Essential Equipment for Metal Detecting

Transcript

Hey Welcome to the metal detecting show Episode number 15. My name is Ciaran and this week I talk about Why we Love Metal detecting and Essential equipment

We have our regular tech time out and of course some news from the world of metal detecting and treasure hunting. So lets get On with the Show.

Jingle:

Hey! Thank you for listening were at episode 15 and I hope you enjoy the show this week. If you want to give me feedback or interact with the show, please reach out to me on twitter @detectingthe or Instagram @themetaldetectingpodcast or If you want to pop me an email to ciaran@themetaldetectingshow.com

If you like this content please don't hesitate to tell your friends and dont forget to hit that subscribe button.

Jingle

Hey before i get started this week i want to give a few updates. still no support from Nokta with my pulse Dive but i have managed to fix it myself as the locating pins are slightly misaligned turned out to be an easy fix but not a great support experience from the Nokta partners.

In my adventures of metal detecting the week and if you are following the show on instagram you will see i brought my kids out detecting this week end... well that was an experience and a lesson in patience but the kids loved it even if the Equinox 800 was an inch to long from my eldest

and finally during the week I stumbled across a new social network called detectornetwork.com and I have to say i am very impressed by what I see there. It's a huge leap forward on what us detectorist have become used to with easy media upload, timelines ,articles, a Marketplace and newsfeeds but most importantly a growing network of over 700 members in just 2 months including major magazines, manufacturers, youtube channels and outlets and now the metal detecting show podcast, so register on detectornetwork.com and check out the metal detecting show podcast page there, where you can interact with the show directly.

So Register on detector network.com and look out for the new apps on both ios and android which are soon to be released.

So after last week's somber episode i want to do an nice easy breezy episode this week so my main topic this week is Why We Detect.

Some people and possibly most archaeologist think we do it to get rich while playing out some sort of Indiana jones fantasy well ok maybe their right about the fantasy bit.

I suppose ill tell you why i think i started metal detecting and i know ive mentioned it before but growing up in the 80’s we like many families at the time and were quiet poor and i remember walking to school everyday with my head down keeping an eye out for some change that may have fallen from someones pocket.

Now i wasnt loking for this change in some sort of charlie bucket scenario of bringing it home to buy dinner for my family but selfishly i was on the look out for change to bring to the local arcade to play centipeade or galaga or something like that.

Now at this time movies like the Goonies and the aforementioned indiana jones were out and being a kid of zero means meant that the prospect of being rich and getting the girl was just one treasure map away and that was enough to set anybody on this path.

However as i mentioned before it was the discovery of a book called Treasure Hunting by whizz kids in the Childs section of my local library that really set me off on this path. I was hooked and till i could afford a metal detector i would search for history by digging holes and finding bottle dumps etc but I've covered this all before but why did i start metal detecting well for me it started out as a childish fantasy but grew into something more as i matured i suppose.

What do some people think when they think of metal detecting well some do think, we are hungry greedy 40 something balding men who will grub around in the dirt looking for a 10p piece.

Some people think we spend our days digging up cans with equipment that has cost a fortune only to deliver boring results and other people believe we do this to get rich quick.

The reality is so far from this truth except for the balding piece or course. We don't do it for the money or to get rich i know in a previous episode we discussed how to make a living metal detecting but ask any detectorist out there how many of their finds have they sold on and most will actually still have almost every find they have ever found irrespective of the collective monetary value of their finds.

Metal detectorist are collectors by their nature and will only sell on finds or jewelery that do not augment their collections and especially if you're a beach detectorist but if you're a relic detectorist forget about it those people are like king tut and will be buried with their finds and rightly so.

The real facts are that very few do it full time and if they do, they are normally augmenting their salary/wages with a part time job or YouTube channel or podcast...

The misconception that it is a hobby for middle-aged men is slowly fading away as more and more women children nerds and geeks are getting into the hobby and slowly changing that perception as the hobby becomes more and more accessible to everyone with the steady release of metal detectors to suit all budgets.

Ok we do spend a lot of money on equipment but metal detecting is one of the only hobbies that pays for itself as we find in the majority a lot of spendable coinage which generally gets put in a bucket and cleaned and spent once a year normally when a new detector or accessory is coming out.

There are so many positive aspects of the hobby and reasons to be pretty fanatical about it.

But some of the reasons might not be what you think of when you think of metal detecting for example in an age of mental health issues causing a rise in suicides particularly in men.

Metal detecting brings exercise and stretching all be it slow moving but over hours making it equivalent to a several mile walk a day, Social interaction in being part of a community club while also building relationships to help with permissions, and times for reflection there is nothing like the headspace gained when you strap on those headphones and enter the zone for a days detecting

all have been proven to increase mental health so we may have the bodies that epitomises middle age spread but we definitely have the minds of a 20 something.

This is why metal detecting is such a popular hobby and recommended when you retire as you get to maintain activity but most importantly you maintain your mental capacity.

If its so good then why do some people leave it so quickly well i believe thats down to expectations. they believe the rubbish that media companies push out, the finely tuned and sculpted Instagram posts that show handfuls of gold rings that tells them that if you go metal detecting you will be rich after a few weeks and find the next Saxon hoard, just like that, meaning that when the reality of metal detecting and finding nothing of significant value hits them they drop it like a hot snot a give up.

With metal detecting very few have got rich from it but everyone learns something new every day with every new dig.

So why do I metal detect for me I think the most fundamental reason I love this hobby stems from a love of history and collecting, while getting out of the house into the countryside or beach. dedicating myself to a task that few will understand but gives you the thrill of the hunt with the only guarantee being that you will learn something new every time you go out there irrespective of what you find.

Up next is this week's tech time out where I chat about the essential equipment for metal detecting.

Jingle

Time for this week’s tech time out this week I want to cover something I thought I had covered previously but apparently, I didn't so here we go.

what is the essential kit a metal detectorist must have with them when they detect so this in a way is a tech time out that is in complete opposition to last week’s tech time out where I talked about ancillary equipment to enhance your detecting experience?

So if you're a detectorist that detects only on a field you will have different equipment than someone who only detects on a beach or maybe if you're lucky you can do both.

So there are somethings that are essential to both terrains and that would be the following now this is a list of things I carry when I detect, I have whittled what I carry down to the bare minimum but at one stage I would hunt with a backpack and a utility belt with everything I could think of in there. Hash tag Nightmare.

so on with my list of essential metal detecting equipment.

A Pin pointer although a premium model can be expensive these are on the list because they speed up the recovery time of a find allowing you to get on to the next find quicker.

There relative high cost is mitigated fairly quickly with more finds per day simple as that. I use the original Garrett pro for the last maybe 15 years I had to waterproof it myself and replaced the switch twice but its only now that it's starting to show signs of dying on me so maybe it's time to get a new one any suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

Headphones once only available in wired format but now with the advent of wireless headphones the thought of wearing headphones all day long is now an altogether an easier task .

just this weekend i detected with the kids without headphones so we could all hear but with even the slightest of breeze we could only hear the large or targets that were close to the surface there was no listening out for faint or iffy signals at all so headphones wear them.

Cleaning tools such as a small spray bottle a toothbrush or a rag. Always handy i don't know who thought of using a small spray bottle but you are a genius this had removed the need or temptation to rub your finds on your slieve or pants. You can use the rag to help you keep a hole tidy too.

Pouch and Finds box or a section in your pouch with a sponge in it. The finds pouch is a no brainer as it allows you to comfortably take your finds with you as you find them but i don't know how many time i have seen someone put their good finds in the same pouch section as the rubbish or even stick it in their pant pockets.

If you find a good find the minute you pull it from the ground is when it's at its most fragile so treat them with care and put them in a safe place such as a finds box or in a sponge in a separate pocket of your finds pouch.

Gloves goes without saying you just have to forget your gloves one day to learn your lesson here. Thankfully gloves have come a long way since I started off where gloves didn't exactly have the same dexterity of modern work gloves. They were designed to last big thick leather yokes that felt like your were picking up something with a handful of sausages.

Boots good sturdy boots but not metal or steel toe capped boots a good set of hill walker boots or army boots will do here.

Suncream if like me your as bald as an egg then suncream is a must you want to keep those melonoma away

Wipes one of those things you won't think of them till you absolutely need them if you know what i mean. Like does a bear poop in the woods.

Now all that stuff is essential to both field detecting and beach detecting where they differ is in what you used to dig up the finds with, for beach detecting and I've said it so many times before nothing beats a stainless steel long handled scoop nothing! this like the pin pointer saves so much time in recovering finds.

For field detecting I recommend a medium length handled spade or shovel there are some great models out there fully stainless steel with saw toothed sides to help you cut through roots plus they look very cool. dont go out with a short-handled shovel or trench tool unless you like digging holse bent over or on your knees you just can't get the leverage on a short-handled shovel.

Also for field detecting i recommend a trowel or a Hori knife for when you need to winkle a find out of the ground or want to be more surgical in digging a hole.

And that's putting it simply the essential equipment needed for detecting are pin pointer headphones pouch cleaning tools gloves boots sun cream and wipes and of course whatever you are going to dig with and that it! and thats it for this week’s tech time out

Up next is this week’s news and views from the world of metal detecting.

Jingle

Welcome to this week’s news and views from the world of metal detecting.

First a story from the frint page of the BBC news

Historic England thefts: Four held over artefacts taken from protected sites

Four men have been arrested over the theft of artefacts from protected heritage sites, police have said.

The men, aged 28, 31, 31 and 32, were arrested by Cheshire Police in seven raids across the Greater Manchester area

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-53239365

And in the daily mail

Striking gold! Amateur metal detector finds FOURTEEN extremely valuable coins on her FIRST hunt - and they could be worth thousands of dollars

Bev Martin, 60, discovered a stash of 14 coins in Victoria's gold fields

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8472753/Amateur-metal-detector-finds-FOURTEEN-extremely-valuable-sovereign-coins.html

if you want to read the full story, for this story or any of this week’s stories the links are in the show notes

And on that note, that’s it for this week’s news and views from the world of metal detecting.

Jingle

Wrap Up

Ok I hope you liked this episode of the metal detecting show podcast

If you want to contribute or have suggestions for topics to cover pop us an email to ciaran@themetaldetectingshow.com

Don’t forget to check our website www.the metaldetectingshow.com for this episodes show notes.

Check out our Patreon page if you want to help the podcast stay alive or just want to buy me a coffee. Just search for the metal detecting show

Once again, I hope you have enjoyed this episode dont forget to subscribe and we will chat to you all again next week.

Get out there and Happy Hunting.