MOST dangerous Situations you have been in while Detecting

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Gare

Gare

Gold Member
Dec 30, 2012
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Canton Ohio Area
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Presently using Deus 2's & have Minelabs, Nokta's Tesoro's DEus's Have them all . Have WAY to many need to get rid of some
Primary Interest:
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Iv had run in's with big brown snakes a few times, one slithered across my boot. But we get those here in our backyard too.
Worst experience was once detecting near the Pyrenees ranges here, i was about 1 1/2 km from the car. I disturbed a feral bee hive, they went insane and swarmed me, i was getting stung all around my neck and face, I could hear them in my hair. Half way across the area I threw the detector and pick so I could run as fast as I could to the car. When I got to it some, maybe just a dozen by now had followed me, before it was dozens upon dozens. I sat in the car for about 15 to 20 minutes till I didn't see any then quickly ran and grabbed the detector, I was running on adrenaline at this stage still. Couldn't see the pick and didn't care. By the time im back at the car im feeling pretty sick and my heart's racing. I look in the mirror and see my face swollen as well as my neck. My neck moved like rubber.
It was a 45 minute drive to town and im getting sicker every kilometer I drove, the Dr saw me straight away and gave me an injection and some tablets to take. I have a very healthy respect for wild feral bees now.
Iv had run in's with big brown snakes a few times, one slithered across my boot. But we get those here in our backyard too.
Worst experience was once detecting near the Pyrenees ranges here, i was about 1 1/2 km from the car. I disturbed a feral bee hive, they went insane and swarmed me, i was getting stung all around my neck and face, I could hear them in my hair. Half way across the area I threw the detector and pick so I could run as fast as I could to the car. When I got to it some, maybe just a dozen by now had followed me, before it was dozens upon dozens. I sat in the car for about 15 to 20 minutes till I didn't see any then quickly ran and grabbed the detector, I was running on adrenaline at this stage still. Couldn't see the pick and didn't care. By the time im back at the car im feeling pretty sick and my heart's racing. I look in the mirror and see my face swollen as well as my neck. My neck moved like rubber.
It was a 45 minute drive to town and im getting sicker every kilometer I drove, the Dr saw me straight away and gave me an injection and some tablets to take. I have a very healthy respect for wild feral bees now.
Chilli I thank you for your posting. When we are out detecting we JUST NEVER know what to EXPECT ? {LEASE ALL BE CAREFUL 11
 

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OP
OP
Gare

Gare

Gold Member
Dec 30, 2012
7,427
13,992
Canton Ohio Area
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
2
Detector(s) used
Presently using Deus 2's & have Minelabs, Nokta's Tesoro's DEus's Have them all . Have WAY to many need to get rid of some
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I have posted these two incidents before, but they need to be told again. Not so scary, well actually the second incident was!

One of my brothers got a summer job helping clean county parks and while raking a beach, he finds an early 1800s large cent. He told me where he was so I decide I will be there at sunup on Saturday.
I pull into the parking lot and there's already some cars there so I figure they are probably fishing. I get down to the beach and see two couples swimming. No problem so I turn on my detector and as soon as I start swinging the coil on the beach, I hear screaming.
I look up and these two couples are skinny-dipping and are most likely still hammered from last night. They came running out of the lake and said they thought I was going to shock the lake (sorry no pics). I told them that they shocked me!
My brother tells me about another park, so I figure I'll hit it next Saturday again at sunup. This park has a biking trail that circles a huge lake and this time there's no other cars in the parking lot. I head down towards the lake and I can see two people biking towards me on one of those tandem bikes. As they get closer, I see they are elderly and the only thing they are wearing are shoes and a smile! They both wave as they ride by and I'm dumbfounded. Don't remember if I ever found anything detecting.
The next week my brother mentions another park and I respond with, "Don't say anymore, I'm done!"
Could you please TELL US the LOCATION of these PARKS J/K
 

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finderzzs

Bronze Member
May 2, 2007
1,538
342
Sunny South Florida
Detector(s) used
White's PI Pro Dual Field, Garrett Ace 350,
If you have been in any dangerous situations while detecting would you mind sharing the incidents with us. maybe it was animal related , Floods, Dangerous people

About 10 years ago maybe a few years less I had just paid around $2,500 for a Minelab CTX 3030 . I was detecting a park up near Akron Ohio and three guys came up to me and they looked like trouble . There was no one else around . I remember one tall person said "HEY WHITEY How much that GEIGER counter worth., Now i thought i was going to get robbed. I told them i had just got it last evening for 15 DOLLARS . To which he replied NOT worth it guys lets go. and they LEFT and then I LEFT LOL
Another time i was in a cane brake field near Vicksburg Mississippi and stepped on something thAT was wiggling under my sole. I had stepped on the tail end of a rattle snake. Not a very big one but it did not have to be . He was around a cane brake and trying to strike me. Mind you i had snakes chaps on but I still got very shakenup/.
Do you have any close calls you would care to share ?
Not so dangerous, to me anyways, but just the other day while water hunting I had 8-10 sharks swimming around me, they would come as close as 8' then turn away. As for hunting where you could be approached, I always carry a big hunting knife on my side, let them see that first and decide if they still want to approach. Happy Hunting.
 

traveller777

Gold Member
Aug 20, 2017
5,435
17,432
East Tennessee
Detector(s) used
Minelab CTX 3030 & Explorer
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I do like me some seafood. I just do not want to be seafood.
I have a shark story. I think it was around 2005. We were staying at Cape San Blas on the Panhandle. I like to surf fish and had surfed fish out on the Cape. Gorgeous beach. Wasn't my best fishing outing but always peaceful. Uneventful. We left and the very next week a teenage boy from Tennessee was attacked by a shark in waste deep water while surf fishing. He lived but lost a leg.
Like an idiot I would always wade out waste deep to throw shrimp or squid out further. I thought about that and the smell of what was falling off of shrimp and squid around me. May not be a calling card for a shark but I did not did that any more.
 

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Chilli

Hero Member
Feb 10, 2022
845
2,884
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Xterra 705
Garrett 24k
AlgoForce E1500
I have a shark story. I think it was around 2005. We were staying at Cape San Blas on the Panhandle. I like to surf fish and had surfed fish out on the Cape. Gorgeous beach. Wasn't my best fishing outing but always peaceful. Uneventful. We eft and the very next week a teenage boy from Tennessee was attacked by a shark in waste deep water while surf fishing. He lived but lost a leg.
Like an idiot I would always wade out waste deep to throw shrimp or squid out further. I thought about that and the smell of what was falling off of shrimp and squid around me. May not be a calling card for a shark but I did not did that any more.
Love my fishing. Only freshwater now where I am. But we lived in central Queensland once near the coast. I used to fish like that on the beaches, wade out to my waist and cast at the schools of fish. Id not do that now in hindsight. Especially now with the crazy increase of shark attacks and lucky near misses here these days. We hear of one nearly every week now. Id be using a longer rod and keeping my feet dry now.
 

traveller777

Gold Member
Aug 20, 2017
5,435
17,432
East Tennessee
Detector(s) used
Minelab CTX 3030 & Explorer
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I have a shark story. I think it was around 2005. We were staying at Cape San Blas on the Panhandle. I like to surf fish and had surfed fish out on the Cape. Gorgeous beach. Wasn't my best fishing outing but always peaceful. Uneventful. We eft and the very next week a teenage boy from Tennessee was attacked by a shark in waste deep water while surf fishing. He lived but lost a leg.
Like an idiot I would always wade out waste deep to throw shrimp or squid out further. I thought about that and the smell of what was falling off of shrimp and squid around me. May not be a calling card for a shark but I did not did that any more.
You know what Crash? These guys that dive have my utmost respect and they likely think me a wussy. Know what? They are right about me and sharks. And I am
Love my fishing. Only freshwater now where I am. But we lived in central Queensland once near the coast. I used to fish like that on the beaches, wade out to my waist and cast at the schools of fish. Id not do that now in hindsight. Especially now with the crazy increase of shark attacks and lucky near misses here these days. We hear of one nearly every week now. Id be using a longer rod and keeping my feet dry now.
Got any crocs where you are? Australia is full of bad ars animals. And it looks like some of them are in the government now.
 

OP
OP
Gare

Gare

Gold Member
Dec 30, 2012
7,427
13,992
Canton Ohio Area
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
2
Detector(s) used
Presently using Deus 2's & have Minelabs, Nokta's Tesoro's DEus's Have them all . Have WAY to many need to get rid of some
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Love my fishing. Only freshwater now where I am. But we lived in central Queensland once near the coast. I used to fish like that on the beaches, wade out to my waist and cast at the schools of fish. Id not do that now in hindsight. Especially now with the crazy increase of shark attacks and lucky near misses here these days. We hear of one nearly every week now. Id be using a longer rod and keeping my feet dry now.
I am sure glad you folks are posting these events, MAYBE it might save someone's life
 

Chilli

Hero Member
Feb 10, 2022
845
2,884
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Detector(s) used
Xterra 705
Garrett 24k
AlgoForce E1500
You know what Crash? These guys that dive have my utmost respect and they likely think me a wussy. Know what? They are right about me and sharks. And I am

Got any crocs where you are? Australia is full of bad ars animals. And it looks like some of them are in the government now.
😆 Yeah hard to tell the difference now, though id take my chances with the wild animals, they're more predictable.
No crocs where we are now. They were there in QLD where we were. I used to catch small sharks in the harbour, reef sharks up to a few feet long, some big shovel nose (they were fantastic eating) biggest I got of those was 7 foot but they grow up to 25 foot. I hooked a few really big ones but they're unstoppable. In the harbour I reckon I hooked a big Tiger, fight lasted about 20 seconds😆 swallowed 6 foot of steel trace and I got back about 12 foot of completly frayed line where it had been abrased by its skin. They used to come in there along with lots of other fish to feed off of the scraps from the prawn and fishing trawllers, they also had a cooking processing building there so it was fish smorgasbord.
Our worst here are the brown snakes, lots of those around but even though they are highly venomous they prefer to get out of your way. You'd only get bit if you step on one or badly surprised one. The worst really believe it or not are bulldog ants. They can be several inches long and have stingers with venom. They are highly aggressive and will seek you out if your near the nest within say 15 feet. Nests are often very small visual wise even though there are hundreds in it. They can ruin your day. Iv been stung a number of times. It says in the link below coastal areas which is not true, they are found nearly everywhere in Victoria well inland hudreds of kms from the coast. There can be within 200 meters in either direction in some places up to 30 nest sites. Thankfully they dont like suburban areas and only like the bush.
They can easy get bigger than quoted too, iv seen numerous around the 4 to 4.5 cm length. They are wicked.
 

traveller777

Gold Member
Aug 20, 2017
5,435
17,432
East Tennessee
Detector(s) used
Minelab CTX 3030 & Explorer
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I am sure glad you folks are posting these events, MAYBE it might save someone's life

😆 Yeah hard to tell the difference now, though id take my chances with the wild animals, they're more predictable.
No crocs where we are now. They were there in QLD where we were. I used to catch small sharks in the harbour, reef sharks up to a few feet long, some big shovel nose (they were fantastic eating) biggest I got of those was 7 foot but they grow up to 25 foot. I hooked a few really big ones but they're unstoppable. In the harbour I reckon I hooked a big Tiger, fight lasted about 20 seconds😆 swallowed 6 foot of steel trace and I got back about 12 foot of completly frayed line where it had been abrased by its skin. They used to come in there along with lots of other fish to feed off of the scraps from the prawn and fishing trawllers, they also had a cooking processing building there so it was fish smorgasbord.
Our worst here are the brown snakes, lots of those around but even though they are highly venomous they prefer to get out of your way. You'd only get bit if you step on one or badly surprised one. The worst really believe it or not are bulldog ants. They can be several inches long and have stingers with venom. They are highly aggressive and will seek you out if your near the nest within say 15 feet. Nests are often very small visual wise even though there are hundreds in it. They can ruin your day. Iv been stung a number of times. It says in the link below coastal areas which is not true, they are found nearly everywhere in Victoria well inland hudreds of kms from the coast. There can be within 200 meters in either direction in some places up to 30 nest sites. Thankfully they dont like suburban areas and only like the bush.
They can easy get bigger than quoted too, iv seen numerous around the 4 to 4.5 cm length. They are wicked.
Thanks for the education, Chilli. Never heard of bulldog ants. Bad critters.
 

OP
OP
Gare

Gare

Gold Member
Dec 30, 2012
7,427
13,992
Canton Ohio Area
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
2
Detector(s) used
Presently using Deus 2's & have Minelabs, Nokta's Tesoro's DEus's Have them all . Have WAY to many need to get rid of some
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
😆 Yeah hard to tell the difference now, though id take my chances with the wild animals, they're more predictable.
No crocs where we are now. They were there in QLD where we were. I used to catch small sharks in the harbour, reef sharks up to a few feet long, some big shovel nose (they were fantastic eating) biggest I got of those was 7 foot but they grow up to 25 foot. I hooked a few really big ones but they're unstoppable. In the harbour I reckon I hooked a big Tiger, fight lasted about 20 seconds😆 swallowed 6 foot of steel trace and I got back about 12 foot of completly frayed line where it had been abrased by its skin. They used to come in there along with lots of other fish to feed off of the scraps from the prawn and fishing trawllers, they also had a cooking processing building there so it was fish smorgasbord.
Our worst here are the brown snakes, lots of those around but even though they are highly venomous they prefer to get out of your way. You'd only get bit if you step on one or badly surprised one. The worst really believe it or not are bulldog ants. They can be several inches long and have stingers with venom. They are highly aggressive and will seek you out if your near the nest within say 15 feet. Nests are often very small visual wise even though there are hundreds in it. They can ruin your day. Iv been stung a number of times. It says in the link below coastal areas which is not true, they are found nearly everywhere in Victoria well inland hudreds of kms from the coast. There can be within 200 meters in either direction in some places up to 30 nest sites. Thankfully they dont like suburban areas and only like the bush.
They can easy get bigger than quoted too, iv seen numerous around the 4 to 4.5 cm length. They are wicked.
VERY WELL PUT and thanks for replying
 

TerraKacher

Tenderfoot
Sep 30, 2016
9
25
Kokomo, Indiana
Detector(s) used
Bounty Hunter-Lone star, Fisher CZ7, ***Vanquish 540
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I was on a rocky/sandy beach in Washington State, metal detecting, when I see this guy approaching me from the rear. When he was about 20 feet away, I pulled out of the sheath a brand new Leshe trowel with the serrated edge. He made a U-turn and walked away. I now always keep aware of my surroundings and who might be close by.
 

ScubaDigger

Newbie
May 26, 2020
3
9
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
If you have been in any dangerous situations while detecting would you mind sharing the incidents with us. maybe it was animal related , Floods, Dangerous people

About 10 years ago maybe a few years less I had just paid around $2,500 for a Minelab CTX 3030 . I was detecting a park up near Akron Ohio and three guys came up to me and they looked like trouble . There was no one else around . I remember one tall person said "HEY WHITEY How much that GEIGER counter worth., Now i thought i was going to get robbed. I told them i had just got it last evening for 15 DOLLARS . To which he replied NOT worth it guys lets go. and they LEFT and then I LEFT LOL
Another time i was in a cane brake field near Vicksburg Mississippi and stepped on something thAT was wiggling under my sole. I had stepped on the tail end of a rattle snake. Not a very big one but it did not have to be . He was around a cane brake and trying to strike me. Mind you i had snakes chaps on but I still got very shakenup/.
Do you have any close calls you would care to share ?
I work as the ops manager for Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), a humanitarian mine action INGO in Palau, working on conducting a targeted technical survey on a Confirmed Hazardous Area (CHA: 01-HAZARD-16) in Aimeliik state in the island of Babelthuap conducting QC on an already cleared lane, when my mine detector (Vallon VMC-4) started squealing. The spot was NOT flagged, so I scanned the target with the deminer’s issued Schonstedt 72GA-72Cd to see what readings he would get…. A magnetometer mid-range signal usually indicates mineral rocks, but also anything else, ranging from deeply buried projectiles, shallow armor-piercing rounds to subsurface frag at less than 50 grams. (non-conformities are rated at Japanese, Type 97 hand-grenades at 20cm, a 25mm AA HE/Frag at 15, or a 20mm AA HE/Frag at 12cm).
That was a “digable” target, so I geotagged it & started excavating. Being humid & hot as Hell in a jungle, (reduced my focus) although I dug on the target’s off-side,(too close, as I wanted to get back into the shade) but because of “ghosting” I ended-up digging straight down on it! At this point I uncovered a terribly corroded “SAA projectile” at approx. 5-7cm. It was a mass of corrosion with the boat-tail end of it being in relatively pristine condition. The moment I unearthed it, it started smoking. I routinely stepped back 25 meters and let it burn…. Within about 20 seconds it went out giving me the idiotic inpression that it was α tracer .50 Cal round, fired by American fighter-bomber aircraft, attacking a known AA position (in Japanese defense maps, and also mapped in the U.S. THOR bombing surveys)
What didn’t sink is that .50 cal rounds, have copper jackets, thus they are generally found intact, unless they impact on a solid surface; however, you do NOT see a “bloated” mass of corrosion (obviously screaming at you: “inferior ferrous Japanese alloy” with a perfectly preserved “boat-tail end.
Once the sputtering fire went out, I picked it up and dropped in my (moist) sand-bucket and drove to the ERW collection point. On the way there & in the comfort of the AC cab, the oddity of this “round” started nibbling at me, but the physical & metal fatigue (plus backing-up the narrow dirt road) pushed the nibbling concern away.
Once at the ERW collection point, the “weird” boat-tail mystery started bothering me again, so I put it on a vice and started removing the surface corrosion and baked clay with a pocket-sized, titanium breacher bar…
The “bullet” suddenly disintegrated and it caught fire again! Thank God, the cyclonite HE component, literally snapped off, and fell in separate pieces with the “boat-tail segment” onto the ground.
It was a bloody 20mm AA HE/Frag/WP projectile, where the “boat-tail” was non other than a point detonating fuze…. I don’t want to think what would have happened if the separator disk (separating the WP charge from the projectile’s HE filler was as corroded; it may have been built with copper, or else the cyclonite would have started burning, and eventually reach the PD fuse’s gaine and low-order…
One might think… Pffft.. 20mm low-ordering with most of the WP having burned-off! Big deal! Well, it’s enough to blind you of even kill you if the frag hits you in the throat! — Having assumed it was a .50 BMG with an “unnatural” long-burning tracer element, I was not wearing kevlar PPE or Rofi mask — Fishermen in the Solomon islands have perished by trying to extract 20mm PD fuzes for their bomb-fishing activities…
Well…. I had my share of close calls, but never a projo going “Fourth of July” on me!
 

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pepperj

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Feb 3, 2009
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This event wasn't while detecting, it happened while digging for old bottles.
As a family we all had the passion for collecting, and digging for old bottles was up at the top as detecting was.
My older brother, and myself had a few dumps that were in, and around our town, so we went to them often to dig.
Both of the bottle dumps were over the banks of gravel roads.
From digging at this one dump we had created 2 tunnels going into the bank, kind of off set a bit and 8+ft long.

A car went past and the whole bank caved in on top of us.
My brother being above me managed to heave his body up, and dig himself out while yelling for me.
For myself, I was on my hands and knees at the time so when it caved in, I was in a prayer position with my right arm stretched out.
After I realized what had happened, my first thought was wow I can breath underground.
Then I soon realized the position I was in and I was breathing only the air that was around the body in the crouched position.
My brother was digging down to the sound of my voice, and I knew enough to really stay calm and breath only slowly as the very muffled sound was far away still.
He reached the back of my head and pulled it back grabbing my hair. (exchange of blue words were exchanged)
My right hand was pinned between a shard and a big bone so it was a total dig out.

We washed up in the creek, and brushed off the best we could, and headed home. Our mom explained how dirty we were and was causing her more work. We waved goodbye as we headed to the other dump on our bikes.

When we arrived the same fate happened overnight, 30-40 ft of the whole bank had slid down covering our tunnels. Looking at each other in awe-that was the end of the tunnelling days.
We commented, just imagine if we here, we would of died.
 

Louie D

Sr. Member
Nov 16, 2018
423
712
The Motor City
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
This event wasn't while detecting, it happened while digging for old bottles.
As a family we all had the passion for collecting, and digging for old bottles was up at the top as detecting was.
My older brother, and myself had a few dumps that were in, and around our town, so we went to them often to dig.
Both of the bottle dumps were over the banks of gravel roads.
From digging at this one dump we had created 2 tunnels going into the bank, kind of off set a bit and 8+ft long.

A car went past and the whole bank caved in on top of us.
My brother being above me managed to heave his body up, and dig himself out while yelling for me.
For myself, I was on my hands and knees at the time so when it caved in, I was in a prayer position with my right arm stretched out.
After I realized what had happened, my first thought was wow I can breath underground.
Then I soon realized the position I was in and I was breathing only the air that was around the body in the crouched position.
My brother was digging down to the sound of my voice, and I knew enough to really stay calm and breath only slowly as the very muffled sound was far away still.
He reached the back of my head and pulled it back grabbing my hair. (exchange of blue words were exchanged)
My right hand was pinned between a shard and a big bone so it was a total dig out.

We washed up in the creek, and brushed off the best we could, and headed home. Our mom explained how dirty we were and was causing her more work. We waved goodbye as we headed to the other dump on our bikes.

When we arrived the same fate happened overnight, 30-40 ft of the whole bank had slid down covering our tunnels. Looking at each other in awe-that was the end of the tunnelling days.
We commented, just imagine if we here, we would of died.
The thought of being buried alive makes my skin crawl, it's one of my worst phobias. How old were you and your brother when this happened?
 

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