How many are out there...REALLY!?

[Just_curious]

Everybody that metal detects have heard the whole "most of the sites have been picked over". I'm sure we have even felt this pain when we have gone to a spot that looked promising. My question is, is it true? With metal detecting and treasure hunting becoming extremely popular in the 60's, and lack of Acts and Laws preventing the hobby, lack of Historic registered sites, etc, it seems that the 60's through the mid 90's sure would have been the prime time to go to these old sites. But we are also talking about a time with either none, to very little internet searching, or very limited easily accessible information. Obviously there had to be some sort of way such as digging through property records, the library, etc, but more difficult than finding info online. Then, technology became better for both the internet and metal detectors...but did interest die off as a hobby? I'll use this as an example. This site is probably the most known social networking and information database when it comes to this stuff. It's like the Facebook of treasure hunting and all the other sites are the myspaces lol. The most people that have ever been online at the same time here was like 14,500 and that was in 2014. Well, that's also a number from all over the world. The majority of people out there still think that metal detecting is for old retired people or creeps at the beach in a speedo. So, that goes to show that the majority of the population doesn't stumble upon detectorists on a daily basis. I have only ran into another detectorist once (2 of them) and have only found holes at one site. Which brings me to my question. How many metal detectorists are out there really (in America). How many of them are actually full on detectorists? and lastly, how much of the nations ground, and how much history from our 250+ years has actually been uncovered? I would guess that really not a very big number by detectorists, but rather governmental cover-ups of history, developments, deemed "archeological sites" that are untouchable for us, restricted land, etc. Funny how in my opinion, it is practically against the law to metal detect if you ask me, but companies can bull-doze a small village of old homesteads, throwing away all that dirt, obviously coming into contact with plenty of artifacts, but never getting the site surveyed. I'm starting to go on a rant and this is turning a different direction, but I will just leave it with this. The amount of stuff I have noticed, and just how much my eyes have been opened up since beginning this hobby (and I thought I was fully awake before), is insane! But besides that...has the bulk of America been picked over by detectorists? Thoughts?

 

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[ARC]

How many detectorists are "out there"...

Hmmmmmm........

2.

The rest just act like they are detecting :P

 

[washingtonian]

I live near a popular park in Seattle. I've probably seen 3 or 4 detectorists there over the last year. I don't even bother with that park because there are so many people that hunt it, I prefer private land or places more off the beaten path. That said, I don't see others detecting that often except at that park.

 

[XLV]

does this number u looking for include fed national parks and oversea places ? last night only 2 in my area

 

[ARC]

On the serious side...

Perhaps a 1/2 a million to perhaps as many as a million ... ? ? ?... but this is purely a wild ... wild... wild... guess.

I am thinking perhaps closer to the half a mil mark more... AND I would say it would be worldwide.

And yes... the guys in the late 60's 70's and particularly the 80's really racked it up.

BUT...

The technology of a detector was nothing to what it is today... so areas detected for years could yield at anytime.

I will tell you a quick story I like to tell and most are already ... if not all are familiar...

"The Horde"...

The guy that found the Saxon Horde in England...

Had detected that same field numerous times before that day...

AND... 100 others had as well.

That day... was the day... when all things were just right... "the planets were aligned" as they say.

 

[XLV]

joke does that # count say 5 when a guy uses them all at one time .....if yes my earlier number should of been 6 my mistake am stupid ,,,,,got a question could 5 set off mayon volcano maybe that guy triggered the hot rocks ??

 

[lookingharder]

I only got called a creep at the beach once. I wanted to be cool so I bought a thong. Nobody told me the string went in the back? Back on topic, sorry. I think its just like any other hobby. take fishing for example, ( I live on a lake) You have that guy that has one fishing pole and goes fishing once a year. He's still a fisherman because he bought a license. Then you have the guy that is out there every day, rain or shine. Still just one fisherman. There are probably thousands of members on this site that only hunt once or twice a year and that's in their back yard and are on here to read the stories, and that's fine because there are some amazing stories on here. Go get an old census map of your area from the 1800's and see how many old houses that are no longer on a current map. That's just your neck of the woods, now take the whole US. If there where another new million metal detector hobbyist, there would still be MILLIONS of places to hunt. I also think some of the biggest finds are still out there in the form of someones old coin caches, gold or jewelry that's buried in a old back yard somewhere.

 

[old digger]

As for the number of repeated searching in a particular area I would assume that the more populace of treasure hunters are the more the area will be searched. But I bet and know that there are many old home sites that are rarely if ever searched. Also if you have searched a site several years ago that showed promise, I would suggest that you go back and recheck that spot. The reason being is that you would be surprised as to how much earthworms will move the soil around. And of course not everyone will swing that coil in the same spot. ''Good Luck Hunting''

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Just curious: Your post runs on to multiple different topics, with no paragraph breaks. Hard to follow which specific point you are wanting comment on. But I'll take a stab at the "picked over" part of your question/post.

In my area, any good spots have been hammered. Eg.: old defunct picnic sites, stage stops, adobe sites (aka cellar holes), etc... There's no good lead that hasn't been exploited and pounded. And it's very difficult to get silver from the parks. And even supposed "off-limits" sites have been pounded. So our only remaining "frontier" is old town demolition tearouts, and beach storms.

HOWEVER, when I travel around the western united states on md'ing trips, I am always astounded at how geographically specific this is. Because in other areas, we check spots that are NO SECRET TO THE HISTORY BOOKS. And can sometimes find them with very little pressure, if not virgin.

 

[Ogre1190]

I've been told - on several occasions - that I'm "out there"...Does that count?

 

[Jason in Enid]

The majority of the coins lost to the dirt are still out there. The parks, schools, and other obvious public spots have been hunted hard. All the easy coins are gone from those but there are still lots more that are too deep or are under trash preventing them from being detected. BUT, there are coins laying in un-touched yards and trails and unpopulated areas than have ever been found so far.

And yes it really sucks to be told we cant metal detect a location and then see it stripped clear a year later, with all that dirt trucked off to the landfill.

 

[Just_curious]

Just curious: Your post runs on to multiple different topics, with no paragraph breaks. Hard to follow which specific point you are wanting comment on. But I'll take a stab at the "picked over" part of your question/post.

In my area, any good spots have been hammered. Eg.: old defunct picnic sites, stage stops, adobe sites (aka cellar holes), etc... There's no good lead that hasn't been exploited and pounded. And it's very difficult to get silver from the parks. And even supposed "off-limits" sites have been pounded. So our only remaining "frontier" is old town demolition tearouts, and beach storms.

HOWEVER, when I travel around the western united states on md'ing trips, I am always astounded at how geographically specific this is. Because in other areas, we check spots that are NO SECRET TO THE HISTORY BOOKS. And can sometimes find them with very little pressure, if not virgin.

lol, yeah. I was ranting through talk-to-text. Still able to understand though (in my opinion). But thanks for giving me the ole' grammar lesson. I'll be sure to use 100% proper formatting, spelling, and punctuation from now on

Thanks for your input and experience.

 

[Just_curious]

I'm still trying to figure out those long forgotten places that predate any maps I've been able to find. The two cities that I hunt mostly have maps dating to 1914 and 1908. Both are INCREDIBLY accurate. So are all the other 100 year old maps that I have found. Seems that everybody always talks about how the old maps are inaccurate. I believe them to be intentionally sized wrong and shifted slightly with current maps. Every time I have taken the time to download the maps and overlay them myself, it has always been spot-on.

 

[Jason in Enid]

I'm still trying to figure out those long forgotten places that predate any maps I've been able to find. The two cities that I hunt mostly have maps dating to 1914 and 1908. Both are INCREDIBLY accurate. So are all the other 100 year old maps that I have found. Seems that everybody always talks about how the old maps are inaccurate. I believe them to be intentionally sized wrong and shifted slightly with current maps. Every time I have taken the time to download the maps and overlay them myself, it has always been spot-on.

Overlaying them in google-earth maps lets you stretch and skew and compress as needed. The only map I have had trouble with was for my ghost town because there are only a couple of ground items still visible.

 

[Terry Soloman]

There will always be new spots to detect if you are willing to look for them with open eyes. The woods in the median between the north and south highway lanes for example..
Virginia OKs new marker for Lincoln assassin's death site in Caroline County | Caroline | fredericksburg.com

 

[basssmann]

Metal Detecting is like fishing.... anyone can fish, anyone can detect, But,..............

10 percent of the fishermen, catch 90 percent of the fish ( people buy fishing rods and reels and have no idea, how to use them !!)

10 percent of the detectorist, keep detecting more than a year !!!

When I started detecting 29 years ago, I had 8-9 other guys from work that detected.... a year later, only 3..... 5 years later , 1 guy .

Over 29 years I have detected with or taught to detect, dozens of guys, a few still detect, but, moved away.

 

[chub]

Culture has alot to do with it. There was a guy on here recently that hauled alot of gold rings from a french beach. Where I live people don't really detect - too lazy. Rich people don't really detect...
Try and think outside the box, go to the hard places -under logs, undergrowth, scan trees etc. Also pay careful attention to how well you are detecting - overlapping sweeps, flat coil etc.
What I mean is - a 'hunted out site' could well be a poorly hunted site.
Alot of people come and go also after they realise its not 'easy money' and there are not gold bars just under the ground.

chub

 

[pepperj]

"If it was easy it would have already be done, detecting 101"

The quality of detectors change yr after yr, the ground moves yr after yr. So finds are going to still be found at these hard hit sites.

Just because somebody detects a location does it mean that they covered every sq. inch of site.

How many times has somebody posted "Been detecting there for X amount of hours/times/yrs and it produces a great keeper that a $50 detector would have found. This goes for some hoards in England as well, the finder said that any machine would of picked up the target.

How many times I tell myself this very simple flaw in my detecting. Get a target-dig-recover-check hole-cover-start detecting again-but only I missed a few inches or a coil width of ground. I found my only gold coin, dug many targets in a small area-returned to the spot hrs later, went over the same patch of ground a blazing signal less than a ft away from a previous dug hole. Bang! A Full 50BC Gold Stater.

This can be applied to any site any where in the world, we can detect till the grass is growing above us all, and never run out of grass/soils to detect.

The USA has 2.3 BILLION ACRES of land, relax.

 

[Ahab8]

There’s tons of killer sites out there that nobody has found. I’ve found several virgin sites and pulled tons of great finds from them. I started searching for cabin sites from the colonial days. No cellar hole or foundation of any sort. There’s literally no sign of any existence whatsoever. You just find an iron patch in the middle of nowhere. It takes tons of research and a lot of patience. One of the cabin sites was a mill site owned by an ancestor of mine with his business partner. I found more than 20 pre 1750 coins there and several killer relics. I’ve also done well at sites that have been beat to death. If you have the patience to dig all of the iron and just keep clearing it out you will find tons of great stuff. Most people won’t put in the amount of effort it requires. If you read any of NASA Toms stuff he says that we find a very small percentage of the good finds. I used to question it a bit. Now I don’t. The majority of the good finds are buried in the thick iron patches. Most people will get the obvious targets and an occasional blip in the iron. If you remove all of that iron you will find a ton more. It totally makes sense that most of the good finds are in the use later among the iron and other large scrap metal.
Do the research and dig the hell out of the hammered sites. Dig all of the iron. Just commit to putting in a full day and digging every signal no matter where you are. Hard work will always pay off

 

[cactusman]

I would say that there is FAR more still out there than has ever been found. The easy stuff, in the noticeable spots have been picked over, but even those places yield good finds. Spend some time thinking outside of the box and doing research and you'll find more than you have in the past.