THE ART OF RECOVERY--- AND GOOD MANNERS!
We have been gaining new
members at almost every meeting, and that's great! The more people that we have
in this great hobby means all the more strength we have to deal with the
occasional darts, which come our way! You know, those attacks from the greedy
archeologist, the foolish extremist- environmentalist, some historians and of
course the poor misguided D.N.R.!
Sometime it's hard
to tell, "Just who is our enemy?" Sadly, quite often the enemy is
already in our camp! It is the duty of every treasure hunter to police him or
herself, (as well as others) in-order for the sport to maintain a good public
image. Every time I hear about a park being closed to metal detecting, I think,
it must be that penny-pinching, foolish, mail-order buyer! Of Course,
he's uneducated, uninformed and out there ruining it for all of us! Sound a
little harsh? I think you would be surprised how often this is the case!
Normally, if you give someone a detector and a
digging trowel, then watch them go, you will find, at least for most people,
it's almost natural for them to be neat and refill their holes. The problem is,
nine out of ten people will do it wrong! Most feel it best to cut the ground
"plugging" the way they would sample-plug a watermelon. First they
cut a nice neat circle, then lift out the sod, then they dig their hole.
But
they would be wrong, wrong, wrong! Please stop this practice!!!!!
1. Never, ever! Separate the grass from itself! Instead, cut a
"C" shaped flap then use the uncut part as a hinge. Make your
"C" cut big enough so that the
sod will be easy to move without having it breaking loose from the surrounding
soil! This is very important! This method may appear at first to be the
start of some real damage, but it is the right way!
2. Next, if you have
decided that the target is in the (sod) section, that you just hinged back,
your next tool choice should be a probe. The electronic pinpoint probes are
great for this, but even a brass rod will do! With the mechanical rod type
prober, just poke around in the rooted section till you hear and feel that
metal-to-metal sound, then carefully extract the target.
3. Now, let us assume the target
is deeper in the ground. Next you will need something (non-metallic) to put
your dirt into. I like to use a little frisbee. Some treasure hunters use a
small square of plastic or canvas. Personally, I like something ridged enough
to lift and move if it is full. The main reason for this frisbee like container
is to have a clean way to dump all the crumbs of dirt back into your hole when
you are done--- very important!.
4. Sometimes I will have
dug deep enough where I think that I should have found my target, yet it's
nowhere to be seen? A quick check of the hole with my detector shows that
something is still down there. Now here is another good time to put your probe
rod to work. Chances are, you have a big target down even deeper! Remember, an
axe-head at 15 inches will read like a quarter at 4 inches on a target I.D.
detector! Your probing the hole's bottom will confirm this, and also give
you an idea how much further you have to dig.
Going on will mean a very deep hole! Now, you ask yourself, is
it worth it?
5. After the target is found,
dump all the dirt back into the hole and hinge the sod back into place. Step
down on the sod a few times to level it, also this pushes the roots back into
the dirt forcing out the air which will dry-out and kill the root structure.
6. Was it a piece of junk that
you just dug? Don't rebury it! One of those mail-order clowns will dig it up
again and this time the hole will be left wide open with the trash left right
beside it! And did you see that guy watching you from across the street? The
only person he remembers seeing detecting there was you! Duh! Take the trash
with you!
7. Now, as you walk away to
continue with your detecting, stop, turn- around, and look back at the spot
where you just dug. If you did things right, you shouldn't be able to find it!
How'd you do? It matters!
MANNERS!
Treasure Hunting, as well as
Collecting, are the oldest hobbies that I know of. The Bible, the oldest book
in the world, records great quests for riches and incredible collections,
perhaps as early as 2000 B.C. But it wasn't until 1997 A.D., almost four
thousand years later, that we see our freedom to continue this great past
time--- in serious danger!
The greatest threat
to our hobby is ignorance, not only on the part of those who fear us, like the
archeologist, the environmentalist, the historians and the poor misguided
D.N.R., but ignorance on the part of the treasure hunter himself.
Are you a good ambassador
for your hobby? That’s right! When you are out there hunting, you are
representing every single treasure hunter--- including me!
If you are running
around being a selfish pig--- then we are all selfish pigs!
If you don’t care
how bad your digging is--- then none of us care how screwed up we leave things!
If you are rude---
we are all rude. If you are dirty and filthy, have a foul mouth --- then we are
all foul! People are watching you and based on your actions, we are all being
judged!
Every now and then I go
outside my store’s entry door and clean up cigarette butts. Are they classified
as litter? Or are these filthy things considered 'one with nature?' Well,
they make me sick! I have a tendency to think of all smokers as being sloppy
pigs --- even though they are not.
We need to project an
image of clean-cut, well-mannered people: people who know exactly what we
are doing and care about the areas we are hunting---and how neat we leave these
sites.
If every one in this hobby
including the metal detector manufacturers would come to grips with this,
I would never again have to worry about the mail order companies because metal
detectors would no longer be sold that way!
The mail order joints
start out so many untrained people in the hobby, its no wonder some places are
requiring a license to use a metal detector! Some States now feel it’s just not
worth the bother to weed out the skilled hunter from the slob, so
detecting is just simply outlawed! The restrictions are getting worse and
worse!
Are we are going to do
something about it? We cannot stop the flood of untrained hunters,
but we can police ourselves! We can also start by supporting dealers who
support this hobby with hands on training, club support, and who work on a
national level to protect our freedom. Friends, the mail-order company has one
concern, "Getting your money!"
As the big companies like
WHITES, FISHER & TESORO have said again and again nationally, "Support
your local dealer!"
They know what's at stake!
And now so do you!
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