Editorial Policy
How Swing&Dig keeps its advice practical and accountable.
A detector can look right on a spec sheet and still get swung a handful of times before it ends up in a closet. One wrong assumption about the ground, one skipped step in researching a permission site, and a season goes by with almost nothing to show for it. Swing&Dig exists to make those decisions clearer before someone spends money on a machine, or time on ground that was never going to produce anything.
How Advice Is Formed
Every guide starts with the detectorist’s actual situation, not a list of machines to compare. Soil type, budget, and what someone is actually hunting for, gold, beach jewelry, relics, or just teaching a kid the hobby, all change what the right answer looks like. A setup that makes sense for wet saltwater sand may be the wrong call entirely for someone hunting dry inland fields.
That’s why Swing&Dig avoids one-size-fits-all answers when the real answer depends on ground conditions. If depth changes because of soil mineralization, the article says so. If a piece of land looks promising but the legal access is murky, that gets addressed before any technique advice. If the useful answer is “check who actually owns this land first,” the guide leads with that instead of a spec comparison.
Numbers Need Context
Metal detecting advice is only useful when the numbers mean something to the person reading. Depth claims, VDI ranges, price points, and coil size specs are not decoration. They’re the difference between an article that helps someone decide and one that just sounds informed.
When Swing&Dig uses a depth number, it’s tied to the ground it was tested in. A claim that means something in loose sandy soil doesn’t automatically hold up in heavily mineralized red clay. A machine that’s forgiving for a beginner in a park behaves differently in trashy urban ground. The goal isn’t to make an article sound technical. It’s to make the number usable.
How Claims Are Checked
Swing&Dig uses a mix of direct field observation, manufacturer specifications, BLM, NPS, and USFS documentation on land access, and real detectorist discussions on r/metaldetecting, TreasureNet, and detectorprospector.com. Official land management documentation matters for details like what ARPA actually restricts and what it doesn’t. Community discussions matter because they show the confusion and mistakes that a clean product page skips past.
A forum thread or Reddit post isn’t treated as proof on its own. It can point to a real problem worth investigating, but claims about legal access, depth, or equipment still get checked against the actual regulation text, manufacturer specs, or current listings. If a claim can’t be verified or clearly explained as direct field observation, it doesn’t get presented as fact.
How Detector Recommendations Are Handled
A detector is only useful if it fits the ground and the goal. Swing&Dig doesn’t call something “best” without asking what soil type, budget, and target type it’s supposed to serve, and doesn’t run brand-versus-brand comparisons for their own sake.
Some beginners need a simple, forgiving machine and a clear first outing. Others need a pulse induction detector for wet beach sand, or a dedicated gold machine that behaves completely differently from a general-purpose unit. If a cheaper detector is genuinely good enough, the article says that. If a machine has a real limitation, confusing discrimination settings, poor depth in mineralized soil, that limitation gets stated plainly.
Updates and Corrections
Metal detecting doesn’t move as fast as consumer electronics, but detector lineups, prices, and land access rules can still change. Older advice can also become less useful when a machine is discontinued, a park changes its detecting policy, or better source information turns up.
When a correction changes a factual claim, a legal detail, a product spec, or a recommendation, the article gets updated to reflect it. Routine fixes, broken links, formatting cleanup, don’t need a note. Meaningful updates should improve the reader’s decision, not just create the appearance of being current.
To report an error, use the contact page and include the article URL, the specific claim, and what you think should be checked.
Affiliate Links and Commercial Pressure
Detectors are sold through retailers and affiliate programs, and that creates real pressure to turn every article into a sales page. Swing&Dig doesn’t take that approach. A product mention should serve the buying or setup problem being explained, not interrupt the guide just because a link can be added.
Affiliate commissions and display ads help support the site, but they don’t decide whether a detector is right for a specific reader. If something isn’t the right fit, it doesn’t get recommended as if it is. For full details, see the Affiliate Disclosure.
Who’s Responsible for the Content
Swing&Dig is written from the perspective of Scott Duncan, a retired county land surveyor who spent 30 years reading plat maps, deed records, and topo sheets before he ever picked up a detector. That background means treating a piece of ground the way he used to treat a survey job: figure out what the records actually show before assuming anything about what’s out there.
The standard for the site is simple: advice should help a real detectorist make a better decision, not just sound informed. If a guide can’t explain what to check, what to buy, where to look, or what changes the answer, it needs more work.
If you want to understand Scott’s background or send a correction about a specific article, start with the author page or contact page.