D&P-OR said:
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE???
Perhaps it is the 'WE' part of the question we ought to be concerned about? Most of the 'WE' or 'US' who are truly active in this outdoor sport are somewhat older and we have been at it for some time now. I feel I was one of the early comers who started in the spring of '65 when I built my first 'Metal/Mineral Locator', and I have known many very active people who got their start relatively early on.
By comparison, of all the really active detectorists I associate with now, perhaps 80% of them have had their start by about 1986 and have progressed from a part-time 'Hobbyist' to a devoted 'Detectorist.' These are people who might not know a lot of technicalities about detector design, and those that came along near the end of that era got their start with an early model of the slower-motion type discriminators and never learned about those intriguing BFO and TR and first discriminator offerings or the VLF/TR-Disc. types.
This is a group of people who got in on the tail-end of some of the more productive silver coin era. For those who are,
or have been, hunters with firearms, let me use pheasant hunting as an example. I grew up in Utah and Oregon with a bit over half of my life to this point here in the NW. My Dad was an avid hunter who especially enjoyed going after upland birds, and so did both of my grand-fathers. I am using pheasant hunting as a close comparison because it spans a similar period of interest in my life.
In the 1950's I would go bird hunting with Dad and/or Grandads, and got started hunting pheasants by '59/'60. Pheasants could be found in very good numbers almost everywhere. I have seen occasional pheasants in some city parks in the large metro area of Portland, Oregon as recently as 1994 (while metal detecting), but most of the better locations with birds, and a lot of productive hunting, took place in the latter '50s and especially through the 1960's and 1970's.
Pheasants seemed to be everywhere in the farming country and many rural settings. In those early periods there were a lot of fields that were plowed and as they made the turns at the corners of fence rows it left a lot of habitat for game birds. There were plenty of fence rows and ditches and small patches of brushy and rocky ground for cover for birds in hiding after the season opened.
For the most part, the spirit of the sport of bird hunting was a happy one between those who dwelled in the common hunting areas and those who engaged in the sport of hunting the exciting pheasant. We did have a lot of well-farmed land and ample cover for game birds. We did not have a lot of off-limits areas or restrictions with signs that said 'No Hunting' or 'Hunting by Permission Only' or 'Private Game Preserve .. No Hunting' etc., etc.
We could drive down those dirt roads out in hunting country and, usually, when we saw some good fence rows or potential sites to go try and kick out a pheasant, we just got out and hunted. Many of the smaller rural towns looked forward to hunting season with almost every sporting goods store or drug store, even some country grocery stores and other businesses stocking firearms and ammunition. It was a well received sport, with a lot of devoted hunters, and for the hunters there was a lot of opportunity and wide-open access to enjoy the hunt.
I recall driving down a country road, glancing left and right for any sign of a pheasant when an approaching pickup driver would wave me/us down. We'd stop and the friendly farmer/rancher would say something like; "Hey, since you're hunting you might want to work up that fence row over there. This is all my land here, and my brother owns property on over. If you hunt back up over the hill there's some really great cover back there where a lot of birds fly into after the season opens. Good luck!"
It was an era when we could hunt almost anywhere, without restrictions, and often with a warm 'invite' and special directions. Like I said, though, that was back then. Back in the 'good old days' of pheasant hunting 'out west' in the sites I used to enjoy. It was the same way when we hunted in southern Idaho between these two states My last really enjoyable and productive pheasant hunting took place about '77 to'82 and then things changed.
Old farmers had passed away and their younger family members wanted more $$, or new landowners simply wanted more crop yield (aka $$) and by those latter years of pleasurable hunting I saw fences pulled up and fields plowed to the road-line. Ditches were filled in many areas as the plowing prepped the area for maximum planting. Gone were the better hunting opportunities as all the good cover was gone. No more brushy corner turns, fence rows, ditches or other good cover.
Also gone were the friendly, easy-going farmers and ranchers who would welcome you with directions to hidden hot spots, or would just wave to you as you were out hunting the stubble fields. Gone were the welcome mats from all the small-town businesses that catered to the seasonal bird hunter that we used to see. Gone was the ample opportunity to get out and enjoy the sport as freely as we once could, and, sadly, gone were the plentiful numbers of colorful rooster pheasants that inspired us like the gleam from a brilliant silver coin we've just unearthed.
In their place were all of the 'unwelcome' signs that told us we couldn't go hunting there, or access was restricted to those who sought direct permission or bought into the leased hunting rights. It was a $$$ game, different from how it used to be. For those who enjoyed the hobby of shotgun hunting and warmed their heart with the memories of 'how it used to be', they could hang in their and actively seek the special and limited permission to access some hunting.
It was/is in more restricted areas because urban growth and industrial growth ate away many of the once productive hunting sites. Some bird hunters aged during this era but could still find a small place here or there to do some occasional hunting as their health would allow them, and they could even bag a good bird on occasion, but certainly not like they used to. Where people grew up hearing the stories of hunting enjoyment, and got involved in it 'back when' it was easy to start out young and take part in a lot of hunting.
Only some of
our children and grand-children took interest in the sport, and many enjoy hearing some of the interesting stories we can tell when our memories reflect back on how things really used to be. Certainly, many of those who aged before me and have passed, or a lot who are in the same group I fit into, have a favorite shotgun leaning up in a closet wall, or we've passed them down in the hope that a younger family member might get some enjoyment out of the sport like we used to.
Probably by 1986 I saw the end of what once was the greatest era in the sport of pheasant hunting. I am sure that this might apply to those areas that lacked pheasants but had grouse or quail in plentiful available numbers with a lot of easy hunting access. I know there are still some mid-west states which offer some good bird hunting, but it isn't like it used to be. Not so many natural birds, not the kind of virgin territory, and not as easy access. It's been about a quarter-of-a-century, or more, since the productive era ended. Things have changed, and they won't change back.
Metal detecting is much like bird hunting. I used to dump my limits regularly with my old single-shot 16 gauge, and had much better results taking pheasants, quail, grouse, and even my limits of ducks, hunting with one of my favorite 12 gauge double-barrel 'Coach Guns.' Yes, those short, outside hammer side-by-sides with 20" barrels! They all worked quite well.
They used to be more available, and much more affordable, too. Today, so many hunters seek all the hyped, or over-hyped, shotguns that are semi-automatic with longer barrels and maybe a camouflaged appearance. Fancy stocks, tricky little features, and capable of producing more power because they can fire longer-length shells.
Metal detecting for modern coins? Much the same, isn't it?
My good friends who got a late start, so to speak, in that 1981 to 1986 period and hang in there today
... 25 to 30 years later ... do so because they were able to get a taste of what it was like to make some good finds, and in fairly decent quantity, when there was still more easy and welcome access.
Many took the hobby very seriously and hunted with people like me who still knew where some better sites were that hadn't been hunted, or had only been lightly worked. They learned how to seek better opportunities (such as doing research and/or keying in on select sites) that were not a part of popular metal detecting. A few who I hunt with have still, in all these years, never hunted a park or school in an urban setting. They either look for renovation and tear-downs in the older parts of a city, or they just get away from any urban environment.
They have sought the out-of-the-way locations, much like befriending a few old-time farmers who let them hunt and the conditions are still worthwhile. Some of them, probably 7 or 8-out-of-10 who I know and hunt with, are still using their older analog type detectors. They don't have the modern digital stuff, or the Tone ID, or the visual Target ID displays. All they do is set their detector up with a minimum or very low Discrimination level, use as much Sensitivity as they can, usually make use of a smaller-than-stock coil to work in and around the plentiful trash and brush and building rubble, and then they listen. If it sounds good, or reasonably 'iffy', they recover the target.
Quite a few coin hunters get an urge to find older coins or silver coins so they get into the hobby. It's much like the many people who heard stories and saw/see photos and want to do some bird hunting to bag a few nice rooster pheasants or quail or grouse. They buy a metal detector, sometimes spending a lot of money for a model that has more features than they really need, but only find litter and some modern change. Nothing exciting like they set out to find. They get discouraged because they can't find any silver coins. They can't (regularly) find old nickels or Indian Head cents.
In time they seek out an old-timer to get some advise (complete with some stories of how it used to be so good) and learn that places we used to easily access and find a bunch of good stuff are gone. Urban and industrial development has encroached upon them. Modern subdivisions or shopping malls and asphalt parking lots cover the once plentiful fields where we used to hunt the often dropped coins from the strawberry pickers. The older parks that we used to hunt have been renovated, re-landscaped and so altered that the better places they once had are just .... gone.
We used to hunt so many older schools where the front lawns held decades of coins and pocket knives, and all sorts of neat small stuff that had been lost there since the schools were built back in the 1890s to 1940's perhaps, but are now modern halls of education that are newer, bigger, and have wiped out a lot of the huntable terrain we once enjoyed.
Early Coin Hunters were able to get out and have great success and frequently pluck an ample number of silver coins, Buffalo and 'V' nickels, Indian Head and early date Wheat-backs. Our trash was only gum wrappers, foil from a few discarded cigarette packs, hair clips (bobby pins), bottle caps, and not much else. It was like having a welcome mat out for pheasant hunting with a lot of cover, plentiful birds, and little to annoy us during the hunt.
Many who get started today, or have in the last 10-20 years, only lasted a short while. They lost interest because the older and more interesting coins
weren't flushing for us .. I mean they just couldn't find the good stuff they wanted to.
They got/get out less and their interest fades quickly. Like the unused shotguns, they are soon just helping to support a closet wall, or maybe the detector collects dust in some corner of the garage.
Yes, people can still go find/hunt a lot of silver coins rather easily! At least they could during the '80s and '90s, but even those
Hunting Preserves ... ooops, I mean Competition Hunts are dwindling in number, getting too far away, or are costing too much.
Sure a pen-raised and planted pheasant still gives the thrill of hunting it and having it for dinner, but it's just not the same as going out after a native wild pheasant in its natural cover. Silver coins from a Competition Hunt are still valuable, but, it's just not the same as the enjoyment of the surroundings and memories that come from seeking out and hunting up some naturally-lost older coins in a natural state. Besides, there are fewer detecting clubs than there used to be, and they are usually comprised by a lot of newcomers to the hobby who never experienced those detecting competition sporting events.
Sorry about the reminiscing. I do it all the time and sometimes just have to vent my thoughts of frustration.
D&P-OR said:
What do you see in the future for this great hobby of ours???
More offerings from manufacturers trying to create a new product or some innovative design for the few who can appreciate it, and the masses who might want to try the hobby out. It really is a fun sport, and you really can enjoy it ...IF ...
D&P-OR said:
------Hunt site availability?
Some, a very few, are seekable, if you do research and some careful site evaluations. Most were either well hunted in the past which thinned the silver and older coins, or get periodic hunting pressure today for modern change, they are overly littered, off limits, or built over. Research is important, with an ample dose of patience and persistence needed.
D&P-OR said:
---detector (models/features)?
Maybe a few changes to clean up some of the performance we currently have, or some down-sizing by some manufacturers to a lighter and/or more comfortable design. I'd like to see some newer or better smaller coils. Going deeper is much like the shot-gunner who thinks he needs the longer more powerful shot shell. There are times when bigger or power might be useful, but most of the time sites are just too restricted or trashy. A standard coil/shell or a smaller coil with reduced sensitivity/light-load with less power definitely can be useful.
Otherwise, a good analog and analog/digital model from the recent past, such as a good Tesoro Bandido or Silver Sabre II or SS
-----------Del
---Course we ain't!!!
