With only twenty seven years experience metal detecting you could hardly say I was an expert on the subject, however, I have noticed a trend during that time among fellow hobbyists. You see, we are not all alike. Some of us are more addicted to the vice of metal detecting than others.

Some hobbyists are happy hunting once a month whereas some are not happy unless they are hunting at least every other day - some even every day. Myself, I am casual about the whole thing and do not pressure myself into any designated minimums or maximums that I must hunt. I simply enjoy metal detecting on the weekends and some weekdays when the weather is good and I can get out. I especially love to water hunt. Of course, that means only the summer months.

A friend of mine who is retired, manages to metal detect two to three times a week and tells me he would hunt more if his knees would hold out. He is really addicted to metal detecting and cannot even carry on a normal conversation with anyone without bringing up the subject.

Another fellow I hunt with is similar to me. He likes to metal detect casually but instead in out-of-the-way places. His idea is to travel at least fifty miles away from home to hunt virgin sites he has never hunted before. I suppose it is a different addiction than mine with a sense of exploring blended in with it. He is more an adventurer than anything, though, I do enjoy going to new places to hunt now and again.

Many of the folks I know that metal detect are from the Internet. Some of them have become personal friends. By the way, I have never met a TH'er from the Internet I did not like or was a problem. You hear so much about weirdos on the Internet and it makes you leery to meet anyone. Probably, the real reason I have never met any fellow hobbyist on the Internet I disliked, is because I conversed in E-mail with them a couple years first before ever consenting to personally meet or hunt with them. You tend to get to know the other person after a while when writing back and forth. Also, seeing their posts on the many metal detecting forums over the years makes a difference, too.

What I am conveying here, is the hobby is made up of all kinds of people. Not only do they have different ideas how often to hunt, but they also have different ideas of what to hunt. They differ in their likes from coins to jewelry to relics and more. I enjoy finding different things, especially those that are unusual, and I think many others besides myself do, too. They just don't talk about it much. I have several tins of metal items I am not even sure what they are: things like watch part gears and levers to who knows what, but they are all treasures to me.