Need some feedback on a charity detecting event we are planning. Go Down to NEW!

[BioProfessor]

Hello fellow Tneters. I am working with 2 groups in the Southeastern part of the US that are both 503(c) organizations - not for profit - that want to hold a competitive detecting event on their property. They don't have hundreds of acres to seed relics and hold a big hunt like a normal rally. They have limited space and want the event to be a skill competition and award a "traveling" trophy that will give the winner the distinction of being the best detectorist in the tri-state area. We want it to be man & machine against the targets in the ground. We want people to test their skills at locating all types of targets, IDing he metal, and making the decision as to whether it is a good or bad target.

We are not holding the event until next fall so we have plenty of time to change what we do. We really need help in planning an event that people will come to and compete in a head-to-head competition with other detectorist.

We want the hunt to be truly competitive and the person that gets the highest score will get a very nice trophy that says they are the best detectorist in the Tri-State area. It will have their name and date engraved on a plate on the trophy. They get the trophy and the designation of "Best Detectorist" for the year. The trophy has to come back the next year and they can defend their title or choose to not come back and the trophy will list the winner of that years contest. The then get bragging rights for the following year.

We would like 100 people to register and come and compete. We will then set-up 100 grids about 30' x 30'. In each grid there will be planted items. Each participant will get sheets that show the 100 grids. The person detecting the grid will mark where in the grid the target is, Off to the side of the grid on the paper, they will give their best guess as to what metal they believe it is, and if it is a "good" target.

There will be a time limit for each grid. When the time is up, a horn will sound and everyone will move to a new grid. We do this until all people have done all grids. No targets will be dug. The sheets showing the 100 grids will be turned in for scoring. After scoring, they will get their scored sheets back and a set of sheets that show where the targets were in each grid, what they were, and how deep they were. There will be time for people to go back to grids and targets to see why they missed them. We hope to have some interaction and have them get someone who heard the target and for them to hear it on that machine and to see them what the machine showed over the target that allowed them to "nail" it while others missed it.

There will be a pulled-pork Bar-b-que served for lunch

While the scoring is going on, there will be a field with 500 -1000 planted items -mostly from the UK but also items donated - for the participants to hunt, dig, and keep. There will be buttons, buckles, bullets, etc. All good items from the 17th, 18th, and 19th century.

The trophy will then be awarded to the person with the highest overall score - number of targets found + types of metal identified + classification as a good or bad target. There will also be items in the planted field that represent one of the prizes that was donated. Find the marked item, win the prize. One per participant. Duplicates must be reburied. If we have enough donations, we will have a drawing of the partiipants for prizes.

We think it is a true competition and that if you find the most targets, are best at IDing the metal type, and the best at determining good from bad targets then YOU ARE the best detectorist in that field that day.

People are telling us that people should be able to dig so many targets as they go through the grids. If we do that, the field changes and we can't
compare people's ability head-to-head.

What are your thoughts? Would you come to something like this and try to better everybody?

How would you change it to make it attractive to more people?

If you find this and read it, I would appreciate it if you could direct some of your friends on TNET to some and read this and help us out.

Thanks for the help.

Daryl

 

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[ramjet2187]

Re: Need some feedback on a charity detecting event we are planning.

Do you mean 30 inches X 30 inches, or 30 feet X 30 feet for the grids. You typed 30 feet by 30 feet. That would take a LONG time to search 100 30 foot squares, and mark each target. Days, I'm talkin'.

Other than that, sounds interesting. I think it might be a challenge to find 100 hunters willing to not dig and do that much hunting.............

Just my opinion.

Roger

 

[Blacksheep]

Re: Need some feedback on a charity detecting event we are planning.

I know little or nothing about MD except what I am fortunate enough to read here on TNET, after reading your proposal it seems a "tie breaker" grid or grids may be needed. (A grid completely separate/off-limits to all contestants to be used specifically in case of a tie score)

Apologies if I sound "noobish".

EDIT: To attract more people, maybe a smaller contest for noobs (such as myself) , no trophy need be given but it sure would be fun.

 

[BioProfessor]

Re: Need some feedback on a charity detecting event we are planning.

Thanks Roger. Yep 30' by 30'. Would 20' x 20' be better? We are setting a time limit. Would it be better to limit it to 50 participants? is 6 minutes long enough to search 20'x 20'? I tend to sweep about 4 feet from side to side. That would mean 5 passes of about 10-15 steps. Enough time? To mark the target, all they would do is put a circle for a good target, and x for a bad one and indicate the metal. 5 targets per grid would probably be max.

They will get to dig the 500-1000 targets planted in another field. Those 17th, 18th, and 19t century artifacts would be theirs to keep. And there would be marked items for prizes from this field as well.

50 people, 50 - 20'x20' grids, plus a planted field, plus bar-b-que lunch attractive enough for you to come?

I agree a tie-breaker, play off area would be a good idea to go ahead and set up in case we needed it.

Good idea Blacksheep. Maybe a 10 grid contest with 5 times the time?? We can still give a trophy for best beginning detetorist. And you would still have access to the planted field. That makes it better.

Daryl

 

[Lowbatts]

Re: Need some feedback on a charity detecting event we are planning.

Can't get 100 grids that size done in a day myself. Either 20' or 30' foot squares. If you have only three targets in each grid I suppose, but if there's any hot rocks, mineraliztion that may cause falsing or unplanted items then it would be a mess for most md'ers. 6mins time 100 sites is 600 minutes. That's 10 hours. I'm not sure that I'm that charitable.

Might work as a team event with the right number of teams/sites. In a 20 foot square I'd like at least one minute per square foot. About what I use when I'm hitting the parks near me in order to find a target and evaluate it's potential. Unless everything is shallow of course in which case it will not be real challenge to some of our better detectorists. It does however sound like fun if the time per hunted unit ratio gets better.

Was at one comp hunt with a similar format in one of their hunts. When the horn blew, you had to jump to a different square. This required you not only hunt and retrieve the goodies, but observe your fellow hunters and make a call on which square was most likely to have goodies remaining. So if I saw someone nearby not recovering much I would beeline to their square when the horn blew.

Good luck!

 

[CWnut]

Re: Need some feedback on a charity detecting event we are planning.

Sounds like an awful lot of work for everyone involved, even the score keepers and the persons who bury the targets and record the locations. Would this be a 2 day event? 100 people changing places every 10 minutes for 10 hours. Good luck. How long would it take to score 500 X's or O's times 100 people? After the hunt, are all those targets to remain in the ground or must they be retrieved?

Could you not just bury the artifacts and allow those to be kept. Throw in some tokens for special prizes. Add a token for a grand prize.

 

[BioProfessor]

Re: Need some feedback on a charity detecting event we are planning. NEW-NEW-NEW

Thanks everyone. This is exactly the feedback we need. I am taking it all into account and trying to address the concerns and change the plan. I think putting my responses and questions in "bullet" form is easier for me and if the feedback can address them that way, we will move faster and get this done.

Here we go - Second Round

- It is a one day event. We plan to have check in at 8am and start the hunting at 9am. We will have a pulled-pork bar-b-que lunch. We want to be done with everything by 5pm

- We know it is a lot of work. That's why we have volunteers.

- How many grids should we have?

- What size should the grids be? Assume 5 targets per grid.

- How long should we allocate for each grid?

- Help me understand the "have to dig mentality." In the original plan, we have a seeded field with 500-1000 targets from the 17th, 18th, and 19th century - buttons, buckles, etc. - that are to be dug and kept. There will also be specially marked targets that can be exchanged for donated prizes. The "gridded" part of the hunt is meant to be a skill challenge. Everyone hunts the same grids, with the same targets, and the person who masters the most targets will be declared the best detectorist in the Tri-State area. What do we need to change?

- Since this is an event to raise money. How many people do you think we could "handle?" Maybe rotate from the "Dig & Keep" field to the competitive grid area.

- How much would you pay to participate in this event?

- The gridded field will be left as is after the event. With all the work it will take to set the grids up and make the scoring acetates, we would like it to serve as a way to make more money during the rest of the year. It will be designated as a "Detecting Range" and be open on the weekends. People wishing to hone their skills can come and see how they do.

- anything we are not addressing?

We're getting close!

Thanks!

Daryl

 

[Lowbatts]

Hey Daryl,
Given the time you've set forward, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and assuming a lunch break of one hour let's look at some numbers:
Hunt time total = Ht
Area hunted per md'er= A
Time per hunt square unit = Tu
Total number of grids = G

Plug in the variables. Say give the time for one grid square hunt as 10 mins so Tu= 10
We know the Ht=8
And set the grid to a 20 foot square so A= 20

Then we can set the number of grids at G = 6Tu * Ht or G = 48
Now with the area of each grid at 20 square feet and time per grid at 10 mins with 5 targets per grid that's one target id'd and recorded every 2 minutes.

How much room does a 20 square foot grid give us for target separation? It's actually 5'*4' I think.
How will crosstalk affect target id in that close a proximity to the adjoining square?

In this model (with 48 grids) we have no time to hunt the seeded keeper field.
So perhaps you have grids setup in two 6*4 arrays and you start off with people setup so that no two are in adjoining squares.

Hope this helps!

 

[BioProfessor]

Thanks LowBatts,

If the grid is 20 sq/ft it would be about 4.5' x 4.5'. At that size, we could separate the grids so there would be no crosstalk.

So using your numbers, we should have 20-25 grids if they all are to be hunted by everyone?

Could we rotate from grids to seeded field at this number?

Would you come to hunt this? How much would it be "worth?"

I'll send you an email I think you will like.

Thanks for the input!

Daryl