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I Hope It Doesn't Happen To You


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Tonight I went for a detect.  When I got to the beach I could see a detectorist coming in my direction on the edge of the water.  I could also see another one up in front on  the same line a couple hundred feet in the direction I wanted to walk.  Those two were on a 'collision course' so I got away from the water to avoid the one in front of me.  As it turned out the guy behind me went to the guy in front of me and then they were gone in the opposite direction from where I was going.  I didn't step on their pattern of the water's edge.

I walked and walked and finally got into my pattern and a beach without a detectorist.  It had not been dug.  The tide was low so I sampled the area as I know how to do and when I got to the end I turned in the direction I came from so that I could work the patch I had found.  It started with one cheap ring and then I found some hoops and then some quarters, pennies and dimes.  I was gridding and working it slowly.

Someone approached me from behind and I could see it was another detectorist.  I normally don't talk to others even before the virus.  This guy came up to me (kept social distance) and asked if I was Gary.  I said no and then he said 'I see you have been digging up the place here, how are you doing?'  I didn't mention the ring but said I was getting coins and hoops (earrings).  He said he worked that beach a lot over the years.  He asked my detector and name and we exchanged a few more pleasantries before he said 'I'm going home.'

He walked about 30 feet in front of me in the direction I was gridding and he detected.  He stopped and was digging while I'm working my pattern getting closer.  And then he still didn't move so I had to go around him but as I did he had a lighter out making some light to look at something he found (I assumed).  He stayed in that little area for some time and I was now about 50 feet on the other side of him when he came up to me and said 'Can you turn on your light so that I can see what I just found?'

Well, I'm already a bit pissed because he jumped my pattern and now he wants to use my light ... ok.  He holds up a ring in the light and he declares it cheap.  It was corroded.  Next he has another ring.  He says 'cool, it has sapphires and other stones, I think it is silver but it might be white gold!'  Oh my goodness.  He said what did you just find?  (It was a dime.)  I'll never forget the sight of that ring in my light.  I'll never forget him jumping my pattern.

Soon after he did in fact walk down the beach and leave me to my patch.  I was pissed as I said and wondered the real etiquette or 'right of way' in this case.  I felt I would have found that ring if he hadn't taken advantage of my search pattern.

After a bit I said that I needed to go back where he found the rings and see if any were missed.  Sure enough I got another cheap ring and then I found a sterling band.  He hadn't gotten it all but he got the best piece.  Later I found one other cheap ring to make it 4 ring finds for the night.

As I was getting near the end of my 4 hour session the Rolling Stones song 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' popped into my mind.  I didn't get what I wanted tonight.  As a metal detectorist I don't always get what I want but I do get what I can find.  Maybe we could paraphrase the lyrics and make it universal to metal detecting.

Mitchel

 

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Sorry to hear about your experience out, but it happens all of the time. I've heard many stories similar even with friends walking over to say hi and getting a signal right in there path and turning out to be a wooper. 

 

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Mitchel, i was born and raised in SoCa and it sounds like this Dude stole your wave man. I'm like you i don't usually talk to anyone while detecting, but since you had already had a conversation i would have had to say something when the guy started swinging close to you. For instance i would have said "Hey i thought you said you were going home?" Anyway you probably handed it better than i would, but i can't help it raised in that environment.  ht

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Had this same thing happen many times before. Not only at the beach but relic hunting and park hunting. My buddy actually had a guy walk up to talk to him while he was relic hunting and two steps away from where they are talking the guy finds a flying eagle cent as he's leaving. I've also been the offender, not on purpose. I was hunting with my brother-in-law at the beach and walked over to see if he had found anything. As I turn and walk away I got a signal that turned out to be a 13 gram 18K ring. He still gives me crap to this day, all in fun of course.

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I'm certainly not going to defend this person's actions.  Common sense isn't so common these days, let alone ethics/sportsmanship.  One thing to keep in mind, though -- as bad as he apparently is at thorough coverage he has probably left you a lot good finds in the past (and will in the future) when the two of you aren't detecting concurrently.

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I call people like that sea gulls.  Just like sea gulls anywhere if you got something they like they'll follow you and swoop in to snatch anything they can.  You can try shoo'ing them away or put up with them.  To bad vlf's dont have the retune feature's like PI's do (different operating principals) or I'd just retune on the sea gull till they got the point.  If you got mate's with ya you can just pack around the sea gull till they leave, or do it yourself if you think you can bugger them off.  Then there's always just dropping you trash pouch around them....  but like you did mn90403 I've left them alone to and just bit the bullet.

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59 minutes ago, DDancer said:

I call people like that sea gulls.  Just like sea gulls anywhere if you got something they like they'll follow you and swoop in to snatch anything they can.  You can try shoo'ing them away or put up with them.  

The ethics of a seagull.

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Thanks for the comments everyone.  I'm glad you shared some of your experiences too.  Of course it wouldn't be a story if he would have just dug and walked home like he said.  I wouldn't know what he had found.  In the end I'm the type of person that everything that happens while detecting is just another clue that keeps me swinging.

My dig holes and My gridding were pointing an arrow at the spot where this seagull decided to swoop.  Then he came to me and wanted me to say 'Good Job' but I remained silent.  He could have had the decency to just put it in his pocket and check it later as he would have to do anyway.

I told the story the way I felt it and the way I remembered the facts.  I wonder what his story would be.

"I was out detecting last night on MY spot and a guy was already there.  I could see the pattern of his dig holes so after I chatted him up a bit I jumped in front of him and found the WHITE GOLD ring.  He had walked around me when I was digging it up so I went to him and had him shine HIS light on it so he could KNOW what I did to him."

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