DetectingWales.com

The Spoilers

If you have been metal detecting for any length of time, you must have met a spoiler, you know the kind of person (man or women they are both the same), they are the type of people whose sole purpose in life is to spoil your day out. They all have the same glint in their eyes as they stride towards you with that "I am a person of the land and I have more rights in the countryside than a mere city dweller." You stand there wishing you were somewhere else, because you know exactly what is coming, as it is always the same time and time again.

The opening gambit is always "Have you got permission to be on here?" or "What do you think you are doing?" And I say "Yes I do have permission to be here, and who might you be to be asking me if I have permission anyway?" very politely of course, which usually makes them splutter and wave their stick. Of course you don't know who you're speaking to, or which type of establishment they have escaped from. They rant and rage about how people are spoiling the countryside, totally ignoring the four dogs they have with them who are busy depositing their steaming piles of solid waste all over the place, the liquid waste usually ends up all over my foot for some reason. But in the face of the storm you must keep the smile stuck on your face and stand your ground, even if it is getting more difficult to hold a conversation now that one of the dogs is clamped onto your leg and is pumping away vigorously.

The more you try to shake off the dog, the more it gets excited and its eyes bulge and tongue lolls out of its foaming mouth. Then suddenly the Spoiler realises that you are not going to be intimidated (by them or their dog) into submission and probably have more right to be there than they have, so off they march, taking their reluctant dogs with them in the hope of finding someone else to torment.

So if you are new to detecting & haven't met a spoiler yet, believe me you will - so keep smiling...

YOU GET THEM EVERYWHERE BUD ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,        HERE  ARE A FEW HELPFULL TIPS   THAT  I FEEL  MAY  HELP ,,,,,,,,,,,,, THE FIRST THING TO DO IS ,,,,,,, SCREAM  ,,,, IF YOU DONT   F***  OFF  IM  GOING TO KILL YOU WITH MY SPADE  THEN  DIG A BIG HOLE AND BURY  BOTH  YOU  AND  YOUR MANKY DOG IN IT ,,,,,,,,NEXT  RAISE YOUR SPADE ALOFT AND BEGIN WALKING TOWARDS THEM  GNASHING YOUR TEETH  AND MAKING  LOUD GRUNTING  NIOSES..............................  THEY TEND TO GO AWAY AND LEAVE YOU IN PEACE ,,,,,,,,  I HOPE THIS ADVICE HAS BEEN HELPFULL   ;D ;D ;D ;D

I had a spoiler once approach me and started lecturing me on how i am destroying the countryside and effecting the the wildlife,
Wonderful hypocrisy from a man carrying a shotgun off out to shoot birds  ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::)

yes mick i know what you mean me john (fox) and richy had it last sunday a do gooder walked over to me and said you know your not allowed on here i just looked at him and said whats it got to do with you after it was sorted out he had the cheek to say injoy your hobby  :-\ how can we when theres guys like that about as you know mick it takes all sorts mate  ;)

haa ill give that a try digga when i meet one ... ;D

Nothing wrong with shooters.  

The more foxes they shoot the better and the more pigeons and rabbits they shoot the better.

Bedises being food for their table it also benefits the farmers by having less crops destroyed which in turn benefits everyone.

Bring back fox hunting !!

Sorry Malcolm , i don't agree with shooting for sport ,anyway i don't know of anyone who eats foxes, all cruelty to animals should be banned, but then we never will agree will we, but did you see the mess left by "shooters" in the field at the last Caerleon rally , i counted at least 12 dead birds (i think magpies) scattered over the field, they didn't prvide food for nobody , just mindless killing, no point debating it.

I eat foxes..but I have a queation...on the packet why is there a polar bear on top?

Hi Mike, yes i saw the mess, they were pigeon, you can't always retrieve them before they get fly blown in this weather, better to leave them for the buzzards and other scavengers, they wont go to waste, believe me.
Pigeon are registered vermin, as such farmers and hunters have a duty to destroy them,  in most cases to protect crop, you would not believe, without seeing first hand how much damage a dozen pigeon can do to a Field of peas!
I'm not trying to start a debate, i just thought i would clear up the possibility of why those birds were left at Cearleon, and why they get shot in the first place on the whole
Thanks
Salty

Thanks Karl for clearing that up, however, the country genlemen who accused me of destroying wildlife was off duck hunting, surely they are not vermin.

Nope definitely not vermin, though i would have though they would certainly end up on a plate.

Don't get me wrong, there are some right pillocks that get enjoyment from needless destruction of life, that parade under the banner of a hunter/sporting shooter?
These people are normally found driving Range Rover sports, with top of the range equipment, thats never seen the rain and if they did managed to hit a Duck (most of them could hit a Pig in passage with a sawn off shotgun) they would have no idea what to do to it to make it edible, and that includes the cooking.

As you probably gathered i hunt, or used to, not so much lately due to a health scare, that oddly has left me with a far more "live and let live " attitude to all things living, however there are genuine reasons when unfortunately, somethings need to be destroyed for the greater good.

People used to take the Micky out of me, as on occasions i have stopped or swerved the car to avoid killing a rabbit in the road, even on one occasion while returning from a hunting trip involving the same small furry animals!, the reason was simple, that rabbit was doing no harm to any crops, in fact the nearest farm was some distance away, so this bunny would have lived in Bosch, and i was happy for him to continue.

come to think of it, i think i may be turning Buddist in my old age, I know the wife keeps saying i have his figure ;D

Take care mate
Salty ;)

If they want to eat duck , why don't they buy one fom the shops like the rest of us, sell the shotgun (how much £2000 upwards and beyond £100s of thousands) then they could buy loads of ducks to eat,, anyway they normally have more than enough money to buy their food ....lol

Trust me on this one Mike, the Duck in the air with the divey and the shotgun,had far, far better odds of still Quacking today than the one in Tesco's ;) :D
Perhaps hes better sticking with his shotgun and the Duck population having better odds ::) ;D

Cheers
Salty

OK , I DON'T LIKE DUCK ANYWAY

Buy duck from a shop?          buy duck from a shop?

Have you seen the conditions ducks and other birds are kept for the shops?

TheY never see daylight, they are force fed and then slaughtered for people that think killing animals is cruel.

If you want to ban a cruel sport... ban coarse fishing

Course fishing .. huh... rip the fish mouth to pieces with a metal hook, cause it unknown suffering, keep it trapped in a net until released only to have the mindless cruel fishermen do it all again numerous times until that poor fish dies.

I have been shooting for over 40 years and I only shoot things I can eat except for the thousands of clay pigeons I have shot for fun, in competitions and shooting for Wales in the International Sporting Events. .. trouble is I have never found a receipe to cook them though.. too gritty.

As someone said earlier... go to a corn field or other field where pigeons have been feeding.. they can wipe out a 50 metre circle within minutes and then go and tell their mates who can destroy an entire field within a day.

As for foxes... the more that are shot the better... ask any farmer and better still have a chat with farmers about the crop damage birds and foxes do to their livelyhood but be prepared for answers you may not like if you are an anti-shooter or supporter of the fox hunting ban.

Tell a farmer you think fox hunting should remain banned and you will probably be banned from his farm,

Trouble is people don't know what they are talking about when it comes to shooting just as people don't know aboiut metal detecting but the do gooders who know no better will never understand and are never prepared to listen or learn..

Malcolm i'm not a do gooder , i just don' like the idea of shooting, however i accept i goes on , its just that i will have nothing to do with it, i have nothing against the people who do, if thats what they enjoy then its up to them.

I also agree what you say about coarse fishing, bullfighting and those poor bloody clay pidgeons, oh yeah and all them people called Will in the war films...lol

seriously if you enjoy your shooting , good for you , but you have to remember there people like myself who find it distateful, but like i said i wouldn't do anything to stop it , as for foxhunting,,, i just wouldn't vote.

people don't have to go to hunts or shoots, nobody is forced to do anything , just stay away.

Getting back to the original post by Stig:

Yes, I know what you mean. Even when people mean no harm and just ask "have you found anything"
sometimes you just can't shake them off....they keep talking and talking and talking. Half hour of valuable
detecting time can be wasted.

Having said that, it's our duty as responsible detectorists to be friendly and promote the hobby.

No problem when it's an extremely attractive female that want's to talk !!! ;D

Easy to stop them talking to you ...

Method 1 .... just move your fingers and hands around as if you are doing sign language and then just stare at them as if you are waiting for a reply....

Method 2. ... shrug your shoulders and say " nine spoke englander" ... and then stare at them as if you are waiting for a reply....

Method 3..... whispering say .. "I am with bomb disposal and I am looking for a booby trapped bomb that goes off if you stand on it or if it hears voices..... please retrace your steps very quietly for your own safety"... and stare at them with a hush finger over your mouth with a shaking sideways movement of your head and a go away waving of your hand. 

I was looking through my old junk the other day and found an L2A2  fragmentation Grenade, Deactivated of course (don't ask how a came to have this,it is legal though)
I was thinking of carrying it with me for the more annoying ones that come up to ask "Have you found anything?" just to see there face when i say "yes, look what do reckon this does" and remove the pull pin to let the striker fall ;D ;D

Malcolm, I'll have to keep an eye out for you mate, as I'm sure we must have met at some point whilst on the clays, Did you ever do Sunday League sporting?
Salty

Salty,
If you was a clay pigeon shooter in the early and mid 70's, especially sporting,  you would probably have met me . I also ran the Carmarthenshire Wildfowlers Clay Pigeon section in Pembrey where we built the second skeet layout in South Wales. Our open sporting events brought shooters from all over.

I shot for Wales at the International Sporting Event held in Scotland back in 1975 but soon after became a dad so my pennies was then spent on nappies and the International scene had to take a back seat and eventually SCUBA diving took first place for the next 20 years.

Still have my bang bangs though  LOL

Ahh, Sorry Malcolm, all that was a little before my time, i was only 9 years old in 1975, I shot for Wales at Bisley in the Small bore class from the age of 13 (i was an air cadet then) Eventually became a Civilian Instructor and range marshal, Got into full bore and shotguns, went on to to Field sports/vermin control, got into the clays quite heavily in the mid 90's but as yourself, had to wind it down when my eldest came along in 2000. I still go out but have forsaken my shooting nowdays for detecting. In fact I'm selling one of my rifles now to help fund my new hobby (a steyr scout .223 with a T8 moderator and a Schmitt and bender scope, if you know anyone interested, Mint condition).
Cheers
Salty

ok mike but your just looking at the one side of things things got to be kept under control look at france and foxes they did not like killing them until the place was full of rabies and still is magpies rob and kill a lot of song birds nest and kill the chicks uk is full of TB to many bagers mate they carry it and give it to cattle when i work on a farm in pontypool for six years i seen many sheep go down to lamb and the crows peck there eyes out alive now come mate whats that all about theres been hunting for hundreds of years its a way of life and it will never stop and should not (just having my say on the matter)regards phil

I think it's important that we Can all have our own opinions, agree to disagree, remain forum friends and move on.
I apologise for hijacking this thread somewhat, lets all go and hunt something we all have in common, the lesser spotted Hammered ;D
Cheers
Salty

If there was only one side to an argument, wouldn't life be boring