What are your biggest regrets in the hobby?

[coinman123]

I have a few. The biggest one that always nags me is not having a metal detector to metal detect the farm in Maryland where my grandparents used to live, built in the early 1720's with over one hundred acres of land (most of it fields). The farm was sold in around 2011. I had visited it three times, for around two weeks each time, and never been able to metal detect. Another regret is not travelling to many great places I found researching, that I have now probably all forgotten, because they were over an hour's drive away. I also regret have the landscapers put an inch of fill dirt in my backyard in around 2006, the house was built in the 1880's. I didn't start metal detecting until 2013, so I guess that many of those decisions couldn't have been controlled. What are your biggest regrets in the hobby?

 

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[kenstein]

I feel your pain. We, too, in 2011 sold the house where I grew up. Never occurred to me to detect there as I didn't get seriously into detecting until a year later. There would no doubt have been some recognizable relics.

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

My regret is that I started late in life.

 

[creskol]

My biggest sorrow is losing my girlfriend and detecting partner to a drunk driver back in 1970. My biggest regret is not hunting Parkers Crossroads Battlefield when I had a chance to before it was put into park property.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

My regret is the same as Back-of-the-Boat. I had a kit built detector as a kid but never got a "real" unit and used it until I was in my 40's.

 

[Xraywolf]

House I grew up in is still standing, I'm waiting for it to burn down then I'll detect it.

I don't seem to have any detecting regrets, everything seems to be following a natural progression.

 

[coinman123]

I feel your pain. We, too, in 2011 sold the house where I grew up. Never occurred to me to detect there as I didn't get seriously into detecting until a year later. There would no doubt have been some recognizable relics.

Hopefully your current house is is full of relics. The house we just bought has two acres of land and was built in the 1770's. It probably won't contain as many relics as a 1723 plantation with over one hundred acres, but the house itself is much more cheerful inside. The place in Maryland is pretty creepy in some parts (especially waking up at night and going up the huge spiral staircase leading to a narrow balcony with creaky floors with tons of doors), and is a little too big to maintain, being referred to as a colonial mansion. My grandparents inherited it from my great grandfather, who was fairly well off with money. I still feel a twinge of regret every time I think about the farm, badly wanting to metal detect the front yard of the 1723 mansion.

 

[kenstein]

Wow, Coinman. two acres and built in 1770s? That sounds pretty promising. Our current house circa 1885, it's the reason I got into detecting. Good luck to you and happy hunting. By the way the "creepy" factor of the Maryland house is kinda intriguing in itself.

 

[coinman123]

Wow, Coinman. two acres and built in 1770s? That sounds pretty promising. Our current house circa 1885, it's the reason I got into detecting. Good luck to you and happy hunting. By the way the "creepy" factor of the Maryland house is kinda intriguing in itself.

Wow! My current house is from the same exact time, GIS data says 1887 but it shows up in an 1885 map. Reason I started metal detecting too.

 

[FFFPatriot]

I lived in Boulder City, NV for four and a half years, and wanted to get a metal detector for nugget hunting, but never did. I often day dream about detecting El Dorado valley that was a 10 minute drive away from where I was living at the time.
I also constantly told my ex wife that every weekend, I wanted to go to the Hacienda and Railroad Pass casinos, and exchange a couple hundred bucks for quarters, to sift through and get the older (silver) ones, but never did.
I also regret not finding that bowling ball sized nugget yet, as well.

 

[boogeyman]

My only real regrets are not being out swinging the loop more before I got to where the joints can't keep up with the brain. Best advice to you younger guys? Get out & swing every chance you can before your trany goes out too! Second is putting off searching a site to search a hopefully better site only to come back a year later to find the first (probably gloryhole) site completely covered with a pile of tract houses. Third in the early years giving away finds before finding out the values. Again in the early years walking past stuff and later finding out it's worth, going back and someone that had done the research picked it up. In this game research is 99.9% of it. You can never gain enough knowledge.

 

[Slingshot]

In my long list of metal detecting regrets my biggest one is that I didn't hit it harder in the mid 60's with my Fisher BFO machine. The ground was full of silver then, and lots of halves, of course we spent it about as fast as we dug it, after all it was just normal money then.

Darn indolent youth!

 

[Honest Samuel]

My biggest one, over 30 years ago, living in Bridgeport, The city dug up around eight inches of dirt around a very old building and I was too tired to walk back and get my detector. I am sure that there were a lot of coins including silver that was worth a lot more then face value.

 

[Kurios1]

My regret is that I started late in life.

Same here. I can imagine the treasure chest I might have had if I started in my teens.

 

[RustyGold]

My only real regrets are not being out swinging the loop more before I got to where the joints can't keep up with the brain. Best advice to you younger guys? Get out & swing every chance you can before your trany goes out too! Second is putting off searching a site to search a hopefully better site only to come back a year later to find the first (probably gloryhole) site completely covered with a pile of tract houses. Third in the early years giving away finds before finding out the values. Again in the early years walking past stuff and later finding out it's worth, going back and someone that had done the research picked it up. In this game research is 99.9% of it. You can never gain enough knowledge.

Well said boogeyman!

 

[DigitalDirt]

I regret living in a town, run by liberals, that has 90 parks and bans MD'ing.

 

[Joe hunter]

I regret bad cleaning habits.I destroyed some pretty descent coins and relics.

 

[chub]

I regret starting someone else in detecting. He proceeded to pound every sqaure inch of this historic town, left messy/unfilled holes, detetcted graveyards etc. and basically makes me drive 1 hour away now to detect elsewhere....still likes to send pics of every worthless coin and tab he finds....

 

[sprailroad]

Not having started much sooner. Lived in both Detroit and Phila. and didn't start detecting until after moving to Oregon in 81.

 

[insontis]

I'm still relatively new to the hobby, but there a few missed opportunities but not to say that I can't make up for them in the future. One of my childhood homes was, at the time we moved in around 2001-2002, a 140 some year old farm house (remodeled) with a barn and surrounded by fields in Pennsylvania. After that, I lived in south Florida for a year and still had not been yet been introduced to metal detecting. I still crave the desire to sift through waves and sand..