Evidently someone else in town has a detector....

[MrGee]

I have yet to run into anyone with one in any park for 20 miles around but I was talking to a older fellow in the park tonight who told me that early in the summer he saw someone else with one here in town. He was told that he bought it at a rummage sale and was trying it out. He said the guy had a hole about 2 feet deep and was still digging. I've never seen any signs of him and certainly never saw any tracks like that. Hopefully he decided that it was a stupid waste of time and gave up.


MrGee

 

[oldranger]

Lets hope he either quits
or learns to right way to recover targets
It may be a hcnace to help a newbie
learn the right way

HH

Ron

Rangers Lead The Way

 

[deacon]

I see signs of other hunters at the local school grounds all the time. It's rarely impacted my finds to any great degree. An example of this happened just last week when I was checking over a local primary school playground. I find that swings seem to be a good source of coins, but most of the time they are not directly under the swing itself, but out to either front or back. Someone had been digging directly under the swings, but had apparently ignored my favorite spots. I came away with quite a few coins. You've got to think about where coins will likely wind up when kids are playing. Anything that turns their bodies upside down are usually good.

 

[Dirt Poor]

They're everywhere! I guess we should consider ourselves blessed if we've had "virgin" territory over the years. I do miss the good old days.

 

[MrGee]

Since I have never seen this guy around and I've been out nearly every day this summer, I believe that I still have something of a virgin territory. I have to say though that it appears as though I've pretty much picked over the parks etc locally. I'm sure that there is more out there, but I haven't found it yet. I still frosts my punkin' that I'm banned from school property. That eliminates several ball diamonds, soccer fields, etc, Just between you and me though I still visit the school tot lots regularly. shhhh! don't tell anyone.

MrGee

 

[Parkit]

I think we all go through "dry spells" as far as places to hunt. And sooner or later you're going to run into someone else with a detector, also.

One of my favorite spots is a local school complex, and I'd have sworn two years ago that I'd cleaned it out. But something new always pops up there, last time it was some of the front area of visitor-side bleachers having been cleaned up (vines, small bushes, ivy, etc) that allowed me to get my coil all the way from front to back and side to side under the bleachers. I was expecting maybe half a dozen quarters, a few dimes, maybe 20-30 coins total but I ended up with 39 quarters for a total of 152 coins just in those new, small areas I was able to reach. I thought about putting my sniper coil on but didn't end up needing it.

You may simply need to expand your hunting area, also. I prefer to stay as close to home as possible since gas is over $3/gallon here now, but I've starting turning in my found clad to fund longer trips away from the house. When I stray further from home (still within 40-50 miles) I sometimes make out very well and sometimes get absolutely skunked. That's the nature of the beast.

As far as competition, REAL competition is hard to find when you know YOUR machine like you should. It used to bother me seeing someone sweeping a machine over an area that I wanted to hunt, or had hunted in the past. But so many times I've stopped and chatted with the person and discovered that they don't have a clue what they're doing, that I no longer worry about it. I've tried giving tips when asked, but of the four people I KNOW of in this area that use a detector there's not a one of them that goes out more than once or twice a year. I believe two of them have quit altogether, they just don't have the patience to "dig pennies all the time", "have to make a gigantic hole just to find a penny" or "can't find what's making the machine beep". I posted a couple weeks ago about another new guy with a machine under "Ever meet Mr. Metal Detector... who isn't?" and that's about the size of what I run into around here now. I've gotten to the point where I LIKE to see someone else with a detector working a place over, because it might deter someone else with a machine from checking it out. It sounds counter-intuitive but that's the way it is. Just keep common courtesy in mind, for instance I never invite myself to hunt with them or pull out my machine and start going at it until they've left.

Steve

 

[Old Katz]

I run into signs of other detectors as well but truthfully they don't seem to have spent
much time on the site. Maybe they get bored, I don't know, but many times I recheck the holes they have dug
and find they left the target in the hole. I've recovered several targets that other people have missed for one reason or another.
I suspect they don't have a pin pointer and could not find the target.
Katz

 

[jbow]

Me an my buddy were at out favorite old pounded park one day last year. I looked up and saw this guy (late 20s) moving quickly toward where we were recovering somehing. He had his new detector and his chubby little wife in tow (she was carrying a garden/construction shovel). He walks up and asks, "where can we dig some civil war relics"? ... I think Roy told him that if we knew that, we would be there. We just sort of looked at them for a minute, frankly, I was at a loss for words... then he looked over at the old home that is beside the park and said he had gotten permission to hunt over there and asked us if we had hunted it, we told him we had some but not much. So, they hurried over that way. They spent about 20 minutes hurrying around in the yard over there, came back into the park, dug a couple of pieces of trash and were gone in another 10 minutes...

I was really glad to see them go.

There is a veterans memorial in the park. I came back a couple of weeks later and there was this horrible spot just behind the memorial, right beside the walkway that goes from there to a small museum... grass all messed up dirt everywhere... it was about a foot wide and maybe two foot long... I cannot tell you how it made me feel. I fixed it as best I could but didn't want to spend much time on it lest someone were to see me and think that I made the mess... I hunt there regularly... some people just shouldn't get into detecting. I think some people think that they are going to get rich digging in a park, I really do. I think they get into their heads that there is some buried treasuse or CSA buckles all over the place.. I do think that they quickly give it up, but not before making a mess.

I think dealers should give recovery lessons before selling anyone a detector. Of course no one would ever admit to needing them. "He77, I know how to dig a hole"..

I just wish they would dig them somewhere else.

Now... does anyone have that AT-Pro yet?? I can't wait to see some real user reviews. I sure hope it is the success that everyone wants it to be. It sure does look sexy and I really like the videos.

J