Herb Jones
New member
Does anyone else detect at night? IncRry a small
Headlight and will keep searching even after sunset... anyone else?
Headlight and will keep searching even after sunset... anyone else?
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Detecting at night
- Thread starter Herb Jones
- Start date
still looking 52
Well-known member
Gets the police called out a lot of you are in a populated area.
MarkCZ
Well-known member
Night Dirt Fishing is as lest as good as regular night fishing! Now the specifics. (I'm going to say that I'm at lest one of the earlier pioneers in night hunting, I did a lot of it in the early 80's)
Its about area, not all areas are friendly to night dirt fishing, like rough or higher crime areas, this hobby isn't worth dying for.
Then comes terrain, it helps to be familiar with the landscape, like surprise stumps, large holes fences and other hazards, this is to say its best to night hunt in areas where you know whats around you.
A buddy or two along for the hunt is a good idea!
Bugs, over light, and earbud earphones.
I've found that the little LED headband headlights which also includes a couple of the red LEDs is good and white coils helps, (or put a couple of pieces of white duck tape on the top of your coils). Once your eyes gets accustomed to the dark the red LEDs puts out enough light to search and the white tape shows up really good so you can see your coil's search path. Then once a target is found I switch to the white LEDs for digging, then as soon as possible back to the RED. Why search with the RED LED's? because they don't attract bugs like the white light does, now if you take to long to dig with the white LED's the bugs will start to move in on your location.
Next, is the white LED light can be seen for a LONG way OFF and moving your head up and down and left to right they can draw unnecessary attention, while you dig you can keep your head down with the light aimed at you dig.
Why earbuds? they keep the detector quiet, lets you get good target responses but they also will allow ambient noises to be heard.
Now, later in live I also came up with a detector mounted headlight, these are Small single LED bulb, single cell AA flashlights positioned so that the beam is directed at the coil and its search path. (see pictures)
Why hunt at night? several reasons,
(1) is MOST certainly its at lower levels of EMI for the area.
(2) In the dog days of summer, every detector I've ever owned just functions better without the EMI and absence of solar radiation. The sun is a SOLAR charger that charges ground minerals and certain areas of the atmosphere which interferes with the detector electronics. If your like me you've noticed that if you start out really early in the morning on mid summer days (FULL SUN) that by noon your dealing with more false signals, lowering sensitivity and just having more trouble taming the detector.
(3)This is an easy one, less people, less cell phone use, less automobiles, less little kids hanging around. (keep in mind that I'm talking about 2:00am or 3:00am in the morning through sunrise)
Moving on, bug spray and the don't's. Don't get the stuff on the palms of your hands, I spread it around via the backs of my hands, where I can't spray in directly (Deep Woods Off works the best) why not on your palms? the stuff is unreal hard on stuff you handle, foam grips, the finish on wooden handles, or even painted items, and your less likely to get it in your eyes if you find it necessary to rub your eye for any reason.
Last and MOST IMPORTANT!!! don't use night dirt fishing as a way to enter restricted or OFF limits areas!!!! its JUST A BAD IDEA! AND IT GIVES THE HOBBY A BAD RAP!!!!!
My Brother SL52 stated above that's its a way to get the police called on you, well I've had that happen more than once but one time turned out to be VERY funny and the Officer even thought so.
Story time! (True Story)
Lets go back to 1982 in the city park area of Huntington, WV the park faces a pretty nice residential section with part of it having City Own Curbs! (you know the grassy strip between the curb and the sidewalks) Well, those curbs were prime areas for silver coins back in the day and some of the home owners really didn't like the idea of people metal detecting them even though the curbs were PUBLIC PROPERTY!.Anyway, at the time I worked the evening shift and in the summer time I would get off work and swing by the area for some night hunting. This one night it was around 1:30am I parked at one corner of the street and it had a street light, so I got out of my car put my gear on which was,
A white Nail Apron, and that night I had on a pair of tan pants!
My Whites 5000Di series 2 metal detector,
Headphones, (full ear cups)
and started hunting, the weather was pretty nice with just a little drizzle of rain. So, I was into the hunt maybe a 1/2 hour when a police officer in a patrol car pulls over to the side of the street and puts his spot light on me, rolls down his window, (he never got out of the car). So, stop what I'm doing and I'm just standing there looking towards the car although I couldn't see much for the spot light and after a few seconds I hear him laughing historically!!!! he turns off the spot light and I walk over to the car and the says to me! "Your Not Going To Believe The Call That Came In About You" he said "dispatch stated they had a report of someone sweeping the sidewalk in the middle of the night, in the rain. in their UNDERWEAR" I told him I would move on and he just drove off laughing. That is a TRUE story!
What I learned that night was to park my car and the end of the block, just get out of the car and carry my gear to the other end of the street out of sight and then hunt my way back to the car. Times has changed so much in that area that I gave up curbing at night YEARS ago, well actually gave up curbing altogether.
In the pictures below I included some of a headband light I fabricated back in the 80's. Its heavyweight elastic and some nylon webbing, a reflector with the lens glued onto it from a DD flashlight, I added a mercury switch to the band, I wired it to a double cell DD battery holder, I used the new at the time Halogen bulb. The switch was adjustable (I could change the tilt on it) so I could get the light to come on when I looked down, but if I looked up it would turn off automatically, it actually works very well. LoL! the good ol' days.
Mark
Its about area, not all areas are friendly to night dirt fishing, like rough or higher crime areas, this hobby isn't worth dying for.
Then comes terrain, it helps to be familiar with the landscape, like surprise stumps, large holes fences and other hazards, this is to say its best to night hunt in areas where you know whats around you.
A buddy or two along for the hunt is a good idea!
Bugs, over light, and earbud earphones.
I've found that the little LED headband headlights which also includes a couple of the red LEDs is good and white coils helps, (or put a couple of pieces of white duck tape on the top of your coils). Once your eyes gets accustomed to the dark the red LEDs puts out enough light to search and the white tape shows up really good so you can see your coil's search path. Then once a target is found I switch to the white LEDs for digging, then as soon as possible back to the RED. Why search with the RED LED's? because they don't attract bugs like the white light does, now if you take to long to dig with the white LED's the bugs will start to move in on your location.
Next, is the white LED light can be seen for a LONG way OFF and moving your head up and down and left to right they can draw unnecessary attention, while you dig you can keep your head down with the light aimed at you dig.
Why earbuds? they keep the detector quiet, lets you get good target responses but they also will allow ambient noises to be heard.
Now, later in live I also came up with a detector mounted headlight, these are Small single LED bulb, single cell AA flashlights positioned so that the beam is directed at the coil and its search path. (see pictures)
Why hunt at night? several reasons,
(1) is MOST certainly its at lower levels of EMI for the area.
(2) In the dog days of summer, every detector I've ever owned just functions better without the EMI and absence of solar radiation. The sun is a SOLAR charger that charges ground minerals and certain areas of the atmosphere which interferes with the detector electronics. If your like me you've noticed that if you start out really early in the morning on mid summer days (FULL SUN) that by noon your dealing with more false signals, lowering sensitivity and just having more trouble taming the detector.
(3)This is an easy one, less people, less cell phone use, less automobiles, less little kids hanging around. (keep in mind that I'm talking about 2:00am or 3:00am in the morning through sunrise)
Moving on, bug spray and the don't's. Don't get the stuff on the palms of your hands, I spread it around via the backs of my hands, where I can't spray in directly (Deep Woods Off works the best) why not on your palms? the stuff is unreal hard on stuff you handle, foam grips, the finish on wooden handles, or even painted items, and your less likely to get it in your eyes if you find it necessary to rub your eye for any reason.
Last and MOST IMPORTANT!!! don't use night dirt fishing as a way to enter restricted or OFF limits areas!!!! its JUST A BAD IDEA! AND IT GIVES THE HOBBY A BAD RAP!!!!!
My Brother SL52 stated above that's its a way to get the police called on you, well I've had that happen more than once but one time turned out to be VERY funny and the Officer even thought so.
Story time! (True Story)
Lets go back to 1982 in the city park area of Huntington, WV the park faces a pretty nice residential section with part of it having City Own Curbs! (you know the grassy strip between the curb and the sidewalks) Well, those curbs were prime areas for silver coins back in the day and some of the home owners really didn't like the idea of people metal detecting them even though the curbs were PUBLIC PROPERTY!.Anyway, at the time I worked the evening shift and in the summer time I would get off work and swing by the area for some night hunting. This one night it was around 1:30am I parked at one corner of the street and it had a street light, so I got out of my car put my gear on which was,
A white Nail Apron, and that night I had on a pair of tan pants!
My Whites 5000Di series 2 metal detector,
Headphones, (full ear cups)
and started hunting, the weather was pretty nice with just a little drizzle of rain. So, I was into the hunt maybe a 1/2 hour when a police officer in a patrol car pulls over to the side of the street and puts his spot light on me, rolls down his window, (he never got out of the car). So, stop what I'm doing and I'm just standing there looking towards the car although I couldn't see much for the spot light and after a few seconds I hear him laughing historically!!!! he turns off the spot light and I walk over to the car and the says to me! "Your Not Going To Believe The Call That Came In About You" he said "dispatch stated they had a report of someone sweeping the sidewalk in the middle of the night, in the rain. in their UNDERWEAR" I told him I would move on and he just drove off laughing. That is a TRUE story!
What I learned that night was to park my car and the end of the block, just get out of the car and carry my gear to the other end of the street out of sight and then hunt my way back to the car. Times has changed so much in that area that I gave up curbing at night YEARS ago, well actually gave up curbing altogether.
In the pictures below I included some of a headband light I fabricated back in the 80's. Its heavyweight elastic and some nylon webbing, a reflector with the lens glued onto it from a DD flashlight, I added a mercury switch to the band, I wired it to a double cell DD battery holder, I used the new at the time Halogen bulb. The switch was adjustable (I could change the tilt on it) so I could get the light to come on when I looked down, but if I looked up it would turn off automatically, it actually works very well. LoL! the good ol' days.
Mark
Herb Jones
New member
I am a natural born night owl... I have scuba dived at night, sky dived at night,, loved sailing at night, fishing at night, ... and yes guilty.. I detect at night, especially field testing different setting etc.
Don't use any lights. No headlamps. No back-screen lamps. No nothing.... Otherwise your eyes/pupils become adjusted to JUST that beam of light. And you become blind to every thing else around you. Instead: let your eyes become adjusted to a full-ish-moon night. And that's good enough to see rocks, bushes, etc.... Just have a penlight to look at dates on your gold coins. 
fowlercharles
Member
Hi Herb, My one attempt at night hunting ended many years ago when I found myself knees down and digging next to a fire ant bed. The results are self explanatory, especially if you have ever had just one fire ant nail you! HH, Charlie
Jerry.foggynotion
New member
I water detect and beach detect the SW Florida gulf coast at night. I enjoy the quiet and solitude and the night sky. My shooting star sightings are in the hundreds.
MarkCZ
Well-known member
Tom_in_CA said:Don't use any lights. No headlamps. No back-screen lamps. No nothing.... Otherwise your eyes/pupils become adjusted to JUST that beam of light. And you become blind to every thing else around you. Instead: let your eyes become adjusted to a full-ish-moon night. And that's good enough to see rocks, bushes, etc.... Just have a penlight to look at dates on your gold coins.
That's why I use small lights, search with red LED's and my eyes adjust pretty quick after I finish digging, for me its not like when I use the White Led's for digging that I'm blinded for several minutes afterword, the readjusting period is only a few seconds. Now if its an easy dig sometimes I can just use the red LED's. But,unless you shine the light directly in your eyes you shouldn't have a problem. And in the DARK a little light goes along WAY.
Mark
foggynotion
New member
I use a green LED headlamps with low, medium and high settings. It doesn't seem to affect my night vision. I only turn it on when I need it and the rest of the time don't use a light. I even leave the detector screen backlight off until I got a target.
GeorgeinSC
Well-known member
I have and on occasion will detect at night on the beach BUT I never feel secure not being able to see other people far enough. Red or Green lights do not affect your night vision. A white light will ruin your night vision for a quite a few minutes.
The problem I have detecting at night is not being able to read the beach to see where I want to work.
The problem I have detecting at night is not being able to read the beach to see where I want to work.
Herb Jones
New member
It certainly depends on the location and the terrain
MarkCZ
Well-known member
GeorgeinSC said:
I've never did ANY night beach hunting, Beaches in West Virginia are hard to com by except for a few man made ones at some State lakes. Small headband lights aiming out ABOVE your eyes doesn't reflect or effect your eyes like they would if its being aimed directly into your eyes, looking onto a lighted area on the ground isn't near as blinding as some think it to be. The type of areas around here that I've night hunted is "Public Areas" like ball fields, Public parks but mainly in the remote areas of it when its REALLY LATE! The lower more residential area can be hunted up towards midnight because there is so people late night people with flashlights, walking dogs, or just taking walks, so, my flashlight doesn't draw any extra attention. I'm just regular park activity, which is even better than in the daylight!
Herb Jones
New member
@Mark.CZ ... is here did you
Find th light clips
For your shaft mount?
Find th light clips
For your shaft mount?
MarkCZ
Well-known member
Herb Jones said:
Well now that presents a little problem but I'll do what I can to help out.
First the easiest thing you might look into is an LED flashlight holder for bicycles. you can get them as a universal light mount or you can get them complete with the light, although those lights are really WAY more light than you need.
The flashlights I use are a single LED, a single AA battery cell and I did have to wrap several wraps of tape around the body of the flashlights for them to fit my clips (the lights came from fleabay for like $2.00 shipped)
My clips,
Your not likely to just find these clips laying around somewhere or just walk into any store and by them. These clips are two clips attached together to form one, the clips are used to snap down a plastic dash panel onto Crown stand-up forklifts.
Another clip I found that works pretty good that you may find in stores like Sam's Club but they just don't sell the clips, but they do sell a double set of sweeping brooms that has plastic clip holding the two brooms together.
For the metal clips I have I did put a single wrap of clear tape around the shaft of the detector just to save the finish from scuffs. (I did also dremel the burred edges on the clips on all the completed ones)
See the pictures below of the two different clips I have.
I'll make "Herb Jones" (if you live in the US) and one OTHER person an offer! I have two extra, ready to go clips that I will give away for the asking, just send me a PM!
Mark
Herb Jones
New member
I appreciate the offer. Found something very similar... backTo
Back 1/2" EMT spacer. Thanks just the same.
Back 1/2" EMT spacer. Thanks just the same.