bigscoop
Gold Member
- Jun 4, 2010
- 13,535
- 9,072
- Detector(s) used
- Older blue Excal with full mods, Equinox 800.
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
Several years ago OBN and a few other consistently successful detectorist put me onto the absolute vital secret to consistent success. You see, up to that point I was just like everyone else, always waiting on that next best machine to hit the market. But then I realized something, OBN and those hunters have been at the top of the metal detecting game for years and years and they had been doing with a wide variety of machines over those years. So very clearly, it wasn't the machine, but rather it was the hunter. "Period!"
But how did they get there? What set them apart from everyone else? The answer was simple, they know their stuff, they understand their machines better then other hunters and they understand their quarry and the related conditions better then others. So, no more new machine fantasies for me, one machine and I was going to use it until I understood that machine as well as they did. With this in mind it was no longer about finding gold and silver anymore, but rather it was about challenging myself to learn how to master that one machine in all environments and in every possible condition I encountered. Yep, a lot of frustration and a lot of trial and error from that point forward. I spent days on the beach actually creating impossible conditions to hunt just to see if I could learn how to hunt those impossible conditions efficiently. I also spent countless hours on the beach learning how the beach and sands move, and when and why, how heavier items such as gold rings behaved in those various conditions. I also never turned away from really trashy locations, instead I challenged myself to learn how to pick my way through them with that same machine. I learned "a tone" about my machine and how it spoke to me, and why it spoke to me that way.
I've had the same old blue Excal for about ten years now, been rebuilt and refitted twice and it's due for a third go around. But that machine is lie an extension of my arm now, there isn't a tone or squeak or fart from that machine that I've not heard 10'000 times before. Today I know when to get the machine out and when to leave it in the corner. I don't walk into hunting conditions that I've not walked into a thousand times before with that same machine. It could be said that this same machine is my other half now.
And all of the above my friends is the biggest secret to consist metal detecting success. A new latest and greatest machine can't offer you any of the above. And now you know this same vital secret too. It ain't the machine!
Thank you OBN and those other consistently successful detectorist. I watched, I learned, I listened.
But how did they get there? What set them apart from everyone else? The answer was simple, they know their stuff, they understand their machines better then other hunters and they understand their quarry and the related conditions better then others. So, no more new machine fantasies for me, one machine and I was going to use it until I understood that machine as well as they did. With this in mind it was no longer about finding gold and silver anymore, but rather it was about challenging myself to learn how to master that one machine in all environments and in every possible condition I encountered. Yep, a lot of frustration and a lot of trial and error from that point forward. I spent days on the beach actually creating impossible conditions to hunt just to see if I could learn how to hunt those impossible conditions efficiently. I also spent countless hours on the beach learning how the beach and sands move, and when and why, how heavier items such as gold rings behaved in those various conditions. I also never turned away from really trashy locations, instead I challenged myself to learn how to pick my way through them with that same machine. I learned "a tone" about my machine and how it spoke to me, and why it spoke to me that way.
I've had the same old blue Excal for about ten years now, been rebuilt and refitted twice and it's due for a third go around. But that machine is lie an extension of my arm now, there isn't a tone or squeak or fart from that machine that I've not heard 10'000 times before. Today I know when to get the machine out and when to leave it in the corner. I don't walk into hunting conditions that I've not walked into a thousand times before with that same machine. It could be said that this same machine is my other half now.
And all of the above my friends is the biggest secret to consist metal detecting success. A new latest and greatest machine can't offer you any of the above. And now you know this same vital secret too. It ain't the machine!
Thank you OBN and those other consistently successful detectorist. I watched, I learned, I listened.
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