Just a great, very useful post
Just wondering if this is worth a sticky?.. Or at least something like it?
SO_Dave: great post for a below-newbie like me. This is very useful learning to keep in mind for when I start. Thanks.
I don't own a detector yet and never went hunting but I became a member of a hunters club in my area and went to a couple of meetings and to my first hunt. The organizer of the hunt was going to loan me a detector to try out. Really nice, Isn't it? The only problem is that his instructions sent me 40 km (about 24 miles) to the West of a bridge when I should have gone 40 km to the East of the aforesaid bridge. When I got to the coordinates I stood in the middle of an industrial park, all asphalt, cement and roads and not a blade of grass as far as the eye could see.
I don't have a cell phone so I could not be reached when he realized the boo-boo.
So, lessons to be learned from this experience.
One; buy a dammed cell phone so you can call and whine!
Two; buy a dammed detector so you can stop anywhere you want and try it out (always asking permission first. I learned that here).
Three; Keep a, when someone tells you to go-West-go-East, king of attitude. You may not hunt with your group very often but at least you'll have no one to blame but yourself. And, in the unlikely case you get to the proper hunt place, you can call yourself a genius.
Four; Keep reading this forum. You might learn to double check important things in the future.
This was written in good spirit. Hope no one took me too seriously.