Metal Detecting reality show?

[jgas]

How about a show about Privy Diggers Along with metal detecting....Possibly make a show that incorporates the entire treasure hunting genre. Gold panning, metal detecting, geo cache, privy diggers etc. You name it people will watch it. Heck, I am so stuck on stupid storage wars, american pickers and pawn stars and hard core pawn its sickening. Man I need a life jgas

 

[thrillathahunt]

jgas, if you get tired of watching pawn stars and pickers, you have all of these to choose from.

http://www.realitytvworld.com/realitytvworld/allshows.shtml

 

[Smudge]

No way. Good sites are getting harder to come by because our hobby is so popular.

I reality show will only make it worse.

Kind of like the effect Storage Wars had on people who really do that for a living. Now the prices being offered are astronomical because they believe there's a Picasso hiding in every corner.

 

[Produce Guy]

Well if you've noticed,there's been allot of metal detectors showing up in commercials lately.

 

[underarock]

Is it really to our benefit to stir up interest about this hobby? I am thinking it is not.

Agreed…

 

[mts]

Well if you've noticed,there's been allot of metal detectors showing up in commercials lately.

Agreed. It can't be any worse than the White's commercial where they show a guy supposedly pulling a gold coin out of the ground.

 

[mts]

No way. Good sites are getting harder to come by because our hobby is so popular.

I reality show will only make it worse.

Kind of like the effect Storage Wars had on people who really do that for a living. Now the prices being offered are astronomical because they believe there's a Picasso hiding in every corner.

It is a double edged sword. Good sites are getting closed because metal detectorists have this loner, hobo image. If more "normal" decent people joined the hobby and made their presence public, we might keep some of those good sites from being closed by politicians.

It's like the Frisbee golf course in our town. Frisbee golfers who used to hang out in the parks were constantly being harassed by old folks who had nothing better to do. They formed a club and were able to get quite a few members to join. By banding together they convinced the local parks department to put up a course in one of the parks. Now they have a beautiful place to play and no one yells at them anymore. Get enough people together and politicians will listen. Become a loner and people will think there is something illegal about what you are doing.

Yes, having more people join the hobby means that there could potentially be more competition in any given location. But hopefully, more locations would open up. Personally, I'd rather be part of a big club where people share their finds and camaraderie than to be a loner digging in a park wondering if someone is encroaching on my zinc penny gravy train.

 

[70monte68]

I hope it fails. I don't see the need for a flood on inconsiderate diggers to ruin something that I and many others take pride in. I have received praise for my work and all it takes is one bad apple or 100,000 knuckleheads to destroy this hobby. A great example would be beachhunting. I have done this several times and am truly amazed. There is a garbage can twenty feet in any direction yet the sand is covered with trash. Now give these same people a shovel and some dirt?

Greed? NO just a love for this hobby.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

IMO it is the last thing we need, we don't need another 10,000-100,000 people thinking it will be easy to pick up all the "easy gold finds" the show would stage for the viewers......

When prospectors were out hunting for gold, did they rush to town to tell everyone they found gold and where they found it?

There is nothing wrong with new people in the hobby, but a TV show that would only show the good finds, and not the hundreds of hours of trash finds, making people believe the it is easy to just stroll around with a detector picking up silver and gold is not the way to go....

 

[EagleDown]

One little "nugget" of less than $1.00 value, (1848) brought a veritable tsunami of humanity to CA in less than a year. And, they didn't have "Reality Shows", to get them excited. A couple of years later, Austalia got its' tens of thousands of hopeful fortune hunters. Stop and consider that this was with-out our modern communications. (No radio, TV, cell phone, etc.) But, it was mere weeks before Horace Greeley was standing on his podium exclaiming: "Thar's GOLD in them thar hills boys"!!! (Or maybe that's just the way they talk in the movies.)

In 1969 my wife gave me my first metal detector and over the course of 40+ years, I've introduced many people to this great hobby, so don't call me greedy (which by-the-way, is not allowed in Treasure Net.) And, I'll introduce and guide more before I hang up my Whites, but I also know my history of fortune hunting, so I'm dead set against the sensationalism of metal detecting via a "Reality Show". We have plenty of "Reality Shows" about metal detecting on Utube. (Which I enjoy watching,) for the ones who are truly interested. At least these videos are not from a script written by some follywood hack who's never even seen a metal detector, much less used one. If you think that they would show you digging can slaw and poptops, you need to get a grip on "Reality" kiddo.

TV is ALL ABOUT RATINGS!!! If it isn't exciting, it won't fly.

WOW!! I just got another Double Eagle!! Take a look at this guys!

Eagle

 

[mr_larry]

I would watch one but I don't think one will ever be produced for one simple reason: It would be extremely expensive to produce and a logistical nightmare.

How often do you make a really interesting find? Think about that for a bit. You would need at least two camera operators, probably more, following a few guys around with metal detectors. Are you really going to try to film every single object dug? As a detectorist it would slow you down to the point of never finding anything. After you show the audience a few wheat cents and Mercury dimes being dug, then what?

Maybe once every hundred hours of detecting do you find something really cool. What are the odds that the camera crew would have filmed it live? And if they didn't catch it live, would they bury it again and then dig it again for the cameras?

I think the only way they could do a show is if people sent in video clips of them digging stuff up. But even then, most people can't handle a camera properly and most people only break out the cameras after they have dug something up.

The whole idea sounds like a bad one. I also agree that if a bunch of novices got interested and started tearing up parks that it would be very bad for the hobby.

 

[maipenrai]

Someone mentioned the fact that we are loners, and and act like hobo's. Well, the fact is, we are mostly loner type people, and nothing wrong with that. We like doing our own thing in the park, beach, or wherever, thats how we relax. Just as a reality show would not show reality, trying to get a group of 100 people together, and playing games in the park with banners and hotdogs, is not going to happen. Sure, some clubs have hunts, but that is more like the office Christmas party, its cool every now and then, but doesnt happen every night. Getting a hundred people together every night for a serious hunt is not happening. Its hard enough to just get a partner once in a while. That is one reason many of us have got into this hobby, we like doing our own thing, by ourselves or a friend, and dont want everything Organised.

Its great that we do a service in the community by picking the garbage that others left, but that isnt the main reason we are out there, we pick up the garbage for our own benefit, so we dont have to find it a second time, not because we love digging garbage for hours and hours. We are not social workers either, teaching all the kiddies how to metal detect. Does anyone think, that by showing a kid how to find pull tabs, that he will love our hobby?

A reality show might help the dealers, but not the rest of us. And after all the parks started looking like gopher city, we would be banned from everywhere, even the beaches, and maybe from all government owned land eventually.

That is the reality of it!

 

[mts]

Someone mentioned the fact that we are loners, and and act like hobo's. Well, the fact is, we are mostly loner type people, and nothing wrong with that. We like doing our own thing in the park, beach, or wherever, thats how we relax. Just as a reality show would not show reality, trying to get a group of 100 people together, and playing games in the park with banners and hotdogs, is not going to happen. Sure, some clubs have hunts, but that is more like the office Christmas party, its cool every now and then, but doesnt happen every night. Getting a hundred people together every night for a serious hunt is not happening. Its hard enough to just get a partner once in a while. That is one reason many of us have got into this hobby, we like doing our own thing, by ourselves or a friend, and dont want everything Organised.

Its great that we do a service in the community by picking the garbage that others left, but that isnt the main reason we are out there, we pick up the garbage for our own benefit, so we dont have to find it a second time, not because we love digging garbage for hours and hours. We are not social workers either, teaching all the kiddies how to metal detect. Does anyone think, that by showing a kid how to find pull tabs, that he will love our hobby?

A reality show might help the dealers, but not the rest of us. And after all the parks started looking like gopher city, we would be banned from everywhere, even the beaches, and maybe from all government owned land eventually.

That is the reality of it!

I never said that I expected to get 100 people out for a hunt every night. Nor did I say that I expected to have banners and hotdogs every weekend. I'm not sure why you would assume that I said any such thing. What I did say is that it would be nice and would go a long way if we did have a scheduled event for the public every once in a while. Perhaps once a year? Maybe every other year? Has any metal detecting group EVER done something like that? If not, why not?

As for teaching the kiddies to metal detect, that's not the point either. The point is to build good will with the community. Whether or not we convince kiddies that metal detecting is a great hobby is secondary. Most kids get bored after a few minutes anyway. That doesn't mean that kids wouldn't enjoy a seeded hunt in the park's sand volleyball courts on some sunny weekend out with the folks. You might want to ask Mike at Woodland detectors about how much the kids enjoy the hunts that he sets up every year.

As usual, most of you people see the world in black and white. If we can't have 100 people in our club and have immense public support along with banners and hotdogs, then the only other alternative is to be a loner right? Well why can't it be somewhere in between?

 

[blackbeard1717]

Good idea be alot of editing of continous detecting until something good is found.

 

[kgunn]

its kinda like watchn bass fishing on tv, u really think bill dance catches all those in 1 day? noooo however i 2 would watch it... n i think any publicity is a good thg n just like anythg u gotta give it a chance. sure theres some folks that wanna get rich quick n soon will realize it aint happen n drop out. more cheaper detectors 4 us 2 buy... carry on...

kgunn

 

[Smudge]

If a "real" reality show was done with no editing, for a half hour at a local park, showing everything that was dug in real time, people would get so bored looking at pulltabs, bottle caps, canslaw, and crusty zinc pennies there would be nobody watching after a few episodes.

BINGO!!!

 

[Chicago Ron]

Funny I came her to post about a show I filmed with Nat Geo last spring that is airing tomorrow night at 9 pm in the UK and should air on March 20th here in the US. The Show is:Thames Treasure Hunters, Lucky Muckers
This is not a reality show but one week filming on the Thames river with the Mudlarks a group of detectorists and diggers hwo hunt the shore of the river when the tide goes out. I was the first American filmed working with them.
The mudlarks report all finds to the museum of london. Increasing the historical knowledge of London.

I am also in talks with several companies about a series, I would like to cover all the different aspects of treasure hunting as someone stated above. I would make sure detecting was shown in the best possable light with emphasis on history and the saving of artifacts and coins from environmental, cultivation and construction damage. Trying to work with the museums and archeoligists whenever possable.
All finds would have to be genuine no preplanted targets, If we don't find anything we interview one of the hunter guests and look at his finds.