Self funding hobby, indeed!

[Skippy SH13]

Edit: No longer maintaining post

 

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[BigWaveDave]

Chip off the old block huh?
Terrific to read about his enthusiasm.....good Dad.

 

[Loco-Digger]

That's awesome Skippy, he can still sell the 350 and bank the difference from what he owes you. Glad to see he's enthusiastic concerning the hobby. You 2 will make many more great memories together in the future. He sounds like a fine young man.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree does it?

 

[beerguy]

Great story. I wish him great finds with his new detector.

 

[smokeythecat]

Good job!

 

[rainwolf75]

Where do the two of you detect to find all of that clad?

 

[SeabeeRon]

Clad can add up pretty fast, WTG!!

 

[asrussell96]

Yeah I went to a school this weekend and hunted for about an hour...I found almost $5.00 in clad

 

[pa-dirt_nc-sand]

When my clad bag feels like $25 I head to the local Coinstar machine and select Starbucks card. These go to keep my wife somewhat understanding on this hobby. The clad that gets rejected goes to the vending machine at work, all good. Now just have to figure out what to do with the ever growing bag of crusted out zincolns.

 

[Oddjob]

Sounds like that boy needs a couple Nel coils now, the snake is a must my son claims. LOL

 

[Oddjob]

We took it out today for his first hunt with it. It was ROUGH to start the day... all the noises just confused him, and when I noted his swing getting sloppy, I realized he was NOT having fun... I went over and chatted with him for a bit, and realized, while I'd found like $2 in change (it was a trashy park in a nearby city), he'd pulled only three pennies. He just didn't know what to make of the sounds, yet.

I pulled him off that park, and we went to a few school tot-lots, and he started figuring it out. Since in the bark lots, it's pretty much just good targets and some occasional trash (these lots were actually REALLY good, yielding about $2.50 each for both of them for both of us.. in about an hour.) It got his confidence back, and then we went out to hit the grassy area.

This time, instead of letting him do his thing, I sort of "guided him" through specific targets, (we're both running AT Pros, so I could find something, and have him scan it and explain what he was hearing). The elementary school hadn't been hit in a while, so there was plenty of good stuff. He even managed his first ring with the AT Pro, and was able to at least sort-of "hear" the tone difference after it was compared to other trash. By the end of the day, he'd netted $7.32... with the first hour yeilding only 3 cents! So... he did pretty dang well.

I was tickled pink that he was starting to get it figured out... because that poor kid was frustrated!

I don't know if he'll save up for an NEL coil or not. The only reason I upgraded is because a kid stepped on my stock AT pro, and it wasn't waterproof anymore. Works fine on dry land, but I wanted to hunt water, so I upgraded to the Hunter. For my son, he's still 13, and the extra weight probably wouldn't be good...

And for the most part, our parks are new enough, that targets are separated by feet usually... smaller coils don't add much other than time to hunt...

Cheers!

Skippy

Thats really cool, I am happy for your son. My son was always the same way when we got him his own MD, he had hunted for years before that, but it was like freedom for him then. In his first year he got him self a velomobile of his own so he could expand his search radius, he ended up getting all the Nel coils, then got the Mas Shaft, then wanted to see how the Mars coils compared to Nel and got a sponsor deal with Mars.

Point is if you let them they will take off with this and make it work for them selves if you just step back and let them and guide them when needed like you have been doing.

My son claims the best coil he has for parks, playground, bunker sites and old house sites is the Nel Snake. He says it is tiny but you do not miss a thing. He also claims it is the best one for a beach too.

His best friend was in to this for a while and when we got my son his ATPi we got his friend an ATPi as well. Worked for his friend for like a month or so and then his friend went back to playing video games. Then my son made enough money to buy that velomobile and his friend was crazy shocked and he is back into this now, he is doing much better and on days when things are low he still has his motivation.

He took a picture of my sons velomobile with his phone and said that when he is frustrated he looks at that picture. But really it is Europe, an MDers dream because so few do it and even fewer do it for profit.

Just food for thought, my son got his Mars sponsor this past July, they said they where looking for a youth in the US to sponsor as well. It is not much, he got all the coils, covers, pin pointer, shirt and hat for free. He already had the shaft; the only thing the company had asked of my son was that he should wear either the hat or shirt when he goes hunting (he hunts daily). He contacted Nel and sold advertising on his velomobile for 30 bucks a month, told Nel that he uses the Mars shaft with his ATPi but that after testing Nel and Mars coils only Nel coils go on his machine.

He has been making videos since he got his sponsorship and he starts releasing them on the net in next month.

My point is that there are many people like us on this site who support our youth in taking this that much further, some are companies and provide the with the tools they need. May be worth contacting Mars.

 

[BARKER]

Hi Skippy; The real pay off i that your sons life will now be full of adventure, friends & fun through this hobby. To me, that is PRICELESS. Great job there. Way to go. PLUS he is learning Finances as well. AWESOME.!!! Keep it up. PEACE:RONB

 

[mikeraydj]

Clad can be underrated as it isn't as exciting as finding silver and gold. But it is the work horse that finances my hobby. When I got into this I made an agreement with my wife that future upgrades would have to be financed by my hobby. I started with a $70 Bounty Hunter and you can see by my list I am now up to a Etrac after 3 years of hunting plus lots of accessories. Love the clad!

 

[RustyGold]

Great story Skippy! All the Best to both you and your Son!