So where do I stand as a detectorist now that I’m closing in on my second full season of detecting? This book was started and had intended on following my adventures starting as a beginner detectorist to find out how long it takes to no longer be considered a beginner. Is there such thing as a professional detectorist? & if so, what is involved so one can reach such status in the hobby? And how far can one person take the hobby on their own?

It is now the beginning of September 2023. As I start to figure out the last club hunt of the 2023 metal detecting season, I start to reflect on the season itself and to self evaluate to see where I fit in now, if there is such a thing?

The Seoutheastern Ontario Metal Detecting Club started less than 1 year ago to date. In fact I had only started to think about the possibility of trying to organize such a club in the region this past February 2023. (Only 7 months ago)

I Had started an online Facebook group page, called the “Dirt Diggers Of Kingston”. Back in late 2022, This page was for anyone local to the kingston area that was into metal detecting.

With a very small number of people involved, ( I think 5 or 6) I called a breakfast meeting to see if there was any interest in forming a legitimate club in the area?

Approx 6 people including myself, showed up to this breakfast meeting, this is where for the first time I had pitched the idea to the folks over breakfast about the idea of starting an actual club in our area.

The reception I got was not what I pictured in my head if I’m to be honest. Of course since it was my idea to begin with, I just figured it was a fantastic idea and everyone would be very receptive and say something like “ when can we sign up” then reach deep in their pockets and start throwing money in my direction lol.

Just kidding. I didn’t really think that but I did think most people would be more receptive to the idea than they were. It was Marjorie, & Nick G (A husband and wife team) whom were not even in attendance at the meeting because they lived too far, (in Brockville Ontario), that were actually the first people to actually respond to the idea and were also the first ones in the end to pay their money and become Members. Nick G is actually the treasurer of the club now yet it is his wife Marjorie that has the passion for the hobby. Nick is a good man in supporting his wife that he himself bought a detector so as to join her on these hunts.

So there were some issues I hadn’t taken into consideration before pitching the idea of a club.

1st was, many of the individuals I was asking were veterans in the metal detecting world. Guys that had been doing this a long time and knew most of the people within the hobby in the area, already. This isn’t always a good thing as many of these individuals are, and have been, in competition with one another over territories in the area for decades. Also many of them seemed to have some rocky history with one another as it was.

2nd, issue was, most of the experienced detectorists know exactly how much time it can take to come up with permissions and are very reluctant to share spots. Especially with new hobbyists. (I have shared the majority (if not all), of my spots this year, and without many people returning the favour if I’m too be honest.

That is ok tho, I sort of half expected that, so I understand what our veterans were thinking to begin with. It takes a lot of time and dedication to be able to find decent areas to detect, most newbies do not have permissions and it can take years just to build the courage to start asking homeowners to be able to detect their lands.

Infact I have even brought several individuals that have reached out, who are not even club members either, to spots, individuals that have reached out to myself and asked for help in the operation and the understanding of their own machine. People that were not even keen on joining the club but just needed a hand in starting the hobby and understanding their machines.

Usually I’ll ask those people to meet near my house so I don’t have to drive far for this type of thing and I end up taking them to a permission where I extensively explain how to use a metal detector, in many cases I just get a “hey thanks, that was super helpful” and then never hear from those individuals again. I do try to recruit people, but it doesn’t happen often. I am working on one individual right now, a man by the name of Zachary, now I did the same with him and it looks promising that he may actually become a member for the 2024 season. Fingers crossed.

3rd was, I personally, “& as the founder of this club” – had yet to earn anyone’s trust. This meant it was going to be hard work with long hours kind of year for me.

So after pitching the idea at a breakfast meeting, everyone went home to think about what I had said, in the mean time I decided to hash out a couple of the details I had, before I brought this back to “hopefully”, a bigger crowd of excited detectorists in the near future.

Approximately 6 weeks went by and then I put the word out over social media that I would be hosting another meeting about the idea of opening a club in the region. Only this time I rented out a conference room at the Picton Harbour INN. The room held up to 20 people and this time I packed the room full of interested detectorists.

Unfortunately the first meeting in February (of 6) only 4 people had returned & showed up to the second meeting in Picton. And 2 of the original had decided that a club was not for them so had actually left the original Facebook group altogether, which was intended for anyone to be a part of, not just club members.

Regardless, I was nervous to see if anyone would show up to the meeting in Picton, however we did end up with a full house.

The meeting in picton determined that there would be an attempt at forming a club as of the 21st of March 2023. (Official date the club was formed) and that I was voted in at the time to become the 1st president of the club.

Why the vote on a club that was my idea? -Some may have thought Since it was my idea that it was my club. However from the start I did not want that to be the case so we held a vote on many positions and I ended up as the president & of course, the founder of what soon was to become the Southeastern Ontario Metal Detecting Club, or the , SEOMDC for short. Something else the members had voted for. (A club, name change)

So now into September 2023, we are only 6 months into having the club and I am amazed to see how far the club has come in such a short period of time, what we have accomplished, & the direction that the club seems to be going.

We started with 8 social media group members, and 4 club members. As of the first of September we have 18 club members and 52 group members on our social media page.

We have had 2 full club hunts, A field hunt organized by club members Paul Scott and Dave Arnold with the help of my self to get things organized.

And the second was a beach hunt I myself had organized and did all the work for. This hunt took place over on Amherst Island, back in August.

Both hunts saw a decent turn out with around 20 participants at either event.

Both of these hunts were well organized and brought out individuals from all experience levels, from beginners to individuals that have been doing this for generations.

So far the events that the club had hosted so far, the club has been able to have some donated items to give away as prizes. which has worked out well I think.

Also during the season we had a few members attend other events such as the Radioworld event in Toronto sponsored solely by Nokta, where a few of us from the club were able to represent the SEOMDC by wearing our clubs logo shirts and hats and talk to others about the club while at the event.

This entire season I have tried to get as many members out on private permission hunts throughout the summer as possible and or organize a few other smaller events where club members were invited to attend,

I was able to organize approximately 5 smaller hunts and had roughly 11 club members out throughout the summer months on these other small adventures. We only have 16 legitimate members which means I wasn’t able to get 5 of our members out for a hunt with me on a permission hunt. . This was not due to a lack of effort on my part either. I think I’ve asked all members at least once to see if they wanted to join me on a hunt. Unfortunately I know life can get in the way of good times all too often.

Regardless all members have been able to attend the group hunts if they have wanted to.

We are now into September and I am just about finished organizing our final group hunt of the season. This will be the largest of the group hunts this year and it will be open for non members to participate as well.

This is a food drive hunt. The beneficiary of the food drive will be the “Lenox & Addington Interval House” woman and child safety house. located in Napanee. This organization takes in abused women and children on a regular basis and is always in need of donations. I feel proud to be able to use our club like this and be able to help out such a worthy cause. Within the community. All our members should feel proud to take part in this.

Our prize table for this event has gotten quite impressive considering the club is only 6 months old, and has already held 3 events of this nature.

We were expecting around 40 to 50 participants. But in fact we ended up getting just over 91 registered participants to come out plus approximately 25 spectators. . I was able to secure 2x 50 acre farm fields side x side on nearby Wolfe Island for the event, thanks to property owner Mike Bromely.

The only stipulation for Mike to have us host the event on his land, was that we bring in a couple portable washrooms for people during the event. Not a problem I thought!

The club pre purchased $900 in prizes which included 2 metal detectors, hats, a pin pointer (Nokta) a digging shovel, and some other smaller prizes,

I donated some simplex shirts and hats, a winter toque, a hand shovel, another regular sized digging shovel, & 2 finds bags, and about $100 worth of silver coins all of which I had won or dug out of the ground myself throughout the season.

A few other members ended up donating a few other items as well. Paul Scott, Dave Arnold, Adam & Bailey, all donated some items for the table.

Our club was also able to gain a couple sponsors for our main event of the season which helped put prizes on our prize table. Abacus Dive Centre out of Brockville Ontario donated 3 sets of snorkeling gear, 2 children sets and 1 Adult set worth over $200.

Forest City Metal Detectors out of London Ontario area donated several items after the club purchased some prizes from them for the event as well.

Carry All Canada (metal detecting gear) an online dealer of metal detecting gear. Owned by Shawn Hamilton.

Shawn reached out to me and asked if he could help with donations? I said that would be awesome so he donated some Garrett detector coils, and some other gear and the club bought a couple pin pointer packages from his business. Shawn was in attendance at the event as well where he set up a table to sell detectors and other equipment on site at the event. Shawn also ended up helping to cook the hotdogs for everyone’s lunch as I myself was way to busy to do it myself lol. I needed to thank him after the event in person.

Tammy’s Jewellery,

this is a small home run based business and Tammy only advertised through Facebook Market place. Tammy ended up donating several prices of jewelry for our seeded hunt and gave us discounts on everything the club purchased as well.

Speck-Tackle Farm

This is also the owner, Mike Bromley of the property. Mike has been amazing. He has donated his land 50+Acres for this event, and he also makes signs as one of his other businesses and so he made us stickers for our banner as well.

And of course we cannot forget our own member Jason Corbett who was able to convince Nokta Detectors Technology to become a sponsor of the event as well.

Nokta had sent the club 2 more children’s detectors and a Nokta simplex Ultra as well. Not to mention they also sent every participant a orange Nokta Swag Bag which we ended up filling with all kinds of detecting swag, such as stickers hats shirts, pins, ect…

This enabled every person to receive something. And brought our prize table up over 4K in prize value. Not too shabby for a small club out of Kingstone Ontario.

Our club had planted well over 600 coins that I personally seeded on a large area on one of the fields over on the farm, for the seeded hunt of the event. Member Dave Arnold drove to Ottawa Ontario, and hand picked out 5 lbs or 300 coins of highly sought after old coins that most detectorists would love to have in their collection. And the club paid $80 for the coins.

With a limited club budget, I supplied the event with all the food for the event and organized a couple BBQ’s to have at the event so I could cook all the hotdogs for the participants, as lunch was included in their ticket price . I was reimbursed through ticket sales in the end

. We had over $2500 in prizes before Nokta joined the party lol plus food and coins for this event to start.

The event brought in over 320 canned food items for our food drive plus some hygiene items that were on the request list from the organization itself. Plus we were able to donate $320.00 in cash. From a private donation ticket sales we had on sale prior to the event as well.

We had some special guests at the event as well. Alison Walker, Laurie, & Eric, the Digging Dides, Mike Relics Jason Corbett and a few more high profile detectorists attend this event. I was surprised Laurie and Eric made it as they were just home from shooting a television series out in Manitoba and had just come back to Ontario a few days prior to the event, regardless they were in attendance as well.

Infact Laurie ended up with one of the best coin finds of the day a $0.25 cent silver coin from the 1800’s.

All in all the last club hunt event of the year was a huge success. And to be honest I was proud to stand back and see what started out as an idea only 7 months prior was able to produce such a successful event. And to have all these detectorists in one place coming from all over southern Ontario, from Windsor , London, Toronto, Ottawa, Brockville, Cornwall. And everything inbetween, and even some folks from our neighbours to the south in from nearby neighboring NewYork State, having all these people come together to enjoy an activity and a passion that we all shared in a hobby as peculiar as metal Detecting was a site to see for sure. I couldn’t believe our small club which was only an idea 6 months ago had become such a success in its first season. I hope the members realize the effort that has gone into making it happen but even if they don’t it really doesn’t matter. As long as everyone is enjoying themselves. Here is a pictures of the YouTube channels & Facebook profiles and sponsors that attended the event.

I’m mean let’s think about it for a second. With metal detecting, you have grown men and women some of them well past retirement age, running around the country side with a detector, shovels and head phones walking through public parks and beaches and fields in search of, well? Anything they find interesting to be honest. most of us have an idea of what we’d like to find, but we really have no idea of what we are going to find lol.

And then most of us spend hours researching items we have found to see if the item we found is actually interesting or even possibly valuable? Most of the time it is not valuable but much of the time it can at least give us a glimpse into the past and tell us a tale and is a bit of history. This is what most of us enjoy the most about the hobby .

I personally have taken this hobby even further than just the SEOMDC.

I have also signed myself up to a registry of detectorists world wide as being part of an organization called “The RingFinders “ this is a directory of detectorists world wide that will help an individual find a lost item such as an engagement/ wedding ring, bracelet, cell phone, or keys? I have done this because I love to see the reaction of people when they get an item back they thought was probably lost forever. There is no better feeling then to return such an item. However there is a reverse side to that story as well.

There is no worse feeling in the world of detecting, thinking you can help someone that has lost such an item , and not being able to deliver. You see when someone has contacted the RingFinder organization, it is usually a last ditch effort for that person, they have probably already exhausted their options in trying to find their item already and they by chance were told or lucked out by googling how to find a lost ring? And stumbled across your name somehow. When this happens you can see a renewed sense of hope in people’s faces thinking they have finally found the ,answer in finding their lost family air loom and you’re it. Their last ditch effort and they are putting all their faith in you to find their item.

It is for this reason that I always put %110 in trying to find people lost items and in all honesty I am about %70/%30 on returns.

Story time

Just the other day I had a call on Labour Day from a woman in Brockville who was in a panic to find her late ex husbands wedding ring he had lost 15 years ago on their lawn while playing basketball.

This was a lovely woman and she had tried for years looking for the ring. Recently someone told her to try a metal detector, so this woman borrowed a cheap Amazon knock off detector from a friend and started looking in her garden beds. After a couple hours and only finding trash she googled metal detectorist & my name appeared through the RingFinders website, & I was the closest that could help.

I told her I could give it a try but I could see in her face that she was certain having me ( A detectorist) someone that knew how these devices work, that I would surely be able to find her late ex husbands ring. You see she wanted it found so she could give it to her daughter so her daughter would have something of her fathers. Her father had passed and there was nothing of his that was left to her so her mother (my client) was desperately trying to find this ring so her daughter would have something special from her dad.

Again, I could see how important this was to this woman so on Labour Day, my wife was working daycares were closed, I had to work a 12 hour night shift starting in the afternoon, but it was my only small window of opportunity if I wanted to try and get this ring for this woman.

I called the woman in the early morning and asked if she didn’t mind looking after my 2 year old son while I searched her front yard where she told me the ring was lost? then I’d be happy to come look. To my surprise she had no problem looking after my son and so the search began.

After an hour and a half drive out to the property and 2.5 hours of searching in +40° Celsius , the small front garden and lawn I came to the conclusion that there we’re definitively no signals in the gold range coming up on the detector. And I was forced to knock on the door and tell her the upsetting news. Then drove my son and I, 1.5hrs back home.

You see, who knows what could have happened to this ring after 15 years? It could be anywhere by now, but one thing was for sure. It was not in the front yard or gardens of this property.

The look of defeat clouded over the woman’s face as she was obviously coming to terms that the ring was indeed lost forever. This is not what you want to see in this hobby but it is a realistic reality sometimes.

Another aspect of this hobby I never thought about when I got into it was writing about the hobby, such as this book. Or the first one I wrote last year.

The collection of data such as my blogs and my vlogs on my YouTube channel has been a total bonus within the hobby to say the least, to be able to record the events as they take place such as video and journaling like I have, has been a complete unanticipated bonus to this hobby. In the winter months in 2024 starting January. I have a short 9 part mini series I have filmed over the entire season of 2023 coming out over my YouTube Channel. I don’t even have that many followers but it has been fun putting it together

But I think the greatest part now, about this hobby, is or can be, the people you meet along the way. I have met so many people from this hobby over the past 6 months to a year, some of them I would consider fairly close friends now. Another angle to this hobby I would not have thought about the first time I walked into Canadian Tire to pick out my very first detector, ( the Minelab 340, as mentioned at the beginning of this book)

So, the question I asked myself at the very beginning when I started writing about this hobby was? HOW LONG WOULD IT TAKE ME TO GO FROM A BEGINNER DETECTORISTS TO MAKE ME INTO A “PROFESSIONAL DETECTORIST” STATUS?

So after almost 2 full years in the hobby, here is my answer (to date)! “This opinion could change as time continues. “

Personally I don’t believe there is such thing as a professional Detectorists, only a hobbyist. The closest thing to a “professional detectorist within our club would be individuals such as Jason Corbett or individuals such as Stephane Coutu, Laurie and Eric Gagne, & Alison Walker. Most of them make extra money through endeavours such as the RingFinders, or through their YouTube channels, or such as Laurie Gagne who has now been in a production for a Television series that will hopefully be airing sometime next year. ,(2024). These are people that make money out of the hobby through the act of detecting. This is using the hobby as a “Profession “ in my opinion and therefore would be the closest thing to being a “ professional “ (I suppose) I have also started making money through the RingFinders by getting hired by people to use my detector to find lost items, all this said, none of the above mentioned make a living at the hobby, we just make a few extra $$$ This hobby has however made done the following for me personally: it has made me;

A detectorist, an author, or novelist, a blogger, a club president, an influencer, a world listed RingFinder specialist, a mentor, an enthusiast, a videographer, a YouTuber, an event planner, a community service representative, An adventure seeker, a story teller, a leader, and A hobbyist.

But still I don’t think any of that makes me or anyone in the hobby (that I know personally), “a professional detectorist”.

There are however a few tricks of the trade that makes one, more successful in the hobby than others tho, such as how much preparation one does, or how much research one puts into a hunt that can determine wether someone will be more consistent than the next person. But the reality is, unless you swing and walk over a target with your machine you won’t find anything.

In my opinion, everyone who detects has the same chance as the next person at finding items , you just have to be out detecting, & putting in the time.

The more someone swings their detector, the more in tune with their machine they become and the more successful they will be. The more someone studies the tones, sounds, & VDI#’S on their own machine, the more successful they will become, the more open minded you are when digging targets, the better chance you have at finding interesting items, and dare I say (TREASURE) . & if you are having fun in the hobby, no matter how far you want to take it, then you are doing it right. It doesn’t matter what type of detecting you enjoy. Wether it’s beach, field, park, water, or private property hunting? All that really matters, is that your having fun doing it. If your having fun then your as much a professional as anyone else in my books.

James Mathias

(President and founder of the SEOMDC)