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What's Your View Of Detecting's Future??


Joe D.

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Hello all, 

   I've always had this question in the back of my mind, but it seems to keep cropping up in various forms! So i thought that instead of trying to shoehorn this question into various threads, or categories! I would just ask in the broadest way possible!

  Examples only:  

     How are the manufacturers addressing this subject? Is it just from a technology standpoint? Or is there a broader range of issues, like getting younger people into the sport? Or trying to reduce the many restrictions that have been created to limit detector use around the world!

   There are no wrong answers! Just stick to Steve's "Golden rules" in your responses!

   If nothing else, maybe the manufacturers will catch on to this idea; if they haven't already, and do more to promote the sport, and it's many benefits!!

Thanks!!👍👍

 

 

 

 

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Since I am new at this hobby I have to admit that I should be the last one to suggest the direction it will go.

With that said and the way the technology has progressed with newer and cheaper detectors on the market, I believe that this hobby is going to see a resurgence in less time than before. I can see where people have been watching me when I get out and practice at parks and beaches. They ask me questions and also ask to use my detector to give it a try. I still have not seen any topless girls ask to use it like Phrunt has, but what the heck I am still new at this.

I can see in the near future where more people will be hitting the ground with detectors than there is right now, not only as a hobby, but as a way to make some extra change.

Someday I wish that I will be good enough to use this detector to hit the gold fields and find some of that yellow stuff, just to say that I have done it.

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  • The title was changed to What's Your View Of Detecting's Future??
6 hours ago, jasong said:

you don't see people posting the finds a lot here in the US.

There is an attitude among some of the nugget and beach detectorists that you don't show your finds.  They are not finding these things to teach others how to find THEIR stuff.  They are very private but also as a rule will not display booty on the internet.  Silence is golden.

Then there are other people like me with moderate success/skunks that show everything.  There is a balance.

Jasong touched on many of the points I would mention.  I also started 'late' in 2010 and I didn't know anyone doing it so my learning curve was high from a technology standpoint (the 5000 sold itself) AND I didn't know where to look successfully.  It took me a year to find my first nugget finally following a group out to a club claim.  If I were to do the same sort of start now with a 5000 like I had then it would take me 2 years to find a nugget.  Now of course that is coming from someone that lives 3-4 hours away from reasonable gold and only got out a couple of times a month.  I didn't get to know any 'locals' around the areas and mostly only had the GPAA maps in the beginning.

Living in gold country or close to gold patches has to be an advantage.  The more I hunt gold the more I know that I'm impatient to find it with the limited amount of time I have.  I live at the beach and I can go back to them again and again and again.  They are also getting depleted by the total number of detectorists.  It would be great to restart my beach detecting in 1986 over again.  The stories I heard from those beachers is amazing.

Joe, you wanted something about the future.  I'd say for the future we are on the 'back side' of the metal detecting curve when it come to the 'professionals.'  The easy days are gone where you can stop at any beach or any patch and just start getting good finds.  Some of that is because of the newer, cheaper, better detectors that are ubiquitous. There will always be missed gold as the saying goes but it may not be worth it until as jasong says the price goes to $10,000.

How many times can you dry wash the same gully?  This technology has been around for a long time and now used with some of the detectors it gets results but even those places are harder and harder to find.

The Aussie Gold Hunters season that just showed had a team that digs and detects.  That may be a limited future for someone with access to that type of deposit.  It works but how many can really do that?

In spite of all of my pessimism about certain parts of the detecting game I've just had perhaps my best year at the beach with gold rings.  This has been the result of my purchase of an Equinox 800.  While it is not considered a beach detector it has done the job for me with about 20 gold rings this year.

I've also just purchased a new detector.  It is one of the AQs.  I believe that is my best chance at better jewelry to go deeper than I can with my 800/15.  I've never had a beach PI but I did use the 5000 with limited success at the beach.

The business development manager at a metal detecting company certainly has a difficult task when considering the long range future.  Mass market distribution of cheaper detectors now seems the most profitable strategy.

 

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I have been detecting since I was 12 , today I am  51  my opinion is metal detecting has gone main stream and global! Just look at some of the forums from around the world, Europeans hunting for old hoards of past civilizations, military relics form the wars. They were never able to do that  under the Soviet system, it was illegal. Today they are digging up tons of WW2 military relics!! Look at Africa and South America same story over in those parts. As far as here in the U.S. the popularity continues with new people coming into the hobby. The difficulty will be finding good grounds, but for those few that work at it, they will reap the benefits. The main thing is for manufactures and users  is to promote this hobby in a positive manner, fill our holes and be good stewards of the land. 

Metal detecting Code of Conduct
  • Do not trespass. ...
  • Respect the Country Code, leave gates and property as you find them and do not damage crops, frighten animals or disturb nesting birds.
  • Wherever the site, do not leave a mess or an unsafe surface for those who may follow.
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9 hours ago, jasong said:

My view? Dim. Except for a select few people. Here are two reasons which are rarely discussed on forums, and rarely understood by new guys trying to succeed:

1.) A very large percentage of the really great finds are coming from places most other people don't have access to. Or, people trespassing on private lands or private claims. Or people tracking/spying on others and raiding their spots (this just happened to me last year). Which is one reason you don't see people posting the finds a lot here in the US.

2.) An equally large percentage of really great finds are coming from people who know exactly where to go because they were either around early when the nugget leads were still plentiful or they had old timers tell them where to go. That knowledge is literally worth more than gold, and the select few that have it are able to take particularly great advantage of newer technology to rehit these old patches.

Once the leads are gone, they are gone forever, and only those who knew where they were at can possibly learn anything from them and develop as a detectorist. With no leads, you might as well be chasing rainbows and banking on luck. Not having that knowledge is a huge disadvantage when you are just a regular guy trying to succeed at this.

With very few exceptions, you will find that most of the successful detectorists were around at least during the late 1990's/early 2000's, or are friends with someone who was.

For me, even though I started late, it was purely luck that won't happen again because when I was about to give up after a couple years of meager finds, the 5000 came out and everyone started to run in Fine Gold. That meant they left behind enough leads for me to find in order to get the hang of where exactly I should be swinging my coil, and it gave me time to catch up and learn slowly alone while there were still a few leads left in the ground. I was able to find old patches luckily, and that gave me confidence of what to look for later on in places few had ever detected. I'd have quit years ago if it weren't for this stroke of lucky timing and the extremely conservative view towards settings on forums and from dealers at the time, along with my realization that I could run all out, in my 4500 and pick up a lot of stuff Fine Gold was missing, even by the pros. All while having these same people tell me running hot was "young man's settings" after I'd just have found gold in their footprints to their disbelief. :cool:

Someone today after 5 years of the GPZ running in the field will not have that benefit to nearly the same degree because the GPZ, even not running hot, gets quite a bit even with an inexperienced operator. Access and knowledge are worth more than gold - those who have it will keep scratching by as nuggets depelete, those without will have to learn to be happy with a few grams here and there or quit in frustration.

Anytime someone finds something big and new there is always a "it's still out there" sentiment. But the reality is that it's mostly still out there for a select few with knowledge and access. Here in the USA anyways.

Of course, if gold goes to $10,000 or something, well then - game on again for all comers!

 

It’s tough for the new guy for sure I dream of starting this years earlier, no reason not to have just wasn’t on my radar at the time nobody to blame for that except myself. I’ve never asked anyone to give up their hard earned knowledge I feel it’s the same as asking for their ATM card and pin for my own use, besides endless hours picking up only trash knowing exactly where  the fruit of the apple tree is when you can’t eat it anyway is it’s own form of torture. luckily feeding myself is not reliant on finding gold and the little bits along the way and the pleasure of the outdoors and the hunt itself enough of a prize to keep me happy, and the dream of finding the one prized ounce or greater chunk still not out of the question someday.

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 I will save Mr.H some trouble and self edit my political comments.

Here in Northern California the ------  ------ - ----- - --- ---! And therefore ----- -- ------- - ----- -- -, ----- - --- - ------- -- -

However we can all ---- - -------- --- -  -------- ----- ------- ------ ---- --- but only if we work together by ------ ------- --- ------ ------ ---- ---- and ------- -- --------- ---- - -- ------- -- ---- --.

There are still a lot of opportunities here in the Northern Sierras but that is only because it requires a lot of very hard work to take advantage of them.

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Most responses thus far have been about natural occurring gold or beach/water detecting.  Here's something from a book I'm reading which seemingly applies to all forms of detecting and seems relevant to this topic:

The pristine, virgin... sites are becoming fewer and fewer, as most detector-users know all too well.  Seldom does a person find an obvious hunting spot that has not been searched already, not anymore(emphasis mine)

and later:

Who amongst us has not heard, over and over again, "Oh, that's a hunted-out spot."?

OK, my quiz question for the day to you:  what year was this written?  (Answer in a couple days if no one gets it before then.)  Your goal should be to get within 5 years of the date.  I'll call that a 'correct' answer, but I may still wait unless someone nails it (likely someone who has read the book).

 

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