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Re: Just me or are others March 03, 2016 10:01AM |
WARNING!!!! This is going to be extremely long. There could be a book written on the subject I am about to bring up and by the time I'm done, it is going to be long and maybe on its way to being a book. Hahah Don't worry, I wont charge you for it.
There are still PLENTY of places to detect out there and people that will let you hunt their property. The problem is, YOU are the biggest problem for limiting yourself and properties you hunt. Not the land owner or other hunters. The finger likes to get pointed at other people, and I'm not saying other people might not influence some of the things you guys are talking about. Now that I have your attention, let me explain what I am driving at.
1. Door knocking to get permission for new sites. This is already revealed itself in the posts above so you made this one easy to use as an example. Some of you have already rejected yourself from getting permission and you've not even pulled into their driveway! You already have a preconceived scenario built up in your mind that the people aren't going to want to be "bothered" as some of you put it, and that you will get told no. What it is, is a fear of rejection. That is all. So excuses get made to justify not doing it. What if I told you that not everybody that owns land is a hermit that doesn't want bothered? This one is a big mental issue with people. You can't be shy and your body language speaks a thousand words before anything ever comes out of your mouth. This is a SKILL that people have; it CAN be learned and taught but for some people it just comes natural. The big secret to it, is to make people feel comfortable. The hard part is, you have about 30 seconds to do it in. If you are shy and nervous, this is going to show and it is going to be perceived that you are a shady character that is up to no good. You've got to be polite, confident, and just for lack of better words as I type this...professional. Over the years I have gotten pretty good at it. Timing is a big part in it; and often the best time is if you happen to catch them already outside. There are actually siminars you can attend to get better at this. Well not metal detecting permission, but the same thing applies to it. Especially in sales, real estate, etc. SOMETIMES this can be a curse. That is what my wife and I jokingly call it these days. It seems I can't go anywhere anymore without random strangers stopping and talking to me and I don't mean chit chat talk about the weather. I'm talking stuff that would make it seem like I've known them for years. I can be standing at the gas pump filling my truck up and maybe say hello to the person at the pump beside me and next thing you know, they are telling me all kind of stuff about their current events in life. Where they are going...where they have been. Honest to God truth....the other day I was at the post office mailing off a metal detector. I pulled in the parking lot and started to get the detector box out of the truck and walk in to mail it. A guy was sitting in his vehicle parked beside me with his window down and when I went on the other side of my truck to get the box, I said hello to him and asked him if he was doing alright today; just being friendly. Well that did it. There for the next 45 minutes I stood out there in the parking lot listening to a guy talk that I didn't know from Adam. He had just buried his step daughter who had died suddenly a few days before and must have just needed somebody to talk to. It turned out I had went to high school with his step daughter and knew of her passing; she had a blot clot and just up and died. In our conversation he noticed my box that was now sitting on my truck hood beside me. It had a detector on the box and he inquired about it. I told him I do it as a hobby and we talked a little bit about that. Next thing I know, he is giving me a card with his name and number on it and owns a chunk of property in town by the rail road tracks. He gave me permission to hunt it anytime. I've not been out there or by there yet to even look at it but he was telling me where it was and such. Point is...people will still let you hunt their property. It is just all in being presentable and making people comfortable with you.
2. Are you willing to work to get to hunt a site? If your charm isn't the best in the world and you are still want to hunt sites, there is another option. Put a little elbow grease into getting permission for a site. If you are a handy man, this one will be easy, and if you aren't afraid of working or getting dirty...well this might be your best option for new property. My uncles are big time deer hunters. They live and breath it. God did not bless them with the conversation skill but they aren't afraid of work. They are straight and to the point with their talk. If you think it is hard finding places to metal detect; try finding places to deer hunt. They have more places to hunt than they have days in hunting season to hunt. How do they do it? Well they are HVAC people. They don't have to go to people...the people come to them wanting heat/air installed or for repairs. It so happens that during the course of doing the job, that they run up on people that own land with deer on it. HVAC is not cheap stuff...a new unit will cost a person between 5 and 10 grand depending on what they get. It is also one of those things that is a luxury item that people can't live without these days. So they will get it...but it costs a good chunk to get ESPECIALLY if it is an older unit that goes out. So this is how they got a lot of places to hunt. They would go bring up deer hunting to them and work out a deal on a new unit or repair work, in exchange for getting to deer hunt the place. I'm not saying for you to go into HVAC business but the same principle applies to doing work for metal detecting permission. I remember from the "how old are you" thread that a lot of you guys are retired or close to retirement. You certainly have the time for doing it....so my suggestion would be to maybe invest in a commercial grade lawn mower and equipment and do that during the mowing season. Target the houses or properties in your area that you might want to detect and maybe offer your mowing/land scape services in exchange for hunting their property. Everybody needs a little extra work done around the house; use that to your advantage.
3. While I can understand what you are trying to say by saying be reclusive and inconspicuous in public areas....what you don't realize is that by doing that, you are already singling yourself out as being a shady character that everybody is keeping an eye on. It comes back to the body language and comfort thing. Example...if you are in a park dressed in all black or camo and trying to stay hidden from people's view and isolate yourself as to not bothering people, you single yourself out and people will watch you like a hawk and be mighty uncomfortable/suspicious of you. I have read and heard you guys say in the past, that you don't like being approached by other people while you are hunting. That in itself is another red flag...you make yourself to be standoffish which makes you seem even more suspicious. Like somebody else said in the thread...be friendly. Wave at people. Be approachable. Be nice. Be polite. This puts people at ease and rest. They might watch you for a few minutes but if you act normal and like you are supposed to be there, you will not be perceived as a threat and they wont even know you are there or pay attention to you anymore. Some might be curious and come over to see what you are finding and that is a great time to do some PR with them...and who knows, they might even invite you to come hunt their place if you are good enough to capitalize.
I'll end with this. When I first started trying to find places to hunt, I sucked at it cause I didn't know how to do it. I remember going to a lady's house one day where I had researched a winter Civil War camp on their property. I was probably around 17 or 18 yrs old at the time. For some reason I thought if I shared my research of the property that it would get them interested in the history of it, and let me hunt so they could see what was there. So here I get out of the truck with a folder filled with copies of the official records, copies of a diary from a solider that camped there, aerial photos of the property and marks where I thought the camp might be on it, etc. That conversation was a very brief one. I was so excited and nervous that I fumbled over what I was trying to say and nothing came out right, and then there were all those papers. Being an older person, they did not like how some random stranger could pull into their driveway and look at their property and house from space satellites
I got told no and left standing on their porch with a door shut in my face. I was rejected...and heart broken. All that research for...nothing. Fast forward a few years. I had started to learn how to talk to people and such and one day I happened to be down in that area trying to get permission to hunt the property that joined the ladies mentioned above....WITHOUT the papers and such lol. I figured she would be able to tell me who the neighbor was. I go to the door...the same one that was shut in my face. And ring the door bell. I stood there a few seconds and was getting ready to leave when the door opened. It was the same lady. Except this time she had a walker she was using to get around. I asked her how she was doing and inquired about the walker and she started telling me she was still recovering from hip surgery from a fall she took...and she just kept talking. I made mention that I would put her on the prayer request roster at church and hope she healed well. I still hadn't asked her about the neighbor yet...there wasn't room in the conversation for it. Well that did it...the mention of the church. She told me to come on inside that her hip was bothering her and that she hadn't had good conversation in a while. So we go in and there I sit in her house...and for the next hour or so we just talked about things in life. I am a stranger to her but made her feel comfortable enough she opened her door and let me in her house. She hadn't been able to attend her church since the surgery and was missing it. One of her favorite Christian authors had wrote a book that was just released and she was wanting a copy of it as soon as she got the chance to go get it. Anyway I will get to the end of this story. I bid her farewell and left and went to the Christian bookstore and asked if they had the book she had mentioned. They had 2 copies of it left!! I got one of them and swung back by her house and rang the door bell...and gave her that book. She thanked me so much and I was getting ready to turn around and go, she brought up that I never did tell her what I had stopped by for. I just briefly mentioned I was trying to find the neighbor to see if he would let me look for Civil War relics on his property with my metal detector, as there was a camp nearby, and she said to me "honey, that camp is on my property. People come by here all the time wanting to hunt it but I usually don't let anybody do it. You can hunt it any time you want to". She is now one of my good friends...when I stop by her house, it is usually a good hour or more before I can leave and she ALWAYS is trying to feed me something.
The stuff and places are out there fellas. But you ain't gonna get to it talking about how things used to be and how things are so bad now.
There are still PLENTY of places to detect out there and people that will let you hunt their property. The problem is, YOU are the biggest problem for limiting yourself and properties you hunt. Not the land owner or other hunters. The finger likes to get pointed at other people, and I'm not saying other people might not influence some of the things you guys are talking about. Now that I have your attention, let me explain what I am driving at.
1. Door knocking to get permission for new sites. This is already revealed itself in the posts above so you made this one easy to use as an example. Some of you have already rejected yourself from getting permission and you've not even pulled into their driveway! You already have a preconceived scenario built up in your mind that the people aren't going to want to be "bothered" as some of you put it, and that you will get told no. What it is, is a fear of rejection. That is all. So excuses get made to justify not doing it. What if I told you that not everybody that owns land is a hermit that doesn't want bothered? This one is a big mental issue with people. You can't be shy and your body language speaks a thousand words before anything ever comes out of your mouth. This is a SKILL that people have; it CAN be learned and taught but for some people it just comes natural. The big secret to it, is to make people feel comfortable. The hard part is, you have about 30 seconds to do it in. If you are shy and nervous, this is going to show and it is going to be perceived that you are a shady character that is up to no good. You've got to be polite, confident, and just for lack of better words as I type this...professional. Over the years I have gotten pretty good at it. Timing is a big part in it; and often the best time is if you happen to catch them already outside. There are actually siminars you can attend to get better at this. Well not metal detecting permission, but the same thing applies to it. Especially in sales, real estate, etc. SOMETIMES this can be a curse. That is what my wife and I jokingly call it these days. It seems I can't go anywhere anymore without random strangers stopping and talking to me and I don't mean chit chat talk about the weather. I'm talking stuff that would make it seem like I've known them for years. I can be standing at the gas pump filling my truck up and maybe say hello to the person at the pump beside me and next thing you know, they are telling me all kind of stuff about their current events in life. Where they are going...where they have been. Honest to God truth....the other day I was at the post office mailing off a metal detector. I pulled in the parking lot and started to get the detector box out of the truck and walk in to mail it. A guy was sitting in his vehicle parked beside me with his window down and when I went on the other side of my truck to get the box, I said hello to him and asked him if he was doing alright today; just being friendly. Well that did it. There for the next 45 minutes I stood out there in the parking lot listening to a guy talk that I didn't know from Adam. He had just buried his step daughter who had died suddenly a few days before and must have just needed somebody to talk to. It turned out I had went to high school with his step daughter and knew of her passing; she had a blot clot and just up and died. In our conversation he noticed my box that was now sitting on my truck hood beside me. It had a detector on the box and he inquired about it. I told him I do it as a hobby and we talked a little bit about that. Next thing I know, he is giving me a card with his name and number on it and owns a chunk of property in town by the rail road tracks. He gave me permission to hunt it anytime. I've not been out there or by there yet to even look at it but he was telling me where it was and such. Point is...people will still let you hunt their property. It is just all in being presentable and making people comfortable with you.
2. Are you willing to work to get to hunt a site? If your charm isn't the best in the world and you are still want to hunt sites, there is another option. Put a little elbow grease into getting permission for a site. If you are a handy man, this one will be easy, and if you aren't afraid of working or getting dirty...well this might be your best option for new property. My uncles are big time deer hunters. They live and breath it. God did not bless them with the conversation skill but they aren't afraid of work. They are straight and to the point with their talk. If you think it is hard finding places to metal detect; try finding places to deer hunt. They have more places to hunt than they have days in hunting season to hunt. How do they do it? Well they are HVAC people. They don't have to go to people...the people come to them wanting heat/air installed or for repairs. It so happens that during the course of doing the job, that they run up on people that own land with deer on it. HVAC is not cheap stuff...a new unit will cost a person between 5 and 10 grand depending on what they get. It is also one of those things that is a luxury item that people can't live without these days. So they will get it...but it costs a good chunk to get ESPECIALLY if it is an older unit that goes out. So this is how they got a lot of places to hunt. They would go bring up deer hunting to them and work out a deal on a new unit or repair work, in exchange for getting to deer hunt the place. I'm not saying for you to go into HVAC business but the same principle applies to doing work for metal detecting permission. I remember from the "how old are you" thread that a lot of you guys are retired or close to retirement. You certainly have the time for doing it....so my suggestion would be to maybe invest in a commercial grade lawn mower and equipment and do that during the mowing season. Target the houses or properties in your area that you might want to detect and maybe offer your mowing/land scape services in exchange for hunting their property. Everybody needs a little extra work done around the house; use that to your advantage.
3. While I can understand what you are trying to say by saying be reclusive and inconspicuous in public areas....what you don't realize is that by doing that, you are already singling yourself out as being a shady character that everybody is keeping an eye on. It comes back to the body language and comfort thing. Example...if you are in a park dressed in all black or camo and trying to stay hidden from people's view and isolate yourself as to not bothering people, you single yourself out and people will watch you like a hawk and be mighty uncomfortable/suspicious of you. I have read and heard you guys say in the past, that you don't like being approached by other people while you are hunting. That in itself is another red flag...you make yourself to be standoffish which makes you seem even more suspicious. Like somebody else said in the thread...be friendly. Wave at people. Be approachable. Be nice. Be polite. This puts people at ease and rest. They might watch you for a few minutes but if you act normal and like you are supposed to be there, you will not be perceived as a threat and they wont even know you are there or pay attention to you anymore. Some might be curious and come over to see what you are finding and that is a great time to do some PR with them...and who knows, they might even invite you to come hunt their place if you are good enough to capitalize.
I'll end with this. When I first started trying to find places to hunt, I sucked at it cause I didn't know how to do it. I remember going to a lady's house one day where I had researched a winter Civil War camp on their property. I was probably around 17 or 18 yrs old at the time. For some reason I thought if I shared my research of the property that it would get them interested in the history of it, and let me hunt so they could see what was there. So here I get out of the truck with a folder filled with copies of the official records, copies of a diary from a solider that camped there, aerial photos of the property and marks where I thought the camp might be on it, etc. That conversation was a very brief one. I was so excited and nervous that I fumbled over what I was trying to say and nothing came out right, and then there were all those papers. Being an older person, they did not like how some random stranger could pull into their driveway and look at their property and house from space satellites
I got told no and left standing on their porch with a door shut in my face. I was rejected...and heart broken. All that research for...nothing. Fast forward a few years. I had started to learn how to talk to people and such and one day I happened to be down in that area trying to get permission to hunt the property that joined the ladies mentioned above....WITHOUT the papers and such lol. I figured she would be able to tell me who the neighbor was. I go to the door...the same one that was shut in my face. And ring the door bell. I stood there a few seconds and was getting ready to leave when the door opened. It was the same lady. Except this time she had a walker she was using to get around. I asked her how she was doing and inquired about the walker and she started telling me she was still recovering from hip surgery from a fall she took...and she just kept talking. I made mention that I would put her on the prayer request roster at church and hope she healed well. I still hadn't asked her about the neighbor yet...there wasn't room in the conversation for it. Well that did it...the mention of the church. She told me to come on inside that her hip was bothering her and that she hadn't had good conversation in a while. So we go in and there I sit in her house...and for the next hour or so we just talked about things in life. I am a stranger to her but made her feel comfortable enough she opened her door and let me in her house. She hadn't been able to attend her church since the surgery and was missing it. One of her favorite Christian authors had wrote a book that was just released and she was wanting a copy of it as soon as she got the chance to go get it. Anyway I will get to the end of this story. I bid her farewell and left and went to the Christian bookstore and asked if they had the book she had mentioned. They had 2 copies of it left!! I got one of them and swung back by her house and rang the door bell...and gave her that book. She thanked me so much and I was getting ready to turn around and go, she brought up that I never did tell her what I had stopped by for. I just briefly mentioned I was trying to find the neighbor to see if he would let me look for Civil War relics on his property with my metal detector, as there was a camp nearby, and she said to me "honey, that camp is on my property. People come by here all the time wanting to hunt it but I usually don't let anybody do it. You can hunt it any time you want to". She is now one of my good friends...when I stop by her house, it is usually a good hour or more before I can leave and she ALWAYS is trying to feed me something.
The stuff and places are out there fellas. But you ain't gonna get to it talking about how things used to be and how things are so bad now.
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Re: Just me or are others March 03, 2016 09:14PM |
I think a bigger contributor to larger numbers of people getting into the hobby is how easy it is to find a metal detector. Not so long ago, a person had to go to a metal detector dealer to buy one. If there wasn't a dealer nearby, people didn't know where to buy one and there wasn't the internet to go to buy one either. Now days, you can buy them at WalMart, Bass Pro Shops, Academy Sports, and of course, buy them online. They wont be top of the line detectors in the stores; but they are metal detectors and they are at such a price range that anybody can afford one. And when they do get one, where do you think they are gonna go to get a digging tool? Well they are already at WalMart so hop on back to the garden center and buy a shovel...then off to either their yard, or the parks to look for treasure. They aren't going to go buy a $100 Lesche or Predator Tool
