FliesOnly
Senior Member
OK, I'll ask you the same question I asked Xxray (which for some reason or another, he defines as Rhetorical): "Is there nothing that you would not keep?"Now *would* that farmer ever do that ? Of course not ! Would the farmer care less ? Of course not ! But *could* the farmer do it ? Yes.
You guys keep talking about a ring. What if you find something much more valuable? What if you find something that may have great sentimental value to the land owner (I use the words "may have" because...well...since you're trespassing on private property, you haven't actually spoken to the landowner, so you can't be 100% sure). In other words, at what "level" would you find yourself in a moral conundrum?
Then let' be realistic, shall we. When is the last time you have ever just stopped at some random, wide open field out in the middle of nowhere and said to yourself: "Gee, that looks like a nice place to spend my time detecting"? No one does that. If you're going to detect a given location, it's because you either know the history of the area, or have looked at historic maps and records, or maybe see an old foundation or an old log/stone cabin. In other words, you have justifiable reasons to feel that there's actually a pretty good chance that you're going to find something. No one just walks out in a random field and starts detecting. Well, in order to keep this realistic I guess, maybe I should say that it would be very unusual, and likely a fruitless adventure, for someone to just stop at some unknown (to them), random, wide open field in the middle of no where and start metal detecting.So again : The difference is technical vs realistic.
So stop acting like you're detecting in a place the "no one cares about", and that you can keep anything you find, since it otherwise would have just remain buried anyway. Be real. Admit that you know something about the area you're going to detect and therefore know, or should know, that it's also private property...and further admit that you just don't care.
Isn't that more realistic?