I think it would be much better if we replaced the term Metal Detectorists with "Artifact Hunters" in this discussion.

I would however still have to agree with the notion that if you take an artefact it is your duty to get it recorded. If people do not want to do that they should not take the object.

Hi Chesireman, welcome to TMA

It seems to be the common consensus here that taking any artifact, whether found through fieldwalking or 'metal detectoring', and not reporting it is a bad thing and should be illegal. It is, after all, 'theft from the nation' to deny them access to part of their history/heritage.

I'm not so sure that fieldwalking is all that big a hobby as using metal detectors. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I don't imagine you get many fieldwalkers going nighthawking for instance.

A large proportion of MD users are responsible, but the few that aren't should be clamped down upon. If the MD community as a whole isn't prepared to self-police then an outside 'authority' should do it for them. No community wants that to happen, so why the seeming lack of action from within? That does look like they're all 'up to no good' even if they aren't.

As an occasional field walker, I quite happily participate in PAS and tbh find it somewhat obnoxious those that don't.

Flicking through the ukdetectornet forums it seems there are some detectorists quite happily stating that they are non-recorders and see no problem in this.

I'm presuming these are the silent majority who ask permission from a land owner, detect to their hearts content and then take home any finds. All 100% legal and 100% abhorant because its stealing our nations heritage. Doesn't take that much effort to report your finds (say) once every couple of months...

Hi, Cheshireman,

>Pilgrim, bit of a draconian solution...don't like it - ban it.<

Not simply a case of not liking it: IMO, as I said earlier, <i> I believe</i>
that harm is done by the removal of property that should be in the public domain by non-reporting detectorists (before I got into all this, I used to bench with one - and he was completely non-fazed by my arguments for reporting finds, considering them "his" because he found them). To invoke the number of finds removed from the ground by walkers to the number of finds removed by people using a tool expressly designed for such a task is, in my opinion, no argument at all.

Furthermore, any solution involving the removal of a once-held belief or action is bound to be "draconian" as you put it, but that doesn't make it wrong to invoke the ban if it is warranted. I, as an individual and thus able to make my own judgements and hold my own opinions on matters that directly affect me and my society, believe it is warranted. Sorry if that offends you, but if self-policing doesn't work, then we can't just lie down and say that this is how it's going to remain, can we?

Respectfully,

Pilgrim

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