Recently had a punt on an online competition site and won a quite high end metal detector and accessories, with only 22 months to go before i retire i reckon I'm going to spend a fair bit of my time stalking , but when I'm not doing that I'm going to give metal detecting ago, Ive got plenty of stalking land to have a go at, anyone else metal detect ?
Metal Detecting
- Thread starter fallow me
- Start date
What machine did you win?
I took it up nearly 10yrs back after being diagnosed with CFS/ME. I hate being stuck indoors but just couldn't play squash, cycle and golf at the time like I wanted to and I was used to doing those things to a good level, so I decided to give them up temporarily and do something more gentle to give my body time to recover.
A mate suggested detecting as a joke but I thought it sounded like a good idea. And it was. There is a farm in the family and I also, like you, know loads of landowners from years of shooting and fishing, so accessing land to hunt on was easy.
Yes you will find a crapton of trash from foil to coke to war time FMJ's and many more items of no worth but you will find good stuff. I have found hundreds of coins from Roman through to Medieval and then more modern milled coinage and even as far back as Celtic. Artefacts are great and it is fun to buy the books and research and learn more about the history of this country.
My best find to date was a 13th century solid golf intaglio seal matrix which was purchased via from me via the treasure scheme and is now in the possession of Oxfordshire Museums, where it does a little circuit of various shows being displayed. Awesome little thing the size of my thumbnail. Check out how good the condition is after 700yrs in the ground.
A mate of mine is mad keen on it. New ground is hard to find though. Worse than trying to get stalking ground and then you can get raided by night hawks. But an addictive hobby by all accounts. He hasn't found anything really valuable but plenty that's very interesting from Roman coins to a box full of medieval bronze rumble bells, most of them still tinkling perfectly.
enfieldspares
Well-Known Member
Don't take in on holiday in France! In parts of France that correspond with what was the Western Front of WWI they are illegal.
Ha ha, that is a great win. I use an XP Deus. Both are very capable machines with a myriad of settings but also some switch on and go modes to get you started. It is addictive though. Be warned.
I do the same with my pin pointer on pigeon to check for shot in the breast before I fry them. Useful little tool. Good for checking wires etc in the walls at home prior to drilling amongst other useful things.
Best of luck with your searching.
Crotal bells are brilliant. I think horses were adorned with them as an early warning system to alert others of its presence (not that you could miss a bloody great horse)
It's amazing how well intact you find them and when they ring, you feel a little silly warm glow.
Totally. Mundane artifacts but alive and so tactile. Something from centuries ago that still sounds just as it did when it was last used. You dig it up, clean it, shake it and you're hearing the past just as it sounded 3, 4, 500 years ago. And you could tie it to a horse's harness and it would keep working for another 300 years. Wonderful little things.
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