while she was seeing other men. Since then I have hated her for taking advantage of me like that.”

15.



“I found a whole bunch of musket balls! Someone has clearly done a lot of shooting on our soil in the past.”

16.



“A friend and I bought metal detectors during the pandemic and went hunting at a local lake. And just imagine, damn it, we found grillz. Not a grill, grillz - silver teeth that lay in the sand on the local beach. We immediately started treasure hunting, lol.”

17.



“A couple of weeks ago I was driving along a country road near my house. There was a car parked nearby and a young couple wandering around, clearly looking for something. I stopped and asked if they needed help. The girl told me: “We had a fight and I threw the ring out of the window.” Seeing that the guy was beside himself with rage, I wished them luck and left. A few days later, I thought of borrowing a metal detector from a friend who is interested in the metal detector. I returned and searched for about an hour; I was ready to stop searching, but then I found the ring. Unfortunately, I have no idea who those two were and I just hope they make up."

18.



“We found a buried heart-shaped cement pond with rebar in the middle of the backyard, several inches deep. Mom was not happy with our excavations!”

19.



“My sister found a whole set of garden furniture in her new house. Metal chairs and table. At one point they stopped digging because they wanted to finish the backyard, but we think there's a lot more hidden there - she also found shoes and tools."

20.



“A couple of historians found some old records of a battle during the Indian Wars and suggested that it happened on the farm where I grew up. They went out on ATVs with metal detectors and found cannon pellets and cannonballs. At some point, the soldiers began killing their wounded horses, so they discovered a row of bullets and four horseshoes. Somewhere there is still a cannon, 2 Gatling guns and a bunch of rifles that no one has found yet.”