What Does The Future Hold For Metal Detecting?

[Michigan Badger]

What do you think is going to happen to our hobby over the next couple decades?

In regard to:

1) metal detectors
2) laws
3) attitude toward the hobby
etc.

Do tell all....

 

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[Highwater]

A lot of whether or not we will still be able to search in the future with our metal detectors has a lot to do with being responsible with our hobby. It has to do with filling our holes and packing out the trash. It is also very important to create and maintain a good image. Anything we can do to promote the hobby and contribute to our comunities is well worth the effort. This includes getting publicity when one of us returns a long lost ring or a metal detecting club that will take the time and effort to create a library display that will teach others about the hobby. We can also volunteer our services to small town police departments that can't afford to keep a detectorist on staff to search for evidence. Once the public has a better understanding as to what we do and how we can contribute to our comunities then things will have a tendency to stay favorable for all of us.
We have all had to fill in someone Else's holes when we come across them some time or other. I think a lot of newbies just grab their new detector out of the box, turn it on and go hunting without ever realizing there is a code of ethics involved. If they would read the inside flap of their owners manual they would find it, but it must be overlooked by many. Maybe the mfg should install a question and answer switch on their detectors that won't allow operation until the user can answer the basics of the code of ethics.
If John Q Public only knew how many dangerous objects we find and depose of that could cut or injure kids and people in general maybe they would come to appreciate us much more. Removing broken glass, trash, razor blades, syringes, ect.... The only satisfaction we get from that is giving ourselves a pat on the back for our efforts and knowing we did the right thing.
People with detectors need to be informed and educated as to how to avoid the kind of mistakes that will get us all in hot water. When an experienced hunter comes across someone that is endangering our hobby they should have a sit down with the offender and explain things in a nice mannor. Sometimes people just don't have a clue and might be willing to listen and understand. Some just don't give a hoot. They are the same ones that will throw a hamburger bag or empty bottles and cans out the car window. There is nothing you can teach these kind of people.
As long as we are allowed to persue our passion for this hobby there will continue to be a market for new and improved metal detectors. No matter who makes them they will still have to compete for our money and that means they will have to build units that will perform in the field and at competitive prices. As long as we have a right to persue our hobby there will always be equipment available to us. Happy Holidays everyone and Happy Hunting. Highwater

 

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[rmptr]

1) A metal detector shall be developed with the capability of vaporizing a pulltab.

2) A MD shall require a permit and bond when it is discovered pulltabs are harmful to public health.

3) People shall regard detectorists much as they do a plumber today.

R M P T R

 

[MR----B]

I'd rather see ceramic coins than zinc pennies! With the thinnest copper cladding imaginable the cent is still too expensive to produce and rots in the ground in about 6 months around here.

Personally I'm kind of tired of going to a school or park and finding 125 coins, and 107 of them being pennies, half of which go in the garbage because they're corroded. It's great exercise and it keeps me busy, but with gas at $3/gallon it sure isn't profitable.

I'd like to see pennies, dimes and nickels fall by the wayside in favor of a revamped monetary system including 1 and 2-dollar coins. Get rid of the dollar bill so that the coins actually get into general circulation. It would take a few years to seed the ground, and of course people are going to look for a dollar that they drop, but I'm getting to the point where I'd rather dig up a total of 8 coins in 3 hours and have 8 coins that were WORTH something.

I just clean up the zinc as much as possible and take them to the bank and let them run it through their coin counter, the ones that come back are few. I still cash in on the zinc, even when nasty.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

I think MDing is way over publicized and some companies will go under as eventually people lose interest in digging clad and worthless modern trash. Units will collect dust sitting in closets. Unwanted, used units will flood the market. The companies that cater to mine detection, commercial uses, airport/courthouse detectors etc. should be OK. I liked detecting better when it was underground, known only to a few back in the 70's.

And if we found a dime or a quarter, it was most likely silver!

 

[Massbaycolonist]

Too funny, Joe! Don't give 'em any ideas!

 

[Massbaycolonist]

Regarding the future of metal detecting, I honestly feel that us metal detectorists are being milked for all we are worth. The hobby metal detector manufactureres better hope that Japan doesn't start making hobby metal detectors!

The current state of metal detectors reminds me of the old days when Detroit ruled the automotive world. Back then, when the next years model came out, it would be the same as the previous years model, except that it would be offered in a different color, (available in Crimson Cream this year-woo woo!!)and have another option or two, like chrome bumpers. Detroit auto manufacturers thought that this was all that was needed to make the buying public happy, until Japan got in the act.

The MD industry feels that we are just a bunch of hobby enthusiasts. Heck, we don't need onboard GPS; we don't need the latest technology, we just need another VLF machine with a new name, like maybe the XPX 5000t! (It comes in cool green this year, too!).

Even at the current state of technology, if the MD companies wanted too, they could offer terrific detectors, with awesome technology compared to the current detectors. Imagine having an MRI type metal detector! But just like Detroit of yesteryear, there is no reason to go there. "How about our new model that comes with the graphite coil? It's cool, it's new, it's lighter! (Well yes, it is more expensive, and no, it doesn't really work any better than our other coils....."

 

[silverswede]

A great thread idea, Badger, and the brilliant posts are the funniest I've read in a good while. Seems to me after a lot of years detecting it takes trends like everything else. In the early sixties it was new and popular, then sorta died down. In the seventies the new technologies drew interest. Died down through the eighties and come back in the nineties to now with Hi tech, Hi dollar and inexpensive low dollar choices.
Take a look the water fishing hobby and how it compares to the dirt fishing hobby. You may have taken up fishing with a pole, line, and hook and caught a few fish and then grew with the industry through bait casting reels, graphite rods, into depth finders, fish locaters, and now to the depth finding,water temp, side scanning,full color bottom contour, full color, digital graphics fish locator and even with all the regulations, licenses, and restrictions we still go fishing and just catch a few fish with no $value. I think detecting will follow the same road.