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luck versus skill - what REALLY happens?

G

GRAY GHOST

New member
hey everybody, just a simple question for you... are great discoveries made through luck or skill? ...or is it a combination of both? or is it the added equations of experience and research and persistence that tips the balance in your favor? is it hot batteries in damp ground? is it high quality headphones? is it really all about the machine? or is it just.....destiny?

i for one sir, and ma'am, would be most interested to hear what everyone has to say about this topic. i thank you for your time and thoughts in this matter. this could be fun! hh!
 
Gray Ghost,

Since I have never made any fantastic discoveries it must be research,research,research. Another thing to consider is to find it your coil has to go over it. I like research but I'm absent minded so I start researching then misplace it. This is a good topic,hopefully some of the great detectorists will respond.
 
I think it's a combination. On harder to detect targets, skill is definitely a big plus, but when the target turns out to be really special, that side of it is luck. The newbie or seasoned hunter that hits a loud obviously shallow signal that could be a pull tab, but pops up a silver dollar, that's luck. The CW relic hunter that just picks up a whisper, digs and it turns out to be a great buckle or bullet drop, that's a nice combination of both, but the skill level of the hunter helps make his luck. My two bits.
HH
BB
 
Gray Ghost,Beginners luck is because the new hunter has confidence ,but doesn't know their poor equipment is not going to find that expensive diamond ring.On the other hand,my bet would be on someone that is a skilled hunter with good equipment,research and a plan.Lots of work and skill will bring luck.
 
Gray Ghost, Good question... I believe that you hit several of the key points in your question. More experience gives way to more skill. Then with increased research, that puts you in a spot where the good stuff could be. After in a spot which holds possibilities comes the persistence and with a little luck you will make some good finds. I am not one to brag but I do have a bunch of experience and hunt with my brother most of the time. We have both detected for over 36 years so lots of experience!! No the skill part, I must admit that my brother has much more skill at detecting than I do. There isn't a detector he hasn't used and learned to it's max. On the other hand I have used many detectors but would be the first to admit that many of the machines in my past I either didn't keep long enough, or never bothered to learn every little thing they were capable of. I would venture to say that there are many old timers like my brother and I that can use an older less state of the art detector and get very good results simply from experience with a machine.
For an example I dug a silver 3 center about 6 years ago, and my brother who has found many many nice old coins, stated many times that he probably would never find a silver 3 center. Well, just this past summer I called him to go detecting and he wasn't feeling well so he said he'd need to take a rain check. So I went on with my plan to hunt an old vacated farm site having been a corn field for the past 50+ years or so. I had only been at the site about 15 minutes and dug a 1839 half dime , so I immediately called Digger, my brother, on my cell ph. to tell him of my find. He was excited but I could tell he honestly wasn't feeling well. I again tried to get him to come hunt the site with me and he explained he just didn't think he could. About 15 minutes after our phone conversation my cell phone rang. Yep, you guessed it, he had decided to make the hour long drive to my new hunt site. I continued to hunt and in about an hour he arrived. Within 10 minutes of his arrival he dug a beauty of a silver 3 center. In my opinion all of the above mentioned reasons were involved in his finding his 3 center along with his extreme desire and persistence. Oh, also the competition we have is also a driving force of our finding good stuff. Although when one of us make a good find we both feel like we made the find because when I make a the find I let him crumb the soil from it and he does the same by letting me crumb the soil from his good finds. Makes for a fun outing all the way around.
By the way I think we are both a bit lucky in many ways.
 
The best find I've seen dug was made by a newbie I took on his first relic hunt about 10 years ago. He had bought his first detector, a Fisher CZ6a, about a month earlier and bugged me almost daily to take him relic hunting. He called almost every night, and stopped by after work nearly every day, until I agreed to take him. A friend and I had hunted a site along an old road the week before where a running battle between General Nathan Bedford Forrests calvary and General William "Sooey" Smiths troops had took place and hadn't found anything except a couple of minnies and an eagle button. I was sure he wouldn't find anything worthwhile there, and hoped his lack of success would make him leave me alone. We got there, walked about a mile in to the site and I had to set up his detector for him. I handed it back and he started off at a half run, swinging the coil about a foot off the ground in the middle of his swing and twice that at each end. Just as I got my headphones on he said, "Hey! Look at this." It was a Mississippi state seal Confederate beltplate that had barely been under the surface of the ground. Check the price on that one.

stateseal.jpg
 
You need a good detector
You need to know how it operates
You need to know how to apply what the detector will do
You need a good site
You need a little luck to go over the great targets that's in the ground
Oh yea, you need patience
You also need to have the right attitude while detecting.
 
Hey there Grey Ghost, greetings from Texas.

Since I am new to the hobby and I have just gotten my new E-Trac that replaces a beginners detect, which makes me for the next who knows how long a beginner; how about answering some of those questions yourself.

I and others who are new to the hobby would actually benefit more from answers others give and even from you, who have been detecting for so long.

By the way, I just got my new E-Trac this week. Have not even had it outside yet; I'm still reading Andy's book.

Anyways, I would like your take on the questions you have put forth.

Take care and as I have learned, keep the coil to the soil and the Sun to your back.


Bluewhisper.
 
Luck applies in that you can walk into a field and find a hoard on the right hand side while your mate has started working up the left but really it doesn't come into it.
Even site quality doesn't apply as I've been round castles/Roman villas etc and nothing much has come up whilst scrubby bits of waste ground or building sites in the middle of nowhere with no history turn up fantastic finds.

If your hearings not to good you make your own luck by picking a detector that has good audio with a tone adjustment, then improve on that with the best headphones. I've 5 sets to get the best out of the main machines I use.

Then make more luck by picking a machine you can handle (weight/balance). No good going home after a couple of hours with tennis elbow. If you can't sweep slow get a high filter machine.
Weigh up if its worth getting the deepest machine if its complicated to use, heavy or has a very slow sweep speed to get the best performance. With the beep and dig machine there's less to set wrong and though it might be a couple of inches less deep you may well be able to cover twice the ground area . Better to cover an acre to eight inches than half an acre to nine.

Finally add to your "luck" after you have covered the maximum ground and located a "hot spot" by having a real deep hunter, or at least a bigger coil, to check out that area (I like a Nautilus).
 
You begin with a full bucket of luck and enthusiasms and one empty bucket of skill, the idea is to fill the bucket of skill before the before the bucket of luck is empty.:detecting:

Or something like that.. Knowledge, skill, experience and luck all come into play when detecting; all in various mixes.
 
Great question Gray Ghost. I think all the answers are good ones. I only have a little over a year of hunting under my belt. I have found a few good finds. I can not help but think that skill, and luck both play a part. Getting to know your detector and hunting a bunch help. The luck of putting the coil over the good target and knowing when to dig? Any how I continue to learn and enjoy. Thanks for the thread, Beale.
 
Sometimes I think what we people refer to as luck is really "Chance"

If you have a good detector that gets reasonable depth and performs well you have a better "chance" at finding good targets
If you know your machine well..your "chances" of interpruting what it is telling you is better.
If your persitant your "chances" go up for finding good targets
If you have a good hunting ground your "chances" are better of finding good targets
So my point is this..yes a little luck helps, but" chances" are you are the deciding factor on what you find, and where you find it.


Hope you all understand what I mean by "Chance".................
 
I llike this answer Elton!!!
 
How are you and digger surviving the winter........Looking forward to reading your posts about good things in the spring."Chances" Are I won't be disappointed.
 
All great answers thus far and I agree with them all. If, however, one relies pretty much solely on luck, most of it will end up being bad. I would rather depend on skill then luck. I've been detecting now for almost 38 year's and over this time span I have owned a total of 6 detectors. Needless to say, I got to know each of those detectors pretty well and IMHO, knowing one's detector well is the single biggest factor for achieving success in this great hobby. Great post, Ghost. HH jim tn
 
n/t
 
Elton, I guess we are tolerating the cold the best we can. I do know I am ready for some serious detecting come Spring!!! Hopefully we'll find something worth a post. I still day dream of finding that first GOLD coin. Maybe this will be the year..
 
Luck and skill are both valuable commodities. I started out with my XT70 in a good spot, there was no skill involved. Just lucky in the right spot gave me great enthusiasm. Now I have to develop the skill involved to find good things in bad spots. Research is never ending and invaluable when you have no skill. As you develop skill you can go most anywhere and find something. Lucky spots will soon drain themselves, this is where the skill comes in. Be it with research or your detector, practice and research will find something eventually!
 
n/t
 
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