Today was going to be a mix of fortunes and a little slower due to one of the team unfortunately missing. This was going to test our time estimation for sure using our version of the "Union Jack" technique!
We'd elected to carry out a recce on two 34 acre fields with no documented history whatsoever at our latest project, JHF1. At least the weather looked promising.
We kitted up to the sound of a great spotted woodpecker drumming, yellowhammers, chaffinches and skylarks singing their early spring songs. March hares were engaged in a bout of boxing, unaware it was still February! 

The pass through the first field, which was in winter wheat, was  fairly uneventfully with only a Roman grot and a penny of Edward I being unearthed. Green waste was a bit of a problem. As predicted, it took us the three hours to carry out the recce leaving at least another 48 hours remaining to complete the field, if that was an option at a later date.
The second field was even less eventful with nothing being recovered at all.
With that we decided to have a quick look at three more fields to assess their potential. Only one one showed some promise but as this was still in a rough ploughed state it would be later this year before we can fully assess its true weight.
With the green waste wearing down the morale we decided to drive to another permission for a breathe of fresh air ....and a little less earache!

A quick text to the landowner and it was off to an old favourite, TS2 of which we last visited in January 2015. This was only going to last an hour as the sunset was going to see to that.
​We got there only to find that the main field with a Roman farmstead was still in rough plough! Luckily enough there was another field adjacent to it with winter wheat growing there.
A Roman coin was recovered within 2 minutes of arriving which was a relief. It wasn't long before 7 more Roman coins came to light, some of which were in a lovely condition.
With the sun setting and feeling hungry the next move was to finish up and find a nice pub with good food.
We managed to recover the ubiquitous hammered coin and 9 Roman coins, some in very nice condition, along with a few artefacts and a small amount of pottery. What was odd was that we managed to find three foreign coins from France, Germany and Spain! 

It just goes to show that you can keep visiting your "favourite" fields but at the expense of never trying out new venues. Our compromise in this case worked well having shown that the "recce" fields will drop to the bottom of our list as regards a revisit. The other part of the compromise also worked out with 8 Roman coins being recovered in a very short space of time.

On the way home we spotted a car and would you believe it... its number plate was JHF1... how spooky!

The machines were set up with large coils (13" x 11") and using the standard GMP mode with auto tracking. As usual, all the recoveries came from a depth no deeper than 4 inches with most being two inches deep.
A couple of coke cans caught us out though at 14 inches!

Images of the days finds can be seen here and here.

Advancing technology is something nobody can stop - period.
It's the way humans have been since the beginning of time.

There are only two ways you can deal with this; ignore it and lose the advantage of advancement or embrace it and enjoy all the benefits that bestow it.

Alexander Garham Bell had some technology to hand and believe it or not, some doubters said that telephones will not catch on. His answer was "Every town will have one". Now that was some foresight. 

Can you remember the time when there was only Exchange & Mart that could lead you to "bargains"? Now you can check out several websites and compare prices, worldwide, instantly and order that item, fully aware of its price and review rating. Yet there are still people that think that the internet is abhorrent! A simple case of denial, surely?

Anyway, thats the preamble sorted, now on to our first installment of technology that may help in the detetcting world.

As you may know we have already touched on the subject of Twitter. 
I've been a member of the Twitter community since July 2012 but I'll be the first to admit that I didn't know what it was "all about" but I did recognise that it may become useful at some future date.

The first realisation was that if you "follow" the right people you can keep up with all the information that you are interested in. For example; if you follow The British Museum, PAS or any archaeological body of your choice, you will be better informed. It's almost like turning on the TV and all the "news" is archaeologically related. 

We have begun trials of "tweeting" LIVE updates as we survey. This enables our finds to be revealed as-and-when we recover them.
This may enable the realisation of our quest to promote a platform of transparent finds recording. 

As a team we really do embrace the technological advancements of all the aspects of our hobby. Whether that be V4 for the Déus, LiDAR, Google, on-line literature, hints an tips from forums, etc,etc.

​Please do ask if you've any questions regarding technology.

The debate on how to acquire permissions is exhaustive! 
Everyone has their own ideas on what is the best way on gaining those new "elusive" permissions. This could be through a face to face meeting, a letter, an email or a 'phone call. 

Personally, I think it's quite easy..... as long as you follow a couple of simple rules.

The first rule is quite straightforward; most landowners do judge a book by its cover so smarten up if you are going to pay a personal visit.
If you "look" the part, there's a good chance you will get the part.
Tidy hair, clean shaven and clean half-decent clothing will score quite a few "Brownie" points. Presentable footwear is a bonus too.
​Presentation is key!

Eye contact is essential and maintaining it is paramount.
​You don't have to talk "posh" but you do need to have good diction. 
Free, fought, fink and fanks are no substitute for three, thought, think and thanks. Also, as soon as you start "erming" and repeating yourself it just sounds as though you don't know what you're talking about. Rehearse your patter. Once you've mastered the diction, you should also sound passionate about your hobby! Again, presentation is key!

The second rule; if you're writing to the landowner/farmer, whether by letter or email, absolute accuracy with grammar is paramount:
1. No grammatical mistakes ie; I'm instead of am, too instead of to, their land instead of there land,  
2, As stated, grammar is so important ... capitals where they should be ie; "I'm" instead of "i'm", capital letters at the beginning of a sentence and the same with names, such as Paul instead of paul.
3. Punctuation is also important. Try to create paragraphs and structure your letter, or email, so that it's easy on the eye.... and easy to read. Remember, most landowners read lots of documents, educational literature and scores of letters and emails from various professional sources.
Ensure that the correspondence is factual, "to the point" and extremely interesting.
4. Finish off with the standard letter/email conclusion which has all your contact options included; such as your home and mobile telephone numbers, website address if you have one, and of course, your email address if you have that too. If you're using the letter option, include your home address. A stamped, self-addressed envelope may help encourage replies although don't count on it.

Good luck!

I've been involved with metal detecting on and off since 1975.
Without exception, there has always been an underlying current of "unhappiness" amongst detectorist's for a multitude of reasons.
We have tried to help detectorist's nationwide to benefit from the skills and experience we have accomplished to date.
​
It was not until October 2010 that I decided to take my metal detecting experience to another level. That story is featured on our home page.

The term "Successful Detecting" can be replaced with "How do I Achieve 100% Happiness in the Hobby of Metal Detecting?".
Below are examples where members of the detecting fraternity are not happy with their efforts. These examples are not "The Full Story".
It is with hope that some of our experience can be absorbed by fellow detectorist's.

Historically there has been a void between archaeology and the hobby.
Thankfully that void has been replaced with trust and respect.
Added to that, metal detector technology has advanced massively since my first BFO machine back in the 70's.
So, my challenge was how to attain that "higher level" of detecting and also enjoy the current ambient relationship the hobby has with archaeologists.

The first step was quite easy; upgrade my 17 year old machine with one that could easily cope with ancient sites efficiently and effectively.
The second step was a little trickier, to create a formula that would help achieve the goal of that crucial "next step up".
The formula in itself is quite simple; research, acquire permission, survey, results. 
The content of the formula however is not that simple! Research is extremely labour intensive, acquiring a permission isn't straightforward,
​the survey technique requires discipline and the results can be disappointing. Fortunately the latter is a rare occurance. 

During the past 5 years I've noticed that the majority of detectorist's question all four parts of the above equation but one question that is perhaps greater than all of the above is; "what is the deepest detection depth that today's machines can achieve?". The "depth" question has no place in the equation as most of our recoveries have been retrieved from the first four inches of the field surface. Admittedly, those finds are the small items that most detectorist's dream of finding such as the hammered coins of the Roman or Medieval period.
What is strange is that there are claims of recovering these small hammered coins at a depth of 8 inches.... or more! This is the normal plough depth for most seeding operations so that would surely mean that no more small hammered coins will ever be recovered on that ploughland? Of course some coins that are edge on may be missed but that would be a minority so a return visit the following year could result in a very low recovery count in those "edge-on" coins?

From all the comments I've seen on social media it's apparent that the common excuse is to put the blame on everything rather than the simple fact that the history does not exist under their coils! What is accepted however, worldwide, is that "you've got to walk over it". This is quite perplexing as if you're not finding it, it isn't there!

Using the above formula helps negate the unrealistic need to "fondly imagine" that a hammered coin may exist in the field that you are about to survey. After all, who would want to drive three hours to a new site and then spend 8 hours searching with no recoveries and then drive the three hours back home? 

Whilst trying to enhance the ambient relationship with the archaeological world we try to promote the professionalism that the relationship and hobby deserves. With this in mind, our reports hopefully reflect this, as does our survey technique and all the other procedures involved in our mission.

Oddly enough, apart from the criticisism about all aspects of our formula, even using certain words such as "survey" have come under attack! Amazingly, our survey technique has also come under attack, the results we have achieved are all the aspirations that most detectorists dream of?
The reasoning for the unsavoury attacks on our success can only be viewed as extremely strange. I'm sure there will be a phsycologist out there that can analyse why such attacks occur. I'm sure that phsycologist would come to the same conclusions that the team have identified.

There will be a seperate feature coming soon detailing part of the survey technique we use so successfully. 
This will hopefully provide the method to quickly work out the survey length required to cover an area or field accurately.

What a change it was to start the day off in dry conditions!
The temp gauge read 1C and the forecast was predicted to rise to 4C max.
We arrived at our latest permission; JHF1 just after daybreak.

Today's survey was planned to cover at least three new areas.
​The first field we checked out was a pasture field but nothing earlier than Victorian coinage was recovered.
The second field is one seeded with winter wheat. Plenty of C14th pottery was evident but no metallic items were encountered except for lots of green waste!
The third field, again in winter wheat, only gave up two Roman grots.
In a rare move, the team split up into three different areas.
Five more Roman coins and an Iron Age toggle fastener were recovered.
For the four field we decided to recce one that was roughly ploughed just to gauge the background noise expected there. This 40 acre field is right up against a deserted Medieval village so should, in effect, produce C14th items. It wasn't long before Medieval pottery started to emerge.
A superbly decorated spindle whorl was the next recovery closely followed by a battered groat of Henry IV.
Altogether, 54 pieces of pottery weighing 1.136kg were collected from the field surfaces.

We could see an impending snow storm on the horizon so we elected to end the survey 90 minutes short of the planned finish time of 5pm.
Sure enough, just as we got into the vehicle, all hell let loose!
It was a proper blizzard.
​
As usual, all recoveries came from within the first five inches of the field surface. Large coils and standard GMP were the choice this Valentine's Day.

Images of the days recoveries can be seen here.