Would have been nice to make my own mind up.

 Friday 4 April 2014.
I've not been out detecting for a while now due to doing 'in house' things like decorating. It was looking promising yesterday to get out today, but alas, while putting on the final coat of gloss paint down on the skirting boards my back went leaving me hobbling about today. Hoping it eases up so I can get to work tonight.


So as I am 'resting up', I've been doing a lot of reading around the internet and one thing I did notice, (not that I could have missed it),  was that a program I was looking forward to watching concerning metal detecting had been pulled. What makes me laugh is that this program was pulled because of objectors who only watched a one minute clip, no one had seen the program yet, but all that fuss over a one minute clip got it pulled.
I grant you that the one minute clip looked wrong and I think was shown for publicity that back-fired. So what was the rest of the program like, who knows now, may never know, it just would have been nice to have made up my own mind. Lets face it, it couldn't have been any worse than what we watch on our TV screens now can it. At least if we were allowed to watch it we could have made a conscience decision as to the rights and wrongs of it instead of just being left in limbo.

There's talk now of a forthcoming comedy TV program regarding metal detectorists. Already to some there are signs that it could harm our hobby of metal detecting. I'm wondering now if even this program will get pulled lol.

Just one thing I do want to get off my chest is that metal detecting is legal in this country. Its governed by laws, and not only laws made by fellow detectorists, but laws made by our people in power. Now there's another laugh, even some of those in power have been known to break the very laws they make us adhere to as we have seen  recently. But being a responsible metal detectorists and abiding and respecting the laws put in place upon us we are legally persuing our hobby.

In fact, and you may have seen this somewhere around the net yourselves, there's even been 10 Commandments written regarding metal detecting. Now I'm not sure if these Commandments were given by God to Moses, but they came from somewhere:

These are the statutes, judgments and edicts which
must be obeyed by all those who wield detectors of metal:


1. Thou shalt not leave behind unfilled excavations.
2. Thou shalt not trespass or defy in any way the lawful decrees of thy city, county, state, province or country.
3. Thou shalt not harm vegetation, the creatures of the field, natural resources or the personal property of others.
4. Thou shalt not covet the finds of thy companion. Nor shall ye covet his metal detector, digging tool or the hallowed place in which he diggeth.
5. Thou shalt not ignore nor neglect thy family and friends whilst in the endless pursuit of thy hobby.
6. Thou shalt assist the distraught owners of lost goods and the archeologists and the enforcers of law and all others who may need thy skill as a metal detectorist.
7. Thou shalt return found treasures to the proper owners whenever their true identity can be rightfully determined.
8. Thou shalt report to the proper authorities any find relating to criminal activity or of archeological significance.
9. Thou shalt be considerate of others on the beach and in other public places whilst waving thy search coil and digging holes in the sand and the soil.
10. Thou shalt speak out against the unjust laws and stand firm against the Philistines who would cast out all those who would use detectors of metal.

And if thou dost not abide by these Commandments,
may you be plagued with mineral-bearing rocks,
hard packed soil, pestilence, serpents, locusts,
poisonous vegetation and great multitudes of pull-tabs,
bottlecaps and rusty nails. May ye spend
the remaining years of thy wretched life digging
signals of false origins. For thy iniquities shall
surely bring the overzealous wrath of the ignorant,
heathen bureaucrats down upon those of us who are innocent.
For we are the righteous and the just and ye who do not obey the
Ten Commandments of Metal Detecting are doomed to bad luck.

- by Jim Lewellen


So there you go, enjoy your hobby and Happy Hunting

11 comments:

  1. It wasn't just the clip but also one of the presenters involved, the profiles and the ridiculous name.

    However as I understand it it's only been pulled until NatGeo can at least look at and answer the issues raised. If it's the responsible programme that it claims to be then why not show it?

    I think there is a difference between being a metal detectorist who is following the laws of the land and then a 'responsible' detectorist Someone who doesn't report their non treasure finds and who digs 8 foot holes in persuit of their find is still a lawful detectorist but are they a responsible detectorist?

    responsible Metal detecting is not condusive (sorry poor spelling there) to good tv. Who wants to make a programme where someone wanders around for 3 hours and finds a nice 1743 penny which might actually be what a lot of us consider to be a good session.

    Anyone who wants to start detecting should be made to spend 8 hours finding nothing first.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Detectorbloke, First up you made a good point there about 'Responsible' metal detecting and 'Lawful' metal detecting'. There is a big difference between the two and I hold my hand up to that for overlooking it. In most legal hobbies there is an element that are not responsible in what they do. Take fishing, as long as your not trespassing or poaching its within the law, but how many anglers leave discarded fishing line and even hooks laying around. Its left to the responsible anglers to educate them. Even dog walking, some dog owners never pick up the dog mess, but left to the responsible dog owners to educate them. So really in all activities there will be an element of unresponsible people and we just have to live with it and do what we can to educate them.
      If they take notice, all well and good, but I can't help believing one is banging one's head against a brick wall with some, but I suppose if the message gets across to just one person then its a job well done.

      Now my gripe regarding that program is that I wanted to see for myself how the handling of war graves was handled. From that one minute clip it looked awful, but how many times have you seen clips of a program or film and thought wow, this looks good, only to find when you watched it it turned out to be a load of rubbish. When I saw that clip it looked awful, but was it, was this clip purposely screened to shock for publicity as was the title,,,, if it was it sure made an impact. I would have liked to have seen the full program before I made my mind up. I've learn't not to believe everything I read. I like to see the facts and this program could have shed light on how war graves are handled in reality and then i could have made my mind up if it was right or not.
      Maybe it will be shown in the future, but until it is how can anyone judge it to get it pulled. Unless Nat.Geo know themselves its not fit to show and bottled out showing it.

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  2. Yeah you make a good point re not judging the programme before it's aired. I thought the same initially but the more I thought about it and the more I looked at the title and the militaria dealer the more I wanted the programme not to air. Part of me still wants to see if for myself though so I guess I haven't entirely convinced myself but i think i'm maybe 70:30 happy it's been pulled!

    When someone criticises a detectorist I don't take it as an attack against all detecting necessarily. I try to look at what the specifics of what they are saying and then think 'have they got a point or not?'.

    As you say it is probably banging your head with some but if you don't try that just gives credence to some people's views that detectorists just look out for their own at all costs.

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  3. If there was a turnaround on the showing of that program and it was being aired tomorrow night at 8pm, I feel pretty confident you would watch it. You will feel you have to :).
    As for trying to show our hobby in a good light and show what responsible detecting is, as you say we have to try for the sake of our hobby.

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  4. You're probably right, don't know if its the same thing as makes you slow down and watch a car crash :)

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  5. Sorry to hear about your back. I hope you're not in too much discomfort. Get well soon mate.

    I wouldn't have watched that Nazi War Diggers programme but that's only because I don't watch tv. But I have been following the story via the detectorist blogs/news. I see your point re watching an entire episode before passing judgement but, I dare say, those screenshots of blokes holding up the skulls of fallen soldiers as if they were trophies were enough. I'm not surprised that archaeologists and many others went berserk. Archaeologists have to treat human remains with dignity. And as db pointed out, the fact that one of the blokes involved turned out to be a seller of military artifacts...I'm not surprised NatGeo went into damage-limitation mode. If the first episode was actually aired, the reaction would have been loads worse.

    And, by the way, I wish I'd known that you were poorly. I could have borrowed your XP Deus and kept it warm for you until you'd fully recovered! No problem at all mate - my pleasure! Lol. Mind you, I shouldn't say such things because my Detech 13" Ultimate coil arrived yesterday - and get this - I found a 20p coin in pasture at what looked to be about 9-10 inches. Get me!

    And cheers for all you've written about the 13" Ultimate.

    Cheers

    Martyn

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  6. My backs a lot better thanks Martyn, even managed to get into work this evening. So now ready for some detecting. Glad your enjoying the 13" coil, remember, its a lot more sensitive than the standard coil so you will most likely experience a bit of falsing here and there. But once your used to it you will see how it transforms the Ace.

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  7. Oh ok mate. I'll keep an eye out for the falsing. Thanks. The pinpoint function will take a bit of getting used to as well. I'll have a re-read of what you've written about the Ultimate before I go out today.

    Me and my mate have sort of a new permission today - not so much a farm, more of a garden centre owned by an old schoolmate (!). Lol. Hey, we'll happily take anything us! A bit of land came with the garden centre and that includes a stream. It's also about 200 yards away from a Roman road connecting a legion fort to an auxiliary cohort fort of equitata - so you never know.

    And it's funny how as soon as I mention borrowing your Deus, your bad back suddenly feels a lot better. What a coincidence! Ha ha!

    Cheers

    Martyn

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  8. haha....weird isn't it how one can adjust one's bad back to suit....Na...Does feel a lot better though, I've had it go like this about 6 times and have learn't that its best to get moving as quickly as possible before it seizes up.

    Sounds an interesting new permission you have there, good luck on it and I hope it produced some finds. Regarding the coil and pinpointing, I used the back off method. Once I had a signal I slowly swung the coil backwards off it, when the signal went the target used to be right under the front nose of the coil, was always spot on when you got used to it.

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  9. Janner, great post and indeed our pastime is legal and we have just as much right to find our history as anyone else.

    For the record the author of your ten commandments is not unknown. Please see this early post of mine from 2012

    http://stoutstandards.wordpress.com/2012/08/12/is-there-an-official-code-of-ethics/

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  10. Hey Dick, Many thanks for that. Its great to be able to put a name to that excellent piece of work. Off to edit it now.

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