Critterhunter
New member
This spawned out of another thread on an unrelated topic, so I figured it might be interesting to kick this around in a discussion...
We all know old coins and silver in particular are fairly hard to come by on most public land these days. We know they are still there, but to find them takes skill and the willingness to dig iffy coin hits that most others pass on as "junk". But that's the challenge in our hobby. If it was easy to stroll into a public park and walk out with a bucket of silver coins then the challenge would be gone. Just like fishing. I've fished stocked tiny ponds and the thrill just isn't there when they jump on your hook like mad.
That's why I hope there is never a detector invented that will suck out all the coins left with ease, or be able to tell you the difference between a gold ring and trash. God forbid that ever happens, because then the challenge will be gone and the public sites will be trully "dead" this time around. VLF technology is pretty much limited by the laws of physics that govern detection fields. You can't make it go around corners and see a coin being masked by trash. First/shallowest metal object in the field and it's game over. I don't see that changing as you just can't control the laws that govern how magnetic detection fields work. It's like blowing a soap bubble out of a machine. Regardless of how much electronics you cram into the control box it won't change what the soap bubble (or detection field) does once it's "blown up" and floating out there.
Same deal with what the field can tell you. Far as I've read it's impossible for the field to see two targets in the field (same depth and close together for that to happen) and know it's got two targets there. Only exception being that detection fields can tell you the ferrous/non-ferrous aspects of the mixed "as one" signal when say a coin and nail are both being washed in the field at once due to them being the same depth and right up against each other. The field just can't tell you much other than the ferrous and non-ferrous conductive properties of the target but far as it can tell the detector it's still an "as one" target. That's why I don't see a VLF machine ever coming along that can say ID gold versus a pull tab.
The only thing that gives me nightmares is some new form of detection technology that is different than VLF. Perhaps ground penetrating radar that will display a target's picture on the screen. If that happens and is detailed enough to say show the difference between a round tab and a ring then the game is over and it's private property hunting as public land will be pointless. But, even if the machine can show you that a target is round, can it show the hole in the middle? Can it give you enough detail to know it's a coin or ring and not a round tab or bottle cap? Can it tell you what kind of coin it is? If it can't, then in some respects VLF still wins. The conductive properties of say zinc pennies versus a copper penny, or say the bad traits of a bottle cap versus a coin, will still give VLF the edge in my opinion. And, will the imaging of a non-VLF unit be able to see under shallower trash? If not then same deal. Not really a step forward in finding the good stuff but rather a wash in end results between that and good old VLF.
Far as I've read in the past (not in recent years though), I think ground penetrating radar is heavy and requires a pretty large power source due to the power demands. That limits use if that is still true. It wouldn't look too good pushing a cart across a public park trying to find stuff. Maybe all this has changed in the last few years but I hope it's not the case. If we can see with enough detail to know it's a ring, or with enough to know it's a coin and what kind of coin, then the game is over. If we can't, then VLF still has the edge and the challenge is still out there for all of us. The day it is like shooting fish in a barrel is the day I hang up my machine, or say only water hunt as fresh dropped rings will still continue in large numbers, while the old coins at public sites and rings dropped there will quickly dry up. Most people won't go into the water or even have a waterproof machine, and also the nature of waves/storms uncovers new stuff all the time far out of the range for VLF units or probably even beyond the abilitiy of some new ground imaging unit. I hope anyway...
Like to hear your opinions/views on this subject. Do you hope for a leap in technology or do you hope it's still called "Hunting" and not "Getting"...
We all know old coins and silver in particular are fairly hard to come by on most public land these days. We know they are still there, but to find them takes skill and the willingness to dig iffy coin hits that most others pass on as "junk". But that's the challenge in our hobby. If it was easy to stroll into a public park and walk out with a bucket of silver coins then the challenge would be gone. Just like fishing. I've fished stocked tiny ponds and the thrill just isn't there when they jump on your hook like mad.
That's why I hope there is never a detector invented that will suck out all the coins left with ease, or be able to tell you the difference between a gold ring and trash. God forbid that ever happens, because then the challenge will be gone and the public sites will be trully "dead" this time around. VLF technology is pretty much limited by the laws of physics that govern detection fields. You can't make it go around corners and see a coin being masked by trash. First/shallowest metal object in the field and it's game over. I don't see that changing as you just can't control the laws that govern how magnetic detection fields work. It's like blowing a soap bubble out of a machine. Regardless of how much electronics you cram into the control box it won't change what the soap bubble (or detection field) does once it's "blown up" and floating out there.
Same deal with what the field can tell you. Far as I've read it's impossible for the field to see two targets in the field (same depth and close together for that to happen) and know it's got two targets there. Only exception being that detection fields can tell you the ferrous/non-ferrous aspects of the mixed "as one" signal when say a coin and nail are both being washed in the field at once due to them being the same depth and right up against each other. The field just can't tell you much other than the ferrous and non-ferrous conductive properties of the target but far as it can tell the detector it's still an "as one" target. That's why I don't see a VLF machine ever coming along that can say ID gold versus a pull tab.
The only thing that gives me nightmares is some new form of detection technology that is different than VLF. Perhaps ground penetrating radar that will display a target's picture on the screen. If that happens and is detailed enough to say show the difference between a round tab and a ring then the game is over and it's private property hunting as public land will be pointless. But, even if the machine can show you that a target is round, can it show the hole in the middle? Can it give you enough detail to know it's a coin or ring and not a round tab or bottle cap? Can it tell you what kind of coin it is? If it can't, then in some respects VLF still wins. The conductive properties of say zinc pennies versus a copper penny, or say the bad traits of a bottle cap versus a coin, will still give VLF the edge in my opinion. And, will the imaging of a non-VLF unit be able to see under shallower trash? If not then same deal. Not really a step forward in finding the good stuff but rather a wash in end results between that and good old VLF.
Far as I've read in the past (not in recent years though), I think ground penetrating radar is heavy and requires a pretty large power source due to the power demands. That limits use if that is still true. It wouldn't look too good pushing a cart across a public park trying to find stuff. Maybe all this has changed in the last few years but I hope it's not the case. If we can see with enough detail to know it's a ring, or with enough to know it's a coin and what kind of coin, then the game is over. If we can't, then VLF still has the edge and the challenge is still out there for all of us. The day it is like shooting fish in a barrel is the day I hang up my machine, or say only water hunt as fresh dropped rings will still continue in large numbers, while the old coins at public sites and rings dropped there will quickly dry up. Most people won't go into the water or even have a waterproof machine, and also the nature of waves/storms uncovers new stuff all the time far out of the range for VLF units or probably even beyond the abilitiy of some new ground imaging unit. I hope anyway...
Like to hear your opinions/views on this subject. Do you hope for a leap in technology or do you hope it's still called "Hunting" and not "Getting"...
Even something you might THINK would be a magical shape (like a horse-shoe, for instance) is still nothing but a messy blotch of pixels (and not a magical clear "horse-shoe" shape). Even if technology advanced to the day that an image showing device got resolute enough to show down to teensy detail, I still think it would be useless. Because it assumes that things are lying "flat". If you put EVEN THE SLIGHTEST tilt to an object (like a ring) and you can kiss the "shape" idea away. 