Anyone here do any metal detecting at all? I've an old blue detector, I dare say the thing is older than me and I remember it still from way back when I was a child. Daddy and I used to go through old ruins of houses and villages. We'd never find anything tooooo interesting, mostly spoons, forks and cutlery. Spend brass casings etc. Before I was born he'd tell tales of finding war medals and grenades etc leftover from the war. I've always wanted to search the woods for old artifacts of battle, Saxon and Roman era stuff but I'm certain if you do find things you need to advise authorities in Europe just in case they're historical artifacts etc. We also used to pan for gold which I remember being fun. Anyone else found anything interesting out there?
No but I used to watch the TV show Meteorite Men with Geoff Notkin and Steve Arnold. They're professional meteorite hunters, searching the world for remnants of distant planets, moons and other celestial objects with their metal detectors Hotwater
when i worked for the parks department, in the spring i used to use the water department's metal detector to find the base anchors in all the baseball/softball fields. so, if you consider base anchors interesting, i found lots of them. nothing else that i recall.
So you honestly never wandered off into the bleachers/stands in search of coins, watches, or other precious metals Hotwater
^ well, no. these were high school/little league ball fields. the bleachers were two 12' by 6' sets that i brought in on the backhoe and set on the grass at the beginning of the season. besides, that time of year i was working 60 hours a week anyway. i wanted to get the job done so i could go home, not wander around looking for nonexistent treasures in the grass.
I can totally imagine you as a Parks and Rec guy, and yes I assume that show is totally reflective of reality
building your own technology for doing so is fun. but there's only so many things you can do with rusty beer can pull tabs. like fishing and wild life photography, it is a good fun way to get oneself out of the house. if you do find anything that amounts to anything, it might be more useful to more then yourself to leave it in situ. and if its in a public place where anyone can see you, there may be laws requiring you to do so. you also need a way to get to places that you think might be a good place to look for things. but sure, its a great hobby. its something i did a bit of back in the 70s.
I borrowed a metal detector last year.... Damned thing couldn't even find the corner marker on one end of my property. (Which is the reason I borrowed it.)
There is a spot nearby in the woods were there was a very old house. I have thought perhaps there are some old coins lost back there. Surely lot's of junk as well. I have found lot's of buckshot in my gold pan and maybe half a musket ball. Some ancient history in Ohio.
A friend of mine found metorite shards in Arizona using a $1000 metal detector he had. Using that same metal detector we found soil that was very rich in dust gold (gold flakes small as dust particles). I have a cheaper hobby store one that I have found clad coins with. And found the septic tank location on my family's cabin property. The most common things you find with a metal detector are rusted nails. One day when my friend and I were metal detecting, we found an obsidian arrowhead on top of a gopher mound that the little rodent dug up. I always wanted to go metal detecting in Europe and the Eastern Hemisphere as ancient civilizations used metal way before any civilizations did here on the west coast.
Back when I lived in Waikiki, my husband and I would go the popular beach hangouts and bring our metal detectors along. I never really found anything of value, but it was fun.
There seems to be a secret cult of people who metal detect. It's always fascinating watching them wave their wands over the sand or dirt in some random beach or field. I wonder if there is a forum for metal detection fanatics to discuss their fanaticism for detecting metal.
yep, there really is a secret cult. they call themselves "old guys who have figured out a way to spend a day at the beach and not have fun."
My brother does that, I find it boring. He's found lots of U.S. Civil War era stuff. He even found a prisoner of war camp around here where they kept Southern prisoners. He found the foundations to a few huts and a few pieces that interested a ranger down in Gettysburg that he knows. He has some boxes and cabinets of stuff. Oh and a diamond ring he gave his wife.
There may be a cult but it doesn't seem secret to me! Most people who are busy with this hobby gladly tell you about it in detail. Also: the most interesting ground is not public so they generally ask for permission instead of secretly tresspassing. Some of the best locations are construction sites in places where people have lived for centuries. You just have to make sure to be there before they start building again.
I think this would be very interesting. I also thought (know) obsidian is actually volcanic glass, and has literally not even a minute morsel of metal in it. lol I wish there were some kind of detector of stone artifacts. My best Native American arrowhead I found here on this property, which is a dovetailed chert arrowhead that has eyes etched on it. I'm sure it was ceremonial with the etching. But that has nothing to do with metal detecting. So yeah...I'd like to do this metal detecting just to see what I'd find around here.
