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Are you "HIDING" when you go metal detecting?:surrender:

F

Fraulein

New member
Hello! I have been metal detecting only since last year and I love it. I have an Ace 250. I Pre-order the ATGold and am impatient to receive it.
Before I start to metal detect, I never ever saw another person doing this activity. When my family, friends and co-workers learned I was into this hobby, they all have this little smile when they learn it, kind of like I am the village idiot....I have the distinct feeling they would rather get a root canal treatment instead of coming with me on one of my metal detecting trips. Of course they tell me they remember seeing a guy doing this on the beach, when they went on vacation in Florida.

Most of the time they are less than impress when I tell them I get a few clads and pennys. However last year when I showed them the silver ring I found with my Ace 250, there were more than one pair of eyebrows that went up. With this sort of support I feel like I have some kind of shameful disease and I normally used to go metal detecting in spots where very few people are, or outside the busy season. I have the feeling passerby will call the cops on me. So I normally go where I am sure nobody knows me. Am I alone to feel like that?

This had change this weekend. I will make another post on my "Coming Out". :detecting:
 
When i sometimes pick certain areas i will go early in the morning !!!! if its a high visible area or an area where i dont want to be seen by too many in a bad neighborhood i will go early or late when most people are not around. but for the most part im right in the open for all to see. I have so many people that come up to ask questions about what im doing i think its great!!!!!
 
I hunt play grounds but will shy away if there are Mothers and children around.I usually go back later . I hunt open farm fields with permission so there are no problem there.I have to admit I don't like to hunt where there are a lot of people.You'll find that you will become a kid magnet if you metal detect in a area with children and they always want to help you dig and suggest where your next digging spot should be. Some of the good places anyway are forgotten places where people hung out a don't anymore. If I hunt a beach lake ones again I'll hit it after everyone leaves.I like to hunt old foundations, if I can find any in the woods ,not many people there. Over all I know how you feel. Last year I was metal detecting in a large park that had tennis courts.I stayed a good distance from the courts and I mean a good distances. About 20 minutes later a cop pulled in walked over to me and said the people that were just here complained that you were making to much noise. You can hunt all you want not a problem. I just had to follow up on the complaint. Happy hunting and good luck. So it does happen. Happy hunting
 
For some reason metal detecting seems to carry a stigma of "crazy old people" or things along that line. If most people knew the relaxation I get and the things we find, we might end up with too much competition.

John
 
You'll be the first one they beg to help when they loose their wedding ring! Then give them that same eat sh#t smile.
 
Some people just like to complain about anything. I just want to have a little fun and not get pissed off. If I'm going to hunt a public park that I have hunted before and there's not a problem with metal detecting and somebody is cutting the lawn I just go back later. I have found over the years out of sight out of mind. I just don't like metal detecting and looking over my shoulder at the same time. Ive haven't yet gone to place to hunt and come across somebody else metal detecting. Maybe we are all lurking in the shadows.
 
Oh yeah, you will get the smirkers and subtle head shakers quite often.
Pretty much every stand up comedian has a skit in their lineup where the subject is the "weird dude with the metal detector" We are easy targets. Out in plain site doing something that not a lot of other people do makes us outcasts to the norm.
Oh well...as my dear old gray haired grandma used to say..."if they don't like it just tell 'em to sharpen a stick and shove it up...well, she was a salty old girl but the sentiment still fits.
 
Concentration is key when metal detecting.If you're constantly being distracted by your surroundings,then it's time for another hobby.
 
I too wait until the crowd dissipates before I hunt at parks and tot lots. Most peoples hobbies suck the cash out of their pockets. We stick cash back in ours!
 
The less auspicious my surrounding the better I can concentrate on detecting.
 
when they see us use a couple of minutes to dig up a penny. For a few years one of my hobbies was war gaming with miniature figurines. I heard a lot of crazies play toy soldiers. I don't care what most people think.
 
I think there are many people out there that think we are "poor" and out looking for change so we can buy a cheeseburger!!! lol

Little do they know these machines and equipment can run into $1000's .(that thought does not cross their minds) Or that we are finding some cool old coins for the fun of it. (And I would like to keep it that way)

When someone , I don't know,asks what I found?? I say ,,,,,,,,,,,,,just a few penny's!!! lol
 
I was hunting a tot lot on a real cold day. There I was going in and around the equipment with my little coil. There was two teenagers that must had skipped school and one old woman sitting on a bench. After a while the kids came over and asked if I needed help? I said "I'm fine, why you asking?" They said the old woman told them to get over there and help that blind man get out of there. This is a true story and the funniest thing that's happened to me while hunting.
 
I like it with fewer people around, especially at schools. Part of this is due to the fact that a principal kindly told me that I was welcome whenever kids were not around-and with the crazies out there, I understand. My dad was displeased with my hobby-called it a waste of time. You should have seen the look on his face when I found his favorite knife he lost out in the garden. Being old helps-and I try to dress respectably so as not to appear a vagrant. I did learn the hard way that if you travelled in a van and did this hobby, that added to the suspicion. A policeman stopped and asked me if I was spending the nite and checked my van. Strangely, I could park my van, get my bicycle from inside and ride to the park and no one thought anything out of the ordinary. At these public places, I ALWAYS use a screwdriver and NEVER a shovel or knife and I carry the screwdriver with the tip pointed up my arm and cradled in my palm so as not to appear menacing. I now tell everyone that it's my form of exercise, as I don't do the strenous stuff anymore. And whenever anyone asks me how deep it will go, I tell them they only go a few inches-just enough to hide under ground. And finally, whenever I talk to another detectorist who just happens by, I always mention about how serious it is to not dig holes and leave the place looking good.
 
Yeah! I've had a lot of weird hobbies in my life, but non have brought on the type of derision you refer to like metal detecting! I dont get it, we have a much better chance of finding some valuable loot than any of them have winning the lottery. Even the beer can scroungers dont take this kind of sass! I roll EXACTLY like Slingshot does.
 
I think here in Australia people are getting used to seeing detectorists on the beaches and I do not get as many stupid comments fired my way these days.
I still tend to wait until the crouds have thined out a bit so as not to be detecting too close to people.
often I will just sit on the beach with my detector along side and watch what's going on and that gives people an excuse to stroll by and check out the detector and ask any questions that might be on their mind.
Most will ask what am I doing or how much does the detector cost and I just say "Ohh a couple of grand" and then I say how detecting keeps me fit and gets me outside into the fresh air and is a very relaxing hobby and that it is much easier on my body now that I am getting on in years and that the 25 years of martial Arts I have done has kept me in good condition for my age. That usually gets a suprised look. and they might stay and talk for a while or just say good luck and then stroll of down the beach.
In general I give people a bit of space on the beaches and stay about 20 metres away. if you start detecting in and around everbody they get the feeling that you are trying to pounce on anything they might have lost, so don't get too close.
Some people are interested in detecting and will strike up a conversation, this has happened several time and I have ended up doing more talking than detecting.
 
I like to hunt alone most times and I
also like be around as few people as
possible .. its not that Im antisocial
i just like the quiet and independence (?)
that i get from :detecting: by myself .. plus im not
that good at :detecting: yet so i need to concentrate

HH

Ron

Rangers Lead The Way :usaflag::usaa:
 
oldranger said:
I like to hunt alone most times and I
also like be around as few people as
possible .. its not that Im antisocial
i just like the quiet and independence (?)
that i get from :detecting: by myself .. plus im not
that good at :detecting: yet so i need to concentrate

HH

Ron

Rangers Lead The Way :usaflag::usaa:
Click to expand...
Exactly! After customers at work drive you bonkers and you take care of the life's duties things, it's like a vacation from all these things.
 
I like to be not seen, I leave when people start showing up.For most part its been women who ask if i found anything good.I also wear green or camo to blend in with grass etc.I find my bst finds early in morning with no one around.Yeah we have to sneak around in this hobby in todays world.But since I have tooken up MDing I have taken a better liking of our past history in areas.I wasn't thrilled with history in school :lol:
 
I've become the same way with history. Amazing what you can learn about your area. Like towns that very few people have ever heard of.

John
 
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