Metal Detecting discussions and finds

Here is another side note for beginners. If you hunt public properties like parks, schools, beaches, curb strips, etc.. you will eventually be met by a "Karen". She will assume the worst and threaten to call the police on you. If you are 100% sure that you are hunting on publicly owned (not publicly rented) property that has no restrictions written or posted against metal detecting, just ignore her and go back to detecting. Keep an eye on her, but just listen to what your headphones are telling you.

If she gets aggressive and touches you, it's up to you what you do. You may want to pull out a phone and record her for future reference.

Second, children in parks and such. Again you will be approached by curious children and although they are harmless to you, some parents may try to claim stoopid things. This is a tougher area to navigate depending on what part of the country/city you are in. If you can, just leave and come back when kids are not there. Or, as I do if I've driven quite far to detect somewhere. I just pretend to the kids that are swarming me that I have a target under the coil and simulate that I have it pinpointed. Tell them that they can have at it. Once they start fiddling around in the grass/soil blindly, I just zoom to the otherside of the property and get back to detecting without bother.

This doesn't happen very often, but it does. You can pick your detecting timing wisely to mitigate dealing with kids. "Karens" are like fruit flies and just appear out of nowhere.

 

OHHHHHHH MY GOD!!! ^^^ THIS ^^^

BEEN there DONE that!!!

He's right, it rarely happens, at least to me, BUT... it HAS happened!!!

Yeah, you REALLY MUST be careful with the kids. I had a swarm of them on me like flies on shi*!!! I eventually just left because I wasn't about to get accused of anything even though it's ultimately the parents job of watching their kids more closely... But yeah, another very good point.

Quick story, I'm dry sand hunting the local beach and see a kid running by me stopping a few feet in front of me and then quickly running back??? I would find signals right around the exact spots he would stop at?

SOOOOO, long story short, I just happened to look back and there was an adult, his dad, giving his kid "change" and as the kid started running by me, I say to him "please don't do that..." and it hurt saying that to the kid because he didn't know any better.

I look back at the dad and gave him the death look and say to myself, but also just loud enough and say, "I'm not your kids fucking entertainment...!!!" And the soonest I said that it was an instant disappearing act.

I really did feel bad, but not for the dad. I mean, don't play me like some damn clown without me even knowing of what is going on or whatever. I really don't know how else to put it, but it surely wasn't cool on his part to just do that without even asking me or anything (i.e. obviously the dad/parent).

 

Thanks all - some really good points and advice here. Much appreciated. Went out yesterday for my first "serious" hunt; came back with one nickle, (1988), one penny (date unknown, too badly corroded), a zipper pull, a dozen or more beer-bottle tops, and a 60d nail.

 

I was detecting a local middle school after hours while my son was attending baseball practice in the field near by. I decided to get up under the swing set and see if there was any loose lunch money to be had. I keep one earphone popped to the side, so I can hear people, dogs, etc around me but still enough on the ear to hear tones.

Anywho, this younger girl was sitting up on top of the jungle gym apparatus while her mom was sitting on a bench nearby watching her. The girl asked her mom what that man (me) was doing? Mom told here that I was a homeless guy searching for money to feed himself.

Say what?

Yeah, this middle aged guy dressed pretty clean, swinging a $2500 detector looking for pocket change for homeless food money.

Wow!

Just wow!

 

Lol i would have laughed

 

Made a bottle opener out of a railroad spike

 

Some above ground finds at an old dump site. i posted the lunch box a while back. I need to remember to bring my metal detector....may find some thing there who knows

 

HAHAHAHA, THAT is AWESOME!!! I too found a railroad spike one time, but didn't do what you did. Pretty SWEET!!!

 

I know where to find some...gotta grind it into submission!

 

Too bad it was messed up, i found what the gear thing was...a butter churn! In whole form $300-350

 

The same day I found that religious charm pendent (post# 2), I'm swinging the coil and some people walk by, the one person asks, "what is he doing...?" and the other person was an old lady that had to have been around 70'ish said, "that's a very smart young man...".

Another quick story, I had just finished a dry sand hunt near the beach and walking back to my car, which was quite a ways off as I had walked/hunted farther than I had realized. So, I'm walking back on the little bike path near the sand and sitting on the "wall" were a group of teenagers that looked to be high school and/or just beginning community college... around 18-very early 20'ish age. One of the guys kind of gets up and sort of partially blocks my path and asks if I've ever really found anything? There was a bit of "attitude", if you will, within his voice/question to me basically trying to make me look like a fool in front of, what I assumed to be his girlfriend. But, I talk nicely to him nonetheless giving examples of what I have found and had told him that I found a "9 2 5" ring and for some reason his girlfriend got involved in the conversation, but I was still engaged with him.

Anyways, he had a certain look in his eye of confusion as he didn't know what I was talking about. So I asked, "do you know what I mean by a '9 2 5'...?" and he proceeds to say, "no..." and that is when his girlfriend really got engaged into the conversation so I started talking to her and telling her how metal detecting works, blah blah blah and I just happened to look over at the guy I was just talking to and he looked like a kid that had just gotten his candy taken from him? It went from that type of look to becoming a pretty pi$$ed look on his face almost within seconds as apparently his gf was more interested in me and the hobby than him?

As I'm pretty much done with the conversation and starting to fear for my life I start to continue walking away and say, "bye and have a wonderful day", but mainly directed it towards her. I had a big smile across my face as I'm walking away because she was super cute and the guy just looked like a, quite honestly, punk kid.

That was quite a few years ago now and to this day, I hope she picked a better guy because he didn't seem to be the brightest individual, if you get my meaning?

But yeah, I try to keep to myself as much as possible, but doing something like that out in public... to MOST people, from what I can gather, it's "black magic" to them with metal detecting?

 

Yeah, I honestly can't remember where I found mine other than it was no where NEAR any tracks??? The only thing I can think of is that someone had picked it up and dropped it and it somehow got buried over time?

I do quite a bit of dry sand hunting and "tot lots" at the parks. So it had to have been one of those two types of places? What "I" do KNOW, I find quite the sharp objects in "tot lots" and it amazes me that kids don't get their foots jabbed more often by the broken glass, nails, etc etc etc. On the beach, tent stakes that get buried/lost only to get recovered by me eventually. I don't want to even imagine having a tent stake getting shoved through my bare foot if I was a "beach goer"!!!

My point being, it can be pretty damn scary what one finds while metal detecting!!!

 

Again, it can be pretty amazing with what one finds during metal detecting!!! This is a really cool example!!! NICE cool looking find, even though yours was broken and incomplete, but still.

Things that are found can also be "talking/conversation pieces" and you'd be surprised how interested some people will be when talking about metal detecting.

 

I was cruising a curb strip down town in my local little town and caught a good signal, which I stopped to focus on before I committed to a recovery.

As I am done recovering an old wheatie, I stand back up and turn around to face some random middle aged guy (like myself). This guy farely aggressively asks me "what the hell are you doing?"

I tipped my headphone cup on my right side off my ear, slowly leaned towards him, and quietly responded with...."minding my own business, you should do the same", and turned back around, pulled my headphone cup back over my ear and went right back to dirt fishing. He followed me around from a distance for another 15-20mins and finally moved on.

I had my hand on my Lesche digger the whole time, just in case.

 

Hahaha im going to use that line!

 

Not mine. On a different forum person requesting identification...

 

Jade? Turquoise?

 

If its jade prob worth some $$

 

Wow, impressive!

Was it found naturally in Arizona, or in a garage sale?

A big huge piece of agate? If it is agate, it looks artificially stained with color though...he should ask a local rock hound/lapidary club.

 

I think it was a glass foundary slag is what other site said most likely was