Treasure Hunters - Those We've Left Behind

Once again, the end of another year in the metal detecting and treasure hunting hobby. I've been pursuing my fortune and personal treasure for 56-years in this hobby, and I've met a lot of really nice genuine people, friends and acquaintances. I've also met a few dishonest, underhanded and conniving troublemakers over the last half-century too; the type you would expect to find in any shady activity involving treasure hunting...or bank robbery for that matter. Watch the classic 1948 film Treasure  of the Sierra Madre, and you'll find pretty much the same type of character, albeit with better technology, nowadays lurking behind a high-tech machine smiling in your face, but with darker designs at your back, if the opportunity should arise. You know the drill. But this is not about them. 

Brent Petherick Photo Cir 2013

My long association in the hobby, and treasure hunting in general, like any other endeavor or pursuit, has left me with many memories of friends and acquaintances who have moved on across the great gulf of time and space; the last great adventure, sadly, we must all take eventually. But this is not about sadness or loss...this is about life and the people in it...now...at this very moment. There were many times in the past where I missed a hunt, or meet-up with a good friend because of one thing or another...the body was willing, but the major complexities of modern life got in the way and I succumbed to the distractions and petty issues that I wish now I had put aside. And as many of my buddies will attest, getting older means losing more abilities, and many times losing mobility itself. But we have club members in their mid-90's still out there armed with their research and their metal detectors, using modified walkers, wheeled garden seats, and the like. Not giving up easily is an admirable human trait. And treasure hunting gets in your blood, harder than a virus to get rid of, and mostly incurable. As the new year of 2020 dawns, I think what one of my old flight instructors, Bill Thompson, used to say in the 1960's after we had landed, taxied in and shut down all the aircraft systems. As the engines spooled down, he would sign off my logbook, look at me and say "Well, we got away with it again!" Here at the brink of 2020, we all mostly did, but many did not. I raise my glass to all of you we've left behind...Kevin, Richard, Brent, Don...you are missed and well-remembered! Now go call or visit that friend you have not spent time with for a while...and talk treasure hunting and beautiful sunsets. The stuff dreams are made of.

Treasure Hunter Brent Petherick 1954-2019

Whatcha' Doing? - Handling The Watchers

It is a fact that metal detecting in public places, and even sometimes on private permissions, tends to attract what I've always called "The Watchers," although other detectorists and treasure hunters have other names for them, mostly unprintable, but all-in-all they are members of the public, mostly bored, who have become interested in what you are doing. Some just innately curious, and others with trouble-making in mind. 

Usually the first order of business is to try and ignore them. Wearing a pair of headphones is usually a great idea, and your body-language and motions should imply "I'm Workin' He-ah!!" with your head down, gazing at that moving coil...and sometimes, just for show, press a few benign buttons, and make a bit of a deal of checking the control panel, and pretending you can't hear them. Above all, if you can help it, according to my friend Rob Hill, "DON'T MAKE EYE CONTACT!" 

Now to be fair, here in Central Florida, we have visitors literally from all over the world. And it appears that metal detecting along a public beach is not very common in some countries, and they genuinely want to know what you are doing, and why you are doing it? Many people stop me and ask "What are you looking for?" You can usually tell by their tone and body-language if they are really interested or just trying to distract you as they toss cut pennies or fake treasure coins behind your back. One middle-aged guy did that to my wife while we were hunting a park...I stay reasonably close to her most of the time, cause you never know, and she can get distracted during the hunt, so I keep my eyes scanning all the time. He was asking her questions, and while she was answering, I see the jerk tossing stuff in the grass behind her...usually these morons throw zinc pennies that they have cut in half or into quarters. That did not end well for him, as the Park Ranger I called over offered him one of two options; either pay a $200 fine for littering, or he could get down on his hands and knees and recover all those tiny bits of copper. I bet he wished he knew how to use a metal detector.

Usually, my beach hunting takes place on Cocoa Beach here in Central Florida, and just north of it, The City of Cape Canaveral Beach. These beaches are just south (about 3 or 4 miles) of Space-X's launch facility and draws people to watch space shots, so they are good to hunt after a launch. And I never know when they are going to launch...many times I'll be startled from a deep rumble then a bright lance of flame, as a Space-X Falcon 9 flares above the shoreline and vanishes into the sky. And I've been know to go back to metal detecting, forgetting that Space-X rocket boosters usually come home for a landing a few minutes later. More than once I've had to return to my car for clean underwear after the twin sonic booms of returning spacecraft have scared me half to death.

Buddy Jerry Hitson asking me if I hear a rumbling sound on Canaveral Beach 

On occasion though, someone you might view as a "...watcher" or a heckler may not be what they seem. Case in point, in the middle of one week I was having a bad day and headed for the beach for a few hours of solitude metal detecting. I was having very little tolerance for "The Watchers" and descended into my curmudgeon mode; I ignore everyone, no questions asked or accepted. While detecting along Cape Canaveral Beach, a man followed me along, parallel to the beach as I scanned the wet ocean sand. I reversed course and headed south, and the guy did the same, walking at my speed, watching me as I detected. Finally, exasperated, I kind of snapped at the guy. "Is SOMETHING wrong Sir???" 

He was a bit startled and said "Oh no, no, nothing is wrong. I'm on my lunch hour. I work for the City of Cape Canaveral and I just noticed you were metal detecting along the beach."

I looked at him, somewhat annoyed, still wondering what his angle was...I soon found out. He pointed to a certain stretch of beach I had passed and he said "I grew up here in the late-1950's and early 60's and that part used to be called 'Family Beach' back in the day. Hundreds of people would park their cars in that vacant lot over there and absolutely packed the beach until long after dark. They built bonfires, sang songs, cooked hot dogs and they left happy! " 

He smiled then and said "Those were the days!" After talking with him a bit more he had to get back to work and I back to metal detecting. I can say, his advice was on the money, literally, and I enjoyed a lot of very nice finds there until that stretch of beach was "reclaimed" with 7-feet of sand dumped on it, then the adjacent vacant lot was bulldozed into oblivion just in time for a brand new sterile high-rise to be constructed over it, entombing any further artifacts from the past forever...well, my forever anyway. Listening to what the "watcher" had to say was gold, and he unselfishly gave that information to me, hoping I would rescue some of those lost items and bring them back into the light of the 21st Century. I learned then it is better to pause and listen for a few minutes...there may be important things to be said.

Me, my metal detector and associated gear been in a lot of  photographs taken with Norwegian families, badly-sunburned English families, Japanese tourists, German and French folks on holiday, as well as Korean and Chinese tourists alike. I was as polite and informative I could possibly be and they moved on, having had an enjoyable experience that they may remember for a long time. Then again, maybe not. My point is, when you absolutely cannot avoid a conversation with the watchers on the beach, be polite, informative and friendly. I've donate fishing lures and handfuls of lead weights to beach fishermen along the shore. I can't use them and they are somewhat expensive to purchase and the fishermen are glad to get them. Several folks from out of state stopped to ask questions one day, they were very polite and friendly, and I ended up handing them a NASA medallion (costume jewelry...I'm not crazy, mind you!) I'd found as a souvenir of their visit to the Space Coast. Remember, no matter where they are from, they are still THE PUBLIC and treating the sincere ones with respect will garner respect for those of us in the hobby and the hobby in general.

Metal Detecting Tool Holster 1982

In the old days (or "the early days," for those of us who are old-er) it usually all boiled down to a garden trowel and/or a ground-off screwdriver for excavation operations, and the usual heavy-cotton carpenter's pocketed apron tied around your waist. Usually these aprons, usually unbleached cotton, were usually white or light vanilla colored, printed with the hardware store's logo, and quickly became filthy with dirt; smeared and stained after just a few days use. A lot of detector operators also wore the almost obligatory flannel shirt over a white cotton tee-shirt to complete the look of the day. Detectorists in the 60's, 70's and early 80's were not big on fashion sense...practical clothing was the rule. 

The interesting array of metal detecting tool and finds pouches available now didn't exist either, with me finally breaking down and making my own leather tool-pouch seen here below circa 1982. And dig that crazy digital watch on my 30-year-old arm! All the rage in the late 70's and early 80's, despite it being a piece of crap to use. And you will notice that the tools IN the tool pouch are all custom-made for that era of the hobby when few commercial tools existed. On the left, the coin probe is nothing more than a plastic-handled screwdriver with the slotted-blade ground down and rounded. The cleaning brush was a 1" wide enamel brush with the bristles cut in half. The thin, coin-digging tool on the right was a piece of electrical conduit pipe, hack-sawed, then metal-filed, at a 45-degree angle with a bicycle grip pounded over the end. And the tool resting in the center back of the holster is a standard wood-handled trowel, mainly used for moving quantities of dirt back into the hole you'd pulled the target from. 

Home-Made Tool-Leather Detecting Holster Circa 1982

Thanks to Tandy Leather, still in business today I might add, for providing a few tool leather scraps, a few dozen leather rivets, and a cheap rivet setting-tool. And of course, continual customization was the watchword as long as you still had a few open areas that you could rivet another leather loop onto. And it was almost indestructible; it would not rip, tear, pull apart, shrink or wear-out. And as a side benefit, leather, unlike myself, seems to get better with age! I've owned about a half-dozen modern detecting tool-holder/finds pouch arrangements, made of heavy canvas and/or synthetic materials that have finally worn out, ripped or finally came apart. Luckily, most tool and finds pouches are reasonably priced enough that replacement or having a few different ones for different types of hunts (the beach, parks, clay soil, fresh-water, rocky river bottom, etc) is not unreasonable. And they now come with an assortment of zippered pockets, water-proof mesh with Velcro-ed cubbyholes for junk, artifacts and coins...high-tech is not always the best tech, but things are improving.

 

Impatient Detecting - The Killer of Finds

We've all have heard the stories of newbies seen detecting along the beach. Many times they are seen with the search-coil 8" above the sand, racing along as if the Devil himself was on their tail. Some are spotted doing the "golf swing," or the "Smiley Face," or what we sometimes call the "U-boat." These maneuvers pretty much insure they are no threat to experienced detectorists, but even among experienced machine operators, we have noticed a few that have a need for speed! With the coil level, ground balanced and inch or so over nice damp, salty beach sand, there are other errors that may make the good stuff difficult to locate. Speed kills, as the saying goes, and it certainly kills your finds!

Rip-roaring up a beach or thru a park will most definitely put you at a disadvantage with other hunters who practice what has become to be known as "low and slow;" and maybe an improvement to that phrase would be "Low and slow and LISTEN!" All VLF metal detectors have something called a "re-set speed," during which the machine's circuitry re-sets itself after a target acquisition. This can be a few tenth's of a second to almost half a second, depending on the model and the frequency being used. Another aspect of this is the recommended sweep-speed, (a full sweep being an arc from one side to the other in front of the operator) which takes this constant into account. My Minelab E-Trac's manual recommends a 4-sec sweep speed. If you exceed this, or get a bit jiggy in your sweep, you can detect piece of iron, and if you are exceeding the sweep-speed, may miss the silver coin just to the left, while the machine is doing a reset, and not looking into the ground during the process.

The first guy I noticed employing a "low and slow and LISTEN" approach was friend of mine, Gary Dover. Gary is kind of a quiet guy and is usually nose down, eyes locked, and ears up. I thought he'd hurt his foot at an Orlando hunt we were participating in because he was practically tip-toeing along, with his head cocked side-wise. But he said, "Naw, I'm slowin' down and listening for the good stuff!"

A few people have accused Gary in in the past of having a somehow "better" machine than anyone else. Using a stock AT-Pro, he killed it time and again with old coins no one else could even come close to. I saw him dig a silver 1857 Barber Quarter right in front of me one day, where several dozen others had passed over earlier. He moved up to a Minelab E-Trac and the same thing; V-Nickles Barber coins from the middle of the 19th Century. But it was not the machine, it was the technique!

So, slow down a bit and listen close; those coins have been waiting for over a hundred years for you to bring them back into the light...a little more time is not going to matter! 

Beach Detecting - Numbers to Hunt By

The other day while beach hunting, and viewing other people detecting at low tide, I started to wonder how much beach there was to search at low tide...I mean, how many chances to find something in the sand or tide flats are there? So I set about trying to put some scale to the problem. People, including me, always say that we have too many people metal detecting the beach. But the question that begs an answer is: do we? Do we really?

Google Map Image of Daytona Beach, Florida

Now the most popular beach in Central Florida is Daytona-Ormond Beach, and famous the world over according to the tourist literature, and certainly a favorite among the local metal detecting clubs; Daytona Dig & Find Club as well as the Central Florida Metal Detecting Club. One thing the beach certainly is, it is wide at low tide...almost 500-feet wide as a matter of fact. They used to race cars there in the old days, and cars still can drive the beach in certain places along the beach. Daytona Beach is approximately 25-miles long, (more like 23, but jeesh!) but I picked an arbitrary point from the tip of New Smyrna Beach (the most dangerous shark attack beach in the world.) to the south than up to just past Flagler Beach to the north. A distance of somewhere around 25-miles of detectable beach.

Most standard search coils usually come in at around 11" in diameter, but for this instance, I'm going to add an inch to the coil and make it 12," i.e. a "foot" in diameter. You can recalculate later for a 11" diameter coil if you want, or an 8" or a 6" but really the 12" coil size is just to make a point.

Take the distance up the coast, 25- miles, multiply it by the number of feet in a mile; 5,280' which comes to 132,000 feet. Then multiply the beach length in feet by it's width in feet, which is about 500' and you get the square footage for Daytona Beach's beach. Since you have a 12" coil in this example, it just about covers a square foot, and according to our calculations, you have exactly 66,000,000 square feet to hunt within Daytona-Ormond Beach. That's right, sixty-six million coil locations available that may have something hiding under the sand. And if you can successfully and properly sweep a square foot of beach sand in about 2-seconds time, it will take you around 2,410 years to fully hunt the beach! I guess we'd best get started!

Metal Detecting Tales of Questionable Rescue

Within the metal detecting community, as a friend of mine would say, "...we use our powers for good!"and offer our services free of charge as a public service. I know many, many hobbyists that will drop everything they are doing, drive untold miles, then spend hours in the hot sun, a snake-infested swamp, or under a porch overrun with spiders to recover a lost item for a perfect stranger. Dog-tags, car keys, wedding rings, and a veritable plethora of sometimes irreplaceable items from everyday life fall before our invisible electromagnetic waves, as they probe the dark water and through the earth. But sometimes the mission may be, to quote a southern term, snake-bit from the very start. A call came in from someone who said they could not turn on the water for their home because the valve was lost...we pictured a family with no water. When we arrived, it turned out that it was a contractor refurbishing an apartment complex! He told us they were looking for 36 valves that were buried about two feet deep, and had not been seen since they were buried in 1986...and the valves were the size of  a large marble, the rest was PVC plastic. After a futile hour with a 15" coil, digging 33-years worth of metal trash, we finally packed it in. Without so much as a "Thank you!" the contractor was back on the phone with another contractor as we packed up and left.

Another sketchy mission was to find some gold that belonged to a man who, the caller claimed, had gone senile and did not know where all his gold had been hidden.

As the call progressed, it came to light that, according to the caller, it was his father-in-law's gold but he, the caller, had actually buried it a few years ago. (Shades of the Chinese Affair, one of my earlier blog posts you might want to look up.) We were getting more and more suspicious, and the conversation went on something like this:

"Let me get this straight, you buried you father-in-laws gold?"
"Yes, out in the back-yard...we are moving and I need to dig it up."
"So why do you need a metal detector to find it if you buried it?"
"I don't remember where I buried it."
"What did you bury it in?"
"I don't remember...maybe a potato chip tube...maybe."
"How deep did you bury it?"
"I don't remember...maybe it is buried under a cinder-block."
"How long ago did you bury it?"
"I'm not sure."
"Why did you bury it specifically...did your father-in-law ask you?"
"I don't remember."

So you can see our hesitation in taking a long drive and spending hours in the hot sun...we talked it over then declined the mission...too many things the caller said made no sense.

Another mission we did take, was someone who called and said that while he was building a giant spider, he suddenly realized he had lost his hearing aid and could we come over with our metal detectors and find it? About an hour later we were on site, with our equipment powered up, ready to go. "Where were you when you lost it do you think?" He looked at us and said "Well, I spent most of the morning at the library, then I stopped at the diner and had some lunch, then I came home and mowed the lawn, then I was working on the giant spider over there when I noticed it was gone."

Patti and I glanced at each other...uh-oh...was the unsaid remark that passed between us. He assured us, however, he had gone back to all those places and searched, but the tiny device had not turned up, so it must be on his property. We were using Garrett equipment, an AT-Pro with a "super sniper" coil on it, and our usual ace-in-the-hole  machine for very small items, the ACE 250 with the four-inch "super sniper" coil that could find a nit on a knat's knuckle. Or so we thought. After almost five hours of searching his front-yard, his acre and a half back-yard, he asked if we could search the rooms in his house. Not usually, but whatever. Patti even looked under the bead, in the shower, the closets, the patio to no avail. He asked us if we would search the attic, but we decided that was enough and declined. I told him it was too bad he did not have another hearing aid we could have used for a test-scan to set a benchmark signal that would be recognizable to either machine. He looked at us and pulled a hearing aid out of his left ear "This is identical to the hearing aid I lost...they were a pair when I bought them." I looked at the tiny device and ran the most sensitive coil and machine combination we have over it and not a peep...the pin-pointer would not even go off either when passed over the top. I found out later that the wires inside, and there were not many, were about as thick as a human hair. Patti and I were about to pass out from the heat and went back to the car for some cold drinks and put our equipment away. He walked along with us and asked about our club and said he would send a "donation" but he was never heard from again. We don't ask for cash or credit cards, and our help is gratis, but a "Thank you!" would sometimes be nice in lieu of a reward, or even a cold drink. But these are rare cases and not usually the norm, and will never affect our mission to help someone find their personal lost something.

Making A Living Metal Detecting

This happens a lot lately, thinking metal detecting would be a great job, which is ironic, because at this point in time the hordes of detectorists that consider this, have made this life-choice well neigh impossible by their very existence. I'm talking about making enough revenue from your finds to eke out enough profit from that revenue to support yourself. Let me be clear here...that's not gonna happen. In the last 56-years I've been in this hobby I've seen this tiny light go on once in a while in either a newbie's head, or a casual detector operator's head, and it pains me to see it. Because it's pie-in-the sky baloney. Now there are a few hardy souls who have managed to make a living, nay, even a good living, out of treasure hunting per say, and you notice I did not mention metal detecting? And those that have, usually have a side gig or two to help keep their income afloat. Like writing a book, hosting a TV program, or paid speaking engagements while hawking t-shirts and mugs with your logo or face on it...need I go on?

As far as metal detecting goes as a job, it is right up there with being unemployed, with unemployed being at the top, at least bringing in some meager government benefits. Now I know people who have spent a year or more unemployed, putting themselves out there metal detecting every day. Occasionally they may hit the jackpot, more or less, by finding expensive jewelry. A few thousand dollars for a few months of metal detecting, once you subtract your fixed costs for your vehicle, fuel, insurance, maintenance, and your metal detecting gear and batteries costs, and the actual hours spent scanning the sand, you'll find a gig taking lunch orders at McDonald's a better all-around deal; air conditioning and $15 an hour beat the uncertainty and downright overheated plodding existence of scavenging a beach. The most I've ever seen anyone ever make from metal detecting on an average day is about $17 for the entire day...and I mean about 12 to 14-hours in the searing sun and elements. And that's a good day!

Of course, the vision shared by most who think this may be a viable option see themselves spending an enjoyable few hours at the beach...warm breezes, shady palm trees and downing a cold lemonade at the snack-bar afterward, with a pouch filled with a few thousand bucks worth of gold and silver jewelry. The cold, hard truth is you probably won't have found enough to even afford that lemonade and not even remotely your visit to the ER for dehydration and dizziness!

Now, it is possible for retirees to supplement their income by finding gold and silver occasionally, and enjoy a rare movie and maybe something other than cat food to eat for that month, but as a full-time job, probably not an option. And even if you can somehow manage to find enough month to month to afford to live in your car, you will never look at the hobby as an enjoyable pastime ever again. And that is not worth it! My opinion for what it is worth...which ain't much. Happy hunting and good luck and don't quit your day job! 

One Digit or Two - The Perils of VDI

Sorry for my long absence...cancer, diabetes and the other several diseases I have were getting out of hand again, reducing my will to do much of anything at all. But here I am again! Anyway, I was thinking about something the other day; mostly it concerned Visual Display Indicators (or VDI) on today's advanced metal detector screens and I had an epiphany!  Between my wife and I, we use about seven different models and makes of metal detectors that utilize a VDI display, all except one machine, which is up on blocks right now awaiting a cable refit, which would be my Minelab Excalibur.

And of the six machines in use, only one machine, my multi-frequency Minelab E-Trac utilizes 28 different frequencies all scanning simultaneously from the single DD coil of choice. The five remaining detectors all use a single frequency, scanning from a single coil. The advance features of the newer machines are impressive, but they also sport what I would term a single two-digit readout on the VDI which means different things on different makes and models, of course. But, despite all the new features in the new machines, my older tech E-Trac is more accurate with it's multi-frequency ability and dual four-digit readout. The four digit readout consists of a ferrous two-digit readout, next to a conductivity two-digit readout. This creates a "matrix" where you can very accurately determine what the probable target is, what type of metal and how big it may be as a target.

The other detectors, with their single two-digit readout, are also pretty accurate to a point, and provide you with a pretty clear dig/don't dig  decision, but still with an aura of mystery for those "in-between" numbers that may or not be something good and you decide arbitrarily on whether you should burn the time and energy to recover it. 

The strange thing I have noticed, being absolutely honest in looking at my treasure hunting habits, is that using the more accurate system the E-Trac provides, I end up making a lot more "don't dig" decisions. Of course, if you are "cherry-picking" a site, who cares? But, after using some of the more advance single readout machines, target VDI's are not quite so cut and dry. Of course who wouldn't dig a 79 or an 80 on any single readout machine as long as it is not as big as a car hood? 

So my habit now seems to be I dig a lot more "iffy" signals on the single-frequency machines, and seem to be rewarded more frequently by interesting finds I would have ruled a "don't dig" scenario with the multi-frequency, multi-readout machine. Of course it is because of my habit's not because of the detector capabilities. So I have gravitated into a new realm where I use the E-Trac for hunting deep old coins and beach hunting, and the single frequency detectors for artifact and relic hunting. Of course that could change any time a new epiphany shows up, but for now, it works for me

Finds Financed - A New Detector The Old Way

Back in the day, unlike nowadays, you did not just go out and buy a more advanced or newer machine just because you wanted one...although, I'll admit some did...but more didn't. It was a point of honor, back then, to find enough cash, silver, gold and jewels with the old machine to finance a new machine. You'd save all your clad, cash in all the precious metals, sell the jewelry, and count the proceeds. If you were almost there, price-wise, close to enough to purchase one of those shiny new Whites 6000Dj Coinmaster or a frog-green Garrett Groundhog, it was acceptable to sell your old machine to get to the price point.

My old Garrett American...finds paid the price!

What did you get for this? Bragging rights...bragging rights that would cost you friends, acquaintances, marriages, and party invites. But still. It was a beautiful thing. You lived for the moment someone (obviously, someone who didn't know you) would ask how much you paid for that amazing metal detector. "Well (short pause) I bought it with finds from my previous detector!!!" Eyes would widen, people would gasp, children would hide and dogs would bark. For a few seconds you would bask in the sunshine of admiration from newbies and old-timers. You were a master-hunter and here's the doggone proof...in crinkle-green paint sporting bright yellow instrument lettering and Bakelite knobs with toggle switches galore!

Nowadays, someone wants a newer machine, they look at a computer screen, pick the one they want and simply order it. The detector is on their porch the next day and on social media seconds later...for the "un-boxing?!?!?!"  Where is the honor in that? 

I got to go...just heard the United Parcel Service guy at my door!

Coil Cover Cleaning - Mystery Signals Revealed!

Far be it for me to tell you how to metal detect, treasure hunt, or any of the intermediary things involved, but there is something you ought to know about your coil; that little device way out on the business end of your machine. Especially if you are part of the group known in social media circles as the New-To-This-Great-Hobby! crowd. Now if you are not mad at me yet, like most everyone else is for one reason or another, you soon will be. No one likes to know the truth about Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy (who I always thought was Joey Heatherton doing some part-time work!) but I need to tell you something.

I don't know how to break this to you, but coil-covers or skid-plates, as they are sometimes called, are not really necessary. As a matter of fact, they are usually a pain in the larger scheme of things! "But...but...but...what are you saying?" you stutter, sweating profusely and thinking about the cash you just spent on that skid-plate for the inverted barbecue-grill-sized coil you use for deep cache hunting. 

What I'm saying is the usual story is that they keep your coil from wearing out on the bottom...physically wearing out. But do they really? No, not really. I have coils I've used for more than 10 years without a coil-cover; detecting over sand, soil, rocks and debris. After a decade of hard use, barely a scratch appears on the bottom of the hard epoxy base of my search coil. The thin-thermoplastic coil cover's real talent, though, is collecting and holding salt-water, sand, dirt, clay, fertilizer, smelly cow manure, plant-debris and whatever else your coil has motored thru that day...or the previous day. A veritable toxic waste dump of mineralization has leaked into the base of your plastic skid plate. 

Stuff builds up in the coil cover without you realizing it...salt sand, water...you name it

And that means false signals, trouble ground balancing the metal detector, and the general loss in depth and sensitivity of your expensive search coil. Searching over dry beach sand with a coil cover full of stagnant salt water or damp salty sand in the base confuses the liven dickens out of your detector ground balance circuits and can create havoc with a machine in all phases of the hunt. A lot of new people, who have no idea this is happening, and with only a few months or weeks in the hobby itself, can usually be found liberally bashing a metal detector brand on social media as a lousy machine, as if they were now an expert in metal detecting dynamics. Other newbies, unaware they are reading another inexperienced newbies opinion, can start a rumor mill that lasts for weeks, months or years, as misinformation is taken as gospel, reinforced by other un-knowledgeable comments by others. I've seen this happen at least twice in social media circles with all attempts at putting them straight come to naught.

If you absolutely are convinced that your thin thermoplastic coil covers do, without a doubt, keep those rock-hard epoxy coils of yours from being worn down like pencil erasers from hard use, then by all means, keep em' on your coil. However, do yourself a favor and after every hunt involving fine sand, water, salt-water, or mud, remove the skid-plate and thoroughly wash and dry the interior, and wash off the base of your coil, before putting it back in place. Better still, use the coil cover inverted on your coffee table and fill it with a nice party mix; peanuts, pretzels, almonds, cashews and the like. It would certainly be put to better use that way and I'd be likely to visit you a lot more after the hunt. Cheers!

Remember This - It May Save Your Life Out Detecting

Something you don't think about much while you are out metal detecting in Florida, with headphones on and a hum in your ear, poking along the river's edge for coins and artifacts, is death. Your death in particular. Good grief, Jim, what an unpleasant thing to say! I was so relaxed and enjoying...!!! Indeed you were...exactly the same state of mind you were in on your day off, out metal detecting the freshwater lakes, rivers and marshes of Florida. Something you have not noticed in your elevator-music world, however, is that a creature whose genus has existed for the last 65 million years has noticed you. The reminder comes with a screaming burning pain, as the last living member of the dinosaurs, the alligator, grabs your leg!

"I was going for the leg...dang!"  

You quickly pull out your iPhone and search for the "STOP GATOR!" app, through the blinding pain, which of course does not now and will never exist...at least on the iPhone 6 anyway. You've wasted precious seconds as the big lizard clamps his 3,000 pounds-per-square inch jaws even tighter on you leg and drags you backward toward the dark water and your gruesome, still pending, death. Gators historically kill you by drowning you then stuffing your lunchtime-goodness under an old log or embankment to get ripe. At this point, you are scared and in pain, maybe even going into shock, but we are talking about your life here; not a Patriots game on ESPN! It's the end of everything you know and are and ever will be...and don't forget those expensive metal detectors you recently bought...you've hardly read the manuals yet!!! You have, by now, miserably failed alligator basic training rule #1, and that is to RUN as soon as you spot an alligator coming out of the water toward you...don't stop to pick up your pin-pointer, or your digger...I mean RUN like the devil himself or your ex-wive's lawyer is behind you, and zig-zag a bit on the way out...for your children and your children's children sake RUN! 

Now, having been nabbed and in it's jaws, you need to get Rule #2 locked and loaded, which is to grab a rock, or the heel of the boot on you foot that is free, and slam the alligator as hard as possible on the nose...their snoot is rather sensitive, like a shark's, and a good hard slam may get it to open it's mouth and release you. Rule #3 is to get a stick or a finger into it's eye...blinding it is painful and again it might let you go. Since you ignored #1, run away, and while #2 and #3 didn't seem to work , Rule #4 is to poke your fingers into it's nostrils and cut off it's breathing. Alligators do most of their breathing through the nostrils and it is a distinct shock to them not to be able to draw a breath. It will need to open it's mouth to breath. At which point rule #1 comes back into play and you RUN!!! The last trick, fingers in it's nostrils was utilized by a 10-year old girl who was grabbed by a 17-foot alligator in Moss Park, Orlando, Florida in 2017. It let her go and she got away, Later in the hospital she said she had remembered an alligator trainer at GATORLAND had mentioned if they were ever attacked by an alligator, plugging it's nose was a good way to get it to let you go.

The main point, in addition to these techniques, is to not panic and NEVER stop fighting...kicking screaming jamming it's eyes, nostrils and nose may cause it to let you go...you may be just too much trouble for it's lunch or dinner when a fish would do. My wife says if you'd like to see an example of what kind of fight you should put up, see the movie "Atomic Blonde," she says you'll figure it out.

Gator Fighting Video...a good "fighting" example anyway

Be safe, be aware and remember these techniques if the worst should happen...remember the Boy Scouts of America motto : Be prepared! It can and will save your life. Cheers!

Running a Metal Detecting Club - At The Helm

Well, my first blog of 2019, and it's about the Central Florida Metal Detecting Club, and the trials and tribulations of keeping it above water and on course. The CFMDC is the largest metal detecting club in the United States, and is thriving and growing. The club has been in operation for 46-years to date, having been established in the year 1972. Current club officers are President Carolyn Harwick, Vice-President Jim Fielding (yours truly), 2nd Vice President Marc Hoover, Club Secretary Michael McClure, and our new Club Treasurer Vickie Chilla. And along with the New Year, we are facing many new challenges, which we will tackle in the coming months, and most assuredly, the coming years. 

Former CFMDC President Alan James keeping the club in line

Our previous administration worked hard at keeping the club going, as Alan James, a veteran of the previous 8-years at the helm as club president, will attest. At club cookouts, it was always Alan unloading the 12-ton propane barbecue grill from the back of his truck. At the end of a club seeded hunt, while everyone was heading to their cars, it was always Alan wandering the now-deserted hunt fields pulling up marker-flags by the handful, keenly watched by alligators and wild boar from the woods. At our annual open-to-the-public Sunshine Silver & Relic Hunt, it was always Alan in his bright-orange safety vest, for the first 6-years, with a microphone in hand, orchestrating the hunt, prizes and awards like a metal-detecting virtuoso. Since the club board changed in January of 2018, Alan has been acting as an adviser to the board, filling us in on club workings, letting us know where the skeletons are buried. And where to bury the new ones.

Current CFMDC President Carolyn Harwick

Like most clubs, not much was written down relating to the actual operation, and we wanted to know and document as much as we could. One of Alan's most valuable skills was, and still is, "...not-getting-mad," at least not in public or during a meeting, despite occasional tomfoolery. We wanted to know how he manages that, but all he says is "I'm a contractor in real life." and smiles. The mystery continues. At any rate, we have a really great cadre of club volunteers, and almost 300 members, with about 110 to 120 members attended each meeting. We have been trying to initiate more member involvement, and keep it fun. I mean, the whole reason to have a club is to have FUN, right? Sometimes people need to be reminded of that...myself included!

CFMDC Vice President, me, giving a well-thought-out presentation in the field

Our former club president Alan James, besides having originally founded our annual club event, "The Sunshine Shootout and Relic Hunt" (we eventually had to remove "shootout" as part of the event name, given the current climate in the U.S. and inserted "silver" instead...our e-mails to each other would not go through with "shootout" anywhere in the title or text!)  almost 7 years ago, also created the popular "Tech Talks" back in 2014. Alan asked me to give a 10-minute talk each meeting about anything involving metal detecting. I talked and demonstrated electromagnetism, best metal detecting frequencies for silver or gold, the fact that metal detecting coils detect on both sides of the coil, how to tell if a target was in the ground vertically or horizontally, effects of mineralization while metal detecting, targeting skills, pinpointing skills, cleaning out the coil's skid-plate, digging a proper plug, concentric versus wide-scan (a.k.a. DD) coils and on and on and on for about 4-years. When I was appointed club VP in the beginning of 2018, I got way too busy to do the talks any more. However, we now have members giving interesting talks and presentations themselves. Sometimes I think we should have a sub-heading under the club's website banner that says "and public speaking," as many members who feared speaking in front of a group, could nowadays easily give seminars in front of a thousand people without batting an eye. Good stuff!

Example of a Tech Talk

One of the more contentious issues facing the club has always been the infamous "Finds Table" and how to handle this aspect of members who display their finds for judging by other members. One of the original issues, that went on literally for years, was how far away could you dig a find and still place it on the table for judging. What??? you say? What kind of issue it that? Well, a very real one, as some members spent time metal detecting in England and Europe and came back with 2,000 year-old Roman coins, bronze age artifacts, and hammered silver coins about 1,000 years old.

And the members loved it...ancient artifacts and coins were very popular and garnered a lot of votes. But storm clouds were brewing a few feet above the table. Certain members, who were very active hunters themselves, had a lot of local treasures on the finds table and most definitely were not amused. They wanted items from England or Europe banned from the finds table and declared ineligible. The discussion was tabled for a while (no pun intended) while a good deal of grumbling for and against bubbled among the members. Finally, Alan stood up during one meeting, many years ago, and said, in all seriousness (and I'm paraphrasing here), "Just a little announcement that we will no longer accept items on the 'Finds Table' found north of Lake Mary road, or east of Interstate I-95, or west of I-4, or south of State Road 434." You could have heard a pin drop. Finally, in the somewhat pregnant silence, Alan went on to quietly mention that maybe only items found a few miles farther in all cardinal directions would be better? Or maybe items only found in Florida? Or maybe only items found along the eastern seaboard of the United States? The point had finally been made.

The Elephant in the room was that we liked to see all member's finds, from everywhere! That is what the hobby is about...and what many new members find inspiration in...the coins and artifacts returned to the public domain from the very ground beneath our feet. Some examples better than what you would find in any museum, and a joy to view and marvel at. So when you finally decide to become a member of the Central Florida Metal Detecting Club, rest assured that no matter where you found it, you are welcome to proudly place your treasure on our finds table, and wait for the members to vote...good luck!

The Central Florida Metal Detecting Club