Who was/is your mentor when learning to detect

[hedgehog]

I did learn by trial and error (eventually) but used to read the methods that Gordon Bailey used in Treasure Hunting magazine in the early 80's, clever man!

[Spooyt Vane]

i started in 1975 and my two mentors were two local men who started before me and one them QUIRKY had beachcombed since 1960s eyes only.

[the sutt]

i started detecting about 15 years ago but didn"t know much about detecting
then,so i left it there for a few years  but when its in you blood you got to start up again. when i did i had an old field master.
i joined the rare club. there are three people i got to thank for what i know today. they are maz buffer and ted. they took me under they wing so to speak i have made some good freinds at rare to many to mention,i won"t start to name them i"ll be here all night but them three stick out

[mole]

I also tok the trial and error path in the mid seventies with my c-scope tr200 and reading what John Webb had to say in the treasure hunting magazine about selecting a machine finding sites and search techniques  I think I can throw the L-PLATES away now!!  ;Dmole

[Al.Thepastfinder, ( Alan )]

 The footballs pools coupon collector noticed i'd bought a beachcomber for my daughter one christmas and invited me out with him,  some land didn't need permission and some did, but he didn't have it and didn't tell me, dooh,  he'd been detecting from the start,  well i thought i should learn something here anyhow,

What i noticed though that he was sending me to places that had been well done before, while he'd go off some where else when my back was turned,  then come back with the goodies,   then start laughing and calling me a dull bugger and i need a better detector ect. ect,
 I noticed that he was manipulating and controling things for his own advantage so as he'd look good,.
over time i noticed a lot more that he wasn't telling me,  i  done a lot of thinking, and watching him and learning from that,  then started reading the Treasure Hunter and Searcher and talking to other detectorists on the beaches and learned from them too.

In the end he was spending his time watching me and where i was going and what i was finding lol,  he didn't like it when i had to follow behind him like he made me do a lot of the time and i found silver coins where he had already been,  i didn't call him a dull bugger though and tell him to get a decent detector lol,,  he was changing it every now and then trying to keep up with my finds anyhow lol, dull bugger, he wasn't giving himself time to get used to them.

 i didn't have to listen to him anymore or what he was not telling me, i'd learned and done my trade and was capable of detecting my own style now and was loving it,  lol

[hedgehog]

  Nice story Al , I like it!

[Al.Thepastfinder, ( Alan )]

well to prevent being walked over i had to dig in and learn as much as i could and fast Hedgehog  lol,   This guy bares grudges for years and don't like others finding better than him Mate, he's had quite a few bad temper strops over it  lol

[Jonola (Jon)]

I was self untaught during the late 70s and early 80s. When I bought a Minelab Casa Dos has given me plenty of tips. I don't find anything but boy I can stand in a field and talk with the best of them         Sorry Kev 

On the use of the Quattro Paul (Waltonbasinman) put me right on the settings and general useage of the machine.

Cheers Guys.

[sodbuster]

I was lucky enough to have lived by the sea when I was young and spent a lot of time at the beach checking out what had been washed up along the shore line . The sandunes held a wealth of "treasure", you only had to smooth away some of the sand where people had been sunbathing to find coins etc . I always used to look where the sun was in the sky to pick the more likely places . There was also a rifle range in the dunes , I used to fetch home pockets full of live rounds !
They even found a world war 2 bomb there which they had to detonate , skipped school to go and watch the explosion.
                 I still use these basic principals when I'm out detecting, so I guess i'm self taught .

[Kev]

Hedgehog good post,i started out detecting nearly six years ago did not really know nothing (still dont ) when i meet up with DIG IT through Cardiff scan club it was him that got me on the right track, picked up things myself as well, meet up with the man himself BORDERFOX who put a program in the old ex 11 for me ( Colleggwent prog by the way  ) but the BORDERFOX  also showed me how to grid properly and a few other things as well , and i dont mean talking all the time  .............. so thanks guys  

[Jonola (Jon)]

Does anyone agree that  it all comes down to things no one can teach you? Slow and low is teachable but getting to know your detector and getting good sites that have had little or no detecting are THE main attributes to succesful detecting.

[jaydogg]

I started about six or seven years ago with Mark with a £200 Viking machine and it was all trial and error, although I had a pile of old and tattered detecting magazines for a rough guide.  I can’t really say that anyone taught me anything as I didn’t join a club until three years ago and never actually met another detectorist until then.  All the searching techniques I have always used seemed like common sense like the systematic grid search thing.  I guess the main thing that I have learned, albeit indirectly, was to sloooow down.  Yea I would definitely say that knowing your machine is one of the most important aspects to detecting.  Detectors seem to me to be like guitars, no two models of the same type play the same.   

[Gadget(Ian)]

i started to go with my farthers mate Mr John Parker from Ferndale when i was about 16 back 29 years ago.
sadly he died many years ago from cancer,i was using a whites beachcomer then i cant remember what john was using but he mainly found more than me.after he died i never bothered detecting much until 2 years ago then last year i joined rare metal detecting club through the recomendation of my workmate Byron Mathews.Then joined detecting wales in December last year and met my mate taff laff Rob Extraordinaire and never looked back. Both of us wind eachother up and together i think we make the lorel and hardy of the detecting world.YOU LOT GUESS WHO'S WHO.
Now i have  lots of detecting mates due to rare and metal detecting wales the only thing i am short of now is the time to go out detecting as much as i want.       

[Jonola (Jon)]

I can honestly say that if I hadn't changed jobs and found myself working alongside Casa-Dos (Kev) that I probably wouldn't have returned to the hobby so I have him to thank for it. When he brought in some Roman finds and I saw some hammered it re-awakened my interest. I took some of my old finds into work and suddenly I was a detectorist again! 

[waltonbasinman]

I knew my cousins Hedgehog and his brother were detectorists but never really took much notice as being an archaeologist it was considered a bad word. Then one day I was working in Worcester on a dig and the site foreman had a metal detector for the spoil heaps and we found loads of Roman and medieval coins and nails and bits and bobs that impressed me so much. All those finds that would have been missed so I bought my first detector. Worked well on the digs and got to use it well but when I went out in the fields I found nothing. Thought it must be the detector so spent about three weeks on the net and reading reviews of machines to find out what people were using and came up with the Minelab Quattro. Watched videos on You tube, and carried on learning my machine and still am. Then started to go out with Hedgehog and learnt quite a bit from watching him and reviews of the Quattro and other peoples recommendations. Now feel I have my own technique and am getting to know my machine in just under three years. So my mentors are unchecked spoilheaps, the internet and press, Hedgehog and other peoples finds.