After hiking some distance to a small creek where some buddies and I were going to go gold panning and where I was going to test the Grizzly gold pan, I realized that somewhere along the hike I had lost the rubber plug that goes in the bottom of the Grizzly gold pan.
So much for my field test on this trip. The pan was useless without the plug and I didn’t have a spare. Fortunately, I also had with me my Garrett pan. Because I had a spare pan, my hike and day of gold panning was not ruined.
Similarly, there have been times when I have needed replacement batteries for my metal detector, but did not have them. The trip to the store or gas station ended up costing me time and more money than normal when the gas station was the only place nearby. The moral of the story is that you should always have spare parts with you, or at least keep them in your vehicle. If your metal detector breaks down when on a metal detecting adventure, you won’t likely be finding much of anything except the “that’s too bad pity look” from your detecting buddy as he finds the good stuff.
It worth having these spare items:
Batteries, battery holders if applicable (I have broken one before), plastic bolt and nut for your coil, rubber washers for coil, a spare trowel and probe, headphones (though not always necessary).
If you can afford it, it also helps to have a back up detector and at least one accessory coil in case your metal detector or coil have problems. I have an Explorer II, but I like to keep an Explorer XS as a backup. The XS cost less used and is similar enough to my main unit that if I where to have problems with the Explorer II, then I know how to use my backup well, I have accessory coils that will fit the XS, and I don’t have to learn two completely different machines. That is just the way I like it. You may want your backup to be a metal detector that is good for prospecting if you occasionally go nugget shooting.