Best Metal Detector Carry Bags: Length Is the Only Specification

Measure the machine assembled, in the position you would swing it, from the end of the handgrip to the front edge of the coil. For most adult-sized detectors with the shaft set for a person of average height that lands somewhere between 45 and 52 inches. Then buy a bag longer than that, not equal to it, because a bag you have to force is a zip you will break.

The two bags in this catalog that are explicitly sold on that basis publish their figures. The 53 inch Heavy Duty Detector Carry Bag is listed at 53 by 19 by 11.5 inches and its listing names the machines it takes without removing the searchcoil, which is an unusually useful thing for a listing to say: the ACE 200, 250, 300 and 400, the Apex, the AT Pro and AT Max, the Vanquish 340, 440 and 540, the Equinox, the Simplex, the Legend, the Deus II, Bounty Hunter machines and the Fisher F22 and F44. The High Plains 50 inch Detector Carry Bag is published at 50 inches and described as fitting most fully assembled S-curve style detectors.

The Bounty Hunter Detector Carrying Case is the exception worth understanding rather than avoiding. Bounty Hunter publishes it at 28 by 10 inches and 1.8 lb, designed for S-rod configurations. That is a bag for a collapsed machine, and its argument is weather-resistant nylon and portability rather than length. If you already break your detector down for transport anyway, it is a perfectly sensible purchase. If you do not, it is the wrong shape entirely.

Length is the column that decides whether the bag gets used. Everything to the right of it is comfort and weather.

The things that otherwise get forgotten, which is the second reason to own one. A spare set of cells or a loaded battery holder, a wired backup headphone set, the coil cover, a small first aid kit and the pinpointer. High Plains publishes a 14 inch side compartment on the High Plains 50 inch Detector Carry Bag sized for headphones, diggers and pointers, and a smaller 6.5 inch pocket for batteries and magnifiers, which is a sensible division.

What should not go in it is the shovel. A serrated blade sharing a compartment with a coil will eventually score the winding or cut the lining, and the digging tools page makes the case for a sheath on the blade for exactly this reason. Keep the digging tools separate, and keep anything wet separate too.

The other item worth its space is a coil cover. It costs a fraction of a coil and it is the only thing between the winding and a buried brick, and the covers page lists which ones fit which coils. If you are carrying a second coil in the bag as well, carry it in something padded rather than loose beside the machine.

More than for transport, in fact, because storage is where the slow damage happens. Two things kill detectors that are put away: cells left in the battery compartment, which eventually leak and corrode the contacts beyond repair, and damp sealed in with the machine, which attacks connectors and seals. Both are avoidable in about ninety seconds.

Take the cells out of anything AA-powered before it goes away for the season. A set of Rechargeable AA NiMH Batteries, 8 pack at $10.49 costs a fraction of a repair and the published figure of 80 percent capacity retained over two years means they will still be usable when you come back to them. For rechargeable machines, store at a partial charge rather than flat. Dry the machine fully before it goes in the bag, particularly the shaft joints and the headphone socket if it has been anywhere near salt, which the salt water guide covers in more detail.

Store it somewhere that does not swing between hot and cold, which rules out most sheds and most car boots. A water-beading lining like the one published on the 53 inch Heavy Duty Detector Carry Bag helps with a wet day but no bag manages humidity over a winter. And if your machine lives in the bag between hunts, check the coil ears and cable for hairline cracks each time you take it out, because a coil that only falses when wet is usually a cracked one and that is not repairable.