Big Boys Hobbies

I had an epiphany

ISU Boomer

ISU Boomer

Elite Member
Joined
Apr 19, 2011
Messages
694
Location
North Carolina
For the last 2 years I have been obsessed with finding silver. I would hit old parks and avoid any place that was too new to give up silver coins. I've found my share of silver (17 total silver coins thus far), but it has also been very frustrating detecting at parks that have been pounded to death over the years. I would spend hours at old parks and end up with $0.31 and 250 bottle caps. If I didn't find silver, I was upset and called it a lost day. Then I would come on here and see all the silver found by other members and it made me feel worse. :laughing: Yes, I know I need to find some private land to detect and I plan to. I also feel very fortunate finding the silver I do. But the obsession with finding silver and the disappointment when I don't has somehow made this hobby less enjoyable. I told myself, I need to get the enjoyment back. I remember how much fun I had that first year with my lowly Tracker IV. I would hunt newer areas and rake in the clad. So the solution is, I need to stop worrying about finding silver so much and get out and enjoy finding whatever I can.

Today I spent my lunch hour at newer park close to work. I've avoided it the past 2 years since there was no chance it would hold old silver coins. I had a blast in my hour long hunt today. This place is a clad treasure chest. I would get a solid 87 on the AT Pro and say to myself, "I love me some quarters!". And bam, out pops another quarter. It was a good hunt and I pulled out $3.37 in a short hour hunt. The best thing is, I enjoyed that hunt way more than hitting a hunted out old park and coming back with little to nothing. Don't get me wrong, I still love finding silver and will never end my quest to do so. But, I will also take more time to enjoy this hobby and not stress about finding silver or other old coins so much.

Thanks for reading my long winded story. Here's a pic of my clad from today:
 

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Well said. I myself have taken this approach. I also need to ask and do some private yards, but until then I am happy digging anything. If you have seen any of my latest posts, it looks like I am looking for old tabs :laughing:
 
Congrats on your change of attitude and reaquainting yourself with the enjoyment of this hobby. That's a nice pile of clad for 1 hours hunt. I say, if you can't FIND the silver you want, then find the clad and BUY the silver you want. : ) Good luck on future hunts.
 
Just keep chasing that silver if that is what you are after (and you are) The rest of the stuff will come. Nothing wrong with clad but find those vintage homes and lots and find a way to get the owner to let you detect there. Sometimes it's as easy as asking,sometimes you need to get to know the person a little more. But keep chasing that silver.:grin:
 
This is my first year in the hobby but I can understand what your saying and I'm glad you got your enthusiasm back. I am also happy to hear your enjoyment for the hobby has returned. I've only hunted new parks (30 years and younger) where I am, and I have found a gold and a silver ring in these new parks. I'm happy to hunt clad and score as much as I can, the rest is a bonus. GL and HH.
 
ISU Boomer said:
For the last 2 years I have been obsessed with finding silver. I would hit old parks and avoid any place that was too new to give up silver coins. I've found my share of silver (17 total silver coins thus far), but it has also been very frustrating detecting at parks that have been pounded to death over the years. I would spend hours at old parks and end up with $0.31 and 250 bottle caps. If I didn't find silver, I was upset and called it a lost day. Then I would come on here and see all the silver found by other members and it made me feel worse. :laughing: Yes, I know I need to find some private land to detect and I plan to. I also feel very fortunate finding the silver I do. But the obsession with finding silver and the disappointment when I don't has somehow made this hobby less enjoyable. I told myself, I need to get the enjoyment back. I remember how much fun I had that first year with my lowly Tracker IV. I would hunt newer areas and rake in the clad. So the solution is, I need to stop worrying about finding silver so much and get out and enjoy finding whatever I can.

Today I spent my lunch hour at newer park close to work. I've avoided it the past 2 years since there was no chance it would hold old silver coins. I had a blast in my hour long hunt today. This place is a clad treasure chest. I would get a solid 87 on the AT Pro and say to myself, "I love me some quarters!". And bam, out pops another quarter. It was a good hunt and I pulled out $3.37 in a short hour hunt. The best thing is, I enjoyed that hunt way more than hitting a hunted out old park and coming back with little to nothing. Don't get me wrong, I still love finding silver and will never end my quest to do so. But, I will also take more time to enjoy this hobby and not stress about finding silver or other old coins so much.

Thanks for reading my long winded story. Here's a pic of my clad from today:
Click to expand...

"Silver addiction", ain't much different that crack or meth once you get it, and I mean that!

Those tectors who(and I know lots personally) who actually dislike clad if they ain't thinking silver has a chance to pop, miss out if that trend continues. Some general locations just don't have silvers if you are not a door knocker like me.

You've, in a way, posted this right when I was thinking about posting the same thing. We all began by finding clad, and THEN got that "brain hit" after a silver coin was found, and in no time, it's almost a forgotten idea to ever enjoy clad by some. What that does is two things.

1. You segregate yourself from happy hobbiests in some friends.

2. You get tired of banging your head on the wall for silver and run out of mental keeness in actual hunts, and you, if you're anthing like me...begin to hunting less and less because of the Pavlo's rules that keeps the canine dogs coming back in training. Humans need a taste or sniff also.

I'll always hunt with any friends no matter the prizes they've tuned in for that day. Heck, I'd almost never hunt if I didn't have my friends. I'll admit that I kinda "suck the back t!ts" on anybody's spots of permissions since I do not door knock. Just an honest fact about myself. I sense that some of my oldest friends since beginning detecting back in 2010 are fading to black on me for that reality. We'll, that is simply reality about me, is all I can say. Sad though.

Thanks for this post. Martin
 
Kemper said:
Just keep chasing that silver if that is what you are after (and you are) The rest of the stuff will come. Nothing wrong with clad but find those vintage homes and lots and find a way to get the owner to let you detect there. Sometimes it's as easy as asking,sometimes you need to get to know the person a little more. But keep chasing that silver.:grin:
Click to expand...

Trust me, I will keep chasing the silver. It's just good to take a break and enjoy the hobby a little. It's nice to know that I can still have fun finding clad.
 
ISU Boomer said:
Trust me, I will keep chasing the silver. It's just good to take a break and enjoy the hobby a little. It's nice to know that I can still have fun finding clad.
Click to expand...

That's the right attitude. Of course what I'm worried about is your statement "It's just good to take a break and enjoy the hobby a little" What? You can enjoy the hobby while chasing that silver. Your position is that chasing silver is not enjoyable at this time for you. Why not?

What I see and I've tried to get this point across numerous times is that some people are not willing to or enjoy exploring what it might take to continue seeking that silver. I realize that spots are getting dried up and becoming less accessible.

Some people will spend lots of money on a detector and spends lots of time learning how to use it and are willing to spend little time on finding ways to get on sites. I can understand this to a certain point as exploring other legal and right ways to get on sites leaves people vulnerable to being called sneaky,deceptive and even (as you can see earlier in this thread) being compared to a crack head.

You can explore these other ways and get sites to hunt if you want. That may not be fun for some but it is part of the hobby that can be fun. All sites situations etc are different. One size does not fit all. Nobody has to do anything they do not want to in the hobby. I know it was not you who made the reference but silver hunters are not like crack heads if they are seeking ways to find silver in a legal way. The more intent they are on finding silver the better for the hobby. You don't have to take a break from that to enjoy the hobby.:grin:
 
Kemper said:
That's the right attitude. Of course what I'm worried about is your statement "It's just good to take a break and enjoy the hobby a little" What? You can enjoy the hobby while chasing that silver. Your position is that chasing silver is not enjoyable at this time for you. Why not?

What I see and I've tried to get this point across numerous times is that some people are not willing to or enjoy exploring what it might take to continue seeking that silver. I realize that spots are getting dried up and becoming less accessible.

Some people will spend lots of money on a detector and spends lots of time learning how to use it and are willing to spend little time on finding ways to get on sites. I can understand this to a certain point as exploring other legal and right ways to get on sites leaves people vulnerable to being called sneaky,deceptive and even (as you can see earlier in this thread) being compared to a crack head.

You can explore these other ways and get sites to hunt if you want. That may not be fun for some but it is part of the hobby that can be fun. All sites situations etc are different. One size does not fit all. Nobody has to do anything they do not want to in the hobby. I know it was not you who made the reference but silver hunters are not like crack heads if they are seeking ways to find silver in a legal way. The more intent they are on finding silver the better for the hobby. You don't have to take a break from that to enjoy the hobby.:grin:
Click to expand...

Maybe you didn't fully understand my post or maybe I didn't do a good job of explaining myself. The whole point of my post was to say that I now realize that I don't "need" to find silver to have fun detecting. Yes, I want to find silver and enjoy looking for it but it is not a disaster if I don't.
 
I have never really understood the distain for clad or for those that choose to be proud of finding it or post photos of it. Yes, it is common and usually fairly easy to find but, I am not in the coin collecting business and usually the old silver coins we find are worth little more than melt value anyway due to condition. Yes, there are exceptions to that rule but generally that's the case. I enjoy finding silver coins and I get excited anytime I find one. I also enjoy a good clad hunt where the targets come fast and are plentiful. I have never been one that is really patient and will hunt for hours without a signal to find one or two silvers in a day. I also don't enjoy digging a 1000 pulltabs to find a gold ring but if I get lucky and find one, that excites me as well. I think it is amusing that we put people on a pedestal because they find lots of silver or gold when most of the time the reason they find it is not due to their expertise or knowledge (although they may possess either or both) but because they live in an area with lots of history and/or have obtained access to areas that those kind of finds are more plentiful. I do believe that obtaining that permission is an expertise in it's self and there are many that are not comfortable and will never be comfortable with asking strangers to hunt their property. I get put off by some of these so called "experts" looking down their noses and posting deflammatory remarks when someone posts a "lesser" find that they are proud of. I don't believe that we have changed the name of our hobby to "silver detecting" or "gold detecting" and last time I checked there are lots of other metal objects out there that are fun to find including clad. I enjoy and will always try to respond to a post that someone that is proud of the clad that they have found. If you want to take a break and find clad to renew your zeal for the hobby then, good for you. Keep posting it up, I'll give you an attaboy for sure !!
 
I look at finding a silver coin, in the same way I do rings and other cool little treasures...they're just extra nice rewards for being outdoors and participating in the hobby. Even though I have never found a Silver coin....I still find all kinds of neat little dodads that tickle me. I'm happy when I find a obscure little button or some unidentifiable round object that has patterns or writings that mean nothing to me, but I imagine they once were part of a piece of some jewelery or something that someone used to admire ...who knows....to me ...it's all good...except for them nasty pull tabs...smiles.

HDD
 
ISU Boomer said:
Maybe you didn't fully understand my post or maybe I didn't do a good job of explaining myself. The whole point of my post was to say that I now realize that I don't "need" to find silver to have fun detecting. Yes, I want to find silver and enjoy looking for it but it is not a disaster if I don't.
Click to expand...

I was just going by your statement- "It's just good to take a break and enjoy the hobby a little." I took that to mean that you need to take a break from hunting silver and enjoy the hobby a little. I think I understand you now and you are saying that you need to take a break from the "obsession" of finding silver. Personally I'm obsessed with finding clad or silver or whatever else. :grin:
 
Kemper said:
I was just going by your statement- "It's just good to take a break and enjoy the hobby a little." I took that to mean that you need to take a break from hunting silver and enjoy the hobby a little. I think I understand you now and you are saying that you need to take a break from the "obsession" of finding silver. Personally I'm obsessed with finding clad or silver or whatever else. :grin:
Click to expand...

Yes, you are correct. I was saying that the "obsession" to find silver can really make the hobby less fun. It's good to not "NEED" to find silver in order to make it a successful hunt. That was where I was at. Now, I'm just happy to enjoy the hobby and not stress about it so much.
 
ISU Boomer said:
Yes, you are correct. I was saying that the "obsession" to find silver can really make the hobby less fun. It's good to not "NEED" to find silver in order to make it a successful hunt. That was where I was at. Now, I'm just happy to enjoy the hobby and not stress about it so much.
Click to expand...

Understood and Thank you. What I was trying to get across in a previous post here is that people can enjoy the "obsession" if they enjoy other ways of finding treasures. Everybody is different and some people are only wanting to go to the park and see what turns up and that is fine. Some people get discouraged when they are told to leave a park because someone complained and that is understandable. There is nothing wrong, in my opinion, with being "obsessed" and enjoying finding sites in the same way a person enjoys metal detecting.

The hobby has a lot to offer and people can get as involved in it as they wish. If going back to a park that a person was told to leave because somebody complained is not fun for somebody I understand that. But if it is fun for some of us because we are optimistic that we can detect that park in a legal way then ,yes, we can be called "obsessed" the same way people get "obsessed" over detectors. You are correct "obsession to find silver can really make the hobby less fun. It can also make it more fun.:grin:
 
Inspirational

As a new MDer, this is helpful. I too see the boatloads of silver and think to myself "!!!?" On the other hand, I really do enjoy just finding coins, regardless of age/worth. It's always a pick-me-up to find stuff.
 
The newer parks still give up silver jewelry. Seeing a silver ring pop out of the ground is almost as good of a feeling as a silver coin.

I like the idea of using the clad to by the silver you want.
 
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