Buying guide · Updated August 4, 2026
The best pinpointer for metal detecting is the Garrett Pro-Pointer AT: fully waterproof to 20 feet, three sensitivity levels, and bright orange so you'll actually find it when you put it down. If you dive or hunt surf, the Nokta PulseDive is the better tool.
If you own a detector and not a pinpointer, this is the purchase to make next. It roughly halves recovery time and stops you widening holes hunting for a dime — which is as much about keeping sites open as it is about convenience.
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| Award | Detector | Rating | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top pick | Garrett Pro-Pointer ATMid-range | 4.5 | Anyone who wants one pinpointer that works everywhere — dirt, creeks, and surf — without thinking about it. |
| Best for water & diving | Nokta PulseDive PinpointerMid-range | 4.0 | Divers, surf hunters, and anyone whose detecting regularly involves salt water. |
| Best for gold prospecting | Falcon MD20 Gold ProbeMid-range | 4.0 | Gold prospectors working quartz, crevices, and tailings, where the pieces are small enough that a normal probe is deaf to them. |
Garrett · Mid-range
The industry default, and deservedly so. Waterproof, sensitive, and orange enough to survive being put down in long grass.
Read the full Pro-Pointer AT review →The orange Carrot everyone carries. Waterproof to 20 feet, three sensitivity levels so it stays usable in iron-heavy ground, and vibration alongside audio for when you're under headphones.
It's the default for good reason — buy it and stop thinking about pinpointers. Read the full Garrett Pro-Pointer AT review.
Pulse induction, waterproof to around 200 feet, and it converts into a compact standalone detector with the included coil. Pulse induction ignores salt water entirely, where a VLF probe starts falsing in the surf.
Overkill on dry land, unbeatable in water. Read the full Nokta PulseDive review.
A very high frequency probe that hears gold flakes in quartz that standard pinpointers walk past. The scraping tip is built for working crevices and seams by hand.
Only the probe head is waterproof, and it is far too hot for trashy ground — this is a second probe, not a first. Read the full Falcon MD20 review.
Your main detector narrows a target to roughly a hand-sized area. Once the plug is out, finding the object in loose soil is slow and it's where people enlarge holes and damage sites.
A pinpointer is a short-range probe — about 1–2 inches — that buzzes when the tip is near metal. You wave it around the hole and the soil pile and you're done in seconds instead of minutes.
Waterproofing. You will drop it in a water-filled hole. A fully waterproof probe is the difference between one purchase and two, and it costs surprisingly little extra.
Adjustable sensitivity. In iron-heavy ground a probe running flat out buzzes at everything and tells you nothing. Being able to turn it down is what keeps it useful at old sites.
Vibration as well as audio. Essential under headphones, in the surf, and anywhere you'd rather be discreet.
A holster and a bright body. Pinpointers are the most-lost item in this hobby. Orange plus a belt holster solves it; black plus a pocket does not.
"Probe" and "pinpointer" are used interchangeably, though "probe" tends to show up more among gold prospectors and "pinpointer" among coin and relic hunters. Functionally they describe the same handheld short-range tool.
The one genuine distinction is pulse induction versus VLF. VLF probes like the Pro-Pointer AT can be tuned down in iron; PI probes like the PulseDive ignore salt water but can't discriminate at all.
The budget probes do detect metal, and if the choice is a cheap pinpointer or none at all, take the cheap one. What you tend to lose is genuine waterproofing, adjustable sensitivity, and build quality at the tip.
The failure mode is predictable: it gets damp, it starts falsing, and you replace it within a season. Spending once is generally cheaper.
Turn it on away from the hole so it tunes to clean air, not to the target. Most probes retune on power-up, and tuning them next to metal makes them deaf to it.
Sweep the tip around the sides of the hole, not just the bottom — targets frequently sit in the wall. Then check the pile of loose soil, which is where the object often ends up.
Retune if it starts buzzing constantly. In mineralized ground you'll do this several times a hunt, and it takes a second.
The best pinpointer for gold is the Falcon MD20 — a very high frequency probe that finds flakes in quartz standard pinpointers miss. Gold probes compared.
The best metal detector for kids is the Nokta Mini Hoard — light enough for a small child and capable enough to find real coins. Picks by age, from 5 to teenager.
The best metal detector for beginners is the Nokta Simplex+ — waterproof, wireless, and simple enough to use on day one. Starter, entry-level, and intermediate picks compared.
The best metal detector for the beach is the Minelab Equinox 800 — multi-frequency handles wet salt sand and it's submersible to 10 feet. Waterproof and underwater picks compared.
A metal detector works by sending a pulsing magnetic field into the ground from its coil. Metal objects react to that field by generating their own weak field, and the detector hears that echo and turns it into a tone and a number on screen.
Yes. Any metal detector will find gold — gold is metal, and gold rings, chains, and coins show up on even entry-level machines. Finding small gold nuggets in mineralized goldfields is the hard version, and that needs a high-frequency or pulse-induction detector.
A metal detector costs about $100 for a basic starter, $200–400 for a genuinely capable entry-level machine, $500–800 for mid-range multi-frequency, and $1,000–1,500 for a flagship. Most people should spend $200–400.
How to use a metal detector: ground balance it, swing slow and low, learn your target IDs, and dig everything at first. A complete beginner's field guide.