Metal detecting…….Do you?

Unit74

Unit74

Final Approach
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Unit74
I have had zero motivation to fly or get out of the house for that matter. I fly for a purpose, not just to fly in circles. If I don’t have a reason to fly, I simple to not want to. Seems wasteful and irrelevant.

I have been watching lot of YouTube on prospecting, mining, and metal detecting though. This lead me to a thought. If I were to fly to various places and spend a weekend swinging a detector be it on the beach or in a Mtn stream, I’d find purpose in flying. That’s not to say that I’m looking for a hobby to support another hobby though. I’d be just as happy flying to eat or go see something like a show or raft a river. But it seems there is just so many places to detect that it would give me a quick reason to go do something.

I have tried a gold pan a few times, never very successful though. Powder gold and nothing I could sell is about all I found. Finding war trinkets or old coins sound much more interesting as well. This leads me to consider getting a detector and heading out to try my hand, starting at the local beach, maybe working some land in the country and see what turns up.

I have not committed yet, but I’m really looking for something to get me out of this armchair. I need to find purpose in what I’m doing and the hopes of finding something that has actual value seems like it would do that. I think metal detecting might do that.

Anyone metal detect and have thoughts on the matter?
 
A guy I work with used to ride in the back seat of a big Navy plane that kinda used a big metal detector to look for Russian submarines. You're probably looking for a smaller detector.
 
I enjoy metal-detecting - it's almost as good as going fishing. Locally the best I've found are Mercury dimes dating 1921 and 1923. I don't hunt for treasure per se - I just enjoy uncovering and contemplating any bits of history I find, even a simple wheat penny next to an old school. As far as combining flying and detecting, I haven't done so yet, but like the OP, it's crossed my mind.
 
a couple months ago I saw an article of some sort about someone metal detecting a grass runway. If I recall correctly they found some civil war trinkets.... sorry, don't remeber where I saw it. Maybe the EAA or the AOPA newsletter emails????

When I was a teen, I had a really low end detector....maybe radio shack or Sears...I can't recall. Never found much more than trash with it except an old pair of glasses up against a really old tree's trunk. It was near ruins of an old collapsed country house in the woods near my parent's house. Really odd crude looking things. If I had to guess I'd say the house was last lived in perhaps in the 40's or 50's.... but the glasses look much older than that. I can see that being a fun hobby if you can stick with it long enough to figure out a logical place to find stuff. My guess, it aint easy....
 
My dad used to have a metal detector when I was little. We had some woods that ran up against the back of our property, and we found some interesting old stuff, but nothing of great value.

If you're anywhere near a coast, you could try detecting on the beach. I saw an older gentleman find a piece of an old shipwreck and some other cool stuff once when on vacation with my family. Apparently, he'd found an old WW2 pistol on the beach before. My dad had stories of finding people's old jewelry and the like when he was younger. I think that's part of the draw of detecting - you never know what you'll end up with.
 
My dad, a school teacher, made more money metal detecting during the summer than he did teaching during the fall/winter/spring. The secret, according to him, was to get out in the water. Apparently, in the area where I grew up, "summer carnivals" were very popular on lakes during the 1880s-1940s, and they all had swimming beaches. My dad would scour old maps to find the locations of these carnivals/swimming beaches, then hit them with the metal detector. He would usually only find junk on land, but the real stash would come from the water...especially the depths from about chest high to just over your head. My mom still wears some of the valuable antique jewelry he found...He did this all with a submersible detector and a mask and snorkel.
 
I have a metal detector. My older model is a mid priced Fischer F4. It works great for the beach trips. Find all sorts of coins, sunglasses etc. I have definitely cleaned my fair share of bottle caps from the beach though! Now, my brother has a Mine Lab...super duper (not a technical term) model that he can even take in the surf and find things. He finds much better stuff than I do. His most recent find was a GoPro that had the water case on it. It still worked after charging. We watched the video of the poor kid that had it strapped to his foam surf board and it fell off. Happened the week before and we couldnt locate the owner. Anyway, there is lots of stuff to find. You have to be careful where you metal detect...I think there are some states that dont allow it. You definitely cant metal detect in national parks where there may have been battles.

It is fun though. Get yourself a headset to block out all the other sound though. The biggest thing that is annoying (to me at least) is all the people that stop you on the beach and ask about what you found. It stops my flow. I find it best to do it early in the morning before all the beach combers get out there or late in the evening after they leave. Also, if you can make a trip to the east coast beaches after a storm or hurricain passes...it churns up the beach and you can really have a lot of good success at finding deeper hidden gems. Helps me maintain my grid pattern. Just dont be like all the 90 year old men i see out there swinging their arms 300 mph....will miss too much that way.
 
Water is good, but if it's the ocean, be sure to check up on local laws. For example, in Florida, anything below the high tide mark is considered off limits. No only can you not metal detect in the ocean, you can't legally do it in the surf either.
 
bflynn said:
In Florida, anything below the high tide mark is considered off limits...you can't legally do it in the surf either.
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I lost my wedding band in Destin, FL playing catch with my son in the surf. Ironically, the very next day, I met a guy in a wet suit with an underwater metal detector. I was thinking of renting a rig to see if I could find my ring but he talked me out of it as the rental equipment tends to be junk and there's a lot of luck involved. Or maybe he just didn't want the competition :) Nevertheless, if it's illegal to metal detect in the surf, the police in Destin apparently aren't too interested in enforcing it. This guy told me he's been working this section of beach for ~20 years. He said wedding bands are a common find. He had a story or two of some seriously expensive rings he found. In the end, given the time he spent searching, he said it's more about the thrill about what you might find rather than a serious source of $.
 
bflynn said:
Water is good, but if it's the ocean, be sure to check up on local laws. For example, in Florida, anything below the high tide mark is considered off limits. No only can you not metal detect in the ocean, you can't legally do it in the surf either.
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Let them stop me! :)
 
not metal detecting, but treasure hunting....back home there's a place where hundreds of boats gather and raft up on major summer holidays. My brother in law used to go out there that night after the boats leave. He had a shoebox full of high dollar sunglasses, and also found a few other good things from time to time. I went with him once, the only thing I found was a full beer or two that got dropped overboard.

Also, check youtube. I saw a few vids by a young lady that does underwater detecting on her channel. Sorry I don't know the name...
 
Free beer? I’d spend $800 on a detector for a couple free beers fo sho!
 
There was a show on one of the discovery/learning/history channels a few years ago that featured these two crazy metal detecting bros... They would get invited to some property where George Washington once walked or something then go swinging their metal detectors all over the place... and get ridiculously over-excited when they found an old button or something. Sounds really dumb and the show was, indeed, really dumb... but for some reason I would get sucked in to watching these to yahoos find what usually amounted to junk in other people's yards.... I may have to dig that up online and watch a few episodes...
 
yuoutube is great for getting sucked into stuff like that. My kid told me about Youtube shorts...I tried it, and it amazingly easy to kill a lot of time doing nothing !
 
I just watch one of the Duck Dynasty guys do a vid on metal detecting. He was like, weeellp, I should be duck hunting, but I’m going metal detecting instead. He had a couple decent finds over the course of a day. I was mildly entertained by it.
 
Sac Arrow said:
I don't get it either. Get outside the territorial waters of the US and even the legality goes away.
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You don't even have to go that far out, usually. Florida is kind of a special case; they really want their cut of the treasures they'd never find if left to themselves. But generally, shipwrecks in salt water are fair game for salvage, the exceptions mainly being those that have sunk so recently that they still belong to the owner at the time of sinking, or that still belong to the insurance company that paid the claim. But once that claim is released, the remaining exceptions are US Navy vessels, a few wrecks that are protected due to their historical significance, or a wreck that has been arrested, often for salvage of something specific that is on it.

I've been a wreck diver for decades; I've got shelves full of cool artifacts. Salt water wrecks are deteriorating at a fairly rapid rate, so it's better to retrieve and conserve artifacts while there is still time. In contrast, fresh water wreck artifacts are best left alone, particularly if in cold, deep water, as the artifacts are preserved pretty well in situ. There are some spectacular wrecks in the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence that are very cool to visit because all of the goodies are still there to be seen and enjoyed.
 
GaryM said:
I've been a wreck diver for decades...
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Have you read The Last Dive? It's been many years since I read it but I remember being thoroughly pulled into the story.
 
MICHAEL MAHN said:
Have you read The Last Dive? It's been many years since I read it but I remember being thoroughly pulled into the story.
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I have read it. I knew a few of the people in the book, though not Chris and Chrissy Rouse.

I highly recommend Shadow Divers, the story of the discovery and 7-year-effort to identify the U-869, found off of NJ where no U-boat was expected to be found. It didn't help that U-869 had been 'confirmed' sunk off of Africa by the German Navy. Shadow Divers also tells the story, in less detail, of the deaths of the Rouses on that wreck.

I was a frequent diver on the Seeker (the boat that found the sub) throughout that time period, so I'd hear the stories well before author Kurson so wonderfully captured them in his book. I never got to dive the U-869 myself; it was some years later when I'd gotten the necessary experience and mixed-gas certifications to be invited on a trip to the wreck, and then I managed to book 8 consecutive trips over the course of a few years, only to lose all of them to bad weather. The wreck is about 70 miles offshore, and nearly 240' down, so getting there isn't trivial. I decided a few years ago that I'd gotten too old to dive to such depths so I'll not get to see it in person now.
 
I'm not sure where you live or what you fly but if the Idaho back-country is doable, then there are plenty of places to prospect. Most anywhere along the Salmon River and it's tributaries is gold country.
Some desert locales may be better for nugget detecting. Arizona and Nevada have gold and there may be airstrips, or dry lake beds, nearby to where you want to go. Speaking of dry lake beds, they can be great areas to look for meteorites.
Be careful detecting for things besides nuggets on Federal Land. Sometimes the Feds can get grumpy and think that piece of junk you found, with your detector, and dug up has archeological significance.

https://www.treasurehunting.tv/metal-detecting-laws-by-state/
 
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I see old guys with metal detectors on the gulf beaches in Florida whenever we are there. There are usually 2 or 3 guys searching the beach and in water a day. I've talked to a few of them and they all say they usually only find some change and cheap jewelry, but every one "knows a guy" who once found a huge diamond ring. I think it's more about the thrill of the hunt than actually making any money.
 
I think you are right Colo…. But like the ol timers out west or the slot players in Vegas, the allure of hitting the jackpot is hard to resist.
 
I think metal detecting is an activity that's very much akin to fishing. Some outings you get skunked, but often you find/catch just enough to keep things fun and interesting. And then there are the rarer occasions in which you find/catch the big one.
 
I have had thoughts of flying a bush plane to the end of a retreating glacier, land and detect for gold nuggets. When you see someone hiking towards you and looks as if they don't want you there, fly to another location a few miles away and resume detecting. It will take most of the day for that person to hike within a mile of you, then fly a couple more miles.
 
PPC1052 said:
...I have been trying to find the Nova episode on it, but no luck.
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There's a "Hitler's Lost Sub" 52:49 video on YouTube which I believe is the Nova video.
 
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Did a lot of gold detecting when I lived in AZ. More fun than actually finding the gold was getting to where the gold was. I bought me a couple Rokons and outfitted them to take me places where very few people dared to tread. Here’s a video I think most of the outdoorsman/motorcycle enthusiasts here can appreciate.

 
I bought a Mine Labs Equinox 800. Lets the hunting begin. I hear the beaches need to be rid of the bottle caps, Pennies, and tent stakes.
 
Unit74 said:
I bought a Mine Labs Equinox 800. Lets the hunting begin. I hear the beaches need to be rid of the bottle caps, Pennies, and tent stakes.
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That's what I have. It took a while to get it set-up like I wanted (had to watch several Youtube videos). Places I search locally contain lots of junk, so I bought a smaller coil, which seems to help.
 
ETres said:
That's what I have. It took a while to get it set-up like I wanted (had to watch several Youtube videos). Places I search locally contain lots of junk, so I bought a smaller coil, which seems to help.
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I found a deal where it comes with a finds bag, Leache hand digger and the mine Labs travel case PLUS a 15” coil along with the OEM 11” coil all for $950 delivered. That was a much better deal than the military pricing. Just ordered a Coob 8x11 scoop and just got back from Lowes to get an Ash handle for it.

I should have it all in my hands late next week.
 
First hour in the books. Found two pop tops, a beer can, a broken "Chanel" logo of some sort, and a penny. We worked the back yard and have a long way to go. I did realize that working dirt, you really need a pinpointer to find the metal. We sifted through handfuls of dirt and it was right in front of us. With sand, you can sift it out or dunk it in the water to clean away the sand and find your prize. Field work is damn near impossible to see the metal when it's right in front of you.

Just bought a Garrett Poinpointer AT. That should speed things up.
 
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