Is Minelab killing off our hobby?

[coinshooter]

The deluge of new (mostly Minelab) detectors has really put a dent into beach finds this year. Have you noticed? There are others detectors, but most everyone in so. cal buys a Minelab.
I have been out 3 times in as many weeks and have noticed a significant decrease in finds. When I go to Fakebook, there are posts where people have found a few coins and they think that is great.
Most reference their 800, 900, or Manticore.
My finds for miles of walking our so. cal beaches amount to 2 quarters one day from two different popular beaches and two pennies yesterday from a mile long beach.
High tide or low tide, there just are minimal to no finds out there. Now everyone has decided night hunting is the way to go, so you have ten guys working one beach at 2 am.
Are people getting wise to us and leaving their jewelry at home? Are they selling their gold and silver just to live? Are debit cards killing our hobby? Are there abundance of marketing and cheap quality machines doing us in? Are there too many detectorists out there night and day?
It is sad to see the demise of a hobby I love so much.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

The vast majority of new people in the hobby quit when they realize its not as easy as they thought and involves a lot of work.

With gold over $3300 an oz, many are choosing other metals for wedding rings ect.

 

[Surfline]

The deluge of new (mostly Minelab) detectors has really put a dent into beach finds this year. Have you noticed? There are others detectors, but most everyone in so. cal buys a Minelab.
I have been out 3 times in as many weeks and have noticed a significant decrease in finds. When I go to Fakebook, there are posts where people have found a few coins and they think that is great.
Most reference their 800, 900, or Manticore.
My finds for miles of walking our so. cal beaches amount to 2 quarters one day from two different popular beaches and two pennies yesterday from a mile long beach.
High tide or low tide, there just are minimal to no finds out there. Now everyone has decided night hunting is the way to go, so you have ten guys working one beach at 2 am.
Are people getting wise to us and leaving their jewelry at home? Are they selling their gold and silver just to live? Are debit cards killing our hobby? Are there abundance of marketing and cheap quality machines doing us in? Are there too many detectorists out there night and day?
It is sad to see the demise of a hobby I love so much.

It is getting harder. I have been detecting for 35+ years and now I consider the beach the most challenging as compared to parks or farm fields. I have been finding more nickels than I ever have at the beach. They ring up as a 26 on the Equinox 900 and think it’s because they’re skipped targets. My suggestion is to go after a storm as early as safely possible. I was out recently (New Jersey shore) after a storm and the finds were sparse, all clad and not much of it. As soon as I pulled into the parking lot there was a guy already swinging on the beach. Twenty years ago, a long time ago, it was different. I have many stories, but mostly good. I would encourage you to seek out opportunities at the beach, such as when they are moving sand around (beach replenishment, moving sand from pier areas etc) but stay within the permissible area. I also never dig with my gloved hands due to sharp objects and I hate to say, needles (I have only seen one needle in multiple decades). Use your beach scoop. I wouldn’t stop going to the beach. Enjoy the fresh air and waves and look for those opportunities. Hope this helps. Surfline

 

[FreeBirdTim]

Maybe people are finally getting smart and not wearing gold to the beach? I never did understand why anyone would wear bling to the beach. Wedding rings, yes, but gold chains, pendants and so on? Why on earth would you do that?

It also has nothing to do with Minelab or any other company. Gold has just become too expensive over the last few years. I've found a ton of junk rings, fake chains marked 14k and other worthless stuff lately from totlots, schools and ballfields. I've found two gold items in the last year, but went two years before that with zero gold finds. People aren't able or willing to spend so much for a paper thin gold chain, for example. They settle for Sterling silver, gold plated jewelry and fake stuff that looks good for a few months and then tarnishes.

Even class rings are junk now. Most are not even 10k gold. Unheard of when I was in high school. "Hey guys, check out my class ring made of Celestrium!" Talk about junk...

 

[UnderMiner]

Gold was more of a 20th century thing, nowadays its all about titanium, tungsten, and silicone - which people still pay hundreds of dollars for, problem is when we find it we know the true value is $0. My suggestion is find a way to convince someone to pay you $500 for a worthless ring like the jewlery stores have managed to do somehow.

 

[malenkai]

I can't speak to beach hunting, but dirt fishing is of course getting harder. Obviously, no one is dropping silver coins anymore. We hope for new spots to open up, and the freeze/thaw cycle to push coins around.

As for the technology, from Minelab or anyone else, we hope for better, deeper, faster machines to open up what older machines simply didn't find, just as the E-Trac did, when everyone was having 100+ silver years in "hunted out" parks when the E-Trac came out.

Just not happening, tho. I have several of these machines, and they don't really do much. Still use my E-Trac for dirt fishing silver coins. IMHO, VLF technology has hit a wall, yet Minelab and other companies are still raking in the cash by spinning the same old technology with different names, frequencies and fancy screens.

Wake me up when a new technology comes along that changed the game like the E-Trac did for dirt fishing. Like I said, as for the beach, can't speak to that.

 

[pepperj]

I can't speak to beach hunting, but dirt fishing is of course getting harder. Obviously, no one is dropping silver coins anymore. We hope for new spots to open up, and the freeze/thaw cycle to push coins around.

As for the technology, from Minelab or anyone else, we hope for better, deeper, faster machines to open up what older machines simply didn't find, just as the E-Trac did, when everyone was having 100+ silver years in "hunted out" parks when the E-Trac came out.

Just not happening, tho. I have several of these machines, and they don't really do much. Still use my E-Trac for dirt fishing silver coins. IMHO, VLF technology has hit a wall, yet Minelab and other companies are still raking in the cash by spinning the same old technology with different names, frequencies and fancy screens.

Wake me up when a new technology comes along that changed the game like the E-Trac did for dirt fishing. Like I said, as for the beach, can't speak to that.

I have an E-Trac, and it did well until the
CTX arrived.
I walked the same dirt with the E-Trac many times.
Then I found what it had missed.
Then the Deus l arrived and I found what the CTX and E-Trac had missed.(alot)
Then the Deus ll is cleaning up even more.

The SE & E-Trac were silver hounds for sure.
Maybe it was there were more to be found back then.

 

[mtdoramike]

It might be Minelab in California, but it's every brand and off brand detectors here. Back years ago, there were fewer detectors on the market, unlike today. If they weren't selling they would stop making them, but they are and people are using them until like said above, they realize after a few trips out and coming home with junk and not enough clad to even pay for the batteries. You have to do metal detecting for spiritual reason, wanting to be one with nature, just to get out of the house and away from honey do's, and comradery if you have a fellow hunting buddy. It should never be about what you find.

 

[UnderMiner]

It might be Minelab in California, but it's every brand and off brand detectors here. Back years ago, there were fewer detectors on the market, unlike today. If they weren't selling they would stop making them, but they are and people are using them until like said above, they realize after a few trips out and coming home with junk and not enough clad to even pay for the batteries. You have to do metal detecting for spiritual reason, wanting to be one with nature, just to get out of the house and away from honey do's, and comradery if you have a fellow hunting buddy. It should never be about what you find.

I go metal detecting, and treasure hunting in general, as a form of time travel to learn about a place and the people that once past through it. The artifacts, indeed mementos to me, are additionally conduits to that past world. The difference between that kind of treasure hunting and that of the uninformed general public's version of treasure hunting, is that they often cannot fully appreciate an object beyond its outward physical appearance or mere monetary value. The object is merely money to them, with no story and they have no ability to connect it to anything. Imagine finding something with providence, connecting it to something historically importat, but being too ignorant or unwilling to understand that - and then just selling it for scrap. I have seen this happen more times than not and history has undoubtedly been lost as a result.

 

[3cylbill]

The deluge of new (mostly Minelab) detectors has really put a dent into beach finds this year. Have you noticed? There are others detectors, but most everyone in so. cal buys a Minelab.
I have been out 3 times in as many weeks and have noticed a significant decrease in finds. When I go to Fakebook, there are posts where people have found a few coins and they think that is great.
Most reference their 800, 900, or Manticore.
My finds for miles of walking our so. cal beaches amount to 2 quarters one day from two different popular beaches and two pennies yesterday from a mile long beach.
High tide or low tide, there just are minimal to no finds out there. Now everyone has decided night hunting is the way to go, so you have ten guys working one beach at 2 am.
Are people getting wise to us and leaving their jewelry at home? Are they selling their gold and silver just to live? Are debit cards killing our hobby? Are there abundance of marketing and cheap quality machines doing us in? Are there too many detectorists out there night and day?
It is sad to see the demise of a hobby I love so much.

I knew this guy back in the 70' or early 80's that bought a new pickup after two weeks of draing the lake then he told me he could have bought 2 and I'm sure he wasn't lying...

 

[BenGatesJr.2010]

My prediction for this hobby is that it’s going to turn to cache hunting and speculation because of all of the caches that we know are out there as opposed to buried gold that might not even be there

 

[robertk]

My prediction for this hobby is that it’s going to turn to cache hunting and speculation because of all of the caches that we know are out there as opposed to buried gold that might not even be there

You mean all the caches that might not even be there? Even the ones we "know" are out there may already be long gone.

 

[BenGatesJr.2010]

True, but I don’t think you and I are thinking of the same type of cache. But that’s just my speculation you know?

 

[18caret]

I have been detecting for 60 years or more. (82 now) Started with a BFO detectors and primitive VLF's. Designed and built my own PI detectors in the 70's. Made my own waterproof housings. I have designed, built and used a differential magnetometer under water to find cannons and anchors. Have built PI detector sleds to be towed in Mississippi River to find large sheared off propellers. (made of Bronze, very very large.) Have found a lot of things.. One thing I have noticed, it is harder and harder to find items no matter where you hunt or what you are looking for. Some areas more than others. I am in Rhode Island, Land of pull tabs and flip tops not to mention blanket hold downs and sparkler wire as well as 55 gallon drums filled with hazardous waste.. People who detect here give up after a while because they get tired of digging junk. I have had to learn to deal with it. If an old Yankees here in New England lost a half dollar or a silver dollar out in his fields, he would go to barn and get a rake and hunt the rest of the day till he found it. It is not like the best or the south where a lot treasure is still to be found. I hunt in the water a lot. Over the years, around here, not as many people have gone into the water with a metal detector. If you can find treasure here, you will do very well in other places.
Case in point !. I go to Florida to visit my brother also a metal detector nut, We hunted together a lot in the past. When he retired to Florida ha found that hunting for treasure with a metal detector there. was much easier. he does well down there, However I do better. Don't know what to tell you folks... just the way it is I guess. More people doing it, the less you will find and more sophisticated the detectors used, the easier it becomes. I like metal detecting, My wife sometimes refuses to know me in the summer months when we go to a beach, I like doing it alone the older I get. I just enjoy the solitude more. Its like going fishing, somedays you don't care if you catch any fish or not. and somedays you just don't want to be disturbed by them either.

 

[18caret]

I knew this guy back in the 70' or early 80's that bought a new pickup after two weeks of draing the lake then he told me he could have bought 2 and I'm sure he wasn't lying...

Ya, and gold was not 4000+ an ounce either. All the rings I found over 50+ years. Imagine what they be worth today.

 

[Tnmountains]

Relics are getting hard to find as well. I hunted the other day found 4 bullets and thought I had a banner day,lol.

 

[Tesorodeoro]

Has nothing to do with detector brand. There are plenty of folks thinking if they buy top of the line they will get rich.

Majority do not have the time or patience to pursue it adequately. That’s the truth.

Likely it has to do with COVID and the B inflation. Not as much time or money to go to the beach. It could also have to do with beach cleaning machines.

If your finds are declining, check your settings and equipment. Travel further. Try river beaches. There are always options, but we are now a cheap azz throw away society. People are wearing rubber band wedding rings and pawning their inheritance.

Gotta hit the beaches the social media influencers are going to. They are the ones with ridiculous Jewerly.

How many younger men have you seen with obscenely large gold rings that tend to fall off?

 

[18caret]

Relics are getting hard to find as well. I hunted the other day found 4 bullets and thought I had a banner day,lol.

Been a bad drout here lately.. since that bad nor'easter everything has been buried under mountains of sand. Have let the normal erosion gradually take it all back.

 

[Tony (Michigan)]

The deluge of new (mostly Minelab) detectors has really put a dent into beach finds this year. Have you noticed? There are others detectors, but most everyone in so. cal buys a Minelab.
I have been out 3 times in as many weeks and have noticed a significant decrease in finds. When I go to Fakebook, there are posts where people have found a few coins and they think that is great.
Most reference their 800, 900, or Manticore.
My finds for miles of walking our so. cal beaches amount to 2 quarters one day from two different popular beaches and two pennies yesterday from a mile long beach.
High tide or low tide, there just are minimal to no finds out there. Now everyone has decided night hunting is the way to go, so you have ten guys working one beach at 2 am.
Are people getting wise to us and leaving their jewelry at home? Are they selling their gold and silver just to live? Are debit cards killing our hobby? Are there abundance of marketing and cheap quality machines doing us in? Are there too many detectorists out there night and day?
It is sad to see the demise of a hobby I love so much.

A lot of beaches use a beach cleaning machine to clean out all the debris on the beaches. Maybe they are getting all the coins and jewelry? You might have to go out into the water, maybe low tide?

 

[3cylbill]

Ya, and gold was not 4000+ an ounce either. All the rings I found over 50+ years. Imagine what they be worth today.

I've been huting almost 50 years..whe I graduated high school gold was $32 dollars an ounce cheap right but i was only making $62 dollars a week and car crazy with a 62 olds starfire and restoring a 60 vette..also pumped gas on a major highway at nite 5 gallons of regular sun for a ....buck......those WERE the days..