Well I was going to say we didn't go into this hobby to make a profit, but thinking about it I guess (deep in our hearts and pockets) we may have; lol.
But!
Apart from the history and joy of detecting - even in the mud and the rain: I am constantly surprised at the varied reactions received when out swinging the plastic!
I like the beach where I live and find it a treasure trove of delights - not all monetary either.
To give 3 small examples:
1. As I moved along the beach I could hear faint shouts coming over my headphones and on looking around found a breathless father shouting at me to 'come back'. It transpired they, mum and 4 kids were packing up and the youngest had lost his shiney new dinky toy! Calamity followed by tears and much unhappiness. I was shown the area they had been playing, but apart from a 2p and tent peg nothing! I spotted, outside their search area a disturbed area of beach and decided to try there - after 2 minutes - Bingo - massive alloy target id, as I bent to dig everyone held their breath, and there it was. The crying stopped immediately and dad formed all the kids up in a line and we all shook hands to the laughter and applause of the holiday makers about.
2. Same beach different area; was requested by a passer by: had I seen a set of keys, car and house, no I said. Where did you lose them - somewhere out there pointing to a 1 mile stretch of beach. Oh ok I'll give it a look I said - Nothing at all, what did I expect. So went home. 5 days later, same beach after massive storm, and was slowly moving along the side of the walled area, when another great target id - dug down not even thinking keys - and I kid you not, there they were (what are the chances eh?) Luckily the person losing the keys had left a phone number at the local life boat station, so I left a message on the phone and handed them in! The life boat volunteers confirmed later they'd been collected so another success!
3. After a good day with a great variety of coinage, I pulled up an old dog id disc, which still had a discernible post code and name on it, so as a dog lover I popped it in the post to the post code after checking on google maps for a location. Imagine the delight in getting a really nice text back thanking me for the efforts and how pleased they were to get their old dogs disc back.
So there you have it, we dont have to find something of monetary value to come home thinking what a great hobby we have. It can give a warm glow from knowing that you can help someone, as well as enjoy a search from which you just dont know what you're going to discover next.
Thanks for putting up with a long story about 'not much', but it all helps to make this fine hobby that much more interesting to me, so I'm constantly looking forward to that next time out.
Regards all
Len R.
