Why is so difficult to find a hunting buddy?

I've enjoyed hunting with others. I've enjoyed seeing what they can find on places I've hunted already but still have potential, and I enjoy taking somebody to a place I've never hunted and wouldn't have ever been able to cover every inch of dirt myself anyway. I enjoy getting to go somewhere I wouldn't have been able to go.

I also enjoy hunting solo. It's totally fine to not hunt every place together. Not every place is even appropriate for more than one person, or you simply want to hunt it yourself and no explanation is necessary.

You have to get over the idea that a hunting buddy is your spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend or business partner. You don't have to go everywhere together. Your hunting buddy can send you photos of things they find on their private permissions and you can do the same. Cheer them on and be glad for them.

The trick, of course, when you rely more on private permissions than public land, is maintaining some reasonable level of reciprocity. Not in what ultimately gets found, but reciprocity in the potential of the places. On the other hand, you're not friends or even buddies if you are keeping exact score from hunt to hunt. For a true friend or buddy, it could take years for it to even out.

Heck, if you're good enough buddies you might be getting something out of hunting together beyond the finds and you don't care one bit that one person finds all of the permissions and the other person brings the humor and sandwiches.

It's fine to be neither friends nor buddies, too. There are hunting 'partners' who use the strategy to increase the variety of each other's hunting, but in that case there has to be some clear guidelines discussed to make sure both people are benefitting.

Going to a good spot behind the back of the person who found it is obviously unacceptable, especially if it's private property. I've never had that happen and would never do it to somebody else.
 
When KT started MDing back around 2011, he knew no one in the hobby and nothing about his first detector….and it took about 6-7 hunts to learn the basics. At that time, I was not lonely because I was too busy learning my detector, and I discovered most schools and parks in my area were not hunted! Other MDers must have considered clad a bane! But I enjoyed cutting my teeth on clad, so much so by the end of the year I had recovered over $700! I found this forum early on and was posting all my hunts and finds under my first handle…newbieshooter. Then someone in this forum realized that I was making a good bit of money by just hunting totlots, and suggested I change my handle to KingTotsalot…and thus His Majesty came to be. But fate can be cruel…in March of 2012 KT was diagnosed with cance and underwent 8 months of chemo treatment….during that time He had to give up MDing and motorcycle riding, but he discovered CRHing.
KT has been asked by a couple of friend who had MDs but had never used them to go with me to learn, but I simply told them, learn about your MD, and go to any elementary school playground on off hours to learn it. They refuse to do that, like there is something magical about it that they need to learn from someone experienced. So KT did nearly all of his MDing alone, and was not bothered by that. Every target out there was mine in that circumstance!
 
Sometimes I want to hunt with a friend, sometimes alone. When I go alone I like to hunt really slow and look for missed signals. Used to hunt with others but it was always up to me to find the sites and get permissions. That gets old. Don't mind being with others but to never go to anothers found site is sad. I also like being able to come and go as I wish.
 
Me a 6 foot blond hunt buddy , Im all in if she's hot :laughing: Otherwise Ill hunt alone ;)

Come down this way this summer Earl. We will take you to Daytona. We wind up hunting alone because we spread way out and meet up later when we is tired. You can bring an umbrella and look for a hunting buddy:lol:
 
I first started detecting back in 2007 when I bought a Tesoro Silver Umax. Then in 2008 I joined the forum and met a wonderful online forum community who shared my newfound passion for metal detecting.

I was lucky to met another person that at the time was very active in another forum and on which at the time used to live in PR. Went on multiple occasions to do metal detecting at the Beach. A great person indeed but unfortunately I've lost contact with him back in 2012 :(

After that I remember once I gave a metal detector to my uncle but I failed on trying to wake up his interest in metal detecting

So all this years 90% of the time I have been hunting alone no been able to find a hunting buddy. That's one of the reasons I took a long 6yrs break from MD.

Recently I've tried to contact some locals who I had seen FB posts about metal detecting but either the message gets ignored or if I receive a reply is either a reluctant reply or simply the person says its to busy to go MD with me.

Moving forward in time I had dust off my metal detectors and have started MD again. I have a family now and my kids still young but some day I hope that they can tell me Dad lets go Metal Detecting :D

Honestly I think part of what you are experiencing associated with greed. I went to PR back in 1984. Beautiful place. Sea water is salty too.
 
Honestly I think part of what you are experiencing associated with greed. I went to PR back in 1984. Beautiful place. Sea water is salty too.

I'm starting to believe so, I've given up hope on finding locals that are willing to MD with me. :confused: I think part with that greed relates to seeign me as a competition instead of a hunting buddy
 
I have always hunted alone mainly because when I have been out, I have not ever even seen another detector out. I would hunt beaches with others as I would not have to worry about damaging properties or worrying about anyone else tearing up the yard or property. Highlands county, Florida and Avon Park, are not hotspots for detector users anyway. Still, I would love to go along find things and let the super experienced pro do the diggings.
 
Luckily for me my girlfriend, Sue, is my hunting "buddy" on Sunday hunts but on Saturdays I go out alone. Our routines allow us to get together on Sunday but not on Saturday. This is probably a major reason you're having trouble finding someone to go with you....they have different schedules than you do OR they just want to go by themselves. I absolutely LOVE when Sue goes with me but there's also something nice about a couple of hours hunting alone.
 

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I have met 4-5 guys who stop and ask me questions about my metal detecting while out detecting. I answer questions, get their email and point them to some good youtube videos and forums and never once heard back from them.

I have met some other local detectorists while hunting and a couple on this forum. Both have offered for me to hunt with them in their areas that have proved to be fruitful.

But the my schedule is often set at the last minute and these two guys live 1 - 2 hours away. Both guys are really nice and honorable detectorists.

So I guess I am too lazy to make it happen. Although safety issues lately have me thinking hunting with a partner is not a bad idea.
 
Every time I go to a Beach, a few people ask me about it. One wife said that she was going to get a detector for her husband as he goes to the beach with her but does not lay in the sun and needs something to do. That particular day, I had a few dollars in change that I collected and a lot of kid's metal toys. I let her have the kids' toys as I was leaving a bit later.
 
On my Florida trip, I discovered ONE good reason for hunting with a buddy or two- PARKING!
On Clearwater Beach, and down the Gulf coast, all the parking is $3 an hour, and down on Sanibel, it's $5!

I ran into a group of 3 guys who split up to detect- for 3 hour hunt, they'd each pay $1 an hour.
 
Many looking for a "hunting buddy" are in fact looking for someone else's place to hunt.. I learned that the hard way and hesitate to share my permissions with "hunting buddies"..
 
Many looking for a "hunting buddy" are in fact looking for someone else's place to hunt.. I learned that the hard way and hesitate to share my permissions with "hunting buddies"..

Same... I like to hunt with another especially when I'm in water but I hesitate to give up what I researched...
 
Detectorists are solitary creatures with trust issues. Raise your hand if you have ever been burned, lost a permission, or seen a good spot turn into a club hunt?

I can keep a secret....the problem is my friends can not.
 
I’ve just come back to the hobby after a 25 year break, so far not met anyone to buddy up with. Not sure what to do as there’s a lot of strange folk about. As a retired chap I have to watch my spending, beach detecting used to be cheap but parking fees have stopped that. I’m planning on getting a rucksack so I can use my old motorbike to get me about as it’s free parking for them. Joining clubs are ok but at £25 a day to detect seems a bit steep to me.
Anyhow good luck. Bob (Uk)
 
The Big Golden Nugget in the Sky

Look online for local metal detecting clubs. I rejoined "Shasta Miners and Prospectors" cant wait to go to the next meeting. Another thing is buy a second metal detector and invite friends and family to give it a try. I recently bought a Vanquish 540 "demo unit" from a local dealer for a discount, surprised it detects pretty well similar to my Equinox 800.. hoping my 16 year old son can detach from his computer umbilical cord and join me, else my neice or nephew, heck even my older uncle.. metal detecting alone can sometimes be a blessing and other times a bit creepy.

Good luck finding a hunting buddy. local metal detecting clubs are the way to go.

As a sad side note, I tried recently to look up two old hunting buddies.. one nicknamed "Hoss" went to the nugget patch in heaven :( the other has Alzheimer's and doesn't know me nor anything about metal detecting anymore. Enjoy life while you're living and can remember your family and friends :(


I started hunting in the mid 1970s. I attended a lot of organized hunts where the attendance numbered from 600-to 800 on average. Most of those people were in their mid-50s to early 70s. I imagine most all of them are detecting the majestic fields of heaven now. I returned to one of those group hunt fields 43 years later. There were barely 40 people attending that weekend's organized hunt. It was an emotional experience thinking of all the amazing people who represented the best of detectorists way back then and those who passionately hunted that particular field. At first I wasn't going to register for the hunt, but then felt that I wanted to be out there to honor the memory of the inspirational people I met along the way.
 
The John Deere Man

My attempts to find a hunting buddy in my Kentucky days were fraught with tribulation. No one shared a spirit of camaraderie. It was alway highly competitive and void of any fun. This one guy was obsessively competitive and he haphazardly covered about an acre of a park in one hour. I call him "The John Deere Man" because, hellfire and Kingdom Creation, he went so fast and angrily across the park fields with his search coil that there was no need for a 48" razor sharp lawn mower blade. He was pretty good with his digging and hole filling, though, but there was a weird anger about him and he had Charles Manson eyes and an ice cold "Judicial judgement by backwoods town citizen supremascist" mentality about him. When he drove away, I felt like I had escaped the oll-polished double bladed gallows that day.
 
As with a lot of Unique hobbies, you'll encounter 'Unique Personalities"

I met some guy, 1 1/2 hour away, he wanted me to come hunt with him every day. He loaned me a digger, then after not wanting to hunt with him the next day, he demanded I bring it back immediately. ( 1 1/2 hour drive)

Too many clingy people. Too many wacko's in the world, I have no need for em.
 
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