First off I would say just like real estate it’s all about location location location. In my county I have found over 150 old home sites, just from looking at lidar and old topo maps. And they are all within a 30 minute drive. Of course many are on private property and I will need permission. but I just found a colonial cellar hole that has never been detected 5 minutes down the road. These sites are still out there, you may have to be more creative and work harder to find them.
The cell phone is a tool and like any other it depends on the person and how they use it. It has become the most valuable tool in my arsenal, besides my metal detector. There would be no way to navigate my way to a potential cellar hole on lidar, without my cell phone. There would be no way for me to keep track of my finds and there dug locations without my cell phone. I wouldn’t be able to take pictures of my finds so easily in the field and link them to gps locations without my phone. You can be out for a Sunday drive, have an old topo map up on your phone. You look over to realize where there was once a road with several houses on it, there is now just woods. All these things are now possible with my cell phone.
I think the bigger problem on YouTube isn’t the babes digging nothing. It’s the other people who are obviously planting finds. Ever hunt they go on is full of multiple amazing finds. Anyone with experience knows sometimes you will just dig squat. These people aren’t in it to promote the sport. They are in it to have as many views as possible per video. Which transfers into money for them from ads and affiliate links. You can’t trust these people who are producing YouTube videos for money. It’s just like any reality show, it’s just that a show that is scripted.
I think the secret to success is being into history. If you think you are going to find gold jewelry and pirate treasure all the time good luck to you. It can still be done, but you have to live on the beaches and big parks. And as the op said, most of those have been hit hard. It’s also where all the newbies are going to go first. If you enjoy history and think it’s pretty cool when you pull something out of the ground that’s been there 3-4 hundred years. I believe you will get way more enjoyment out of this sport. And there are valuable things and coins at historic sites too. You just have to put in the work. That’s the bigger problem, everybody wants a shortcut. They want to find “treasure” without putting in the work. That’s why I assume most people who buy machines probably sell them within a month or 2. Because they just take them to random spots without doing the research. 4 years ago I realized I would probably enjoy metal detecting. Did I go out and buy one. No, I spent the next year scouring this site and many others. What kind of machines are there? Different technologies? What’s an entry level machine, but still considered good? I didn’t want to go out and buy the most expensive one, to realize I didn’t enjoy it. But I also didn’t want to buy a 50 dollar toy and not find anything. I went with the At pro and after one season was hooked, but wanted the option to hunt salt water so upgraded to the ctx 3030. But also in that first year of research, I went looking for potential sites. Learned a lot more about my local area’s history. So when I finally did get my first detector I was ready and successful.
I think the bigger problem is with people outside the sport. There are to many who have no idea what some of us do. Their only exposure to metal detecting is that time at the beach when they saw a guy looking for other peoples lost jewelry. You know they are thinking what a scum bag. If they only knew about relic hunters trying to preserve artifacts that would be turned to rust dust in the ground if it wasn’t for them. Or to the real hero’s of our sport who actually try to return lost jewelry or items if it has a name inscribed. When I talk to people about permissions or run into people in the wild. They have no idea about this side of the hobby. I think that’s why so many permissions go south before you even knock on the door. Because of their preconceived notions about metal detectorist.
If only State or federal programs and archaeologists would work with us or at least not try to actively block us. It was so neat to see that website that was put together by the British museum on finds that they say many are recovered by metal detecting. That is so cool, seems like they have accepted it and have a why not work with them attitude. My experience with local archaeologists has been the complete opposite. They seem to hate us, they would rather leave stuff in the ground. Which makes zero sense to be. First off if we didn’t find it, it will probably be gone forever to the earth from rust. And the majority of everything we find with metal detectors is something someone lost or threw away no more than a foot down. How is that going to tell you anything about that group of people besides they lost that item here. It’s not like when archaeologists do a big cross section dig many feet down, and see different layers of stuff in situ. I think it’s just them getting mad that they won’t be able to find that item themselves now.
Also if everybody would just follow those metal detecting commandments or rules I have seen at the beginning of many a book and I’m sure is on this site. It would be so much easier for the ones that follow. Those are the real people ruining this amazing hobby. The ones that trespass on private property and don’t fill in their holes. Why would anyone want to give a permission to the same group of people who snuck on their property and left a huge mess.
I’m sorry, I realized I am starting to rant. I will shut up now.
