Tell me about MD clubs

[flgliderpilot]

Ok, so I am typically a beach hunter here in FL. It's nice because it's public land and I can hunt all I want, until my arms and legs give up. But, sometimes I feel like digging relics or maybe just clad from a school yard. The problem is the average idiot .. I need to be a ninja to get in and out without the police on my back. I've been wondering if joining my local MD club would get me access to some "ninja free" ground. But, I am basically dividing my finds by 20 if I go that route. Maybe 1/20th is worth being able to hunt normally un-hunted ground?

Please someone who is part of a MD club give me some insight.

 

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[Terry Soloman]

STAY AWAY from metal detecting clubs as a rule. Sure, there are a handful that are fun and helpful, but the VAST majority are run by a close group of guys that rape newbies for fun and profit. The only new club ground they are going to allow you to detect has already been pounded by the club elite. You have been warned.

 

[pat-tekker-cat]

I found our S. Fl MD club to be pretty much "predator free".
They meet once a month, show/display finds, vote on best with prizes, have raffles and giveaways, organized hunts, picnics, lost items found service, Christmas party with Toys for Tots drive, collect and donate pulltabs to Ronald McDonald house, donate found eyeglasses to Shriners, and more......

I guess we must have a better pool of ppl/folks, than what you experience Terry.
I guess I could see where ppl could be horrible to others that way, so yes, good to be aware.
I sure wouldn't want that kinda bad karma on my soul!

 

[TheRingFinder]

Pat & Terry both have good points - You have to experience it yourself to see if it fits. I myself DO NOT do clubs, I'm a loner Pilot......There's things about me you wouldn't understand, you couldn't understand......you shouldn't understand.........

 

[Carolina Tom]

Check the club out and see for yourself. I have been a member of the two local clubs.

When new, no one invited me to hunt. It seems like they already had their buddies and weren't into "reaching out" to newbies. When I started to find good stuff, they wanted me to take them to my spots. As I got better, I tried to reverse the trend and take the newer guys out to hunt. I found it quite fulfilling to help other people that were enthusiastic about the hobby.

If you think that you are going to roll into a meeting, and the best guy in town is going to take you to his Spanish Silver spot, I am afraid that you will be disappointed...

I have met my best hunting buddies through TNet!

I wish you the best of luck sir!

 

[cruiserkev]

I was a lone wolf detectorist for many years before ever considering joining a club. Curiosity got the better of me and I sat in on a meeting just to see what it was all about. Glad I did. I have learned much from experienced hunters, got to try out new machines, new locations and made a few friends. I know many here have had bad experiences with clubs but that was not the case with me. Give it a try, you can always quit if the club members end up being losers. Best of luck and happy hunting! ☺

 

[flgliderpilot]

Thanks for the input fellas.

 

[tcornel]

I found our S. Fl MD club to be pretty much "predator free".
They meet once a month, show/display finds, vote on best with prizes, have raffles and giveaways, organized hunts, picnics, lost items found service, Christmas party with Toys for Tots drive, collect and donate pulltabs to Ronald McDonald house, donate found eyeglasses to Shriners, and more......

We have a similar group of people in our Ohio/Pa. club. Meets monthly with free dinner (funded by raffles), holds a half dozen club hunts in local parks and a couple in places like farms. We respond to anyone wanting to locate rings, property stakes, or anything else. This past weekend 2 members helped a woman in her 60's find jewelry from the rubble of her house that just burnt down without insurance. They raked debris from the basement to the driveway and scanned it. They did find necklaces and the ring she was looking for. We do monthly find competitions with small prizes for the finds voted the best. Annual award for the cumulative winners. We help law enforcement find casings or expended rounds.

Any proceeds left over from the raffles goes into the ground at the end of the year for the annual hunt.

We are now up to 148 members and climbing. 60 to 80 at any given meeting.

It is like any group of people as far as meeting friends and hunting buddies. Start by striking up conversations with people at the meetings. Talk about your and their finds. If you have a comfort level then invite one or two to hunt with you. Start with a park and if you have fun then move on to a private site. Many people (including me) have invited people to a new site but never get a reciprocal invite. Those are once and done. I have found a few friends to share sites with and we will probably road trip a couple times this year. It is expected that you would check out the best sites yourself before the invite.

So try it......you might like it!

 

[metaldetectorguy]

I'm up for some ninja hunts pilot...everytime I find a great spot there's a condo sitting on top of it.

 

[WhiteTornado]

We have a similar group of people in our Ohio/Pa. club. Meets monthly with free dinner (funded by raffles), holds a half dozen club hunts in local parks and a couple in places like farms. We respond to anyone wanting to locate rings, property stakes, or anything else. This past weekend 2 members helped a woman in her 60's find jewelry from the rubble of her house that just burnt down without insurance. They raked debris from the basement to the driveway and scanned it. They did find necklaces and the ring she was looking for. We do monthly find competitions with small prizes for the finds voted the best. Annual award for the cumulative winners. We help law enforcement find casings or expended rounds.

Any proceeds left over from the raffles goes into the ground at the end of the year for the annual hunt.

We are now up to 148 members and climbing. 60 to 80 at any given meeting.

It is like any group of people as far as meeting friends and hunting buddies. Start by striking up conversations with people at the meetings. Talk about your and their finds. If you have a comfort level then invite one or two to hunt with you. Start with a park and if you have fun then move on to a private site. Many people (including me) have invited people to a new site but never get a reciprocal invite. Those are once and done. I have found a few friends to share sites with and we will probably road trip a couple times this year. It is expected that you would check out the best sites yourself before the invite.

So try it......you might like it!

My local club sounds a lot like tcornel's. I've learned lots in the 2 years since I've been a member. Weather permitting, we usually do a monthly club hunt. Sometimes it's in a public place like an old park, sometimes one of the members has secured permission for private lands. Our club has also worked with local government to ensure we have access to parks and last year they even got them to accept a change in the rules to allow metal detecting shovels in the parks and not just hand diggers.

Carolina Tom makes a good point about your expectations. I think members want to first see that you have proper techniques, are ethical, etc, before they would invite you to any of their private land hunts. They also want to see that you participate in the meetings and are genuinely interested in the hobby and not there just to find out where all the "hot spots" are.

 

[Crappies-n-Coins]

The first rule of Metal Detecting Club is: You do not talk about Metal Detecting Club.

 

[bigfoot1]

I like this club..tnet has been a blast !!!!there are no other clubs in my area and I doubt they would be for me anyways.I would never join a club that would allow me as a member..

 

[Tom_in_CA]

clubs only exist in very large cities now. Clubs basically went extinct, lost members, etc.... starting in the 1990s. Because the internet and forums have now become the socializing outlet for us . Ie.: if you want to find out something about technology pro's and con's, you go to forums and get other's inputs. If you want to see who's finding what, or show & tell your own stuff, forums can do that now. If you want to find out who else detects in your area, forums do that. So people got lazy and stopped going to club meetings. R.I.P. to clubs

And another thing: Don't think for a minute that clubs have some access or trick to finding hunt spots on public land. In my opinion, it was just the opposite. If you start asking around in clubs about parks, schools, beaches, forest, etc.... you often got the "technical" answers, even though .... realistically, you could hunt the areas they painted a dire picture of.

 

[flgliderpilot]

Right this is sort of what I was expecting. The local club did get permission to hunt a state park in areas that are normally not allowed be detected. Of course you have to turn over any good finds to the park. Not fun.

I guess I'll continue with the ninja hunts for now.

 

[tcornel]

Well I have to disagree.

Our club get calls from historical societies to put on demonstrations and sometimes their members invite us to their site to detect. Anything of historical value goes to the society but we keep all coins and jewelry.
The Columbiana County Fairgrounds had us out for 3 visits before they tore down their 150 year old grandstands. We did find some things which are now in the display case in the new grandstands. They kept everything. In return anyone with a Tri-County Metal Detecting membership card is permitting to ignore the large, orange "Absolutely No Metal Detecting Allowed" signs posted at all the entrances. The police will stop and once we show the ID card they say enjoy yourself. No card and you are escorted off the premises! We stand willing to lend our assistance to anyone who needs it whether it is a lost ring or finding a property stake for someone.

While our area is not rural (population of maybe 300,000 within a 25 mile area) it is not a large city by any means.

I will note that of the 148 members (18 members 5 years ago) there are about 20 that are willing to devote the time and energy. 3 raffles, dinner prep for 60 people or so every month, finds contest results to run, a large library of issues of metal detecting books and magazines for any member to check out and read. These keep everyone busy. Friends are made. Our meeting start at 6 and generally go to 8 or so with very few leaving early as the raffles are the last thing drawn.

I love Treasure Net and other boards as they are a great source of information and draw on a larger base. But nothing beats person to person contact.

Clubs are what the members make them. Those that put in the time seem to feel they get more out of it. Those who show up for 2 or 3 meetings a year seem to think it is no big deal.

For the ones new to the hobby it is not uncommon to see a member helping them at a hunt to learn how to properly recover a find while leaving the least amount of footprint. Last year we disinvited 3 members for not caring about filling their holes properly. One of the reasons for doing all the free services is to promote a positive image of the hobby to open the doors for us to hunt more places. There was a major park system that outlawed detecting. It took a couple of years of lobbying but they reopened the park to our hobby.

 

[clv]

I like the clubs, it allows me to sale off my older detectors, without needing to resort to craigslist.

 

[huntindog1]

Watch the "Detectorist" on NetFlix or search for it on the website Dailymotion. Its about a metal detecting club, great show.