What do you do when you really want to show your finds but know you shouldn't?

[Right Brain]

...Otherwise you might be giving too much away.

One of the hardest things for me has been to hold back on showing some of my finds on forums and to friends. The better I get at finding valuables, the more discrete I get, or want to get. I've had a good week detecting, there's a lot of things I want to show and tell... not just yet I suppose.

How many here are hot on being discrete? Sometimes I'm surprised to find out how much some know about what I've written online. There's some very competitive detectorists out there, especially where I live.

[Dark Chameleon]

If you feel a little wierd then create a new name for showing your finds that doesnt have your location on it, just your state....then answer questions on techniques but not locations, show the items but not the landscape of where you found them and state in your profile you dont do sharing or group hunting...theres no rule saying you should..if you find a honeyhole then its your find....its a personal thing.

[tripperman79]

I think it is different for everyone. I for one love to share. I share my spots and also my finds with my friends. We have a team of 5 or so guys who get together and love to hunt. For me, it doesn't bother me if one of my buddies finds something.

There are others who prefer to hunt on their own and keep things to themselves. There is nothing wrong with that either. It just comes down to what you are comfortable with I guess. Personnally I like giving something as much daylight as possible after it has been in the ground 50+ years.

[ebone581]

Ship them to me. I will let you know which ones to post, and which ones not to.

[Terry Soloman]

I post about 10-percent of the good stuff I find. Way too many ex-wives!

[OZARKS]

I don't post my finds usually. If I found a hundred pounds of gold, you'd never know







.

[Dozuki]

That is a good question. I wish I had a good answer for you but I haven't found anything to post.

[Bobmc1968]

Originally Posted by OZARKS

I don't post my finds usually. If I found a hundred pounds of gold, you'd never know







.

I think we'd know something happened because we'd probably never hear from you again!

[beerdoodle]

Originally Posted by Terry Soloman

I post about 10-percent of the good stuff I find. Way too many ex-wives!

they are waiting for ya, Terry..........................

[steve in so az]

I post about half of what I find for various reasons. Don't want to give things away sometimes ; sometimes I get lucky on gold over a period of time but don't want to sound like I am bragging; lots of competition here, steve in so az

[milco]

I am not worried about showing finds to the MDing community and folks on the forum. I am more concerned about folks who post very historic type items and how folks in the park preservation and historical and archaelogical communities perceive these finds. Those folks seem to see finds online and take drastic, knee jerk reactions to ban our hobby, rather than embrace it and pursue collaboration. Sure there are people that metal detect just to make big finds and pay outs, but those people are in the very small minority. Every MDer I have ever met is very much in to preserving history and caring for what they find and documenting where they found it. Unfortunately we cannot share that information with the historical community because of the lack of understanding. I know there are many good exceptions to this stereotype, so that is encouraging. I'll post coins, rings and other relics, but very historic type items will not find there way to these or any other internet pages. Which is very sad to not be able to share them. So if there are any "archi's" or academics out there reading this, I'd love to hear from you on how to collaborate particularly in the area of urban archaeology.

[HarveyH48]

History is all around us, really can't lay claim to every square inch... Not everything the was, is recorded in history books. It's not just us metal detecting guys, finding historical stuff, lots of farmers have turn up some pretty cool stuff, plowing fields, or removing tree stumps...

[KingTotsalot]

KT has posted essentially everything He has ever found, either by MDing or CRHing....But that would change if He found anything worth more than a hundred to 2 hundred bucks...Found several gold rings, all less than $150 and some nice necklaces...gold and silver....but when it comes to finding a solitaire diamond ring worth more than everything else He ever recovered, or some quality really nice larger denomination silver or gold coins...ain't no one ever gonna know.

Sure everyone loves to show and brag, but could be the tax man watcheth and The King ain't gettin' caught with His Royal Bloomers down!

[dewcon]

Some people have limited hunting that they have to drive hours to get to. Believe me people know where you live if you post finds.... because they PM and ask and you tell them. Thou im a competitive person i still enjoy the company out there. Its a hard question.... especially since everyone getting into the hobby is encouraged to buy a top notched machine... and they do. Its hard when your finds start dropping off and you realize there are 3 or 4 new hunters in your area and they are all using your machine. But i noticed it doesnt discourage some like VA MAX who posts those great videos and hunts with several others....... and STILL brings home the gold and just enjoys sharing his hunts. That said.... i think its smart NOT to post all the goodies. But its sure been good for the hobby recently to see all the returns. Something to be encouraged. Trash.... i like to see not because i dont believe your finds but it also helps promote what we do by cleaning up the beaches.

Dew

[Right Brain]

Originally Posted by dewcon

Some people have limited hunting that they have to drive hours to get to. Believe me people know where you live if you post finds.... because they PM and ask and you tell them. Thou im a competitive person i still enjoy the company out there. Its a hard question.... especially since everyone getting into the hobby is encouraged to buy a top notched machine... and they do. Its hard when your finds start dropping off and you realize there are 3 or 4 new hunters in your area and they are all using your machine. But i noticed it doesnt discourage some like VA MAX who posts those great videos and hunts with several others....... and STILL brings home the gold and just enjoys sharing his hunts. That said.... i think its smart NOT to post all the goodies. But its sure been good for the hobby recently to see all the returns. Something to be encouraged. Trash.... i like to see not because i dont believe your finds but it also helps promote what we do by cleaning up the beaches.

Dew

Thanks for the post, I agree.

Good to see not everyone's holier than thou. Just kidding, everyone's opinion is respected .

[Iron Patch]

Originally Posted by dewcon

Some people have limited hunting that they have to drive hours to get to. Believe me people know where you live if you post finds.... because they PM and ask and you tell them. Thou im a competitive person i still enjoy the company out there. Its a hard question.... especially since everyone getting into the hobby is encouraged to buy a top notched machine... and they do. Its hard when your finds start dropping off and you realize there are 3 or 4 new hunters in your area and they are all using your machine. But i noticed it doesnt discourage some like VA MAX who posts those great videos and hunts with several others....... and STILL brings home the gold and just enjoys sharing his hunts. That said.... i think its smart NOT to post all the goodies. But its sure been good for the hobby recently to see all the returns. Something to be encouraged. Trash.... i like to see not because i dont believe your finds but it also helps promote what we do by cleaning up the beaches.

Dew

So let me get this right, if you only have a few hours to hunt per week, and drive hours to get to the site, the problem is when you make good finds and post them you have to tell anyone who asked the exact place you hunted? Believe me my competition here have had some killer sites, and I'm talking many thousands of dollars in finds, and knowing what they were never got me any closer to figuring it out. What did get me closer is one of the guys who I've detected with a few times actually telling me, but I didn't believe him! Only after one of the other guys gave me a hint to the location did I realize it was actually the truth, and it was sort of a drag because I could have easily hunted that field way before them because I had went by many times, and even had sites across the water that faced it. But that's how it goes.

I don't care a whole lot about people who would want to hunt behind me because I know I don't leave enough for it to be worth while. It's good to take a shot when the plow goes through, but that's going to be left for me because when you hunt a field and get nothing but iron there's nothing that makes you want to try again, even after the plow. Something I've always said, and it's totally true, especially in my hunting, is that the first who hits a site is like buying the rights, because if you do a good enough job there's no one that's even going to stick around there unless they happen to dig a few targets and get very lucky. So with that said, that's why I think people are way to paranoid for posting what they find, and if they blab where they dug the stuff, well that's just dumb.