Metal Detecting - Here in the Future

As one who has lived through a good portion of the metal detecting hobby, about 60-years of scanning terra firma from the golden summer of 1965. I was armed with an unstable BFO (Beat Frequency Oscillator) metal detector built from plans laid out in Popular Electronics magazine and cobbled together from old television and radio parts, including a search coil made from the antenna windings on fiberboard, torn from  back of an extremely old AM radio. the handle off a push-broom and a birdhouse as a control box. My very first find was a severely flattened FALSTAFF BEER can in the front yard of our South Florida home. It was 2" deep, and my father was extremely surprised when my home-grown instrument indicated it was there! Flagstaff quit distilling beer in 2005, founded in 1845.

But now, I am metal detecting here in the future, with instruments we could never have imagined in our wildest dreams! Metal detecting has long-since come to the masses which has been a double-edged sword in many respects. And like people who are enamored by Star Wars or The Matrix, sometimes have to be reminded, it's just a movie!  Well in the same regard, metal detecting is just a hobby! 

One that will become extinct in the long term if the practitioners don't start using a little sense of purpose and reduce the drama. 

There is no crying in baseball and there is no drama in metal detecting. And one of the best/worst things to happen to the hobby is social media where newbies can get either fantastic assistance or amazingly poor advice or a little of both. The time of year is here where thousands of newbies will be excitedly waiting to hit the beach or park with their shiny new metal detectors and swinging the search coil 3-feet off the ground in an exaggerated golf swing. There are no schools for metal detecting, only word of mouth and the good Samaritan detectorist who will help when they see this sort of thing. People of all stripes in the hobby will be offering as much information and disinformation as they always do. And they will be either protecting their interests in the hobby or welcoming the newcomers with open arms. There are two theories here. The first one, as long as I have been in the hobby, has been that the more responsible people involved in the hobby, the more voices we will have in defense of the pastime, which is ALWAYS under attack by officials. And sometimes with good reason. 

The second is to ignore them and their questions and pleadings, amounting to the normal range of errors and mistakes from digging where they shouldn't to leaving gaping holes in a manicured park. Not good for the hobby at all, and an all too often occurrence. I think the basic solution to this is to join a local metal detecting club. Don't have one nearby? Start one! Grab your buddies and find a cheap meeting place, review established club practices from other groups and get organized. Offer your services to local law enforcement evidence hunts and do good whenever you can! I belong to the Central Florida Metal Detecting Club, just now passed its 50th anniversary here in the middle of Florida. It is a SERVICE oriented club, with an extremely competent and dedicated group of people, striving to help others learn the technical and ETHICAL side of the hobby. And, in this way, keep it out of the trash bin of history. One of the main reasons we join a club is for the camaraderie and that oh-so-hard-to-find treasure, FUN! So, when you run into a fledgling detectorist on-line, in a group, or on a beach, offer to take them on a detecting adventure and show them the ropes. Most of all, remember to pay it forward!

Video Advice - Detecting Opinions

 I was surfing the net the other day when I decided to go tubing amid the video rapids of YouTube. Now, this is the usual place recommended on social media metal detecting groups when someone has taken possession of a new or used metal detector and is just starting out in the hobby. It is an established fact, that humans find watching a video a lot less taxing than reading bland, boring operating instructions and even harder to park it in memory. And metal detectors, being a bit technical in nature, can have a big learning curve if you bought a top-grade machine. And again, usually one does not start out in this rather expensive pursuit with the purchase of an expensive top-of-the-line detector. But some do and then

dump the hobby as too difficult, too complicated or become a mud-covered treasure wizard! Absorbing a bit of the knowledge required to operate these advanced 21st Century top-of-the-line devices is not particularly easy and can require quite a bit of reading; going over manuals as well as reviewing factory updates to its little computer brain to endow it with more and more varied functions and abilities. All this being said leads me to an issue hiding behind even the clearest 4k screen. ANYONE can put out a YouTube video. So be very careful what you base your decisions on after viewing.

This topic was pretty much brought on after watching a YouTube channel with the detectorist comparing two closely matched, high-end detectors. Problem was the host didn't really know what he was doing, and he kept making errors in the comparison with the other equipment that he obviously had more experience with. He never once ground-balanced the competing machine, complaining how unstable it was, and did not select the correct operating mode for the conditions. I have seen similar YouTube detector scenarios with numerous variations on this theme. Just because you have flashy intro graphics and music, does not mean you are an expert in anything. I once saw a post on a Facebook Metal Detecting group belittling a particular brand of metal detector as "worthless" and poor operating functions. I happened to know this person personally, and that they had an accumulated time of about 4-hours on this equipment and had owned it for 3-weeks and had NOT read the manual or received any assistance from a more experienced hunter. 

Someone looking to purchase a detector would recoil in horror and cross off a very, very capable and reasonably priced piece of gear! This is almost always the response to someone asking a valid question about a detector they either own or planning to purchase "Watch YouTube!!" There actually ARE quite a few excellent and well-seasoned detectorists running YouTube channels, with good information with well stocked facts about detector operations and other aspects of the hobby. My advice is to READ the manuals carefully and SELECT metal detecting channels on the Tube carefully and just be aware that video advice is not always good advice. Happy Hunting and Good Luck in the field! 

Cherry-Picking - Turn Up That Discrimination

Metal detecting can go from being a fun, relaxing hobby, to a sweat-laced competition and obsession played out on social media, thoroughly peppered with drama. Most people who "always wanted a metal detector" here in the 1st quarter of the 21st Century are about 50-years too late. More and more regulations, usually brought on by the blatant misbehavior of those that came before you, are limiting areas to detect, as well as the blatant mistake Florida made inviting the great throngs of the unwashed to invade our state after they broke their own. This has created sort of a land-rush in Florida, with historic and non-historic buildings, land, communities and nature areas being overrun by developers, bulldozing those same areas into submission and removing them from the sphere of our casual pastime and enjoyment, as concrete is poured into every nook and cranny.

In kind of a round-about way, this gets me to my point. As areas to hunt decrease, the quality of hunt areas decrease, i.e. more and more trashy areas are becoming the only places left to hunt. When you start metal detecting, a great hush will fall everywhere as the gods of metal detecting tell you, in no uncertain terms, that it's a technical sin to use any more than a smidgen (if even that!) of discrimination on your machine. Others in the hobby will tell you in a loud voice, you may (you may) MISS a small, teensy, shrimpy little gold band if you use too much discrimination!!!! (OMG!!!) But, as usual, time is not on your side and digging railway-carloads of junk and trash so you don't miss ANYTHING is a losing proposition. Metal detecting is not called "cleaning parks" for a reason, and that's not what you signed up for. Practicing this sort of thing is sure to frustrate you and bore you to tears, and usually results in you taking up golf again, using your metal detector as a putter.

Cherry-picking is the term used in the hobby when you crank the discrimination control up a bit more than usual, maybe even more than that. And you may not find that skinny gold ring, but that's not to say there are no other rewards for this kind of behavior. You will start finding relics and antiques that were masked at lower discrimination by the layers of bottlecaps, pull-tabs, foil and other junk like a metal overcast. Sure you are going to miss some stuff, but you are going to find some GOOD stuff for a while, the stuff that makes metal detecting the fun thing it was supposed to be. Now there are those that will disagree with me, but they also cherry-pick when the junk get's thick! Hey, that rhymes! As always, do what YOU think is best, and most important have FUN doing it!

So it Begins Again - Welcome to Metal Detecting!

 I was going to pen this in a slightly glib manner, but after a bit of re-thinking, I figured that was the easy way out. And I am not known for taking the easy way out, ever! Tomorrow, when 2024 surfaces like a damaged U-boat, it will mark my 60th anniversary in the metal detecting hobby. I built my own primitive, feeble, beat frequency oscillator detector (BFO) out of spare parts in 1964 when I was little more than 13-years old. It was the best machine for finding flattened beer cans ever made and I've been beeping ever since. So, I feel I have a little skin in the game, enough to offer advice and criticism thereof. Just to set a baseline here, "So it begins again..." refers to the real fears long-time detectorists harbor as they realize thousands of metal detectors will soon be gifted to thousands of would-be hobbyists on December 25th. Their fears are usually borne out as the Social Media Metal Detecting Groups feel the surge immediately, as membership suddenly swells the day after Christmas and will keep on for several weeks after. Comments like "I always wanted to do this!" and "I'm NEW to the hobby and would like to learn more about it!" and hundreds of variations of this theme pour into the membership request slots for Administrators to ponder.

The really best comments that fill me with hope are from new users that want to learn more about the hobby, presumably and figuratively, and learn the best way to practice it. I salute those who are here on a mission of ethical and moral exploits in a hobby that has a dearth of both. The most important ethical point I can possibly make, from Matthew, in the Bible, "All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them" Basically treat everyone with respect, and respect is doing what is right. Metal detecting in itself has the potential, like anything else, to do great good (returning lost items for folks) or great evil (damaging property, leaving holes and dug garbage everywhere) and you are the deciding factor!

As far as your new hobby goes it can be as simple as hunting a beach or park or as complex as hunting for battlefield relics or lost treasure at sea; And, like Doc says in "Back to the Future," it's whatever you want to make of it! The technical specs, operating procedures, additional tools and best practices can be found most anywhere on the world-wide web, as well as the worst practices, like disturbing war graves, or digging up a cemetery! This brings me to the greatest benefit you could take advantage of as a new player in this awesome hobby which would be to join a local metal detecting club. There you will find fast friends who share your interests, can help you "learn the ropes" hands-on, and mentor you through a hobby that will bring you years of health and enjoyment. Just remember, ethics come first, detecting second!

Good luck and happy hunting to you all!

Treasure Hunting & The Way of Research

The modern metal detectorists (treasure hunters) seem oddly uninterested in finding treasure: "I know I'm never gonna' get rich!" or "We're not really going to find anything," they all say, quite modestly. I hear it all the time. My question has always been, WHY NOT?? When I started treasure hunting (with a metal detector) almost 60-years ago, we literally thought anything was possible. An old cache of buried confederate rifles, maybe even some of that civil war gold hidden somewhere near Gainsville by the fleeing Confederate soldiers. Scuba diving for sunken treasure still trapped aboard fleets of sunken Spanish Galleons, covered in sand. Literally nothing was off the table...and it was always GO time! 

Treasure, fresh off the Atocha in 1987 - We got a free Preview!

Our equipment was not the most advanced, our gear was not top-of-the-line, but we had something you cannot buy; a spirit of adventure and we were not afraid of hard work. And treasure hunting is hard work! And some of the hardest work is research. No computers in the 1960's 1970's or a good part of the 1980's and 90's. Back then it was visiting archives and libraries and museums, sitting in a chair for hours reviewing endless loops of microfilm, flipping thru coffee-table sized books of 19th century hand-drawn maps and charts. Reading first-hand, historic accounts and unpublished papers. And even today, that skill may still be needed!

One project I accidentally stumbled upon was the result of reading an old hardcover book published in, I think, 1920 or so, about Florida's 19th century "cracker" cowboys. The name derived from the whips they cracked while herding cattle from Arcadia down to the cattle yards at Punta Rassa on the Gulf of Mexico. The rub was this: they were selling the cattle to Cuba and were paid in gold double-eagles, otherwise known as 20-dollar gold pieces. Once they were paid, the cowhands filled saddlebag after saddlebag with gold specie, went to the local bars and saloons, got drunk, beat each other up, then in the early morning light (with cuts, bruises and a pounding headache) headed back northward upon the Caloosahatchee trail toward home. 

It took several days, and the cowboys made camp several times on the journey north. With leather saddlebags heavy with gold, they would have removed them at night while the animals grazed and slept. Who is to say, but a few coins may have jolted out when the bags hit the ground, or spilled out, unnoticed when they were slung back over the horses' backs? The book went on to say when the cowhands reached Arcadia, they dropped the saddlebags on the ranch house porch. The account went further to say that a couple of gold eagles were dropped into a cracker tin as a toy for the younger kids. They said the gold coins colliding in the box made "a singular ringing sound" that the children liked. A gold baby rattle! Now that is where I left the project years ago. I contracted several forms of cancer, endured chemotherapy, underwent cancer surgery, got diabetes along with covid-induced heart problems. My elaborate treasure hunting expedition days are over. But maybe yours are not!

Several of those gold coins would be worth a pretty penny with gold prices as they are, in addition to the collector's value of a key date double eagle. You pick up the trail from here. You would need to research where the exact route of the Caloosahatchee trail lay in relation to today's current geological layout here in 21st Century Florida. They would usually camp near water, so estimating by researching how far they could travel without cattle in a day, would give you some idea of where they made camp. Check maps for lakes, streams, rivers, etc. Get GPS coordinates of key landmarks on Google maps. Second, start researching the location of some of the original cattle ranch houses in Arcadia, Florida. The front porches would probably have gaps in the floor and coins could easily slip thru, especially if the kids had removed them from the tin box. Or they may still be in the tin box, now buried and forgotten near the house. And first and foremost, keep your mouth closed concerning your ongoing project!

See how this sleuthing thing works? One question begats another and another. Make a folder, collect documents, photographs, maps, scans, notes, calculations and write down more questions that need answering! When you have answered them all, it is time for your hand-held GPS and your metal detector to join the hunt. Good luck and happy hunting!

Metal Detecting Security - Defend Yourself

Our country is becoming more dangerous every day, and regardless of your politics, it probably affects you and your hobby more disproportionally (big word there) than most people. The reason being, of course, you are out and about a lot, and more exposed to those interested in doing you dirty, or doing you in. The common citizen's biggest security threat is themselves; head down and locked 85 to 95 percent of the time, head stuck in their little plastic screens. Situational awareness is out the window. A large gorilla with a ball bat could easily sneak up on them. Metal detectorists have a similar problem; head down and locked attentive to their VDI panel, their sweeping coil, or on their knees, head down and digging the target, and not paying attention to the world around them. This may be their last mistake. 

As a treasure hunter you drag around thousands of dollars' worth of expensive, high-tech equipment. And nobody notices anything "expensive" more than a criminal. And for some reason I have not been able to fathom, Florida recently invited every criminal, thug and Ne'er-do-well to join us here in paradise so chances are good this will get worse before it gets better. I can relate a true story from several years ago. A woman went for a late afternoon water hunt at a public beach that had been cleared after a sudden thunderstorm. Very few people anywhere, but she still waded out and was hip-deep metal detecting. She was water hunting intently, then suddenly noticed some guy pacing her on the beach. No one else for miles. He yelled a few things at her, but the waves drowned out his speech. She was getting nervous, and started wading back to her car, but the man kept pace with her, as she struggled against the current with her gear. 

1.59-ounce pressurized pepper spray

She was getting desperate, and cold, and it was getting dark. The guy stood stock still and just stared at her. Her phone was back in the car, a quarter mile away, while the man just silently glared at her, glancing left and right once in a while. Suddenly a grumbling noise came bouncing up the deserted, darkening beach, the bright headlights illuminating the sand. The man quickly jogged away as the beach patrol pulled up with two lifeguards aboard. They asked her if she was okay and loaded her and her gear aboard. They took her back to the parking lot and her car. She told them about the man, and they looked for him on the way back, but he must have raced up one of the beach access points, because he was nowhere to be seen. She was safe and sound and LUCKY because who knows what might have happened if the lifeguards had not arrived? 

Lesson one, don't hunt a deserted beach alone, especially at night. Unless you have a buddy with you. And carry your cellphone in a waterproof case on a lanyard. And even with a buddy, have lethal or non-lethal defensive weapons with you for protection if you feel you may need them. Unlike most of the states in the Union, who do their level best to make it illegal to defend yourself, Florida allows citizens to legally carry, concealed or unconcealed, a pepper spray or pepper jell as long it does not exceed 2 oz. You can pick one up for around $14 or so. Learn how to use it online, many videos show you how. And PRACTICE using it on a target, as most will shoot 15 to 20 feet. 

My ex-policeman friend says draw a face on a paper plate, stick on a post or a fence and practice spraying a chemical-loaded figure 8 across the eyes, nose and mouth. Do it again, if necessary, especially in the mouth!  Another handy deterrent is an eight-ounce portable air horn. It fits in your pocket and will actually hurt your ears when you press the button! And that's with it pointing AWAY from you! Imagine the effect in FRONT of the horn? And it will get quick attention. You can pick one of these little noisemakers for about $7 at any sporting goods store. Recently, Florida passed a law allowing anyone (with certain exceptions) to carry a concealed firearm without a permit. Of course, it's a good idea to get a CCW permit anyway, take firearm training, go to a range to practice and know what you are doing and what the law is.

An air horn will blow the ears off of an attacker and get attention real quick.

Last but not least is set up a routine while you are hunting, by making it a habit to keep your situational awareness updated frequently by keeping you head on a swivel. If a situation seems to be developing, or you see something sketchy, LEAVE IMMEDIATELY!  It would be, in my opinion, in your best interest to remove yourself from any situation that may force you to use deterrents of any kind. Being thrown in jail for unprovoked assault is not going to be pleasant. These same practices will work also in parks and fields unless there is a posted sign restricting these types of deterrents. You must comply with all laws and regulations when using these devices, and this is simply information on devices useful for defending yourself in metal detecting situations. I am not a lawyer, and it is your responsibility to use this information legally and responsibly! Stay safe and stay aware!

The Coil Cover Game - A Revew

I have watched this phenomenon for a very long time in the metal detecting hobby, and I still occasionally go off a cliff over it. My wife says "Let it be..." but I can't! Coil covers drive me crazy!!! Especially nowadays when they are pretty much akin to useless but are still recommended by those who theoretically are in the know; especially on social media (is there any other nowadays??) platforms.

Now I am sure there will be those who would strongly disagree with me, but that's because they have been subliminally subdued into accepting the logical-sounding argument that coil covers act as a needed barrier between the outer world and your EXPENSIVE and easily damaged coil! And that actually WAS the case many, many years ago! Back then, in the 1970's and 1980's, we used co-planar coils that looked like fat serving dishes, we slang-termed them "dinner plate coils" which were made of thin injection molded polyethylene or polypropylene. 

The skin was very thin and easily worn through, especially if you were beach hunting in areas that had a rocky, gravel- strewn beach, like England, California, Oregon or Washington. Very tough on coils bottoms! The plastic coil covers were really a necessity back then...which were also easy to wear through, and you'd go through at least one or two a year if you were a prolific hunter. But time moves on. Here is 2023 our technology has advanced as quickly as our society has declined, and today's coils are made of practically miraculous materials that renders the coil's physicality almost indestructible! 

The coil's electrical / electromagnetic infrastructure is imbedded in an epoxy resin matrix. This material is hard...very hard! Here are some of its properties: 

• High tensile strength ranging from 90 to 120 MPa
• High tensile modulus ranging from 3100 to 3800 MPa
• High glass transition temperatures (Tg) ranging from 150 to 220 °C
• High compression, resilience, flexion, and tensile strength
• High resistance to degradation over time

The tensile strength of epoxy runs from 90 to 120 Megapascals, which means a PSI factor (covert pressure) at its highest is over 17,000 pounds per square inch! And at the lowest end of the range, tensile strength is running around a little over 13,000 pounds per square inch! I ran my 11" coil on my Minelab E-Trac continuously on the beach, in parks, at construction sites and everywhere in between without a coil cover for 7-years with little to no wear on the coil. Here is a picture of the actual wear the epoxy resin incurred on the bottom of the coil.

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Unprotected 11" coil bottom after 7-years use in all environments

And of course, I'm talking every day intended use here. Thus, there is really very little need for a troublesome coil cover any more, and of course this is from my perspective, while you may disagree.

Now, my opinion of course, of the whys and wherefores of the continued recommendation for using them? Despite the fact they fill up with water, sand, things you don't wanna' know about, they become loose quickly, fall off, cause target falsing and are miserable to clean, as well as reinstall? Money, pure and simple. Cash on the barrelhead. Moola and mucho denero! A coil cover can cost you anywhere from $15 up to $40 and whoever thought of this is a bona fide genius! 

I was a plastics engineer for a number of years and I can tell you they cost almost nothing to make and are pure profit all the way! I don't begrudge anyone using one, and as a recent case in point over the last few years, something that really does not do anything and is a royal pain in the keister, yet makes certain folk feel safe, then so be it. Everyone has the freedom to choose, I'm just trying to point out the man standing behind the curtain. Cheers!