To begin with, you have to figure out the areas in which you will be searching for metal. You can find plenty of metal detectors that work best on beaches, if that is where you want to look. In the event you want to track down Civil Wars relics, you might want to find soil-centric metal detectors. When you first start looking for a metal detector the best approach is to head online and look at what is on offer, when you have decided between 3 or 4 different detectors head over to some metal detector forums, there are plenty around, and start gathering information and asking questions. Narrow down your choices to three or four after you've done some Internet research. Online forums are an excellent source of information on metal detectors, so be sure to join a couple, read and start asking questions. There are certain things that will impact your decision, the biggest no doubt being the cost, for somebody just starting out you don't want to spend too much on crazy priced detectors, you can pick up some from anywhere between $200 to thousands of dollars. When you first start out look for a machine costing around $200 and also budget to spend a further $100 on accessories. If you really are on a budget you can find even cheaper detectors, however they will likely be of a very low quality. As this is your first detector you may find that you do not even like the hobby after a few attempts, with this in mind you don't want to spend a whole lot of money on something you may not even be fully into, so keep your detector costs down to a manageable amount that if you were to never use the detector again you wouldn't feel like you had cost yourself too much cash. While on the other hand if you really enjoy it you can always upgrade your detector in the near future and give your first one to a friend. When I first started metal detecting I planned on staying inland so I bought a metal detector that was appropriate for this, it cost me around $500 and was a middle of the road detector that performed perfectly fine, however because I was new to the hobby and a bit nervous I started out detecting on nearly empty beaches, which is where I found I enjoyed searching beaches, one part of this is detecting in the water, although my detector was waterproof up to the display I didn't want to chance it so I bought a detector that was designed to be fully waterproof, although these can cost a fair bit I found a second hand one for $600 that was worth $1200 new. After I spent $700 on another metal detector that was waterproof, I took it out for a spin. It worked underwater, but it did not have the visual display. Still, I got used to the different tones that it would produce to tell me how far I was from treasure. Do more research with our sites on metal detector and garrett metal detector