How much do you talk about Metal Detecting?

[mr helton]

I've been at it a year now and have pretty much become the metal detecting guy to my friends, co-workers, and family. People at work ask me every Monday if I found anything interesting over the weekend, and I've even convinced 2 guys to get detectors and go out to parks after work with me a few times.

Do you guys kinda do the same or do you keep it to yourself?

On one hand I'd like to keep it to myself because obviously more competition for spots is bad, but on the other hand I can't shut my mouth

 

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[zendog64]

I guess I'm in the minority, because I never talk about MDing. Here's how I see it: During the winter, I spend countless hours scouring old newspapers, property records, aerial and satellite photographs, antique maps, books on local history, etc. in order to develop my leads. Some days, I'll spend up to six hours doing background research. The last thing I need is to spill the beans to some chump who's never opened a history book in his life so that he can borrow a detector from his grandpa and go out and find the treasure.

 

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[GranvilleATPro]

I'll talk it up to whoever will listen just to garner leads. Like at work for example just this week, the "chump" I talked to happened to have an uncle who farms half of the Township it seems. Needless to say, it opened up a whole lot of sites after I pulled the 1800's Platt maps and identified at least a dozen potential properties, homesteads, old schools, etc. Universal permission has been granted to hunt anywhere except the fields for now due to planting. I have more places to detect than I have time for. All from talking up Detecting.

 

[Massieville Mike]

More than most people care to hear. What I mean by that is; other than short term curiosity, most people I talk to about MDing don't have a passion for it and therefore lose interest in conversation about it rather quickly. It seems to go like this: Me - Had a great time MDing this past weekend, found "this & that" "here & there", really diggin' my new detector!....Them - Oh that's cool Mike, how bout them buckeyes?!!! Lol! There have been pleasant exceptions....talking about it to a guy I work with and discovered he is into it as well. Another co-worker is into prospecting and has offered to teach me to pan. Another went so far as to turn me on to a state park that was draining a lake, even helped me procure the permit to detect there (found my first gold ring there!)

 

[Dave Rishar]

I guess I'm in the minority, because I never talk about MDing. Here's how I see it: During the winter, I spend countless hours scouring old newspapers, property records, aerial and satellite photographs, antique maps, books on local history, etc. in order to develop my leads. Some days, I'll spend up to six hours doing background research. The last thing I need is to spill the beans to some chump who's never opened a history book in his life so that he can borrow a detector from his grandpa and go out and find the treasure.

There's no need to be specific with locations. When people ask me where I found a specific item, I won't lie to them but I'll be very vague - I'll mention whether it was public or private property and possibly the town, but that's all that they get unless it's a site that I won't be going back to. Like you, I'm not in the habit of sharing my research.

The benefits definitely outweigh the drawbacks though. I'm actually somewhat notorious about it at work. If the course of conversation goes to someone's house, my next question invariably is, "Say, how old is that house?" And you can guess where it goes from there. I've found that it's not only very easy to ask a co-worker for permission, but also that they rarely if ever say no. I honestly can't think of an easier and more reliable method for lining up permissions, but it wouldn't be possible unless I mentioned my hobby.

I've also found that discussing it openly may open up new avenues for research. I'm not from this area and I don't have a local's knowledge of it. When locals learn what I'm looking for, they offer up all sorts of suggestions. Some of them are things that I didn't even think to research. I've learned a few things that I wouldn't have discovered otherwise. Most of these leads are what I'd call "low percentage" and are pretty low on my list of priorities, but having too many places to hunt is a pretty good problem to have. If and when the usual suspects and the permission sites dry up, I've got a list of other things to look at.

 

[Old Dude]

I have the same problem, Dave. I am not from my area either. We are at a disadvantage.


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[Produce Guy]

My boss at work always asks me what I found over the weekend & if I have any pictures.