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Select Here to View the MDHTALK's November News Brief in Adobe .PDF
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| November 2022 | Metal Detecting Hobby Talk News Brief Volume 12 Number 153 |
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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 November |
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 October 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: Metal Detecting Competition Hunt Etiquette and Integrity By Lee Wiese Download This Article Metal detecting competition events (hunts) are usually sponsored by a metal detecting club or hosted by hobby related manufacturers and retail businesses. These events can be comprised of one or two hunts or in some cases the event may last from three to seven days and have many different types of metal detecting hunts. Metal detecting competition hunts can be either an open or closed hunt event depending on how the sponsor or host defines the event. Open Hunts. You need not be a club member to participate in the hunt. An open hunt is for any one who is willing to pay the entrance fee and follow the hunt rules. Closed Hunts. You must be a club member to participate in the hunt and be able to show a current club membership card at registration. A closed hunt is for club members only and will usually require an admission fee. |
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The requirement of any interested detectorist to participate in a competition
hunt is to complete the pre-register form and submit an admission fee for each
of the scheduled hunts. Thus, the participant can select just certain hunts that
are of interest to them or all of the scheduled hunts. Metal detectorist in competition hunts can be very aggressive, therefore, rules and standards of etiquette are very important so that the hunt is held in a fair and balanced manner. Lets remember that all of the detecting participants have paid the same required admission fee for participation and expect an equal chance at the prizes. Metal Detecting Etiquette and Integrity for a competition hunt is controlled by the event's host or sponsor and is usually accomplished by creating an atmosphere of fairness with written rules and expectations. The Hunt Master provides the leadership for the event by enforcing the event rules and conducting an impartial event which should result in very high event integrity. The individual detectorist's responsibility is to follow the event rules and to conduct their actions in a respectful manner towards the other detectorists on the hunt field and toward the Hunt Master and Event Host. Competition is the action of individuals competing against each other by using their metal detecting skill with a metal detector of their choosing. This action is to seek a prize or prizes from a target rich pre-planted field of coin targets and tokens. In a competition event rules and etiquette of conduct are necessary so that all participants in a paid event have the same equal opportunity to seek the targets and prizes for their admission fee. High integrity for the event should be a major objective of the host and hunt master. The hunt master should never plant foreign coins, or other tokens that are not represented by a prize. To do so takes away from the integrity of the hunt and its officials. Competition metal detecting hunts are usually held in public parks, at ocean beaches or on privately held lands. These hunts are fee based and will have pre-planted fields with coin and token targets. The exception is relic hunts, which are usually held in open terrain with no pre-planted targets and are usually fee based. Competition hunt etiquette is the responsibility of all: the event host, the hunt master and the paid participant. Event Host or Sponsor's Responsibility. The event host plays a major role in how the event is organized and for the development of the event rules and event conduct. The event host or sponsor must develop the event rules so that all paid participants have an equal and fair chance to find the maximum number of targets with their expertise and equipment. This requires that the host establish rules that will not provide or give an unfair advantage to any one detectorist or group of detectorist in the event. This is very important since all participants paid the same fee and have the expectation to have an equal opportunity for their admission fee on the competition hunt field. The rules developed by the host should be directed at what detector equipment is acceptable on the hunt field and the conduct expected of the hunt master and participants so everyone on the field has the same opportunity at finding the pre-planted targets. The rules below are designed to provide each detectorist an equal opportunity to find the pre-planted targets. There should never be an advantage provided by the event host to any dtectorist by allowing a coil size greater than 12 inches, the use of Pulse Induction detectors (PIs), or the use of certain target recovery tools that may increase the speed of target recovery. Metal Detector Rules:
The hunt master must make sure that all coin targets and tokens are planted equally throughout the competition hunt field. All people who assist in planning coins should not be detecting in that hunt to do so would put other detectorist at an disadvantage. If coin planters are allowed to hunt they should not be allowed to hunt the specific portion of the competition field where they have planted with coin targets. The hunt master should never be an active detectorist in a competition hunt. Hunt masters should always be the person to plant all tokens for any given hunt and make sure that they are evenly planted by token value though out the hunt field. If the hunt field is large with many participants it is recommended that the hunt field be divided into quadrants. The number of quadrants or sections can vary from two, four, six to even eight for a very large event. Coin target planters can be assigned a quadrant to plant the coins and they should be restricted from metal detecting that quadrant during the competition hunt. All quadrants should have an equal number of coin targets and tokens. Quadrants can be established by using rope to layout the hunt field or small colored flags on wire stand-ups. These flags can be purchase at business like Home Depot, Lowe's or most hardware stores. Integrity. An important aspect of being the hunt master is to provide up front guidance to all the people that help in setting up the hunt field. No hunt preparation person should plant coin target in anyway that would give anyone an advantage during the hunt. Nor should anyone helping to prepare the hunt field provide any information before the hunt starts to any of the detecting participants as to how the coin targets were planted. Hunt Field Rules:
Coin and Token Targets will be planted or tossed in the ground cover.
Hunt participants have a social responsibility to other detectorist during the hunt by adhering to all of the hunt rules and norms that have been put forth by the event host and the hunt master. During the hunt, each detectorist in the hunt should act responsible towards other detectorist by not taking another’s targets or infringe on another detectorist hunt space or by overlaying their coil upon another's coil. The hunt is competitive but should be practiced in a socially acceptable manner by all participants. Treat everyone during a competition event like you would want to be treated- fairly and with respect. Remember that each participant will have a different skill level: some will be faster and others slower but all of the participants paid the same admission fee to enter the hunt and deserve the same opportunity to find targets and have respect. Participants should review the Hunt Field Rules under the Hunt Master section of this article again before leaving this article. Summary. In any type of metal detecting competition event there must be well defined rules and social norms. These rules must be adhered to by the participants and enforced by the Hunt Master. It is the responsibility of the event host or sponsor to establish these rules of etiquette and to communicate these rules with all the other event information at the time of registration. This must be done before any admission fees are paid by the participant so that the event can have the highest integrity level possible and that everyone will feel fairly treated at the events end. There should never be any surprises on how the event will be conducted once the admission fees have been paid or later at the start of the event. |
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General U.S. and World Wide Hobby News
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Other News Sources
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Metal Detecting & Gold Prospecting Events.
Now is the time to start planning and getting your club's 2022/23 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. |
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Add Your Event Information Here |
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Teaching seniors about metal detecting By Rich Creason | For The Times-Post |
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Many older folks wish they had something to do to fill their leisure time. Unfortunately, due to finances, health issues, or other problems, these people end up sitting at the table working a crossword puzzle, playing cards with friends or family, sitting on the front porch watching the traffic go by, or just switching channels to find something to watch on the TV. Susie and I offer another option to fill the time. Last year, I received a call from a lady at a church in Southport, Indiana. She had read one of my metal detecting stories in the Pendleton Times-Post online. She asked me if I ever did presentations to groups on our hobby. She was in charge of the Senior group in her church and organized a monthly activity for her people. She wanted us to give a talk about metal detecting and possibly show some of our equipment at her church. For many years, Susie and I have offered free lessons on how to use a metal detector. I told Emily we would be glad to do a talk at her church. I asked if they had a yard or playground where we could take her group outside after our presentation and actually teach them how to use the machines. She said there was several old house sites, a playground and soccer field. We later found there was also an area that used to have a concession stand for the soccer players. I told her this would be great. We did our talk, set up a table outside and began to explain eight or nine different detectors and how they worked. We had several small pinpointers which are basically small metal detectors for finding smaller items in the ground. We had many different digging tools for removing targets the detectors located. We had 17 seniors who wanted to try the machines. Susie and I showed them how to operate the detectors and followed them around the grounds giving them pointers on how to find buried items. We uncovered a lot of trash, some toy cars, several keys, and a lot of assorted coins, none which were old. Some of our students lasted about an hour, while some others were still detecting after a couple hours. The playground, which was the most likely place to find a lot of treasures, was off limits at the time. The school attached to the church had a school group playing there. They returned inside just as we were finishing up detecting for the day. Emily sent us a great card signed by many of the group thanking us for our show. About a month ago, I had another call from a church near Mt. Comfort. Like last time, the lady in charge of their senior group had somehow heard about our activity and asked if we could put on a presentation with our metal detectors. I told her we would be glad to do that. As of this writing, we only have the time and location. The event will be in two days, so I don’t have any other details. I do know the church is old so we should have some ground we can detect. When I do a show like this, I often carry some old wheat pennies or maybe a few buffalo nickels to seed the ground if we are not finding much. It’s fun so see some of the older participants see these old coins and say, “I used to spend these when I was a kid.” We also talk to individuals who wish to learn the hobby. If they live in an older house, we offer to bring some detectors to their location, teach them how to use the machine, then all of us detect their yard and see what kind of history we can find. Pendleton is an old town, and there are hundreds of old coins, tokens, toys, etc. under the ground at many of these houses. My oldest coin I have found to date is an 1803 large cent. I found another coin which was a rare date Indian head penny in very fine condition. I have found tokens that were good for one cigar and others which were good for a pint of milk. All of these and much more were found in yards around Pendleton. If you are tired of doing nothing, and would like to learn this interesting hobby, contact me at the below email and see if we can get together and explore your yard. Rich Creason is an award-winning outdoors and travel writer whose work has appeared in local, regional, national and international publications for 40 years. Born in Anderson, he is a graduate of Markleville High School. He lives in South Madison County with his wife, Susie. He may be contacted at creasons@aol.com. |
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