Does everyone have a metal detector these days?

[Steve in PA]

We had beautiful weather this past weekend and I managed to take advantage of it and hit a few spots. At two of the spots I had targeted, nobody was home, so I ended up going to some colonial sites that I have pounded over the years. The first place I had been hunting since about 2008. It’s was an Indian trading post and later French & Indian War encampment. This is where I dug my oldest coin and one of my banners, a 1661 hammered silver King Leopold 3 Kreuzer. I hadn’t been there for a couple years and now it seems others have discovered the site, including one guy who lives right down the road. He showed up and started detecting while I was there. He said there had been a few others there lately. I moved on to another spot that I had discovered back in 2012 and where I have recovered a couple hundred buttons, over 50 coppers, 20 Spanish, and an 1803 Draped Bust Dime. While I was there, another guy showed up and started detecting. I gave it a little longer and then left with only a broken pewter button in my finds case. The next day I ended up at another site that I started hunting back in 2012. This place has given up coppers, buttons and other relics from the late 18[SUP]th[/SUP] and early 19[SUP]th[/SUP] centuries. This time no other diggers showed up and I had the whole field to myself for 4 hours.

Here are the finds I managed to squeak out of these pounded fields:


My favorite find is this cufflink. I haven't found one with this design before.


I also like to find these fancy etched tombacs. Toasted just made a post about them last week.


I found these two wagon strake spikes at the first site. These went through the iron wheel rim and into the wooden wheel. These turn up at every British French & Indian War site in SW PA that I have hunted. I lived on a French & Indian War fort site until I was 7, and we found these in our back yard with the little sifter our Dad made for us.


After finally finding an old coin after 4 hours at the last site, I called it a day.


At first I thought this was a piece of broken pewter spoon. But after wiping the dirt off, I noticed it was a little toy pistol. Unfortunately, some of it has corroded away.


Lastly, a couple dirt shots...Large Cent and dandy button
[SUB][SUP]
[/SUP][/SUB]

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Diving for Pleasure and Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[Georgivs]

They are getting much more affordable, I've talked to many folks who have them but get discouraged after finding tons of junk. They think it's going to be like the highlights reel that you see in every youtube vid out there where they hardly ever show all the trash they dig to find the treasure.

 

[WHADIFIND]

There may be a lot of people who own detectors these days. But there are *very* few of them who have the ability to find anything more than a half dollar that's only an inch or two down. I love walking in "hunted out" places. My old partner, God rest his soul, used to holler at me if he found me following behind him, searching where he'd just swung.

I'm a coinshooter at heart but I *love* that lil toy pistol! BTB ....don't let any kids take that to school for show & tell!

 

[Indian Steve]

Everybody has one! Only the Insane use them!

 

[Steve in PA]

There may be a lot of people who own detectors these days. But there are *very* few of them who have the ability to find anything more than a half dollar that's only an inch or two down. I love walking in "hunted out" places. My old partner, God rest his soul, used to holler at me if he found me following behind him, searching where he'd just swung.

I'm a coinshooter at heart but I *love* that lil toy pistol! BTB ....don't let any kids take that to school for show & tell!

Thanks. I bought my first detector in 1985, and am now on my 9th machine. I remember the less crowded days before social media when I didn't even know other detectorists except through magazines. Both of the sites where others showed up this weekend are along roads where you can be seen by anyone driving by. But I can honestly say, in the 35 years I have been detecting, I have never "found" a site by seeing others detecting there

 

[Tuberale]

You need at least 2 detectors these days: one to find the object, and a pinpointer to dig the object. BTW, I like that toy pistol too.

 

[63bkpkr]

Steve in PA,
There must be a lot of people now that own detectors otherwise companies would not keep coming up with better (and more expensive) models.

In "the old days" I would make them (including the coils) from the ones that were posted in Electronics magazines, beat frequency types that find everything.
The machines are way better now but even then Youtuber's post about digging it all!

Once I put up some good funds and purchased a Heathkit "put it together yourself" machine and it found all signals. Then I purchased a used White's
6000D Coinmaster which really changed the game. To top that off, in the back of a detecting magazine I found an add for super tuning the 6000D once
the purchased papers reached me and the mods were completed the machine was really worth all I'd paid for it and the mod instructions.

Then I bought a new XLT and then a GMT and still have all of them and I've found good targets with all of them. So What's next? I suspect new sites will
keep being found and better machines will keep coming as well. The new machines tend to open up previously hunted out sites.

Then again I remember an old timer that lived in a side canyon outside of Santa Cruz but I digress. Have fun!! 63bkpkr

 

[Steve in PA]

Steve in PA,
There must be a lot of people now that own detectors otherwise companies would not keep coming up with better (and more expensive) models.

In "the old days" I would make them (including the coils) from the ones that were posted in Electronics magazines, beat frequency types that find everything.
The machines are way better now but even then Youtuber's post about digging it all!

Once I put up some good funds and purchased a Heathkit "put it together yourself" machine and it found all signals. Then I purchased a used White's
6000D Coinmaster which really changed the game. To top that off, in the back of a detecting magazine I found an add for super tuning the 6000D once
the purchased papers reached me and the mods were completed the machine was really worth all I'd paid for it and the mod instructions.

Then I bought a new XLT and then a GMT and still have all of them and I've found good targets with all of them. So What's next? I suspect new sites will
keep being found and better machines will keep coming as well. The new machines tend to open up previously hunted out sites.

Then again I remember an old timer that lived in a side canyon outside of Santa Cruz but I digress. Have fun!! 63bkpkr

Nice recollections You wouldn't be that old timer in the side of a canyon outside of Santa Cruz...would you? ​

 

[pa-dirt_nc-sand]

Well Steve, I blame you for the proliferation of detectorists in W PA. Stop posting cool historical finds, just the piles of trash and futility of wasted days....... Nice LC, Merc, cuff link and that cool fancy tombac. I’m going to show my friends your post and convince them to go to Costco and pick up a detector...... JK......

 

[SD51]

Nice finds Steve and Yes everybody has a detector and some have more than one. Agree that a lot of first-time users get discouraged, especially when all they dig is trash but what really burns me is when they have to leave the trash laying on the ground and don't fill in the hole.

 

[Steve in PA]

Well Steve, I blame you for the proliferation of detectorists in W PA. Stop posting cool historical finds, just the piles of trash and futility of wasted days....... Nice LC, Merc, cuff link and that cool fancy tombac. I’m going to show my friends your post and convince them to go to Costco and pick up a detector...... JK......

Thad, you better be JK or I'm going to start utilizing that tracking device I put on your car. You'll have more detecting partners than you know what to do with

 

[Digger RJ]

Nice!!! Congrats!!! Luckily I haven’t ran into that problem yet!!! Detecting has become Very Big!!! Hope I can hit those couple of secret spots before someone else, or at least no one figures them out!!! Happy Hunting!!!

 

[JerV3]

Nice finds Steve.

Yeah seems like more people are doing it now. I ran into three guys in the same set of woods two weeks ago.

Jer

 

[Steve in PA]

Nice finds Steve.

Yeah seems like more people are doing it now. I ran into three guys in the same set of woods two weeks ago.

Jer

Thanks Jeremy. Yeah I was 60-70 miles east of Pittsburgh in the middle of nowhere and these guys are coming out of the woodwork

 

[Steve in PA]

They are getting much more affordable, I've talked to many folks who have them but get discouraged after finding tons of junk. They think it's going to be like the highlights reel that you see in every youtube vid out there where they hardly ever show all the trash they dig to find the treasure.

I think the YouTube videos are definitely feeding the craze.

Everybody has one! Only the Insane use them!

Call me insane, but there's a method to my madness

You need at least 2 detectors these days: one to find the object, and a pinpointer to dig the object. BTW, I like that toy pistol too.

Thanks. I dug without a pinpointer for over 20 years. Now I don't know what I'd do without it

Nice finds Steve and Yes everybody has a detector and some have more than one. Agree that a lot of first-time users get discouraged, especially when all they dig is trash but what really burns me is when they have to leave the trash laying on the ground and don't fill in the hole.

I see one YouTuber (and I know the guy) who hunts in mowed areas without a drop cloth. That's setting a bad example IMO.

Nice!!! Congrats!!! Luckily I haven’t ran into that problem yet!!! Detecting has become Very Big!!! Hope I can hit those couple of secret spots before someone else, or at least no one figures them out!!! Happy Hunting!!!

RJ, just like the Coronavirus, it's coming ​

 

[gunsil]

Everybody AND their kid brother has a dang detector!! I got my first one back around 1970 (Garrett BFO) and detecting was the greatest thing I'd ever discovered. All sites virgin, permission easy to attain, pulltabs barely used yet, silver only six years out of circulation. Now there are no public places in my county that aren't pounded over and over buy new users hoping to find an old target. Now I have fancy detectors but little in the way of local places to hunt.

 

[Steve in PA]

Everybody AND their kid brother has a dang detector!! I got my first one back around 1970 (Garrett BFO) and detecting was the greatest thing I'd ever discovered. All sites virgin, permission easy to attain, pulltabs barely used yet, silver only six years out of circulation. Now there are no public places in my county that aren't pounded over and over buy new users hoping to find an old target. Now I have fancy detectors but little in the way of local places to hunt.

Well you at least got to enjoy the Golden Age of detecting. Even when I first started in 1985, silver was still plentiful and the colonial spots were virgin. I guess I can't begrudge the newbies for wanting to enjoy the hobby, just ask for permission, fill your holes, and don't claim jump. If you see somebody hunting in a field, it's not cool to jump in there and start hunting yourself, especially without permission.

 

[johnnyblaze]

Nice variety there Stevie boy i also like the cufflink.I actually managed to get out but have not posted anything yet..

~Blaze~

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Everybody has one! Only the Insane use them!

Oh yeah, me thinks I'm a little insane. I go out seeking nothing but sometimes come home with a wee bit of delight. Don't take much to make me happy..... You just never know.

 

[pigeonman]

yes it has grown around here in quiet Salem Co. i see more folks out around here in the past couple years than ever before and have met guys who stop here at my place looking for new places to hunt. the hobby is growing but new places to hunt are getting hard to find.