Travel Bugs & Metal Detectors

[+Birdsong-n-Bud]

 

This is such a silly question. I am really interested in the Travel Bugs and am just getting started.

 

I know that some folks like to use a metal detector for Benchmarking, but is it considered alright to use one for Travel Bugging? Is it considered cheating? And do I really want to walk for 2 miles with a metal detector on me, too? Is it worth it?

 

We'd like to start without one, but am curious about how often these tiny caches get buried under stacks of leaves in the fall, or growing ivy in the late spring.

 

Thanks for your help, and I am really enjoying this well put-together website while we plan our first caching escapades and await our GPS/Travel Bug tags.

[+G'n,G]

It just depends if the cache container is magnetic or not. Travel bugs aren't magnetic, so that wouldn't work.

[+Jamie Z]

Travel bugs aren't magnetic, so that wouldn't work.

I imagine a metal detector would beep at a travel bug, since the tags as bought from Groundspeak are metal--aluminum I believe.

 

The thing is, only a small percentage of geocaches contain travel bugs, so you couldn't really count on that. Another issue is that to detect anything, you'd have to get the detector almost on top of the cache, and at that point, you most likely could see it anyway.

 

In my experience, trying to use a metal detector while geocaching would be futile.

 

The big issue though is not physical. By taking a metal detector on a geocaching hunt, you may give the impression that you plan to dig. Geocaching does not bury or dig anything, yet we fight that stereotype all the time. Articles regularly appear in publication that talk about us looking for "buried" treasure.

 

Burying and digging is highly frowned upon by land managers, and if they have reason to believe that geocachers are going onto their managed land with detectors looking to dig stuff up, it could cause problems.

 

Jamie

[+DavidMac]

I have a metal detector that I use occasionally for benchmarking, but I've never used it to locate a cache. Travel bugs are usually never left outside of caches, and are never found by themselves since they are supposed to travel by hopping from cache to cache (or, sometimes, person to person directly). Generally caches big enough to hold bugs and other trade items are large enough that a layer of leaves or new vegetation doesn't pose too much of a problem. If you're worried about not being able to find a cache, I would say stick to ones with low difficulty ratings at first, or check the recent logs to see if others reported having trouble.

 

I'll second Jamie Z's point about the problems associated with carrying around a metal detector on public land. One time, a local cacher decided to use a metal detector to locate a particularly difficult cache. He was approached by a ranger who was aware of caching and knew that the governing agency had no problems with it, but made it clear that use of metal detectors on their land (even while caching) was prohibited. Often, people assume that someone carrying a metal detector is looking for things to dig up or collect.