Greg Pickens
Bio
Christmas time 1979 was when it all began for Greg. He had asked for and received a very simple BFO metal detector as a Christmas gift and was instantly enthralled with it! He was a 12 years old Army brat at the time and living in Wurzburg, Germany but before he could use it, he received new orders and was transferred to Arizona.
It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as his new home was situated right in the middle of old Ft. Huachuca, a cavalry and Indian Wars fort, that was first established in 1877. While there, he found his first old coin, silver coin, and military right from the start. He was instantly consumed with metal detecting and happily detected there for a year before being transferred again by the Army.
He hated having to leave that incredible place but it turned out to be the best thing that could have ever happened to him. He was heading back to Germany and this time to the heart of Bavaria in Munich. The very first day he went out metal detecting right in his front yard and found a German Third Reich medal, an 1800's medal from King Frederick III, and a religious medallion from the 1400's! He was blown away and for the next six years, he detected every single moment that he could spare at public parks, fields, Roman forts, castles, battlefields, medieval churches, etc. He says never saw another soul using a metal detector at these places. It was a detectorist's paradise and every spot he stepped onto was ground that had never been hunted before.
After graduating high school there, he soon returned to the US to attend college in Florida. For the next fifteen years, he detected Seminole War period forts and Victorian era sites before deciding to move to the mountains of East Tennessee where he has spent nearly twenty years now exploring and metal detecting this beautiful and historic area of the country. Six years ago, he purchased his first Minelab detector. It was a Minelab E-Trac and he loved using that machine for four years but the lure of the Equinox 800 soon replaced the E-Trac as his daily machine. He has been astounded by the Equinox and truly believes it is the best machine he have used so far over his 42 years of metal detecting.
Detectors
