Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report
Over the past forty or fifty years, metal detecting culture has changed a lot. Now it is a lot more mainstream. There are a lot more detectorists and a lot more people know about metal detecting.
Back in the day, there wasn't all the sharing that now takes place on the internet. There were books and magazines and metal detecting clubs, but nothing like the internet.
One big name was Karl von Muller. Not his real name, Karl published 27 different books. I read a good number of them. You can use the following link to find them. Books by Karl von Mueller (Author of Treasure Hunter's Manual #7) (goodreads.com).
Perhaps the most popular of his books was The Treasure Hunter's Manual # 7, which I'm sure I read, along with some of the others.
Being something of a mystery man, he was more typical of that era than the present era.
Before the internet, the metal detecting culture was very different. There wasn't nearly as much sharing or openness. Many of the top detectorists preferred to remain anonymous rather than seeking publicity and fame. Obviously, they didn't have Facebook pages.
Some pf the top detectorists were very secretive. They didn't want everybody to start doing it.
I've mentioned one fellow before who was known as The Florida Pro. He was one of those nighttime hunters that would come crawling out of the surf almost every morning just before sunrise. He operated mostly in South Florida, but I also ran into him once on the Treasure Coast. A little newsletter put out by Jerry, the owner of a detector shop, named Pot Of Gold, printed a disguised picture of The Florida Pro, disguised by a dive mask and scruntched up face. I'm pretty sure the Pot of Gold, is no longer there. It was near the Fort Lauderdale airport and since the airport expanded I'm sure something else is there now.
There were detectorists like that, which you would seldom see, even though they were often out there, but there still weren't nearly as many detectorists back then. In fact, it was not uncommon for them to try to throw you off. Some of the better detectorists would act like they never found anything even if they did very well.
Of course, there were a lot of places that you could detect back then where you are not allowed to detect now. You could metal detect at C. B. Smith park, for example.. They had a little swimming area with a sand bottom. I'd bet that they don't metal detecting there now. I used to work the swimming area as well as the volleyball courts there.
You could also metal detect at the state park on the south side of the Fort Lauderdale inlet. I think it is call John Lloyd State Park now. I've been told you can't detect there anymore. I had a huge day there one day - 15 rings in a four hour period.
There are still advantages to stealthy metal detecting, however as far as beach detecting go, everybody already knows about it. It is no secret when 15 or 20 detectorist hit a beach at the same time.
One advantage of being stealthy is not raising objections. The laws against metal detecting didn't exist until detectorists were noticed. There was little objection to metal detecting when detectorists weren't noticed much.
Some of the old timers weren't about to let you know they were metal detecting, and they wouldn't admit to finding much. And the standard answer they'd give to that common question "Find anything?" was nah.
When I first did a post on old-timer tricks, I did it with some hesitation, but now things have changed so much, I don't have any reservations about revealing some of those, especially to the modern metal detecting community.
Some of the old-timers would rather be seen as crazy old fools rather than let it be known how much they were finding. They didn't want to encourage others to become involved in the hobby or tip off other detectorists to where they liked to detect. They could be very misleading. If asked, some of the best detectorists would act like they didn't know what they were doing, and they'd never let on they found anything good. Some would go so far as to paint or put duct tape on their detector so it would look like a piece of junk. If asked if they ever found anything good, they might say something like, "I don't think this thing even works."
To throw off other detectorists that might see them, they might carry a few pull-tabs or nails and when a good target was dug, they would leave a junk item by the hole so that anyone following them would think the junk is what came out of the hole. Today they'd be blamed for leaving junk on the beach, but it was one thing they'd do to throw off other detectorists.
When being observed after digging a good target, they might make a bold motion to pretend to toss something away while they palmed a good target, eventually slipping the find into their pocket unobserved.
Or after digging a piece of junk, they might stand there a few seconds inspecting the object as if it was the Queen's jewels and ceremoniously clean it off and then make a big show of happily placing it into a goody bag or pocket.
One way to remain unobserved is to remain submerged as much as possible, perhaps using snorkel or scuba gear.
If there was another detectorist working the same area, they might dig some nice deep holes and act like they were recovering targets where there were no signals at all, leaving the other detectorist to wonder why he was missing everything.
If they didn't want it to be known where they had hunted, they might try to detect where the water waves would quickly cover their tracks and holes.
I've already mentioned how some preferred to hunt at night to remain unobserved.
These are things that were more common in the past, and give a hint of the subculture of old-timer metal detecting from back in the day.
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Today the wind is ENE and the swells NE, but the surf isn't big.
Tomorrow the surf will be up a little - maybe something like 3 - 5 feet.
Good hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net