Will land hunting be the same 20 years from now???

[njnydigger]

Got to thinking recently friends...

My son Jesse is one year old. I cannot wait for the time when he is old enough so I can get him involved in the hobby. Maybe he can even help dig some of my holes for me

But, here's my question...

We all know how tough it is to find silver and gold now versus say 20 or 30 years ago. Mainly due to the more obvious spots being cleaned out by the "old timers" as well as all of the new competition with more and more folks getting into the pursuit everyday. So, do ya'll think that hunting land say 20 or 25 years from now will still be the same? Will there be that much more left in the ground in terms of "oldies" anymore?? I know we can never COMPLETELY find EVERYTHING that's under the soil, but, do you think we will have saturated the hobby to the point where all that will be left will be the "crumbs".

Obviously beach hunting will always be a strong contender IMHO. People will continually lose things throughout the ages and the ocean will always be bringing goodies to shore from the deep.

But, do you all think that land hunting will basically be non-existant many years from now? Or at the very least a MUCH tougher game??

When I talk to some of the older guys that have been in the hobby for years, they always mention how different it was years ago. So, imagine what it will be like a few decades from now.

Your thoughts

 

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[stefen]

Maybe pop tops will come back in vogue

 

[njnydigger]

Maybe pop tops will come back in vogue

BTW, I know I'll be getting up there and nearing the end when my son runs over to me all excited and says he found an old Lincoln penny 20 years from now

 

[colorado14ers]

we will have X-ray vision and we cand see into the ground and detector will be useless

 

[m bryan]

Didn't Charles Garrett say there were more coins in the ground than in circulation? City Parks may stop producing in time. Although there are some good finds that are still coming out of "hunted out parks." It may take a little more research for good places to hunt in years to come.

 

[bigscoop]

I think new laws and added restrictions will continue to keep coming that will have more negative impact on the hobby. I've noticed a lot of city parks undergoing change in the direction of a cleaner looking atmosphere, flower gardens, bright colors, boardwalks, manicured hiking trails, etc. I suspect it won't be too long before MDing will be prohibited in a lot of parks. Cities and towns are growing and continuously expanding which means more surface area is being covered over with new construction every day. Counties and townships are really trying to highlight their attractions and histories and new historical landmarks are popping up all the time. Certain branches and offices within state and federal governments are starting to be combined in order to reduce cost and this has already had a negative impact on the hobby in a few areas as these struggling offices react by trying to simplify and reduce their responsibilities. Hard telling where it will all be 20 years from now but the outlook isn't all that promising.

 

[slowNsteady]

I'm afraid I will be notching out pennies by then. Given the condition of most zinc pennies I find, I'm afraid we'll be finding where there used to be a coin until it corroded away. Finding silver then will probably be like finding gold now. I do love a challenge!

 

[deepskyal]

Without a doubt, it will be different. Back in the early 80's when I started, finding silver wasn't an every day experience, but there was still a fair amout. There were "old-timers" been at it longer than me I talked to and they literally walked out of sites with bags full of silver. One park in particular where fireworks were held when I was a little one of around 5 or 6...55 now. They used the old BFO's and didn't have the disadvantage of all the pulltabs we have now. Talk about cherry picking!

I come along in the 80's with the newer VLF and can discriminate so-so and cherry pick, but I have pulltabs to contend with, plus tin foil bits...god I hate them to this day!
The last several years I upgraded twice to the newer, more advanced discriminating, multi-frequency detectors, move a little slower, and still pop silver...but it's becomming more and more a rarity. But...it's still the same exact parks that have been getting hit for years.
I dig more trash trying for the deeper stuff that may be masked.

Like bigscoop mentioned, I think laws will be the biggest hinderance to parks and common areas. But 20 years from now, there will still be derilict homes from the turn of the century that have never been hunted, lost lumber camps and such, new demo projects, new ground turnings, etc, to hunt.

Plus, manufacturers will probably have some much more advanced machines out that will continue to keep people interested in the hobby. And 20 years from now when you dig that old silver....you'll be that much more thrilled.

Al

 

[Argentium]

To my knowledge there is not a detector yet that can differentiate between a gold ring and a pull
tab/pop top -and also nickel signals - so as long as folks are visiting the parks and the beaches ,
and losing gold rings - I don't see how the gold finds will drop off too much - silver jewelry -
should remain a constant as well - the drop off might be in silver coins . Argentium.