beachrumbum
Senior Member
Well there was a lot of positive responses for my last post, annoying questions. It still happens to be one of my pet peeves. So I thought I would get some opinions on another of my pet peeves, show and tell, is there anyone who feels the same as I do? I just don’t enjoy seeing others stunning finds, Well it’s more of a mixed bag of emotions. It tends to distracts me from my own goal. Especially when I put in many hours of hard work and end up skunked at the same area someone else pulls a 2 karat diamond ring, did I miss it, am I a poor detectorist? I would just rather not even know about it. Especially being perpetually short on funds. I will note however, it does at times make me want to work even harder to be on par or above what I am seeing from others, so there is that saving grace. However it still remains that it probably does more harm to the gloating party as well, first thing I did when I joined the hobby was to find out who the braggarts doing well in my area were, find out where they hunt ect. It was not very hard being they publicly posted the info, although it was a poor choice on my behalf to begin the hobby in this way, but hey, these people seem to be successful and I too would like to be successful. The fact remains, these people seem to love the attention, and obviously do not hide their success. They will not offer any tips or help to fellow hunters, None that I have seen, they seem to be smart enough in that aspect as to not give the keys to success but only a glimpse as to what it looks like. Can’t blame them on that, would I give away all my secrets? No, but I’m not posting everything I find either. One can argue that it does feel good to share ones success with friends but is that sometimes at the other parties expense? This is something that I need to be watchful of as well, I do share with some close friends but at times feel bad about doing so, I had a friend jokingly threaten to stop hunting with me because I kept finding gold, but was it merely a joke or was it laced with some truth? I abruptly stopped reporting everything. This could hurt actual friendships when money is involved, not even money but pride, I’m positive my friend is not in it for financial gain. Perhaps that is my problem, being tight on money and relying more on my finds puts more pressure on me to succeed. I’m sure many treasure hunting stories end with the very premise. Also, with show and tell comes added attention to the hobby from outsiders and those newbies like we once all were, but do we need more hunters on the beaches already hammered? I’m already feeling sub par to my fellow hunters and don’t think added competition will help solve the issue. So I suppose that my take is this, show and tell does help build incentive, drive, raises the bar for one to try and achieve, and is fun to look at. It can also build resentment, or make others feel like they are under achieving. Perhaps I feel this way because I have made it a job instead of a hobby or could it be I just have gold fever? I have had my share of success, and to gauge my abilities to that of what others are posting is just silly. With all this I have decided I should remove myself from social media outlets, stop watching YouTube’s, cease to attend the monthly meetings and hopefully find the joy in the hunt and the catch again. I may get flamed for this, I understand the absurdity of some of it, but it’s nice to get this out as well.
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