Hunting Buddy's

Intro: 

Hey Everybody. Welcome! To Episode 67 of the metal detecting show podcast. My Name is Ciaran and I have been Metal Detecting for nearly 30 Years. This week I want to speak of a love that has no name and that is the love you have for your hunting buddy or if you haven’t yet felt the sandpaper like application of sun cream then this is the episode for you as I try  to help you  find a hunting partner or buddy.

Music

Hey everyone before we start I want to thank you for listening to the podcast and I hope you enjoy the episode this week  If you want to support the show there are many options available from the links in the episode notes below and if you want to interact with me and the show that information is there too.  

but most importantly If you like this content please don’t hesitate to tell your friends and don’t forget to hit that subscribe button.

Content:

Hey Everyone welcome to the podcast,  I hope your hunting has been happy and fruit full this the last week. 

So you May have or May not have noticed my absence from your lives in the last three weeks. This was totally unplanned and very upsetting as my Dad suddenly passed away after a short illness. I wont go into it much but to give you a measure of the impact his passing is. Ill recant a story that I think of all the time but I don’t think I have ever told anybody or at least not many people and that is when I was about 10 I was walking to the Shop with my Dad and we were chit chatting and my dad asked me the question that every dad asks “what do you want to be when you grow up and I paused and thought for a bit and said to my Dad I want to be like you Dad” he just rubbed my hair and we went on to the shop, I want to point out on the way home he made me carry a 4 stone bag of spuds laughing saying it’ll make a man out of you but from that moment on he exposed me to electronics, engineering turned a blind eye when I was dismantling old CRT TV’s in my bedroom to build radios and a regular thing my mother would make him do was to check to make sure I wasn’t plugging anything into the mains Circuit of the house, Which he always said I wasn’t even though he rarely checked. Needless to Say My dad Was my Hero and he passed away two weeks ago now and ill probably never be the same again but I have metal detecting to help me get through it. The first thing I did when I got home was go to detecting and that helped a lot. 

In the mean time I resigned myself to drinking beer in the sun of Irelands once a year heatwave slash 2 week summer but I did put the feelers out to research my  bottle finds and info is starting to come in it seems to  have been produced in the early 1900’s by kings of Dublin and I have been provided a pic of what the bottle looked like in perfect condition which I up in Instagram a while ago if anybody is interested. 

In podcast news I have changed the shows website on www.themetaldetectngshow.com so that it doesn’t require so much maintenance giving me some time back to focus on the content so that’s also good plus I have also traded in my car for a  VW Transporter Van with the intention of converting it to a Camper Van allowing me to record on the road but most importantly allow me to take longer trips and adventures hunting with a month on the road planned for next summer.  So hopefully there will be some good content from that next year fingers crossed.

So this week I want to discuss the love that has no name because it doesn’t I’m only messing  but I want to talk about getting a hunting buddy or partner the benefits of a buddy and some pitfalls to watch out for. 

I have  some experience with this over the years with 2 attempts coming to mind one being a  guy who reached out to me on a  forum, we exchanged numbers and arranged  to meet up at a beach which seems sensible but I did think the need for a white rose in my lapel a bit excessive.

anyways with every interaction prior to the meet up he was a pains to remind me to bring my CTX which I did and on the day he had a good go of it took it for a spin for a few hours we chatted  for a bit after but once the day was done he never called me again and  ghosted me he had  only went and used me for a go of my CTX. [all by  my  self]

I thought the whole experience weird and when my second experience came about I was super wary and to be fair to the second fella he was super keen to meet up and share permissions the whole 9 yards but I was burnt from the first time so I let that fizzle out. 

I think that’s the key you have to treat it like a relationship and you get out of it what you  put into it and it is not for everyone the hobby in itself is quiet solidary and  lends itself to the introverted hunter but it doesn’t have to be like that there are many benefits to having a hunting  buddy. 

Such as Security when hunting in numbers you’re not an easy target for nearedywells looking for trouble. 

Together you can cover more ground. Plus you can learn from each other. There is the simple companionship of it no I’m not talking about when a man loves a women type of companionship I'm talking the camaraderie of a liked minded individuals sharing experiences and adventures together like Calvin and hobbs or lance  and Andy. This has a huge impact on mental health and it is a well known fact that the majority of men find it difficult to build relationships with other men outside of the family unit. 

For example how many of you right now can say you have a best friend or someone who is a  friend that wasn’t a friend you met in school or work apparently not many of us can and as we get older these friendships we do have wain to be replaced with family life. 

In Ireland it is totally normal for the wife to build relationships in the community while the husbands only show their pale faces when the kids need collecting and can only communicate with eyebrow raising.

I think you get what im saying and without any weirdness or my messing about the benefits of a hunting buddy are huge and make total sense and we should all try to get one but its hard guys its hard. 

Its hard because getting a hunting buddy can go from zero to 100 pretty quick and for it to work you have to surrender and turn any paranoia you may have to thrust very quickly.

Think about it you're talking about sharing permissions splitting finds 50/50 or at least having a clear conversation about the division. You have to come to terms with the potential for the other party to make a life changing find on your permission its a big ask and a high trust exercise but there are ways to help it along. 

If you don’t already know the person my first suggestion would be to go on a few park or beach hunts together that should give you some time for you to measure up this person and thrust them and visa versa.

once you decide to start sharing permissions you firstly need to have a clear Conversation about the rules of engagement for example whether the other party can only go on your permission with you present and visa versa, Discuss what happens if you do find something significant is it 50/50 remember if there is a farmer involved it’ll be 25/25/50 not 33/33/33 unless the farmer agrees in advance which to be honest is unlikely or Is it good old finders keepers. 

Whatever it is you need to have the conversation ensuring every party is coming away from it happy and confident.  

So what is a good hunting partner well a good partner will help you share permissions, share the research, share the cost of travel if travelling together, is someone eager to learn and share experiences and lets be honest is a bit of craic and easy to get along with but most of all thrust worthy.

So how  can you  go about finding such a hunting partner. Well in the old days there used to be almost like classified in hunting magazines looking for hunting buddies.  Now you might find a notice in a brick and mortar detecting shop. If there is a local detecting club join, finding a hunting buddy will almost happen naturally in this situation through organised meetups and events. 

Plus you will have almost like a peer review in a club situation where a simple whisper in your ear to warn you away from some one

It has been known to happen that a farmer can give several detectorist’s permission to hunt on their land and inevitably it will occur that you bump into each other at some stage. I have heard a recent story from a listener who’s name will remain anonymous but recanted to me and asked advise of me on what to do as he caught another detectorist watching him hunt from the verge using a pair of binoculars and was returning as a nighthawk on his permission. So don’t be that guy. 

Mostly these days people organise partnerships via facebook groups, forums and online detectorist buddy databases there is a certain element to internet safety required here so try to get reference or at lease see a body of content by the potential buddy to help you determine the actual character of the potential. If someone joins and their first post is to look for a buddy make sure to vet them before agreeing to meet up. 

So you have found a likely candidate normally you just ask if they want to meetup and if they do I would  go with what I suggested prior meet up in public areas till you are ready to share and some red flags to watch out for initially.  Looking for You to share all your permission with none reciprocated.  

Reluctance to discuss the Rules of engagement and generally if you don’t feel comfortable kill the relationship but a first step needs to be made by you and this starts by the letting down of your barriers. If you have any positive stories about  having a detecting buddy let me know but also let me know if you have some juicy negative ones. 

Wrap Up 

That’s it for this week’s I hope you liked this episode of the metal detecting show podcast.

Check out our website www.themetaldetectingshow.com for this episode show notes. 

Check out our Patreon page if you want to help the podcast stay alive or just want to buy me a coffee. Actually if you want to buy me a coffee you can do so at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/metaldetecting also

If you would like to leave me a voice mail please do so on speakpipe.com/themetaldetectingshow the link will be in the show notes.

If you feel like taking your appreciation to the next level feel free to leave me a positive review on any podcast directory of your choice. 

If you like this content and would like more please don’t hesitate to tell your friends and don’t forget to hit that subscribe button.

Once again, I hope you have enjoyed this episode and we will chat to you all again next week. 

Get out there eyes down and Happy Hunting.