Ever have an embarrassing moment in this hobby?

[WHADIFIND]

I had one of those non-stellar days today. Not "bad", just not stellar. I did however turn up an old war nickel in pretty good shape. Unfortunately, I managed to scratch it right across the face. (rookie mistake).

I moved on and was semi-gridding the place. On the way back to the car, I turned up another war nickel. About the same shape, was right on top, and when I looked a little closer, it had a scratch also. Hmmmmm, interesting. Right across the face too! Almost exactly where I....................wait a minute!!! I checked my found pouch. No nickel. I had just found the same one, TWICE!!! oH! HOW embarrassing!!!! LOL

Thought if anyone else out there had done this, they would now not feel so bad.

HH!

 

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[WHADIFIND]

Today, I started out hunting a favorite school ground. It's a local, close by place I hunt when I don't feel like driving too far.
Anyway, I'd just gotten started when I saw the constable a headin' my way. I heard the theme from Dragnet and said, "Uh oh."

As he got closer I recognized him. He's into detecting too! We had talked many times before! I wiped my brow and he asked
how I was doing. We chatted briefly and then I asked him if someone had complained. He said yes and that I would have to move on.

I was a bit taken aback. I knew that he knew I'd hunted there off and on for years! He even hunted it with me once! I asked him what had changed and why, I even went into a brief history of the hunt we had here and that I'd been hunting this place on Saturdays for a long time. That it was like an old friend. So, why now has it all changed!?!

He said you can come back on Saturday. I looked at him and said, but it is..............................Friday!!!! I was hunting during school hours!!!!!
It's a good thing I didn't get shot!!! LOL

 

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[coinman123]

I couldn't believe my ears...but it happened...UGH!
I got a permission late this afternoon from a guy, a super nice guy from my hometown, who gave me an "open invitation" for anytime I want...SWEET!!! So while he is in the house, the wife comes out, and we are small talking....turns out they are new to the neighborhood, so I am filling her in on the history of the area...

Along comes a neighbor, walking her dog...and the introductions begin... after a few minutes I back off, and resume my beeping...I always roll w/my headphone on my right ear, so I can hear around me on my left...and what I heard was regrettable to say the least.

Long story short, the dog lady was going on and on about the N-word neighbors, and N-word side of town, and the N-word crime....

It looked like the dog lady was going to eat a hot, steaming bowl of doo-doo when the guy came out to say hi, him being black and all.

AWKWARD, and well...just gut-wrenching.

One of my pet peeves are people like the dog lady. I would have been ready to gouge my eyeballs out listening to that lady.

 

[bill from lachine]

Folks,

Not sure if you'd consider this embarrassing or funny.....a few years back I was detecting a sports field in my grungy clothes.

A young guy about 12 years old or so on a bicycle comes over and asks me what I've been finding....I tell him mostly junk metal.

So he keeps circling around the field and comes over to see what I'm digging up every so often....after an hour or so he comes over with one of those collapsible aluminum lawn chairs he picked up out of the garbage and gave it to me thinking I was homeless or something and scrounging for scrap metal....lol.

Regards + HH

Bill

 

[Msbeepbeep]

Yes, we are held in high regard in the non-detecting world.

I have was detecting early one Sunday morning digging up the usual coins and junk, when a lady came up to me and held out a quarter. I tried to politely refuse it but she was persistent and didn't speak English.
I really wanted to get back to detecting, and figured who am I to deny her what she clearly assumed was a good deed.
It was the quickest solution.
Maybe I need to upgrade my wardrobe.....a tad! Lol!

 

[detectahead]

Lol! Rut roo

 

[fmrUSMC_0844]

This happened just about 2 weeks ago. I was going through my treasure chest and saw in there what looked like a Civil War pistol bullet. I took some measurements and posted it on another forum looking for answers on what kind of bullet it is. Well, I get back its a colt but the base was different and there was a hole in the center of the base. We looked, and looked for what kind of bullet it was. Turns out it was a worm weight for bass fishing. The hole went all the way through when I cleaned the nose of it. I was thinking I had something rare. Nope. Just a worm weight.

 

[Tnmountains]

Originally Posted by Tnmountains
We were digging a site near a free way that saw civil war action. One of my first signals was deep do I started digging and digging and digging. Everyone had moved off and left me but I was not going to give up on the target. I had visions of cannon balls. At about 2 feet I hit flat metal. I enlarged the holes and am thinking ok brilliant you are digging up a man hole cover. It was round and when I finally got my fingers under it I pulled it up and over. It said "STOP" on it. It was a cast iron stop sign with raised letters haha. I still have it in the basement ,,, everyone got a real big laugh.
Every time I get a new detector I practice in my yard and I always dig up my sewer line up front in the same place at the lead flange

Any photos of it? Sounds like a really cool find.

Yes it is still in the basement. Remind me and I will shoot a picture. It is a pretty neat sign.

Ok took a pic for you.

 

[coinman123]

Originally Posted by Tnmountains
We were digging a site near a free way that saw civil war action. One of my first signals was deep do I started digging and digging and digging. Everyone had moved off and left me but I was not going to give up on the target. I had visions of cannon balls. At about 2 feet I hit flat metal. I enlarged the holes and am thinking ok brilliant you are digging up a man hole cover. It was round and when I finally got my fingers under it I pulled it up and over. It said "STOP" on it. It was a cast iron stop sign with raised letters haha. I still have it in the basement ,,, everyone got a real big laugh.
Every time I get a new detector I practice in my yard and I always dig up my sewer line up front in the same place at the lead flange

Yes it is still in the basement. Remind me and I will shoot a picture. It is a pretty neat sign.

Ok took a pic for you.

View attachment 1250452

That thing is incredible! I love old signs and found it fun to look at. I'm surprised at how good condition it is, most times thin iron has small holes in it, pretty lucky yours was so nice. Yours looks very early, maybe 1910's or 1920's, it's strange that it is round, most are octagon shaped.

 

[Sandskimmer]

I'll add mine to the pot. I've been hunting a spot at a 1800's property that supposedly was involved with the underground railroad. I've found this spot in the front yard close to the house that I've poked at two or three times. There is like a 2'x2' patch that rung up with a sweet constant 70-80 signal on the AT. I've dug up to a foot before without finding anything and without getting any different or stronger signal. The idea that it was the cover of some hidden tunnel just wouldn't get out of my head (though a well cover was probably much more likely) so I decided to say heck with it and dig until I found something. I dug a hole 10" across and about 30-35" deep. (my shovel is 40" long). Nothing. Put the detector in the hole and it read loud and strong from the surface all the way to the bottom. I noticed though that about 6" from the surface it gave just a slightly more powerful signal for just a brief second. I had to fill the hole anyway, so I started widening it out around this area, and sure enough widened out to about a 20" hole and found a piece of pipe that had been bent in (near as I could tell) a perfect circle around my hole. I've found tons of iron loops and circles in the past, but this takes the cake. I'm not happy about the work I put into it, but at least I could lay that particular spot to rest.

 

[coinman123]

I might have already posted this but when I was digging I set my Swiss Army Knife, which I used for cutting roots, down in the leaves next to the hole. I never noticed until when I was done metal detecting, I looked everywhere and couldn't find it. I have looked for it almost every time I metal detect there and never found it. I lost it on a trail so by now someone probably found it and has it in their toolbox.

 

[WHADIFIND]

I'm not even sure of why I felt embarrassed by this one, but thought I'd share anyway. (sic - bored of sitting)

I got over to the store today for some supplies. First time in a week, what with all the snow.
As I always do, I was walking into the store down one row of cars and planned on walking out along another.
Sort of a "grid" LOL.

Some guy stopped me and said, lose something? (I hadn't realized I was being that obvious!) I told him no, just walking.
He said, "You have a metal detector don'tcha?" I was SHOCKED! HOW THE HECK!??

He said he'd been watching me, up one row, down another, eyes on the ground AND checking the coinstar reject tray.

We both busted out laughing! LOL

 

[Msbeepbeep]

Lol! That's hilarious!
He probably only noticed you cause you keep beating him to the coinstar tray!

 

[releventchair]

Might as well make beep-beep-ding -ding sounds while you are at it.
I have not hit spring snow banks at shopping places even after it being suggested but have made finds where a village dumps snow it relocates with front end loaders.
More susceptible to damage vs where they dropped or were pushed to first though.

 

[Subterranean]

I'm not even sure of why I felt embarrassed by this one, but thought I'd share anyway. (sic - bored of sitting)

I got over to the store today for some supplies. First time in a week, what with all the snow.
As I always do, I was walking into the store down one row of cars and planned on walking out along another.
Sort of a "grid" LOL.

Some guy stopped me and said, lose something? (I hadn't realized I was being that obvious!) I told him no, just walking.
He said, "You have a metal detector don'tcha?" I was SHOCKED! HOW THE HECK!??

He said he'd been watching me, up one row, down another, eyes on the ground AND checking the coinstar reject tray.

We both busted out laughing! LOL

Dad Gum NSA operatives are EVERYWHERE! Hilarious....

 

[Msbeepbeep]

Another detectorist will be keenly observing you, the general public has a passing insterest, usually.
Like in the summer they think your weed wacking, but in the winter it confuses them, they can't figure out what the heck your doing weed whacking a plowed pile of snow, but a detectorist....knows! Lol!
I have yet to have your senerio happen to me. .
You certainly are traversing new territority....and giving off detecting vibes as you go!

 

[WHADIFIND]

Another detectorist will be keenly observing you, the general public has a passing insterest, usually.
Like in the summer they think your weed wacking, but in the winter it confuses them, they can't figure out what the heck your doing weed whacking a plowed pile of snow, but a detectorist....knows! Lol!
I have yet to have your senerio happen to me. .
You certainly are traversing new territority....and giving off detecting vibes as you go!

That's true. But, it kind of gave me a "Yikes!" moment too. Ya know? LOL
Like a kid with his hand in the cookie jar.

 

[Msbeepbeep]

Yes, cause you are not generally scrutinized by what you think is the general public...and turns out to be a very observant detectorist! Lol! Gotcha!

 

[tomhighland]

I had taken a friend out on a hunt letting him use my backup machine. About 20 minutes in his batteries died. I said no problem I knew they were about dead so there are new ones in my coat pocket in the car. He comes back ten minutes later. Can't find them. Having gotten everything situated the night before and waking up to a warm morning I grabbed a lighter coat. No batteries.

 

[dirtdigginfool]

Ok...my turn...I took Whadi's advice, checked this thread...omg...SOO glad I did..HILARIOUS! But..go back a couple years..I get the fever..again after a 15 year hiatus (read TWINS)...I get my shiny new ATP...wait for the right day, (after some tests in the snow), and head 45 minutes away to a friend's 900 acre farm...yes..PLENTY of ground to practice on. I'm SO fired up..shaking with anticipation...fire my machine up and hit the front yard. beenoopbeebsreechhowl...after many adjustments, a battery change AND a call to Kellyco tech dept...im spent...this machine is going nuts, the only way to quiet it down was hold it over my head. An hour into my diagnostic process, the nice Lady if the house strolls up, asks how I'm doing...and I tell her. She then asks me if turning the invisible dog fence off would help......ddf

 

[Jeff H]

I've embarrassed myself a few times. Once when way back when, I got a screaming good signal. Dug a decent plug, nothing. Swung the coil again, same nice signal, dug some more, nothing. I did this several more times. Had about a 2 foot by 2 foot hole going with nothing to show for it. Turns out I had managed to swing my coil over a 3 or 4 foot diameter thin iron rim from an old wagon wheel that was laying perfectly flat just a couple of inches below the surface. It made the detector think there was a big silver right in the center of it just waiting to be dug up. I must have spent close to a half an hour chasing that ghost signal.

I did it again a couple years later when I managed to swing my small sniper coil over a brass band from an old wooden keg. Those hoops trick the machine into thinking there is a small target right in the middle of the circle.