Whats been your biggest "Detecting mistake" ?

[Neil]

Time to own up guys! What to date has been some of your biggest detecting mistakes? I want to add the caveat that nearly all of these happened in my first years detecting and I have learnt from them!

I also want to add there a few beauties that members have made - but I'll let them elaborate. Ahem, Roman Ray and your name story!

In no particular order:

One of my first sites was in the shadow of a Iron Age Hill Fort. I kept finding pieces of small lead that I was sure I could see animals in and led to much hilarity at a SCAN meeting and from my wife. No matter how hard I insisted I could see things - I was rightfully laughed at. It was just waste lead, but did prove activity on the site.

Another time I hedged a foot pattern - zigzag design that I then saw in The Searcher was an usual and collectible version. I thought it was just "any old iron".

Driving to the Vale of Glamorgan and realising I had forgotten my spade, oh and my headphones and to make matters worse even my detector!

Trying to unfold a hammered coin that had been folded into a perfect square - only to learn at  a later date that this was deliberate and may have been related to a blessing, curse or ailment. Yep - I snapped into into three bits - real shame as it was a lovely find!

Cleaning a Republican  denari on my kitchen table having had one too many shandies and dropping it on the floor resulting in a lovely chip coming out of the side of it. No one told me that 2000 year old silver was so brittle!

Come on. Own up - theres got to be a few crackers out there.

A hanging my head in shame Neil

[handyman [Alan}]

At a recent talk to a local community group, there were 3 club members in attendance. The computer had been switched on, the display screen erected, the projector adjusted and all was ready to go, except there was no electric signal coming through to the projector.

The extension lead plugs were checked, the wall socket switch was on, still no power.

Finally, having watched proceedings for a few minutes, a wise old boy came along and whispered, let me sort it out for you!!!!

We then watched in amazement as he switched off the wall switch, removed the plug and took it over to the other side of the room and inserted it into the socket there, switched on and lo and behold, power!

He then sauntered back over, with a huge grin on his face .... "that socket over there don't work!!"

[handyman [Alan}]

or...............

A good friend tells me of the time that he dashed out of the house one morning, grabbing his detector on the way. He goes to work  and at the end of the shift, dashes off to a local field where a local dig was going on. He changes into his detecting kit, assembles his machine and then goes to switch it on......... thats the first problem!

The control box was missing. It was in Ireland undergoing repairs!!!!

Oh dear, did his detecting friends laugh!!! However, one took pity and lent him the Deus for the afternoon. 1 fibula, 3 roman coins and several bits of Bronze were pulled out of the ground. Then the rain came!

Next time ...check that the detector has its control box!

[dragonsbreath(Paul)]

Hi Alan.....I attended a few of the famous Thornham rallies...
And i found a fantastic Denarius and excitedly shouted out to all and sundry
i gotta silver denarius...the multitude swarmed all over the area and at least 20 more were found in a twenty yard square area....by all around me.
If only i had kept my big gob shut lol

[Dodger]

After a good days detecting, I returned to the car and put my detector etc in the boot. When I got home I looked for my almost new, stainless steel, lightweight spade. I realised I had left it leaning against the side of the car. It was a 14 mile drive back to the site only to find someone had stopped in the lay-by and was off with it. £22 it cost and the best little spade I ever had.

Out last week on a nice evening with only a t-shirt on. Only to be attacked by the biggest horde of Scottish midges. No cover for my arms (I am allergic to midge bites), no repellent spray etc. Took about 10 days for the bites to stop itching...

[rjm]

As few quckies.........

Leaving my spade behind behind after a session which was gone by the time I returned. It had my name/address
on but was never returned.

Leaving my spade in the garage and having to travel home for it.

Having to travel a few miles to a shop to buy batteries after the one's in my machine were flat and so were the
spare set. (pre Deus days  )

Finding a Jaws harp and chucking it thinking it was junk....

Failing to note the date and finds place of many of my silver coins.

Jumping over a fence into a slurry pit of mud and slowly sinking. It was a sweat getting out. It could have been me that invented the saying "Look before you leap!" 

[Neil]

These are funny - keep them coming guys!

Must be loads of stories out there.

The worst are definately throwing things away! Apart from Bob in the slurry!

Neil

[Val Beechey]

Dare I say,   STARTING IT IN THE FIRST PLACE.!!!

Val

[nfl]

hey val optomistic anticipation can sometimes be a big tectin mistake ,,,,,but the only mistake i made so far {fingers crossed} s the time i was in a hurry to get out and put on my steel toe cap boots to go tectin needless to say after 20 mins of chasing ghost signals it dawned on me what was going on

[rjm]

The worst are definately throwing things away! Apart from Bob in the slurry!

Neil

It could have been worse. If I'd have had a heavy Monsterlab in my hands I would have been gone!



Talking about getting stuck........

A couple of years ago I had an estate car and parked in the gateway of a field. After detecting I tried
to drive away to find I was stuck! The RAC had to come and tow me out.  

[Val Beechey]

Then you were lucky Bob. I got stuck in the mud, in the winter, and had to go beach combing for bits of wood and flat stones to get myself out.
 Forgot my phone and not a soul in site. Is that sods law or what. It took nearly an hour to get out and that was BEFORE I started detecting. Then to round off the afternoon I found zilch.

Val

[Neil]

I remember TaffLaff and I drove for hours over the bridge to try and find a site for a DW rally in the early days. I sat in the car for a good 30 minutes while Rob was sorting it out with the farmer after saying "He'd only be a minute!"

Anyway after 30 minutes I braved the rabid farm dogs to discover Taff sat in the middle of a family, holding court with all the family and anyone else who was willing to listen! They were totally bemused by this Treorchy Boy who wouldn't stop talking and stared mesmerised by him!  I prised him away from them and we headed into the fields driving slowly through a herd of cows, which he was confident would leave his car alone.

We went off for a couple of hours and found the land to be barren - returned to his car to find the wing mirror torn off, various dents where it looked like they had mounted it and the whole car covered in cow spit and slobber! It was like a scene from Ghostbusters where he gets "slimmed"! Anyway we wrote that one off!

That was also the same day where Rob uttered the immortal words to me :
"Look at the rabbit" and a deer promptly stood up where he was pointing and legged it into the distance.

I still chuckle abbout that!


Neil

[Chef Geoff]

None I'm perfect lol


OK OK well similar to Neil it involved disposing of a foot pattern but not once but twice....yes a pair, it took me about a year to realise what I'd done.

Back in the early 80's I had a phone call via a card I used to put in shop windows to find a pair of earrings for a woman, yes a pair, she had lost them in a field and she knew roughly the exact spot which she explained to me over the phone and I took her details and told her I'd have a look as soon as I could. Well that "look" came about 4 days later and she was dead right as within 20 minutes I had found both of them.
I now phoned her number but it was answered by her husband who gave me their address and asked if I could bring them around at 7.30 in the evening the following day (weirdly precise). So happily like a lamb to the slaughter I took the earrings back to their rightful and would be oh so happy owner.... she would be... wouldn't she?
NO, I had just walked into the middle of world war 3, the rings had been lost during a bout of, shall we say "physical exercise" only problem was her husband was in work at the time.....I still cringe

I travelled all the way to a rally 40 odd miles away only to realise I had left my detector at home, feeling this was a good excuse to upgrade to the new all singing model, I bought one only to win the very same model in a raffle at the end of the second day.

Found a lump of (suspected) celtic gold, Thought it was lead and to this day I can't actually remember where I found it.
And lots and lots of early (70's) cleaning sins.

Neil Taff's obviously got a rabbit fixation, at the last 2 dayer he ID'd a dead Badger as a rabbit

[Mungo]

after finding two Roman Brooches in the same hole , along with a bit of twisted wire... which promptly went in the hedge somewhere .turned out later to be a roman bracelet...never been able to find it again tho........ never throw anything away now till it's been looked at ,  at home...

[Dodger]

Not my story but worth repeating anyway. Guys biggest mistake was being lippy to his detecting buddies. After tea break they went detecting their seperate ways. Trouble was, Mr Lippy was getting continous noise from his detector. He tried resetting, switching off, changing disc, ground balancing etc. Finally after being unable to detect any further, gave up and went home.

Cleaning his detector when he got home, he found a 2p taped to the bottom of the search coil....