I’m interested in starting a new hobby metal detecting, mainly for gold in AZ. Please share your experiences and advice. I’ve read some books and looked into joining groups that have claims.

Without knowing what books you've read, I can only suggest getting to the Kellyco website and start your hunt for a detector there.

Sounds like you have a good head start otherwise.

This guy Docs Detecting Link is in Vegas but he seems to spend a lot of time in AZ. Recommend you call him up and visit about your desire.

Best wishes to you.

Check out Friendly Metal Detecting Forums. There are several other forums, but this one gets a good bit of traffic and the user interface is decent. Lot's of experienced folks there.

I can't help you with gold hunting, but I do a lot of colonial & Civil War era relic hunting, along with some beach hunting in NC/SC. Feel free to send email with questions.

Edit to add: After thinking about this a few minutes, I suggest you try to locate a club in your area. Metal detecting is like many hobbies... You can spend a lot of money getting set up, only to find you made the wrong purchases. If you get with the locals that are doing the type of hunting you want to do, then you can accelerate the learning curve and focus on the right equipment.

Through the forum mentioned above, I met a man that lives only about 2 miles from my house. He's been detecting for 45 years. We hunt together almost weekly, and the knowledge I've gained from his experience is priceless. His collection of finds are unbelievable.

I rely heavily on a pinpointer, and assume they are commonly used for gold hunting. There are two that seem to be most popular: Garrett Pro-pointer AT (Garrett carrot) and Whites Bullseye TRX. I use the Garrett and like it a lot. Made in USA and their customer service is unbeatable.

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