Need some advice for a new hobby

[jamil]

So my hair and beard are pretty gray and wrinkles are starting to appear in enough places to convince me I'm at the age where I know it's time. Yes, you guessed it. I want to take up metal detecting / treasure hunting.

No, seriously, the more I think about it the more I want to look for interesting things buried in the dirt. I'd like to go back and visit where I lived in Mississippi and go bulleting. That's what the locals call it when you search for civil war stuff with metal detectors. The first conversation I had about it went something like this:

Neighbor Jiles: "y'all wanna go bulletin' with me?"

Me: "Huh? I didn't know there was a verb form of bulletin?"

Jiles: "Naw. Bulletin'... Huntin' fer bullets with a metal dee-tecter?"

Me: "Oh, no, thanks, I just got Call of Duty"

Jiles: "I din't know y'all was in the military."

Me: "No. It's a video game"

Jiles: shakes head and walks away.


I wish I would have taken him up on it. CoD sucks anyway. In those days I lived very close to a battle field, but at the time, "bulletin'" didn't interest me. But now it does.

None of my friends or acquaintances around here are into that kind of thing so I've taken to a bit of online researching, and checking out reviews and such on mid priced metal detectors.

Any suggestions on equipment? How to get started?

Advice is much appreciated. Old fart jokes are tolerated.

 

[451_Detonics]

I see a beach at dawn in your future...

 

[mrjarrell]

Not my thing, but there are clubs for it in Indiana.

MDHTALK - Indiana Metal Detecting Club List
Hoosier Exploration and Recovery ? About our Club
Metal Detecting, Treasure Hunting Clubs and Associations in Indiana

And a lot more resources if you look online.

 

[Cygnus]

Take up the guitar. Create your own metal?

 

[Leadeye]

I do that with the wife every now and then but we don't find much stuff around here.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

I've thought about getting one. If you're the type that likes the thrill of the search I think it would be fun.

 

[Leadeye]

Best places to hunt old stuff is where people have been around for a long time, a friend of mine who's good at this stuff hunts around the Ohio river and makes good use of old maps on the internet.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

There are some pretty cool videos on Youtube of people metal detecting. I like NuggetNoggin, he's always amazed at every little wheat penny or whatever that he finds.

 

[87iroc]

Be careful...my old boss does it...with a passion. He said you can get in trouble if you're not careful. Tresspassing laws. Just do your research.

 

[RyanGSams]

I looked into it last year. Up here in NWI, you cannot detect on most beaches or city parks. Actually you can detect, but you cannot dig into the ground...

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

I wish I had more walk in me these days. I used to go geocaching a bit, but mostly I use a pretty decent metal detector to trace buried cables and find stuff in my yard. I find stupid crap every time I try to plant a bush or build a deck or something, not all of it metal. The brickbats are the most annoying; my house has no bricks.

 

[1DOWN4UP]

White's Electronics: Whites Metal Detectors The White in my opinion is by far the best......but is not cheap. It will pay for itself.

 

[smittygj]

Be careful...my old boss does it...with a passion. He said you can get in trouble if you're not careful. Tresspassing laws. Just do your research.

+1 on this comment. I read it was illegal to do in most state or federal land, which made me change my mind as I was thinking about finding some of the old settlements in the HNF and poking around to see what I could find.

 

[CBR1000rr]

I don't have any gray hair yet I love metal detecting. I actually got out of it sure to restraints on my time and lack of people to hunt with. It's a fantastic hobby that has led me to done awesome discoveries. My kids love it too but they are too young to go on actual metal detecting trips.

Bits of advice:

-Buy a metal detector. Any metal detector, cheap or expensive. Don't put too much thought into initially. There are some high end metal detectors out there that will locate a coin under a pile of nails, detectors that have GPS built into the coil and track exactly what areas you have searched and much more. At the end of the day, it's just as fun finding a silver dime with a cheap bounty hunter from Duhnams. I've had both. Started with a bounty hunter and found some coins but mostly junk. Then I upgraded to a whites xlt with more features than I could learn. It was a great detector and you can really tell a difference between the two but I dug up just as much junk with the whites as I did the bounty hunter. Was it worth the upgrade for me? Yes but I would have hated to spend that kind of money only to find out I wouldn't like it.

- Find a few friends to hunt with. Hunting by yourself is fun but you will run out of places to go and get bored. The metal detecting community is awesome and most will share their "spots" as well as their knowledge.

- Research is your best friend. You will find stuff just mopping around randomly but you will be more successful researching the areas you want to hunt. Find old maps, talk to old timers that are familiar with the area and look for areas that people used to or still do frequent.

- Have fun. I have one friend who kept upgrading his detector by saving all the copper he found. You'd be amazed how many random copper parts and pieces you'll find. One trip, he found around $50 worth of scrap copper. When I asked him why he kept it, he speed me a 5 gallon bucket in his van plumb full and explained how he saves it and recycles it. That money then went towards a new detector. Before his cancer came back, he has upgraded to a $2500 MineLab by doing this.

Best of luck to you and I hope you find as much enjoyment as I did!

 

[trucker777]

I know this is an old thread, but for the heck of it I've found some pretty interesting items toolin' around Westville with my cheap Radio Shack Bounty Hunter. So far Ive found nothing of value... but Im not ready to quit yet. Ive mostly found nails and bits of iron around town. There at the park where they hold the annual Pumpkinfest, I've found modern pocket change. In the open section of the area I've found lots of old railroad spikes, broken horse bridals, old tin cans, as well as a motley assortment of miscellaneous junk and debris. Which I always properly dispose of.
Getting permission was easy- it was a simple phone call to the Westville town clerk.
I have searched the Dunes too. They actually allow metal detecting during the fall and winter months. The only catch is: (after obtaining the permit from DNR- its free so don't get caught without one because they will confiscate your equipment and prosecute!) DNR requires that anything found must be reported and turned over to them. So in addition to that, the only problem I had was curious looky-loos continually asking me what I was doing and if I was having any luck. I haven't been back.

 

[jamil]

I suppose I could update. I ended up buying a Garret Ace 350, which seems to be a descent entry level detector. I've not been out to many places with it but I have a pretty big yard and I've found some trinkets and stuff, but nothing valuable.

I know this is an old thread, but for the heck of it I've found some pretty interesting items toolin' around Westville with my cheap Radio Shack Bounty Hunter. So far Ive found nothing of value... but Im not ready to quit yet. Ive mostly found nails and bits of iron around town. There at the park where they hold the annual Pumpkinfest, I've found modern pocket change. In the open section of the area I've found lots of old railroad spikes, broken horse bridals, old tin cans, as well as a motley assortment of miscellaneous junk and debris. Which I always properly dispose of.
Getting permission was easy- it was a simple phone call to the Westville town clerk.
I have searched the Dunes too. They actually allow metal detecting during the fall and winter months. The only catch is: (after obtaining the permit from DNR- its free so don't get caught without one because they will confiscate your equipment and prosecute!) DNR requires that anything found must be reported and turned over to them. So in addition to that, the only problem I had was curious looky-loos continually asking me what I was doing and if I was having any luck. I haven't been back.

Yeah, people I've talked to have basically steered me away from DNR land. There's a lot of private farm land around. I've thought of asking them if I could poke around a bit and share what I find.

 

[RW97]

That story with your neighbor seem pretty hilarious, I Lol'd. May seem like an interesting new hobby, there are some guys on YouTube that fine some pretty interesting stuff.