and becomes a expensive , money blowing obsession? Do you count up all the metal detectors you own and say wow! how did it get to this point. maybe a half a dozen pinpointers laying in the closest or a stack of coils you never use. The popular phrase "the hobby that pays for itself" may be true if you live to be a couple of hundred years old. The exception to this would be the beach hunters that can sell there gold finds but most hunt and find a few coins as they go along and never will get there money back out of there equipment. Just my opinion.
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when does metal detecting stop being a hobby
- Thread starter mitwes56
- Start date
I am beginning to wonder the same thing. I only have 2 detectors and 2 pinpointers but am always looking at the different forums and wanting another. Right now my list of wants are Fisher F5. exterra 70, tesoro V, Minelab Safari and the Eagle Vision is looking good but way out of my price range. Heck right now all of them are out of range. It is like when I used to trapshoot and always wanted a new shotgun. I guess the grass is always greener.
blacktoe
blacktoe
tulare tokens
New member
n/t
I think that metal detecting for me, has turned into OCD. Every place we go, I am trying to find the oldest places in that area. Luckily for me, The Atlanta area is rich in history. I haven't hit the silver lode yet. But one of these old 1800's churchs oughta produce something!
I dunno? I own 2 detectors, one pinpointer, no extra coils? I guess it is because I can not afford more. 
I do enjoy it and to me that is the important thing. It is the only hobby I have ever enjoyed this much. I think we all have a chance to pay back what we have bought, but if I do not that is ok. My wife does like th bling I find though, Beale.
I do enjoy it and to me that is the important thing. It is the only hobby I have ever enjoyed this much. I think we all have a chance to pay back what we have bought, but if I do not that is ok. My wife does like th bling I find though, Beale.I think metal detecting stops being a hobby when we began asking ourselves, "when does metal detecting stop being a hobby?" Although I am being a little facetious, I think we'll know when detecting is no longer a hobby. If we don't know, our spouses will let us know.
HH jim tn
HH jim tn
I downsized - streamlined what I had. Never mind the shelves of accessories, coils, headphones, probes, pinpointers, digging tools and misc stuff.
I have never sold any finds - but have given away. The best part is I can go detecting when I'm not up to any of my other hobbies. So it's a hand full of hobbies = having a good time. And anything found nice while detecting is a bonus.
But since I got going in detecting, I did downsize to just a handful last year - need room for the other hobby stuff.
I'll give it up when I'm ready or can't do it anymore.
[attachment 120602 DetectorFamily.jpg]
I have never sold any finds - but have given away. The best part is I can go detecting when I'm not up to any of my other hobbies. So it's a hand full of hobbies = having a good time. And anything found nice while detecting is a bonus.
But since I got going in detecting, I did downsize to just a handful last year - need room for the other hobby stuff.
I'll give it up when I'm ready or can't do it anymore.
[attachment 120602 DetectorFamily.jpg]
parrothead
New member
[size=medium]OK I am only going to buy that pinpointer and then stop buying stuff...............................
[/size]
[/size]GRAY GHOST
New member
hi mitwes. i don't think that metal detecting has become an expensive, money blowing obsession for me. i set limits long ago. if i ever did reach that point, i would actively be selling off everything for the best prices i could get and stick with one or two good machines - and nothing else. i always make certain that every machine i acquire fully pays for itself, in terms of both the enjoyment of the hobby and the usually small monetary gains we might make, before i buy another. i vowed long ago not to get caught up in the race for the "best detector" or, the "best pinpointer", or the latest technological advances. all of that poppycock has fallen on my deaf ears. following such a line of reasoning would quickly empty my pockets - and i have a very good, well paying job.
i think that the values and frequency of finds we make depends largely upon the area you live in, and how long, and how much it's been habitated. i lived for a brief time in rural kentucky. little was to be had anywhere i went. even old homesteads didn't produce much. the people probably didn't have a lot of money, and so, probably didn't have it to lose. i soon moved to the petersburg, va. area, and have been a happy camper ever since. there's an abundance of old homesteads, some colonial, civil war and revolutionary war battlefields. if you think that only beachcombers find anything of worth, then i must say to you sir, that you are mistaken. apparently, you haven't seen the skyrocketing prices of the war relics i uncover, not to mention all the other stuff i find. the two machines i'm currently using have paid for themselves many, many times over. i wouldn't have it any other way, either.
people sometimes ask me if i've ever found anything super valuable or the fabled pot of gold. i just smile and tell them that i didn't get into this hobby to get rich, and if i would have, i'dve starved to death years ago.
you sound discouraged with the hobby. that's a bad place to be, mitwes. whenever i get a little discouraged, i remember back to the feelings i got when i pulled out my first silver, or when i found my first cw bullet. i had a lot of fun with the hobby nearly thirty years ago when i started out, and still have a lot of fun with it. you can believe me when i tell you that's there's still plenty of good stuff just waiting to be found - provided we sweep the right place at the right time. yes, this hobby does pay for itself. and in many different ways! the way i see it, a hundred years from now, it's not gonna matter one bit what machine or pinpointer you used, or which coils you didn't use. what will matter, though, is that you helped save and preserve some history for the future generations and had a great time doing it. keep on gettin' up, mitwes! thanks, and hh!
i think that the values and frequency of finds we make depends largely upon the area you live in, and how long, and how much it's been habitated. i lived for a brief time in rural kentucky. little was to be had anywhere i went. even old homesteads didn't produce much. the people probably didn't have a lot of money, and so, probably didn't have it to lose. i soon moved to the petersburg, va. area, and have been a happy camper ever since. there's an abundance of old homesteads, some colonial, civil war and revolutionary war battlefields. if you think that only beachcombers find anything of worth, then i must say to you sir, that you are mistaken. apparently, you haven't seen the skyrocketing prices of the war relics i uncover, not to mention all the other stuff i find. the two machines i'm currently using have paid for themselves many, many times over. i wouldn't have it any other way, either.
people sometimes ask me if i've ever found anything super valuable or the fabled pot of gold. i just smile and tell them that i didn't get into this hobby to get rich, and if i would have, i'dve starved to death years ago.
you sound discouraged with the hobby. that's a bad place to be, mitwes. whenever i get a little discouraged, i remember back to the feelings i got when i pulled out my first silver, or when i found my first cw bullet. i had a lot of fun with the hobby nearly thirty years ago when i started out, and still have a lot of fun with it. you can believe me when i tell you that's there's still plenty of good stuff just waiting to be found - provided we sweep the right place at the right time. yes, this hobby does pay for itself. and in many different ways! the way i see it, a hundred years from now, it's not gonna matter one bit what machine or pinpointer you used, or which coils you didn't use. what will matter, though, is that you helped save and preserve some history for the future generations and had a great time doing it. keep on gettin' up, mitwes! thanks, and hh!
I agree. Hobbie(s) are that which a person enjoys which do not interfere in a persons everyday life in a negative way.
Metal detecting is one thing I really love. Is it because of the sheer pleasure I receive from being outside, meeting the many other good folks who are also into the hobby, admiring and/or helping the detectoring youth achieve thier first find albeit possibly a "lowly" penny or even pull tab, finding lost items from the distant or near past, watching the smile on someones face as you give them back thier prized possesion(s),?,?,? The list is seemingly endless and the positive satisfaction delivered from our hobby has limitedness facets.
I suppose any hobby can become that which strays outside of the lines which one person may "coin" a "hobby". IMO, if all in life has been respectfully fulfilled rather than denied or ignored, detecting holds a most enjoyable place amongst those who choose to enjoy it. Just my opinion of course
Metal detecting is one thing I really love. Is it because of the sheer pleasure I receive from being outside, meeting the many other good folks who are also into the hobby, admiring and/or helping the detectoring youth achieve thier first find albeit possibly a "lowly" penny or even pull tab, finding lost items from the distant or near past, watching the smile on someones face as you give them back thier prized possesion(s),?,?,? The list is seemingly endless and the positive satisfaction delivered from our hobby has limitedness facets.
I suppose any hobby can become that which strays outside of the lines which one person may "coin" a "hobby". IMO, if all in life has been respectfully fulfilled rather than denied or ignored, detecting holds a most enjoyable place amongst those who choose to enjoy it. Just my opinion of course
opinionatedelf
New member
when does metal detecting stop being a hobby? When you find you are sleeping with your metal detector and your wife sleeps out in the garage where you usually store it.