Be careful who you trust. I've been had by three individuals that I know of, since I started relic hunting three years ago. The first was a guy that was salting his own property with relics from a site that he was working (and not sharing) and then going out to any sites I shared, while I was at work. This went on for a year before I could figure out what was going on. This guy got caught for identity theft and then ate the wrong end of a gun. The second guy is a history teacher that's been relic hunting for a long time and is real secretive about his sites and only has one partner (all cool), but he promised to share some research he had (copy of a soldier's diary) in exchange for a piece of research that I had and he wasn't aware of. I shared my info with him, and here it is, two years later and he's still giving me a line about misplacing it. The third guy was giving me phony leads, just to keep me busy and keep me away from sites he was working and I wasted a lot of good time doing research on these phony leads. Too bad you can't trust anyone anymore, but I guess its the times we live in.
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Warning to New Relic Hunters
- Thread starter Canewrap
- Start date
Thats the reason I only hunt with 2 people, one lives here and is my neighbor and the other lives in NM and he used to be my neighbor. When he comes home we either relic hunt or goose hunt or both. I may be a little paranoid but so far I like the way we do it. 3 people can keep a secret, if 2 of 'em are dead...d2
I joined a local club a few years ago. One reason was to share info and research and to join in on the club hunts. I went to every meeting and paid all dues and fees. I was never informed about club hunts until after the fact. When I asked when the next one would be the officers would say nothing is scheduled. These folks were also involved with the Nat. Parks Service, excavating on road projects and such. Again only the 'core" members were aware of the projects. After sharing the the locations of a few of my spots with a couple of fellow members, I was inturn given false info about new sites they had been digging. They thought that was very funny. Now I know why the club was so small. I'll never join another club.
Yeah, the only club they had here, the Rocket City Relic Hunters, busted up for the same kind of self-serving, greedy, deceitful, BS. Fortunately, I came to town right after they went down the tubes or I would probably be adding another instance of being duped. I'm not easily fooled, but when people put together elaborate schemes to defraud others, I defy most people not to get taken.
GRAY GHOST
New member
sorry to hear of your troubles, canewrap. i think it happens to everybody, eventually. lucky for me though, and probably quite a few others, the old saying still rings true: a feller can't hide who and what he really is for very long. here goes:
1. how about the feller i took detecting with me one time, only to quickly find out that he was jealous of everything i found, and started throwing bb's in front of my machine? that's a low down, dirty dog for ya. if he wasn't such a puny lil' rascal, i'da beat the tar outta him.
2. how about all those good lookin' spots i was detecting in northern virginia, coming up with very little except handfuls of newly minted pennies? i'm not talking about a couple spots either, i'm talking 8 to 10. come to find out, an older woman had hit these spots before me, and made it a habit to throw a roll of new pennies all over the place. it's times like those that i just shook my head and left, never going back there again. to this day, i still leave clad coinage and newer copper in the ground. let someone else find it 50 years from now. i don't need money that bad. i guess her name was penny.
3. i can recall a few times in the past knocking on an old farmhouse door asking permission to hunt the property, then the owners angrily showing me the moonscape someone had made of their woods or pasture. there were a bunch of unfilled holes everywhere. man, i felt real small real quick, even though i had nothing to do with it. lord help 'em if they are caught - some of them ol' boys don't take that kind of treatment of their land too lightly around here. i'd be mad too. real mad.
4. or how about the time last year when a feller asked me to do some research for him on another forum? well, he was new at this, a nice guy i thought, i was bored, so i relayed the info to him. ain't heard a simple thankyou, and ain't never heard back from him. i'll guarantee you one thing, brother, that's the LAST TIME that will happen. do your own homework. that way, you KNOW what's up.
5. an old buddy of mine took a guy he knew out detecting with him to a new spot. my buddy found some old wheat cents, a couple of indians, a couple old silver dimes, etc.,nothing spectacular, but still a good day in an old park. well the guy he took with him had a SPECTACULAR day! he came out of the old park with a nice pocketful of silver dimes, quarters, and halves. no coppers at all, and none of it was dirty at all. going back to their cars, the guy was trying to keep my buddy away from his car - you'd had to been 300 feet away from the car not to notice all the torn coin flips littering the front seat and floorboard! seems the guy paid a visit to the local coin shop beforehand. phew! sometimes i wonder just how far people are willing to go.
that's just a few of my personal horror stories. after nearly 30 years detecting, there's lots more. there's 2 good men out there for every bad one. there's plenty of good hunting pardners out there, you just haven't found one yet. a good pardner can be hard to find, and i'm glad to have the two hunting partners that i do have. really glad.
1. how about the feller i took detecting with me one time, only to quickly find out that he was jealous of everything i found, and started throwing bb's in front of my machine? that's a low down, dirty dog for ya. if he wasn't such a puny lil' rascal, i'da beat the tar outta him.
2. how about all those good lookin' spots i was detecting in northern virginia, coming up with very little except handfuls of newly minted pennies? i'm not talking about a couple spots either, i'm talking 8 to 10. come to find out, an older woman had hit these spots before me, and made it a habit to throw a roll of new pennies all over the place. it's times like those that i just shook my head and left, never going back there again. to this day, i still leave clad coinage and newer copper in the ground. let someone else find it 50 years from now. i don't need money that bad. i guess her name was penny.
3. i can recall a few times in the past knocking on an old farmhouse door asking permission to hunt the property, then the owners angrily showing me the moonscape someone had made of their woods or pasture. there were a bunch of unfilled holes everywhere. man, i felt real small real quick, even though i had nothing to do with it. lord help 'em if they are caught - some of them ol' boys don't take that kind of treatment of their land too lightly around here. i'd be mad too. real mad.
4. or how about the time last year when a feller asked me to do some research for him on another forum? well, he was new at this, a nice guy i thought, i was bored, so i relayed the info to him. ain't heard a simple thankyou, and ain't never heard back from him. i'll guarantee you one thing, brother, that's the LAST TIME that will happen. do your own homework. that way, you KNOW what's up.
5. an old buddy of mine took a guy he knew out detecting with him to a new spot. my buddy found some old wheat cents, a couple of indians, a couple old silver dimes, etc.,nothing spectacular, but still a good day in an old park. well the guy he took with him had a SPECTACULAR day! he came out of the old park with a nice pocketful of silver dimes, quarters, and halves. no coppers at all, and none of it was dirty at all. going back to their cars, the guy was trying to keep my buddy away from his car - you'd had to been 300 feet away from the car not to notice all the torn coin flips littering the front seat and floorboard! seems the guy paid a visit to the local coin shop beforehand. phew! sometimes i wonder just how far people are willing to go.
that's just a few of my personal horror stories. after nearly 30 years detecting, there's lots more. there's 2 good men out there for every bad one. there's plenty of good hunting pardners out there, you just haven't found one yet. a good pardner can be hard to find, and i'm glad to have the two hunting partners that i do have. really glad.
I've had a few panhandlers years ago but I like too meet new people who relic hunt. I met another relic hunter who was new at it and I helped him out and now he's one of the best partners I ever had. . We do the research together and hunt together. If one of us wants to bring a friend we ask! I love it when someone finds something good. And alot of times it makes me just as happy to see that smile on their face as I've had many times before. For only relic hunting for a very short time he has taught me some things. Like using a GPS and making overlays and he has a way with folks when asking to hunt their property. I always made out about 50% my friend could talk them into buying a bucket of dead roosters. lol Canwrap: there are some real good folks out there so don't give up! I use to hunt alone but now days thats not a good idea. As for relic hunting clubs STAY AWAY! They have their clicks they well treat you like gold until they get all the info they need and then your history! There is the DIV that may be for you but I personally could not grasp paying someone to let me detect somewhere. They say they use a lottery type system to see who goes but I've heard alot of the same folks seem to get picked alot. Things that make you go hmmmmmmmm Good luck and take care
3. i can recall a few times in the past knocking on an old farmhouse door asking permission to hunt the property, then the owners angrily showing me the moonscape someone had made of their woods or pasture. there were a bunch of unfilled holes everywhere. man, i felt real small real quick, even though i had nothing to do with it. lord help 'em if they are caught - some of them ol' boys don't take that kind of treatment of their land too lightly around here. i'd be mad too. real mad.
That situation might be the time to say an apology for the detecting community and ask if you can grab a shovel and go repair his land... good will goes a long way. People who don't fill holes are scum of the earth as far as I am concerned. It don't matter if you are in the middle of the woods, no one should leave unfilled holes and it only takes a couple of seconds to spread the leaves back over the spot... and take trash out dummies, if you can't carry it all at least put it all in one hole.... (not you, the hole leaving dummies).
5. an old buddy of mine took a guy he knew out detecting with him to a new spot. my buddy found some old wheat cents, a couple of indians, a couple old silver dimes, etc.,nothing spectacular, but still a good day in an old park. well the guy he took with him had a SPECTACULAR day! he came out of the old park with a nice pocketful of silver dimes, quarters, and halves. no coppers at all, and none of it was dirty at all. going back to their cars, the guy was trying to keep my buddy away from his car - you'd had to been 300 feet away from the car not to notice all the torn coin flips littering the front seat and floorboard!
OK... i'm scratching my head on this one. I'd stay away from someone like that, people like that scare me. They are obviously a weird sort of sick.
The local club hasa guy like that, a couple of people told me about him winning the "find of the month" with something they knew that he bought, and where he bought it. Being gentlemen, they didn't make a fuss. Weird...
Julien
That situation might be the time to say an apology for the detecting community and ask if you can grab a shovel and go repair his land... good will goes a long way. People who don't fill holes are scum of the earth as far as I am concerned. It don't matter if you are in the middle of the woods, no one should leave unfilled holes and it only takes a couple of seconds to spread the leaves back over the spot... and take trash out dummies, if you can't carry it all at least put it all in one hole.... (not you, the hole leaving dummies).
5. an old buddy of mine took a guy he knew out detecting with him to a new spot. my buddy found some old wheat cents, a couple of indians, a couple old silver dimes, etc.,nothing spectacular, but still a good day in an old park. well the guy he took with him had a SPECTACULAR day! he came out of the old park with a nice pocketful of silver dimes, quarters, and halves. no coppers at all, and none of it was dirty at all. going back to their cars, the guy was trying to keep my buddy away from his car - you'd had to been 300 feet away from the car not to notice all the torn coin flips littering the front seat and floorboard!
OK... i'm scratching my head on this one. I'd stay away from someone like that, people like that scare me. They are obviously a weird sort of sick.
The local club hasa guy like that, a couple of people told me about him winning the "find of the month" with something they knew that he bought, and where he bought it. Being gentlemen, they didn't make a fuss. Weird...
Julien
Gardinerda
New member
Hey, I know what you are talking about! I allowed a man to dig for bottles, even stay in our guest home at no charge as long as he carted off the broken glass and filled in the hole Well, he has shown me his bottles, (a bsket full) explained to me how "valuable" some of them were (Blue is good, I guess) told me "Thanks", but when I went to the bottle dump, he had left PILES of broken glass on top of the ground! Understand, this guy went away with many old bottles, (early 1800"s), and this is the "Thanks" I got! glass to hurt my dog and any other critter running down the path. There are so many sites here, and I guess they will NEVER be dug. I bring an old bucket with me when I go into my woods, and pick up the old thick glass on the ground, and now I will spent a few hours to clean up that site. Thank goodness he only dug one site! (Brush on top of another one, and he did not choose to look for the other ones)
It's a shame that their are some folks out there like that. Being you and sharing your hobby and wealthy spots with someone and having them crap on you is a shame. I just hope that doesn't change you as a person. There are good folks out their who are responsible and love saving and collecting things of the past. I just hope you are not to the point that you never let another bottle collector hunt with you ect. As for that fellow a little rock salt would be on the menu for him. lol I knocked on a door once and asked permission to relic hunt. The man said I well let you talk to my wife. When she came to the door she was fit to be tied! I don't want any relic hunters on my property. The last group of fellows that were here pulled out of our lane and ran over my granddaughters bike and just kept going. I'm sorry but you well have to leave! This is the kind of crap that ruins our hobby. When I got home I told my wife about the latest rejection and she said why don't you take that bike our daughter grew out of and give it to them. I told my wife The next time I knock on that door I'm liable to get shot! joking she said go as soon as possible. lol So I took the bike out to the farm went up to the door knocked but no one was home so I put a note on the bike with my number and left. I forgot about it until I got a phone call about a week later it was farmer. He said I just cut the corn in the back field so you should be able to hunt that. I'll let you know when I'll disc the rest. KEEP THE FENCE CLOSED AND DON'T BLOCK MY TRACTOR PATH! That was it I detected there for years and still go back when I get a chance. He never said thank you for the bike but in a way I guess he did.
Unfortunately, the world is full of scoundrels Canewrap. Be it fishing holes, deer stands, duck blinds...it's all the same. There are low life's all around. Some of the types you mention could fit a number of persons we all know. Some have a giant bad reputation and they've done this over and over to newbies. Karma has a way of coming down on these rats. Give it time....every trap has it's cheese. Do your own research and hunt alone. Sooner or later you'll come across a good partner.
GH,
David
GH,
David
relics4plus
New member
This is a very sore spot for lots of diggers. I agree with most of it especially about clubs. I have heard enough bad stuff about clubs that I could write a book on. If you like to meet fellow diggers here's something a buddy of mine suggested. We got together with several fellow diggers from this forum and had what he called a "Round Robin" we met a social hall and each of us brought some of our prized relics and just had a good ole show and tell. I then showed a ppt presentation I put together from pictures I had taken while out in the filed detecting. We had coffee and donuts, shared stories, shared our finds and had a great time.I even gave out some door prizes for the heck of it. No one asked about hunting one anothers spot or trading spots (though I was invited to tag along with some of the guys to a hunted spot they had) so, we can get together and share the love of the hobby without giving up spots and make news friends as well.Anyone ever interested in doing this again just let me know. Ain't nothin like sittin around talking about relics and admiring other finds for several hours with a bunch of good ole boys.
HH to all.
HH to all.
Keeshond John
New member
All of these stories of bad actors comes as a surprise to me. Although I mostly detect alone, and prefer it that way, I have worked with others and have never had a bad experience. We show each other the stuff we find and have a chuckle. Nothing to get jealous about. I don't understand the shifty persons outlined in the above posts and I have never met one. It's just a hobby. If I were looking to get rich it wouldn't be with a detector in my hand.
relics4plus
New member
I informed a fellow digger about a similar spot sometime back. Near Gettysburg for sure.I told him I had tried to get permission at this site for several years but because some other diggers had backed over her granddaughters bicycle she would not allow anyone to hunt anymore.The grandfather was willing to let us hunt but she had the final say. I explained all of this to a new found digger friend and told him he could try and get permission. Though I know this is not the same fellow I told this story to because if he had gotten permission he surly would have told me and invited me along. This was virgin camp loaded with relics and only had been hunted one time by the fellows who ran over the bike whom I know very well. My, it almost sounds like the same place? though i am sure it is not, or is it?
Same kind of thing has happened to me. It is amazing how people can forget your name and phone number.. when you've helped them get on a place and they manage to make something out of it. I put a guy on a place I really didn't have time to hunt, no problem and he found some nice relics and that was fine, i'm glad he did BUT... He found another place right down the road because of the area I had put him on. He started digging shells etc.
He forgot my name and number but he remembered a guy from another state who makes videos... (no one from, this forum), and a couple of other well known hunters if you know what I mean. Not even local people...
Oh we.. we live and learn.
J
He forgot my name and number but he remembered a guy from another state who makes videos... (no one from, this forum), and a couple of other well known hunters if you know what I mean. Not even local people...
Oh we.. we live and learn.
J
When you find a couple of CS plates and some CS buttons... then be careful who you tell. Your experience may be different, or you may have a good circle of friends. I know I do, but I stay away from the club and from people whom I know about. Some "avid" relic hunters seem to become a little self important and they let their desire for good relics and good sites eclipse everything including their honor. You can usually tell this type of person because they have no use for you when you have a couple of minnies but when you find something like that CS plate and more... when all of a sudden they have time to talk to you... beware!!!
J
J
I use to relic hunt in Va and had a good friend that I detected with. We kept our spots to ourselves but when I moved down here to GA I gave him all my permission so at least he could get the relics. I sold my detector to one of his friends he worked with and now they dig on as it should be! When I go back I take my new detector and hit the same spots plus new ones they brought to the table. Since moving here (Alpharetta GA) I have had no luck finding anyone that relic hunts. If they do they do not speak up. I have not joined a club because I know not many people like to share their spots or take large groups and there is good reason for that. If they take alot of people or someone they do not know AKA-ME, they are afraid of people goinf back and ruining their permission. I completely understand. J?ust kind of frustrating being new to the area. I have driven up to North GA and found a few bullets and buttons and had a good time but metal detecting alone in these mountains is really pretty dangerous. I went the first time and cracked a bone in my foot. I had waled 20 minues to a spot to hunt in some mountains andit took me two miserable hours to get out on my own. I am in pretty good shape but an injury like that will stop you in your boots! It's safer to hunt with at least one person in this terrain no doubt but I still hunt alone because no one on this forum or any other is either willing to take a chance on a fellow relic hunter or they are just too stingy... I am not either. I enjoy sharing my research, finds and stories. I was told back in VA by Rand of Sgt Rikers that me and my buddy both new to detecting at the time (5 years ago) were pulling the best relics he had seen in years! We are not new to keeping permission or getting it though and got in the actual battlegrounds and also camps no one can hunt any longer because of the reasons I wrote above, too many people and people going back without the person that has permission or that took them to a spot. You see my friends family has lived in Richmond since basically we all settled here in this great land. We can go about anywhere we want around that town where no one else can! It's different down here in the South when your new but rest assured I will have some of the best spots in this area before the year is up! So if anyone wants to hunt with me send me a message. I just like the whole aspect of relic hunting and I am not here to cash in on relics. I have never sold one relic. I actually gave my friend back in VA all the finds I made before I moved because he has cases and they are safe there and enjoyed instead of sitting in a box in storage. So if anyone here is a civil war relic hunter with good ethics let me know and we can go flip some plugs and know I will pound the ground for permission you do not have already but I will share all my spots with an ethical hunter and I am pretty savy in getting those hard to get spots. I actually have permission in VA off Osbourne road right on a battlefield that no one else is allowed to even get close to especially with all the park rangers... I actually only hunted it 2 times since I had so many good spots back home. Hope to meet some good relic hunters soon in GA
Thanks for reading and sorry the post is so long.
Tim
Thanks for reading and sorry the post is so long.
Tim
As far as who you can trust for partners...good relics are hard to find. Trustworthy friends are even harder to find! Greed has been the big downfall of a lot of things, and our hobby is loaded with greedy folks. I kind of blame a lot of the more recent stuff on the shows that have came on TV, such as the Cash & Treasures style shows, where everything has a price tag. For folks like that, it's all about who finds the most valuable item. I like to relic hunt. I love history. I don't sell my relics. I like to go to the relic shows to more the less see folks and talk. I never buy anything there...buying the stuff don't mean anything to me when I get it. Finding it is more fun to me. But to some, it's just a big ego trip; like "yeee haw I just dug a super rare slave tag, I'm the greatest hunter in the world" translated that means "I could care less about the historical part of what I just found...its worth lots of money and I'm gonna sell it for as much as I can get out of it". That's why when people outside the hobby find out what you do....the first question they ask you is "what's the most VALUABLE thing you've found".
Over my years on the forum, I've taken my share of folks hunting to MY sites. I've got a couple places I take folks to at first, to feel them out so to speak. To watch and see if they'll come back there after I tell them what few rules I do have regarding hunting with me. You'd be surprised of folks I've had come back to a particular spot I have with just shot minie balls....man I'm talking SHOT BULLETS for cryin' out loud.
Of all the people I've took hunting with me first....I can count the number of them on one hand that have came back to invite me to one of their sites. Well I can do it with one finger. Cause there's only one. Jeff Tn. The rest of them have made those in vain comments "ohh yeah I got a good spot I'm hunting now that we'll get together and I'll take you there...". And that's the last you ever hear of it.
Now I've actually had a couple from off the forums here that have invited ME to their spots first and I've always invited them or took them to one of my places in return. That's just how I think it should work.
Over my years on the forum, I've taken my share of folks hunting to MY sites. I've got a couple places I take folks to at first, to feel them out so to speak. To watch and see if they'll come back there after I tell them what few rules I do have regarding hunting with me. You'd be surprised of folks I've had come back to a particular spot I have with just shot minie balls....man I'm talking SHOT BULLETS for cryin' out loud.
Of all the people I've took hunting with me first....I can count the number of them on one hand that have came back to invite me to one of their sites. Well I can do it with one finger. Cause there's only one. Jeff Tn. The rest of them have made those in vain comments "ohh yeah I got a good spot I'm hunting now that we'll get together and I'll take you there...". And that's the last you ever hear of it.
Now I've actually had a couple from off the forums here that have invited ME to their spots first and I've always invited them or took them to one of my places in return. That's just how I think it should work.