sprailroad
Silver Member
- Jan 19, 2017
- 2,641
- 4,126
- Detector(s) used
- Garrett A3B United States Gold Hunter, GTA 1000, AT Pro, Discovery Treasure Baron "Gold Trax", Minelab X-Terra 70, Safari, & EQ 800, & Nokta Marko Legend. EQ 900.
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
Good morning. Not sure how to begin this new thread, but here goes. Recently, I've had the opportunity to work with a 12 year old boy, who has had an interest in metal detecting. Two years ago he was given a detector by his parents, problem was that no one he knew had ever detected, and he was on his own, used it a couple of times only, and let it go, but still retained an interest. Fast forward; His Grandmother told him about me, and asked if I could show him something about detecting, and so we finally got together and really hit it off well, I showed him a number of things I've found, and explained several things in regards to detecting itself. He did not know the brand of detector he had, nor could he remember if it had more than one tone etc. It had been that long since he tried it. So we agreed to meet the next day to see what he had. (Added note) He admitted later that he really did not what to come over here, he only did it for Grandma, thinking it would be "boring", that maybe a guy who had detected a couple of times and so on, and ended up saying it was "Awesome". OK then, he was set to go, we met the next day, and his detector was a brand I've never heard of, VERY basic, but he was one quick study, we figured it out, and had him work with it. Now I had brought along a Garrett GTA 1000, that I had used for years traveling around on the job, it had been hanging on the wall, "Retired", fired it up, gave some basic instructions, the kid picked up on it like "Right Now". Now, JUST so happens that he is a Boy Scout, and he wondered if their was a "Merit Badge" for detecting. I looked it up, and their are merit badges for a whole bunch of things, but not detecting. In looking it up on the inter-net, one source was another detecting site, about this very topic, the responses were few, and basically negative, stating such things as, "More competition, kids running around digging holes and so on. I viewed it as a possible opportunity, in that we all know that metal detectors can be sold to anybody, and there HAS been some bad results for our hobby. I think here there might be the "Opportunity" to teach a new generation of "RESPONSIBLE" detectorist, not only the right way to swing a coil etc, but the RIGHT way to dig and recover a target, along with the code of ethics. Any thoughts?, I figure some of you may have sons or grandsons in the BSA, as well as daughters and granddaughters in the Girl Scouts. In typing this I can see the one big problem here, and that would be cost. Any kid with an interest would of course need a detector, and for many families it just is not in a budget through no fault of their own. That in it self may make this whole thread a mute point. I will at least work with this one boy and "scout", to become a Responsible detector guy. Who knows where it may go from here? Again, any thoughts or ways to explore detecting and merit badges? The members of this Forum cover the entire United States, COULD it be something? Just a thought.
