Welcome to the fascinating world of metal detecting!  For those of you who are fellow treasure hunters, I own both a Minelab Sovereign XS metal detector and a White's Spectrum XLT metal detector.  If you are interested in my opinion of either or both of these machines' capabilities, or you would like some help learning their quirks, I'll be glad to offer whatever help I can.

    As for pictures, they'll have to wait for my digital camera to have it's battery replaced - and for my cyclic interest in this subject to return.  In the mean time, I'll try to explain a few things and entertain you as well.

    Treasure hunters, as we are called who enjoy this hobby, have somehow gotten a bad rap.  People think of us as scavengers, thieves, beggars and worse.  I suppose we are scavenger hunting in a sort of way, but we do not steal from people, and we are not begging.  Most treasure hunters make every effort to return jewelry that is found to the rightful owner.  And tossing coins into our paths will do little more than insult.  We aren't out for the value (or lack thereof) of whatever we find, many times: it's the sheer excitement of having found something that seems to be a good target and then recovering it and finding out what exactly it is.  The thrill of discovery.

    Of course, a great deal of the time, what is discovered is nothing more than a mundane piece of garbage - aluminum foil, pop tops, bottle caps, pull tabs and even entire soda cans.  I once dug a hole four feet deep at the beach to recover a target that turned out to be a small collection of empty soda cans that had gotten covered up where they had been left.  Not only do we dig up a LOT of the metallic garbage that is carelessly tossed about, we also throw it away.  If you ever see someone out with a metal detector who doesn't, or who leaves holes without carefully refilling them, rest assured you are seeing an extreme minority and not the representative majority.

    Here are some questions that I have dealt with while hunting.  The answers that accompany them are not serious, but instead are intended to be a silly and humorous alternative to real worthwhile informative content, which may yet take their place.  No offense is intended or implied.

    Q:  Are you looking for gold?
    A:  No, I hate finding gold.  It's just so damned annoying to have to find gold when there are the so much more valuable pop tops, pull tabs, aluminum foil and other assorted crap you people drop all over the place!

    Q:  Find any gold?
    A:  Yes, but I thought I'd let you keep it, seing as how you are still wearing it...

    Q:  What is that?  (Pointing to my metal detector.)
    A:  It's an alien technological device which seems to attract idiots... like yourself, for instance.

    Q:  How much does one of those cost?
    A:  Hell, I haven't seen one for less than a dollar...

    Q:  What have you found so far?
    A:  I have found that there are so many people who want to know what I have found that I haven't had a chance to actually find anything yet!