Metal Detecting at Festivals

Everybody.Welcome to episode 145 of the Metal Detecting Show podcast.My name is Kiran and I have been metal detecting for the last 30 years.This week we chat about festivals, baby,and what you should know and what you should and shouldn't do if you're happening to go to any metal detecting festivals this year.So let's get on with the show.Detectable part of can't just detect detector fest this week were chatting about festival detecting.We're going to talk about what you should know about the law how you should hunt and any other expectations that you may or may not have.So let's get into it.So this question is directly from the premier patron himself, Mervyn,who asked the question and I paraphrase himself and his friend are thinking about heading off to detectable in autumn this year and are wondering from an Irish and UK law perspective, is there anything that they should be looking out for?So I'm dedicating this whole episode,especially to Mervyn, especially for you.Not not from the talk show.Let me just put that.So this was for humor.So festivals are a relatively new phenomenon.The earliest I can remember is calf,I believe used to happen every year,definitely before 2016 and detectable,then kicked off in 2016 itself.But prior to that,there was an optic in what I would call metal detecting tourism,I suppose into the UK.And that's probably what created the demand,I suppose, for events like Detectible.But because of this increase in detecting tourism, the UK lawmakers had to double down on probably existing laws but really double down on the laws concerning whether you can detect as a foreigner in the country or what happens if you do actually find something of interest.So before festivals there were rallies and rallies were generally run in a local area.So there was a rally for whatever particular county and they may have drawn in some interest from outside the county,but very rarely would you see people attending other rallies from far a distance unless it was highly publicized.So rallies were definitely originally very parochial type of activity,but with anything and anything that's shared up on YouTube And is it piqued the interest of people all over the world and they all wondered how they could come to the UK, partake in these rallies and they were willing to spend money to attend these rallies.Now, a couple of tourism companies sprang up specifically to facilitate this need of people from outside the UK to attend these rallies.And because of that,like I said, the law had to be enforced.So what's the primary law You have to consider in attending a rally from outside of the UK?And that really is obviously you adhere to treasure trove,but there is a very specific law in the UK that does not allow you to export or take home any find that you find that may be over 50 years old doing your simple math case that's anything that's older than 1973.So if you attend any of these events and you find something that is older than 1973,you cannot bring it home in the risk that you would be charged with trafficking of antiquity is at the UK border.I can't see it any clearer than that now.The way the rallies used to get around us in the past is a rally that was set up specifically for tourists to attend would have a designated party or designated person who would gather all the fines that were found at the event,catalog them, assign an owner to them,and then take those fines to the fines liaison officer or to Portable Antiquities Scheme.Who would assess what it owes.Fines would be released for export.And then if you were allowed to take them a carton to the Fines liaison officer, you then had to fill out export documents and these rally organizers would fill out these documents as part of the fee you paid to attend these rallies.Now, the reason I'm bringing this up is because I don't believe there's anybody or any facility at detectable for this to happen.So if you're attending detectable and you find anything,you cannot take it home with you.There is a way around it.If you have a trusted individual that's also attending detectible and they're willing to, on your behalf,take our fines,catalog them, present them to the police or the fines liaison officer on your behalf, and then fill in probably with your assistance to export documents for you to get them home.If you have somebody who is trustworthy enough that can do this for you,then you may be okay to get your fines home from detectable.However, it's not a simple case of just fining or fines.Bring them to the floor that is at detectable.Get them to say,Yeah, you're good to take them.You still have to do your export documents and you still have to do all that.And that can take months.And if there's any question about the find,that could also take several months for them to come back to you around the suitability for this find to be exported out of their country.And to be honest, I don't believe that they would be pro exporting of any find that is anyway interesting to them from a cultural heritage point of view.So bear that in mind if you are going to detectable,are any of the festivals this year from outside the UK?You need to either hope that the event has a designated person to handle your fines and to organize the export home or you need to find a friend who can do it for you within the UK.That's the first major point and the major blocker to going to these events.But if you're lucky and you have somebody lined up to help you out,then have at it.And this brings me on to the next point.Rally hunting or festival hunting, though,is a very different type of hunting than it would be on your local field.And this is because there's huge excitement and expectation building up inside of you before you go to a rally.I really an experience I had at a rally that was organized here in Ireland.I drove 4 hours to the rally.I got there plenty of time.We all went down to hunt.We are spread out,as you do across the fields.And I was so hopped up and excited.I did the one thing you shouldn't do at a rally and that's dig everything I started every single day.This could be this could be the one this could be defined of the of the hunt.This could be it.Wouldn't it be great if I found a thing or.Yeah, you know, Kiran,doing a podcast at a rally and he finds a thing or wouldn't it be amazing?I got in my own head and I got it and I went out and I fucking dug everything.I think I probably only covered maybe a quarter of a field.I was just digging up.You've green waste all over the place and it was a nightmare.And I found nothing of not all day.So you need to bear that in mind.You need to set your expectation fast when you're going through this hunt.A part of that expectation is you're paying good money to get on some good quality metal detecting land and you need to have that in your head.The organizers want you to find something.They want to best set you up to have a great time at the festival.So they generally pick land that has a high probability that you may find something good because it is in their interest that social media is full of people uploading pictures of finds that they found at their event because it sets an expectation and it generates publicity for the next year's hunt where there would be more people looking to attend the event.Organizers are hyping it up.Coming into it,you're going to get super excited.The event organizers want you to find stuff,so they're going to best set you up going into the hunt.But you really need to set your expectation as soon as you walk onto the ground.And for me, that expectation obviously depends on how much ground you're going to cover.I think detectable is a thousand acres over three, four days.So there's a lot of ground to cover and that's the key.Ground coverage is the key cover as much ground as you can at these festivals.And to do that, I suggest you go back and look at my pinpointing episode where I talk about recovery efficiency and how 30 seconds saved in recovering a find can lead to extra hours hunting.At the end of the day, really drill down on your pinpointing and recovery.That'll help you cover more ground.But also you need to do what the experts do and that is decide, okay,what I'm going to hunt for.Am I going out looking for silver hammers or a Celtic coin or a Roman coin,anything of that level?Is that your target then?You absolutely don't want to be digging iron,so you set your mind up to say,I am not digging everything.I am only digging good signals.A best case.I might dig an iffy signal,but generally you're only digging bangers.Essentially,if the headphones are blowing off your head,you should only take those ones.You could go a long time on a day on a hunt waiting for an excellent signal to come in.And it could end up being a big lump of tinfoil and you have to have some mental fortitude to do that.So dig on your non go target.So that depends on your detector.So if you're using an equinox,it may be something from Tata up,or if you're using a straight conductivity machine,it may be something in the high six.These are essentially anywhere from brass OP is what I would be looking at,and I would healthily avoid digging iron or anything that contains iron or iron signals with an expectation that you may pick up a bit of aluminum and copper along the way.But realistically you don't want to be digging everything because that allows you to cover more ground.Ultimately, the end of the day,another tip are you bang on about it again as research, just because you're at an event doesn't mean you don't have to research the area.As soon as you know what area you're going to be hunting and you should be on your phone trying to figure out if there is any historical information out there about the area,It's best to spend 20 minutes on your phone having a dig around done running off like a headless chicken at the start of the hunt.Some events will actually have the ordnance survey maps up on display for you to check.Have a good look at them beforehand.Decide your plan of attack.Look for low lying areas.Look for areas where you think there could be potential for old ponds.Look for streams, look for anywhere you think the people may be traveling to and from.And the chances are you will find something decent to maybe a thousand acres to hunt.But in reality,maybe only 20 or 30 acres of actual land rich in finds for you to find,if that makes sense.The one thing that can ruin your weekend is getting word that somebody found a hard20 fields or ten fields over and you go, okay, let's go.You run over in a hope of sharing in the glory of picking up a little piece of the hoard.At these events, you're going to hear of three or four major finds being found.And if you spend your time going from each one of them in the hope of all finding a hotspot,you're going to be wasting too much time running around.And if you've done your research properly,you should have belief in your own ability and belief that potentially is something under the ground where you are hunting.But ultimately, at the end of the day,it is down to luck.And as they say,if you don't walk over, you won't find it.And if you're not covering ground,you won't walk over.So set yourself up to cover ground.And remember, it's a marathon,not a sprint.So you need to set yourself up for two or three long days and stay off the cans of beer that night or not to many of the menus,because generally for camping at these events,you're not gonna sleep well,you're going to be stiff in the morning.So you need to set yourself up to hunt.Are you going for the social aspect?If you are under fine,I would be guilty of that myself.If you are going to hunt and you're making a significant investment to go to a festival,the best thing you can do is hydrate sunscreen, get out there, do your eight,10 hours hunting, come back, relax,put the legs up, think about recovery and getting ready for the next day.And then on a technology front,if you're camping, you need to figure out how are you going to recharge your technology if are camping, If you have a character,you may have an external battery pack that you can use to recharge your detectors if the event is run well, they may have charging stations for everybody to charge up the detectors.However, if it was me, I would be making sure to travel with a pretty big battery pack.Best to have too much power go into these events to look for others,charging the body, charging the mind and charge in your equipment.And I leave it there, guys, for this week.I just wanted to answer that question very quickly.Mervyn,who is the premier of Premier of patrons,buys me a coffee on the regular and without Mervyn,the quality of the podcast wouldn't be at the level it is right now.So big thanks to Mervyn.This one is especially for you, Marvin,especially for you.Good luck, guys.Get out there, eyes down and happy hunting and let me know if you go to any of these events.Send me pictures. I'm super jealous.I'd love to be going myself,but maybe next year I'll get there.It'd be great to do a few podcast episodes or do at least do a few interviews at one of these events in the future.Anyways, guys, get out there. Eyes down.Good. Look at how.