One of the most important aspects of metal detecting is your swinging technique. You may know your metal detector's settings inside and out, but unless you know how to swing your metal detector that knowledge means nothing. Proper swinging is often overlooked or ignored by many, take the time to watch someone else metal detecting in a local park or at the beach, chances are you will see a person improperly swinging his or her metal detector. Why is this? I have no idea why so many do not put more focus on their technique. When done right, you not only increase your finds, but also increase depth dramatically.

Here are some rock solid swinging techniques for you to practice. If you haven't been swinging properly once you implement these techniques you will start finding more and deeper targets with your metal detector.

One of the biggest mistakes made while metal detecting is not keeping the coil of the metal detector level and as close to the ground as possible throughout each complete swing. In order to get the most out of your time metal detecting you must start focusing on two things. One focus on keeping the coil of your metal detector level and close to the ground, by close I mean as close as possible without actually touching the ground. Touching the ground with your coil can have an adverse effect, causing false signals or erratic operation. The second is to concentrate on keeping the coil level through each complete swing. It almost feels natural to swing in a pendulum fashion, but doing this will depreciate ground penetration by inches.

The second most important aspect of swinging that gets over looked is overlapping coil swings. When metal detecting a promising site it is very important to cover as much ground as possible and if your not overlapping each coil swing by at least half your not covering as much ground as possible. I would actually suggest overlapping each swing by quarters especially if you are metal detecting with a machine that has a concentric coil. Concentric coils throw a field off of the coil that is conical, the deeper the signal go's the narrower the field gets.

So the next time your out metal detecting concentrate on these swinging techniques and I can bet you will start finding more and deeper finds. It doesn't seem like much, but it can make all the difference in the world.