Will there be an end?

[lastleg]

Will your next hunt be a pleasant experience or a nightmare? As a over the hill coinshooter I
know it will probably be the latter. Just learned the ghost town I dearly love is now off-limits.
Even though I treated her gently with love and respect I am no longer welcome there. The
tourist town encourages all tree huggers to report anyone digging to the sheriff.

The old days of exploration and serious research is no match for the trendy "Boulderites".
Sure you can smoke dope and watch birds to your heart's content but don't you dare take
"our" heritage away from "us".

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

anyone who thinks they are gonna run out of places to hunt has one of two maladys.....no gas money or no imagination ....

Well, yes and no. Yes there's always going to be places to find additional old coins, but no, it's not as easy for the newcomers to "break in" to the mind-set and know-how.

I remember, in about 1979 to 1980, when someone would buy a detector from a local dealer, that the dealer could take them out to the old-town park in the old section of our town. And on the very first trip, the dealer could show him the sounds/settings for that 6000d, and .. odds are, the newbie trainee could find silver or a wheatie ON HIS FIRST OUTING. (granted, with some audio/swing tutorial, but .... none-the-less, on -his own by the end of that first tutorial).

And now, ....35 yrs. later, at that very same park that used to be used for "lessons", EVEN A HARDCORE DEEP-SEEKER will be hard-pressed to find more. Oh sure, if I bear down and struggle, I can eak out another wheatie or silver, but ..... they're not the "text-book" gimmees that they were 35 yrs. ago. Nor are they frequent enough to have a newbie develop any mental patterns to learn from.

So in that sense, I can see where a newbie laments that the glory days are over, etc.... You almost have to do yards of private homes (especially the post WWII '40s & '50s affluent american period) to get a taste of what virgin turf is like. They're old enough to have silver , and targets-spread-out enough (ie.: new enough) so as to afford the audio learning of deep versus shallow, etc....

 

[ARC]

The problem lies in the "common places"... Places that have been worked hard and often over the decades...

Places that have seen so many years of detectors are like "carcasses" of what they once were.

There is always a "tidbit" left behind... and if "common" still ... then "new items" will be in the mix.

 

[basque-man]

I'm sure I won't see the end of MD'ing in my lifetime.........

 

[tiburciovasquez]

Well, yes and no. Yes there's always going to be places to find additional old coins, but no, it's not as easy for the newcomers to "break in" to the mind-set and know-how.

I remember, in about 1979 to 1980, when someone would buy a detector from a local dealer, that the dealer could take them out to the old-town park in the old section of our town. And on the very first trip, the dealer could show him the sounds/settings for that 6000d, and .. odds are, the newbie trainee could find silver or a wheatie ON HIS FIRST OUTING. (granted, with some audio/swing tutorial, but .... none-the-less, on -his own by the end of that first tutorial).

And now, ....35 yrs. later, at that very same park that used to be used for "lessons", EVEN A HARDCORE DEEP-SEEKER will be hard-pressed to find more. Oh sure, if I bear down and struggle, I can eak out another wheatie or silver, but ..... they're not the "text-book" gimmees that they were 35 yrs. ago. Nor are they frequent enough to have a newbie develop any mental patterns to learn from.

So in that sense, I can see where a newbie laments that the glory days are over, etc.... You almost have to do yards of private homes (especially the post WWII '40s & '50s affluent american period) to get a taste of what virgin turf is like. They're old enough to have silver , and targets-spread-out enough (ie.: new enough) so as to afford the audio learning of deep versus shallow, etc....

Exactly, I myself am not concerned with finding places I have tons already, but I am mostly concerned about the newbies starting in a few years or decades. I recently found out that one of my spots that was well hidden and away from everything had been hunted for years and I fear the end of sites with significant finds left. A newbie then is going to be hard pressed of least in the U.S to find much silver or other old coins.

 

[Simon1]

Now this is something I'm quite curious about and i believe most other are too. Is it possible that someday maybe even within the near future that we stop finding historic coins/artifacts. Currently there have been a lot of really good finds but with the advent of new higher tech Metal Detectors and more competition will there be an end to it. Even from what i heard on here is that sites 30 years ago have almost been pounded to death. I myself do not know but i am interested to hear what others have to say about this.

The end may come with more "uninformed" people doing damage/destroying artifacts. Case in point, the new series Treasure Quest Snake Island. Some of the team go to a neighboring island because they were seeking information about some 5 stones that a researcher treasure hunter had found and was trying to decipher the clues before he passed away. When they got there they discovered that the new owner had BLOWN UP the stones so he could use them as part of the foundation for his house. It was clear that some of the foundation had markings on them. Irreplaceable.

 

[pepperj]

Been around the hobby for 45yrs and it gets more challenging every year it seems as the interest changes. It's still fairly easy to sniff a silver or old copper out of a common area as in a park or some other public accessed spot around here. Though it's not the same as it was when I got into it where it was a bummed hunt to go home with a three or four silvers and some old coppers and a cruddy looking button or relic. Now it's a fabulous day of swinging as this is a rare event.
Looking at what's available to hunt and the probability to hunt it all I've realized that I won't have enough time left on the side of the soil even if I detect for another 35 yrs. Like most of said all it takes is to walk a little further, research a little harder, ask a few more times, just because we see something as it is today doesn't mean it was that way 100-200 yrs ago, the cleared lands become forests again.

 

[ARC]

What has always amazed/interested me about MD...

A guy can walk out on a field and hit nothing...
Next day ... same guy... same field... hits a lot... but random junky items...

Same field hit hundreds of times... by all types of detectors... and no major finds come up...

Then... one morning the "stars are aligned"... and bingo... the Staffordshire hoard is found.

Could it be...

That all elements that made the conductivity "just right"... "that day"?
Did rain erode just enough topsoil to allow the signal to finally reach the items ?

Was the soil/dirt just "wet enough" to pass the signal ?

On and on.
The detector... the pathway of the detectorist... the elements ? what.

If today is your day... Its your day.