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Select Here to View the MDHTALK's July News Brief in Adobe .PDF
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| July 2020 | Metal Detecting Hobby Talk News Brief Volume 11 Number 124 |
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Support The Hobby I would like to point out to the News Brief readers that there are a number of organizations taking on the challenge against various types of legislation dealing with metal detecting and gold prospecting. MDHTALK's recommendation is to visit their website and give strong consideration to joining the fight. In some cases your support may be to send emails and / or write a letter to specific legislators or to provide funds to help with the fight. Here are the organizations and a link to their website. |
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MDHTALK News Pages U.S. & W.W. News U.K. News U.S. Archaeology U.S. Legislation W.W. Meteoritic Other Media MDHTALK Article Links Return Stories MDHTALK Find a Club Read Newsletters FaceBook Clubs MDHTALK Event Calendar July |
What is a News Brief? The news brief provides a brief look into any news event. The intent of the news brief is to provide you, the reader, with news clips on what was taking place in the hobby last month. To read the whole story select the Article Link or go to MDHTALK.org. There are more news stories placed on the MDHTALK website for June the news stories listed in the MDHTALK News Brief are just a portion of all the hobby related news reported the past month. The news Brief is now available in Adobe PDF format, there is a link at the top of this webpage. The news brief is no longer emailed; it is only available on the MDHTALK website and can be downloaded. The Website's featured article for this month is: Competition Event Update By Lee Wiese Download and Read the Complete Article This article may be some what redundant since there are two other competition hunt articles on the MDHTALK website. However, having participated in four recent competition events there are some behaviors that require additional comment and special emphasis. This article will only cover those areas that were somewhat lacking in the competition hunts attendant by this author. The other two articles concerning competition metal detecting hunt have much greater detail on all aspects of competition hunts and are highlighted at the end of this article. The four areas that will be commented on in this article are:
Event Date. The event date, event start time, event location and an overall activity schedule should be covered at the very beginning of the event flyer. Hunts. Next, the flyer must have good a description of each offered metal detecting hunt with information on the type of prizes and the hunt fee. Each hunt should have its own registration fee so that a potential participant can choose which hunt or hunts to enter or not to enter. Fees. The fee for a competition hunt are usually directly related to an individual hunt theme and all of the hunt fee should be directed towards that specific hunt's coin targets and token prizes. There should be a disclosure on the event flyer if portions of a hunt fee are going toward hunt site rents, event insurance, park entrance fees to the site or an event lunch. It is best that a special event fee be added to cover all overhead cost related to the event. This way it is very clear and upfront as to what the overhead cost is and that all registered participants must pay this fee along with their hunt fees. (Overhead cost may include: event insurance, lunch, hunt field rent, park entrance fee, flyer cost, etc.) Disclosure. If there is no specific overhead related fee for the event them there must be a disclosure on the flyer about how much of the hunt fees will be applied toward the overhead cost. Since taking moneys from hunt fees to pay for overhead cost will reduce the amount of moneys available for coin targets and token prizes. |
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General U.S. and World Wide Hobby News
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Other News Sources
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PLP Prospector Cross Training Article Link |
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What does a gold prospector do to take a break from finding gold? Why, go to
Hawaii and mine the tourists of course! Well it’s not quite like it sounds. Who
among us hasn’t lost a ring, coins or some piece of jewelry at the beach or
swimming at their favorite swimming hole? I can remember back in Junior High
school during the summer we would vacation near a lake for two weeks. I would
spend the days fishing in the morning and swimming in the afternoon until that
fateful day I was wearing my mom’s high school ring (you hear this one coming,
right?). Yep, you guessed it, while jumping off the diving platform that ring
slipped off my finger when I hit the water, never to see the light of day again!
The water was only about 6 or 7 feet deep, so I dove down and felt around in the
mud: nothing. Again and again I dove, and nothing. You didn’t want to be me that
night having to explain what happen to the ring! I still wonder why I wanted to
wear that thing in the first place. Underwater metal detectors weren’t around
back then, but now I’m thinking of taking mine back to hunt for the lost ring. I
remember fairly well where that old platform floated in the swimming area…but I
digress. There is abundant wealth lost around water and you don’t need a mining claim or special permission to hunt many public places. If you have a waterproof detector or one that can handle highly mineralized conditions, your odds of finding treasure increase significantly. Let me explain. A typical ocean beach can be compared to the Mother Lode, only better. Why? As long as people keep visiting there, the gold gets replenished! Rings, bracelets, coins get lost in There are several similarities between beach hunting for jewelry and hunting for gold in the rivers. For instance, at the beach, she stuff that is lost in the upper sand areas make their way down into the surf during large storm events just like gold is washed downstream in the same storms. You can find an occasional nugget above a river in gold country, but you’re going to make your best finds when you locate the pay streak where nature has concentrated the gold. TThe same is true of the beaches. Recently while hunting a beach in Hawaii, I started off as I typically do, hunting a cross section of the beach to possibly identify a paystreak, or hotspot. I started where my wife and I laid out our stuff, fairly high up, near the highest point. I checked some areas close by, coming up fairly empty except for a pull tab and a penny. I started swinging my detector on down toward the surf, intending to hunt in the surf for a while to cool off. Before I got into the waves, the flat sections of lava bedrock began showing through the sand. As I neared the lava, I got a solid signal. I used my sand scoop to capture the target. My scoop went “clunk” hitting the bedrock only a couple inches under the sand. I swept away the sand and checked the spot again with my detector. Still a very solid signal, but where was it hiding? There was only a small bit of loose sand where the signal was coming from. I carefully swept away the sand and noticed a small indentation with more sand. A hole in the lava rock. Of course! This is going to be like hunting gold in bedrock in a river. I pulled out the only small tool I had with me, a pair of tweezers and began clearing the hole of packed sand with the blunt end. Several inches down I could tell I was hitting a flat object with the tweezers. I was able to dislodge what turned out to be a nickel and grab it with the tweezers. I pulled it out of a hole literally only wide enough it would seem someone purposely placed it in there like a piggy bank! I stood up, glanced across the beach at the receding tide and saw hundreds of holes, cracks and steps in the lava bedrock and said “Cha ching, the piggy bank is full!” There were more cracks and holes under the wet, smooth sand than what was showing above the sand. I began locating target after target, many coins were standing on edge, wedged into the cracks. I was able to dig a few out with the tweezers, but soon I realized I need heavier duty tools. So I hiked back to the rental car, hoping I had packed the screwdriver I had modified for detecting. I was in luck, it was in the suitcase with a few other tools. Once I was able to employ the screwdriver to “unscrew” the coins from their wedged hiding places, I cut my extraction time dramatically. I couldn’t travel more than a foot or two before locating another target, and my coin to trash ratio was about 4-5 coins per piece of trash, instead of the opposite like I have experienced so often on public beaches. I could tell many had been stuck there for a long time, but unfortunately I didn’t find any silver coins or gold rings that day. I did come up with 59 coins, at least enough to pay for another round of batteries for the detector. I was still amazed at how many coins were lodged into cracks and holes just barely big enough for them to fit into. I find batteries, fish hooks, nails, metal toys, etc. The variety is endless. I’m sure beach goers would thank me for the cuts they didn’t get on their feet! I find lead fishing weights too and add those to my melt pile for the next time I cast diving weights for dredging. Detectorists help clean the beach making it a safer place for everyone. I am surprised how many bottles I find that were intentionally buried so someone didn’t have to pack them out. You see, oftentimes the metallic labels give their presence away when detecting. When that happens I pick them up and carry what I can while hunting, and then when I can’t comfortably carry more, stop detecting and make a trash dump run. On certain beaches when the conditions are ‘just right’, the waves are larger and hit the beach faster than normal and begin stripping sand off the beach. When this happens a deep cut in the sand can occur. The wave action pulls the sand out to sea, but the heavier metal items such as coins and jewelry are left behind, concentrated in the sand. Sometimes these cuts can be as deep as 6 to 8 FEET! About 15 years ago this occurred on a southern California beach and my buddy Dan found over 1,100 (not a typo) ELEVEN HUNDRED coins in two days! Not to mention many gold and silver rings, gold chains and more. I forgot how many pounds of lead fishing weights he found, but it was impressive. There were multiple targets with every sweep of the coil! He finally had to stop digging targets due to fatigue. It’s one of those problems we all wish t the sand where folks relax on their towels, picnic, etc. But where it really gets good is down in the surf! Everyone should wear sunscreen while out there, right? As soon as those sunscreen soaked tourists hit the water, voila! Those rings slide off the fingers and are deposited in the newly enriched paydirt! There are subtle comparisons to gold prospecting and beach hunting AKA Beach Combing, Coin Shooting, etc. You will find that the surf sorts out materials for you and when you are really lucky, you can identify a pay streak. In a river the gold pay streaks follow the downstream flow of the river, but on the beach the pay streak will typically run horizontal across the beach. After items have been in the sand/surf for some time, the wave and current action tend to sort thing by weight and density. The pull tabs will be in a certain line, the lighter coins further down towards the deeper water and when you start detecting fishing weights, you are on the gut of the pay streak. That is where you are most likely to strike gold! Gold rings top the list but bracelets, pendants, etc. This is a little known secret that may help you increase your productivity while swinging your detector on the beach and especially in the surf. o have when out swinging the detector! If you’re going to hunt in the water, if possible hunt at low tide. That way you can get further out and hunt where there has been less pressure from other detectorists. Plus, the surf tends to pull things down the beach and out into deeper water. Sometimes in storms that trend reverses, but it’s not the norm. You only have limited time to hunt, so up your chances for success whenever you have a choice. If you choose to hunt the deep water without SCUBA gear, here are a few of my gear suggestions: Well it must be obvious, but you need a waterproof detector! One that can handle salt water mineralization, for sure. There are some good pulse induction machines that work extremely well in salt conditions. And don’t forget those waterproof headphones to help you hear those faint, deeper targets. I was rather disappointed recently when I purchased a name brand waterproof prospecting detector that came with…wait for it…NON-Waterproof headphones! Seriously? I had to spend a couple of hundred extra for the waterproof headphones. Go figure. A good screened scoop is a must when working sandy areas. If you’ve ever hunted the beach you have no doubt found your share (and then some!) of bobby pins, bits of nails, etc. To solve this I place a rare earth magnet in the scoop to quickly capture those small, annoying iron targets. If you’re going to hunt the salt beach areas, you’ll want to get a stainless steel scoop. A steel scoop will rust fairly quickly in those harsh conditions. I had to fasten my magnet in the scoop with galvanized wire since stainless steel is not magnetic. I can see clearly now that I use a mask and snorkel! Very shallow water is no problem but when you hunt waist deep water and deeper you should consider a mask and snorkel. For best breathing use a mask with a purge valve and a snorkel equipped with a check valve to help prevent you from inhaling a nice big gulp of salt water. Mmmm get your big gulp here…not! When hunting in the surf, there is this annoying thing that occurs regularly, is somewhat repetitive, but doesn’t repeat the timing exactly the same time twice, called “Waves”. Just about the time you are engrossed in pinpointing a target, ‘boom’ a wave hits you and you lose sight of “the spot”, maybe even get carried 10 or 15 feet away as the water lifts you and carries you towards shore, Then, the undertow of the wave returning to go back and set up to hit you again. There is a cool little tool you can make that will help you locate your target again. My friend Dan Fergot told me how to tie a fishing bobber to a fishing weight with a length of string about the depth of the water you are hunting. When you get a signal with your detector and a wave is about to hit, drop the fishing weight on the spot and the bobber will guide you back to your target after the water calms a bit between wave sets. This can make the difference between success and failure at the end of the day when you recover more targets in less time and energy expended. Once in a while you will find that a target keeps slipping through your scoop. Don’t give up on these! Sometimes they are diamond ear rings or other valuable items (or small lead fishing weights). When this happens, I use a regular plastic nugget scoop to separate out the target. Sometimes you get a better payday on one of these tiny targets than a big one! Oftentimes while out swinging my detector on the beach, curious folks will stop and ask me if I found anything, what I found, or be curious about the detector. I don’t mind explaining how the machine works, or describing some of the 5 year old little girl over to watch me detect. I took off my headphones and invited them over to see me uncover my latest target. I used my screwdriver to dislodge a quarter from a bedrock crack and held it up to show them. They thought that was really neat that I could pull money out of the ground like that. I asked the little girl if she would like to have a coin I found. She quipped “No, we have plenty of money!” The mom looked a bit embarrassed and thanked me for the demonstration. Sometimes you can see the thirst for adventure and treasure hunting in people when you explain what you are doing. Go ahead and share you enthusiasm, especially with the younger folks or better yet take a kid along with a spare detector and train up the next generation of environmentally friendly cross-trained prospectors. They just might surprise you with what they find, and you will find you did the right thing. |
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Metal Detecting & Gold Prospecting Events.
Now is the time to start planning and getting your club's 2020/21 hunt information on the web. The sooner it is out and available to the metal detecting community the greater the chance for people to see it and give your event some consideration. the Complete Event Details for July |
Check out your event before going it may have been postponed or canceled. |
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