Hand-held Metal Detectors are designed to safeguard security-sensitive areas like schools, courtrooms, corrections facilities, sports events, businesses, nightclubs, bars and other public areas and events. They are used along with walk-through metal detectors. Construction crews and woodworkers also use hand-held metal detectors to find dangerous nails or other metallic debris in reclaimed building materials and trees.

A recent study proves that hand-held metal detectors are just as accurate as x-rays in finding coins and other metallic objects swallowed by children. They are cheaper and radiation-free, are usually lightweight, highly sensitive and require little maintenance. The special shape of the sensitive surface makes operation of the device easy, unlike portable metal detectors with ring transducers. They come with 9V batteries or rechargeable NiMH batteries.

Hand-held metal detectors are most commonly used for body searches for weapons in crowd control, and checking parcels and letters. Garret manufactures some of the best hand-held scanners in the world. The Garrett Enforcer G-2 is the smallest body scanner and sensitive enough to detect even the smallest of knives or guns. The most popular one is the Super Scanner. It can detect hatpins as small as one inch.

When hand-held detectors are switched on, a red signal pattern in transmitted from the coil to the ground. When the signal comes in contact with a metal, it interrupts the signal and the detector alerts the user with an audio signal and flashing lights. Hand held detectors are of various types — commercial, professional, all-purpose, beach, gold metal, relic metal and 2-box deep searchers.