maxxkatt
Forum Supporter
I told myself I was going to refrain from commenting on this topic. Well that didn't last but about a few seconds.
I think somewhere the competitiveness about what we own is hardwired with some people. You will have someone say that Calabash Digger is full of it based on a post or video that showed their detectors in a bad light. And of course Calabash will come roaring back at that person who poked him like a certain New York Real Estate developer with blond hair and a tanned face.
I remember growing up hearing the same kind of war of words about the cars you drove in the 50-60's. Especially the battle between the Fords and Chevrolets. I remember fist and wrestling fights erupting when the polite discussions got out of hand.
One side felt their Ford was way better than a Chevrolet and had a millions reasons why. The Chevrolet owner had just as deep of feelings and as many reasons on his side. This was an era in our country when our major divisions were focused on which is the better car.
Today, we don't give cars a second thought. But we certainly do get upset over hundreds of other things and of course I am referring to politics and political correctness. But that is all I will mention, because if on this forum we digress into politics and we would all get banned.
Me I did not participate in these war of words back then for two reasons. One: I drove a Volkswagen and the only argument I had was better mileage, but when gas was 26 cents a gallon, who cared. Two: most guys who owned Fords and Chevrolets were could fight better than me, so making negative observations about their cars was not healthy. The reason they could fight better than me was because of those Ford vs Chevrolet discussions often ended in a fight.
Calabash gets very, very particular on what a specific brand detector will and will not do compared to other brands in his test garden. This may influence people deciding or not deciding to buy a particular brand and that can be helpful.
But influencing some people who already own a particular brand by his observations and comments? Probably won't happen. That is like pointing out some negative traits in someone else's kids to their parents. They really won't respond too kindly to such comments.
On the whole, I find the war of words informative and entertaining. I don't think it is going to destroy this forum. You can either read Calabash's post and react or not react. He is always challenging his critics to do their own tests and compares and that does not often happen. Why? I figure the challenger my not have an 800 to compare to his model, so he doesn't.
I myself keep busy in the field trying to learn more about relic hunting and learning the 800. At times I think I bought the wrong machine due to all the positive comments about the Equinox that most certainly did affect my decision to purchase the 800.
Maybe the 800 is too much of a machine for my type of hunting. I have had occasional buyers remorse to a lesser degree and think I might have done better by buying an XP Deus for relic hunting. But had I done that maybe I would now be thinking I should have bought an 800. And it goes on and on.
I have had this tendency to think, if only I had this model or that model I would find more good stuff.
But I am limited to a one detector at a time owner since my dear wife seems to spend 98.6% of our joint income on things she deems more important than another metal detector.
But the sobering truth is, I need to get better at the general art and science of metal detecting and really learn the machine I own. Or I get in a circle of always trying to learn a new machine, but never learning to master it and staying frustrated.
Detectors are like golf clubs. I know guys who will spend many, many more dollars to get 20 extra yards out of a driver. Or a different weird styled putter that looks like they are sighting down a narrow pipe up against their chin when putting. When a pro has a good round of golf on a TV tournament with this fancy six foot putter then millions of duffers go buy one.
Not much different from our hobby but we just have more knobs and buttons on our shaft and rarely have sweetly tailored ground to practice our skills. I would like to see golfer try to golf where I hunt. You need a weed eater in most places I hunt for relics. And for our desert gold hunters, the ball would ricochet at least 18 different times in different directions off the rocks. Good bye par five courses and hello par 15 courses.
Like golfers we are competing against others and ourselves.
I think somewhere the competitiveness about what we own is hardwired with some people. You will have someone say that Calabash Digger is full of it based on a post or video that showed their detectors in a bad light. And of course Calabash will come roaring back at that person who poked him like a certain New York Real Estate developer with blond hair and a tanned face.
I remember growing up hearing the same kind of war of words about the cars you drove in the 50-60's. Especially the battle between the Fords and Chevrolets. I remember fist and wrestling fights erupting when the polite discussions got out of hand.
One side felt their Ford was way better than a Chevrolet and had a millions reasons why. The Chevrolet owner had just as deep of feelings and as many reasons on his side. This was an era in our country when our major divisions were focused on which is the better car.
Today, we don't give cars a second thought. But we certainly do get upset over hundreds of other things and of course I am referring to politics and political correctness. But that is all I will mention, because if on this forum we digress into politics and we would all get banned.
Me I did not participate in these war of words back then for two reasons. One: I drove a Volkswagen and the only argument I had was better mileage, but when gas was 26 cents a gallon, who cared. Two: most guys who owned Fords and Chevrolets were could fight better than me, so making negative observations about their cars was not healthy. The reason they could fight better than me was because of those Ford vs Chevrolet discussions often ended in a fight.
Calabash gets very, very particular on what a specific brand detector will and will not do compared to other brands in his test garden. This may influence people deciding or not deciding to buy a particular brand and that can be helpful.
But influencing some people who already own a particular brand by his observations and comments? Probably won't happen. That is like pointing out some negative traits in someone else's kids to their parents. They really won't respond too kindly to such comments.
On the whole, I find the war of words informative and entertaining. I don't think it is going to destroy this forum. You can either read Calabash's post and react or not react. He is always challenging his critics to do their own tests and compares and that does not often happen. Why? I figure the challenger my not have an 800 to compare to his model, so he doesn't.
I myself keep busy in the field trying to learn more about relic hunting and learning the 800. At times I think I bought the wrong machine due to all the positive comments about the Equinox that most certainly did affect my decision to purchase the 800.
Maybe the 800 is too much of a machine for my type of hunting. I have had occasional buyers remorse to a lesser degree and think I might have done better by buying an XP Deus for relic hunting. But had I done that maybe I would now be thinking I should have bought an 800. And it goes on and on.
I have had this tendency to think, if only I had this model or that model I would find more good stuff.
But I am limited to a one detector at a time owner since my dear wife seems to spend 98.6% of our joint income on things she deems more important than another metal detector.
But the sobering truth is, I need to get better at the general art and science of metal detecting and really learn the machine I own. Or I get in a circle of always trying to learn a new machine, but never learning to master it and staying frustrated.
Detectors are like golf clubs. I know guys who will spend many, many more dollars to get 20 extra yards out of a driver. Or a different weird styled putter that looks like they are sighting down a narrow pipe up against their chin when putting. When a pro has a good round of golf on a TV tournament with this fancy six foot putter then millions of duffers go buy one.
Not much different from our hobby but we just have more knobs and buttons on our shaft and rarely have sweetly tailored ground to practice our skills. I would like to see golfer try to golf where I hunt. You need a weed eater in most places I hunt for relics. And for our desert gold hunters, the ball would ricochet at least 18 different times in different directions off the rocks. Good bye par five courses and hello par 15 courses.
Like golfers we are competing against others and ourselves.
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