I have been involved in the treasure hunting/metal detecting pastime for over 50 years now and this blog offers me a place, and a reason to look back and put things in perspective. While my metal detecting experience is very much like yours, it took me on a somewhat different journey that changed a great many things in my life. Some good, some not so good but all worthy of a look back.
You will not find a lot of technical babble here and you might call a lot of what I have to say simplistic. That’s fine. That’s me. I still believe that research is the most important part of this pastime and it won’t matter how expensive your detector is if you aren’t hunting in the right places…
Promo poster/whites
Understand as well that most of whatever success I’ve had occurred because I entered into the pastime at an ideal time, and also because I spent an inordinate amount of time researching sites. Add to that a lot of in-the-field trial and error and a helluva lot of luck!
Please note that this is a “personal blog”. As a result I may talk about my family, my dogs, my love of food and wine, my musical background, my memories, my aches, pains, warts and whatever else might come to mind. No guarantees or as my friend and contributor John Howland likes to say “Stout Standards is an acquired taste”….
I hope you will always remember that as detectorists, as amateur treasure hunters, we are bound by a common thread, and it is this friendship, this camaraderie, this sharing, that is so much more important than any treasure we can ever hope to find.
My goal is to keep Stout Standards updated regularly, and make it a blog you will want to revisit from time to time. If you have any suggestions or comments please let me know via the contact link above….
Stout Standards 
Hi Dick,
This is my first and only blog experiance,so please be gentle with me.😄
Hi Frank, thanks for stopping by. It’s not hard at all….and I always try to be kind. When you find a topic or post to your liking just click on”comments” under the post and type away. Thank you again and hope all is well with you and your family.
HI! I am new here. I have been metal detecting since the early 1980’s. I don’t belong to a club but do have a couple of friends that I detect with. I watch you-tube videos to get ideas. I especially like Aquachigger and Nuggetnogin. I also watch the Diggers, Jocelyn Elizabeth, Zero Discrimination, The Hoover Boys and many more. I use the Bounty Hunter, AT-Pro and AT-Max. HH
Hi John, welcome…nice to have another old timer come on board. Familiar with all those YouTube tekkies except Zero. Will check him out. My problem is getting bored after about fifteen minutes of watching them. It’s also hard for me to get excited over some of their finds. I’ve been a coin hunter all these years and I’m certain I threw out what a lot of detectorists are now calling “relics”…
Curious, when do you use the Max and when do you use the Pro, or is one simply a backup? Thanks for taking the time to comment John. Don’t be a stranger…jump in any time and share your take.
Zero Discrimination is a girl named Gypsy and has her own channel.
I collect a few relics(civil war bullets, buttons, rings, etc,) but mainly coins. I use the AT-Pro & Max depending on where I am hunting. Both are good in some areas. If I am hunting with a lot of other detectorists, I prefer the Max. I find that I get more interference with the Pro from chatter caused by the other detectors. I will be in Jefferson Texas again for the Charles Garrett Memorial Hunt in late March this year. Lots of different machines causing interference. Nuggetnogin, Aquachigger, Jocelyn, Gypsy, Ringy, King George and many others were there last year. Hope to see you there if you are going.
John will check Zero out and gotcha on the interference thing. Sorry I won’t be at the Garrett hunt. Not big on events like that anymore, not to mention I’m out of the loop with all that’s going on in the pastime. “Over the hill” is probably a better term. Good luck there….
That certainly brought up a lot of emotions for me because I started metal detecting around 1975. Everything you mentioned is true. I even miss my one-knob Jetco Mustang BFO, which excelled in finding rusty hinges and farm tools. There was a lot of innocence about that time, but it was also very much the Wild Wild West age of detecting because there was so much going on in the industry. There was a huge variety of detectors in all shapes, sizes, weights, and colors. Green, Red, Blue, and Silver, so well-associated with Compass, Garrett, Bounty Hunter, A&H Pro, Wilson, Neuman, etc. There was a lot of joy in detecting back in those days. Large organized hunts easily brought in high hundreds and sometimes over a thousand participants avec spouses, and children for week-long events. Having that huge reservoir of memories has no price tag. Your monthly research-related articles in Wester and Eastern Treasures will always be a part of my happiest memories from that golden age. I still can’t figure out how time has flown by so quickly. I am also not so quick to go out detecting now (especially in this heat), but how lucky I feel to have been out there in those younger days.
Love your take Brian. I think it was the age of innocence in many ways, over and above detecting. And yes we sure had a pick of products. Hard to believe we’re down to two US manufacturers now. I also remember the hunts and the camaraderie. Today you have to make pretty good money to attend them. At least they’re expensive to me. Thanks Brian for sharing. Hope you will chime in again down the road….
my suggestion is to include treasured stories. A story based on a historical artifact such as an old symbolic Templar wine goblet describing History of Scotland in the year 1279, which leads me to include a sectional post that could come handy describing how to decipher old lost treasure maps. Deciphering old treasure maps is my side hobby and as you put it? Research is the most important thing, when trying to find the location of lost treasure. Old treasure stories are entertaining and inspiring for some. I can decipher many maps. Maybe you can make space for an expert deciphere to explain and show how ciphers work. Well since I’m from San Antonio Texas i figured that this article would not be a bad place to start helping. You make the call? I was just suggesting since you entertain suggestions. Happy hunting!
Ramiro thanks for taking the time to comment. While deciphering maps is intriguing I already have too many sub-topics and to be honest I’m not sure how much longer the blog will stay online. Why not start your own blog or website and deal only with that topic?
Thanks for this blog post