Metal Detectors are they unethnical?

[Guest djphattius]

I was working on a hard cache yesterday (which we never found). And I opted the idea of a metal detector. Well my buddy that was caching with me, said it would be wrong to us it. And got very defensive about it. I have read the threads about pairing the two together to make caching more fun (but really what can be more fun than caching, back to my note). Is it wrong? Say you have had a cache that you are working on and you can't find and it is your second trip... and you decide to use the old detector to help? Is that wrong? I mean it beats digging up all the leaves and moving logs....

 

Can I get some input on this?

 

Daniel

[Guest Mopar]

Personally, I don't think it would be of much help. Since you don't know what metal if ANY you are looking for, all descrimination would have to be turned off. That being done, the detector is gonna go off for all sorts of crap, you would be surprised whats there, even in what looks like a clean, virgin area.

You would still have to sweep the area throughly, same as if you were visually looking for the cache. The cache may be plastic, with no metal objects inside at all.

Last, and most important, metal detecting is illegal in many parks and forests. Even if it IS legal, it portrays the cacher as someone going around digging holes looking for buried treasure. Even if it's not the case, it's not a healthy image to show the public or officials.

[Guest djphattius]

Point proven on that and I never thought of it that way... My mom is one of those people that go tromping through the woods with a metal detector, and I never really thought of looking like that cause they are usually carring shovels to dig. I usually have a stick to move leaves... I don't like doing that with my hands because of snakes...

 

Later,

Daniel

[Guest nlazarus]

You've got the right idea, I recently went caching with someone and their 8 year old daughter. I learned from her that when you get within 50' of a cache stop using the GPS and start using your eyes, keep the name of the cahce in mind as it tends to indicate the hiding spot, and have a stick to poke around with.

[Guest sailyak]

Daniel, Metal detector hummmmm- I thought about that. Not to find the cache but as an extention of geocacheing. What I thought about was the cache would contain coordinates for a good metal detector site. one that has been seeded with coins, and metal trinkets. The game is to find the cache box with the gps and then use the coordinates supplied to find the metal detector site. The cache box would also contain the log book. Items would be taken away and items would be added to the seeded area.

 

Because metal detectors are specifically forbidden in parks and govt. forests, the only places that I know of where they can be used comfortably are on private property and possibly on road right-aways where digging is also forbidden. Digging can be avoided by hiding the seeded items in leaf litter or in short grass. I know of just a site where a bike/hiking trail which runs parallel to a road. The cache could be hidden just off the trail and the metal detector site could be nearby on the road right away.

 

I would like to know what the moderators think about this.