I primarily relic hunt and like many others ... attended a few of his disorganized hunts in Virginia before wising up to the FACT that the guy only cares about the MONEY.
One hunt in particular (and my LAST ) ... almost got everyone locked up because he was more worried about filling his pockets than a
valid contract with the land owner. Entrance fee, travel & lodging cost is in the neighborhood of $800 for me for the 4 day's ... from start to finish ... so these trips get expensive in a hurry, the last thing anyone wants to worry about is paying a bail bondsman when you've paid in good faith and THINK the man in charge has taken care of business !!!
Yeah we heard every excuse in the book ... but not ONCE did the little Hitler money monger ever APOLOGIZE to the group for putting us in this position. Instead, he stood on his little soap box and directed us to one of his back-up sites. After diving another 80 miles we ended up at a fresh plowed bean field that was standing ankle deep in rain, then he decided to take us to a beat to death site ( like many of his sites) another 80 miles down the road in the opposite direction ... we finally started detecting around lunch time and the site was a total joke ... a bad joke at that !!!
Yes there was a FEW items found throughout the hunt but it sure wasn't what we signed up for.
I don't remember exactly how many school buses the local Sheriffs Office brought with him to accommodate the large group of relic hunters for a ride to JAIL but it was plenty. Fortunately the Sheriff decided that the majority ( paid participants) were innocent and unknowingly brought into a bad situation.
Many left early, what few that had the balls to complain about this fiasco were quickly banned from his precious Treasure Dump.
His constant banning of good folks has contributed to what you are seeing now ... his failing empire !
I know of MANY folks that would love to catch him off in the woods and give him the spanking he deserves.
He's just a blow hard rip-off artist at best.
He wouldn't put up a Whites detector forum because they refused to line his pockets.
Minelab has recently pulled their Banner support ... hmmm ... must be a GOOD REASON for it don't you think ?
Yes .. it
was a robust site to visit, some good people there too. Now it's mostly filled with his cronnies that do what HE says ... otherwise ... they get banned.
Even the dealer forum is VERY SLOOOOOW now and one has to imagine that the trickle down effect is starting to bother them just a little .. I wont do ANY business with any dealer that associates with the guy.
If you run with dirty dogs ... well, sooner or later ... you will get fleas.
I fully support the dealers who support well run forums such as Findmall... it's makes good sense to support the forums we like to visit ... plain and simple !
Anyway .. sorry for the long rant, enough of that .. it gets my blood pressure up just thinking about it.
Good Hunting
Mike
