Check the soil before you even think about buying gear. That $140 rig worked because Dayton dirt is pretty forgiving, but if your next site has wet clay or lots of iron junk, a cheap setup will just scream static at you all day. Walk the field first and look for depressions, old glass, daffodil clumps, and brick scatter, since those clues tell you where to drag the antenna. Mark your grid with cheap tent stakes and mason line, then run your lines both ways so you can tell a real wall from a rock or a root. Half the guys I know found their best stuff with a $100 unit and a good eyeball, not some fancy machine.

Larry is the real MVP here, not you. Seven years of playing landscaper and the man solves it on his lunch break just by looking at a pipe. I bet you stood there with that $11 coupler feeling like a genius and a fool at the same time. My husband did something similar with our dishwasher, took the whole thing apart twice before figuring out the drain hose was just kinked. Sometimes the answer is so dumb simple you want to kick yourself.