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On a metal detecting site near you, some guys are talking about how to do some 
metal-detecting-not-in-accord-with-the-UK-Code-of-Practice-for-Responsible-Metal-Detecting. Anonymous metal-detectorist Peeler, apparently from the Isle of Man, begins a thread called "GPXs On Mineralised Pasture ?": I have a site where viking objects come from and its pasture ,,but its heavy mineralised and none of the top machines can touch it but my mate with the older GPX 4500 is getting Viking objects way beyond the first few inches that other detectors are getting but still within the top soil... He has learnt the machine and tweaked it up but he can tell iron and smaller coil is the best.....I was in Lincolnshire for a few days and the number of damaged artefacts recovered were disappointing.....We had no GPX and we had ancient pasture which has produce lovely finds but its has deep top soil..Three mates with me are thinking of investing in the latest GPX 5000....Yes we are madMad? Downright irresponsible. Sites on pasture (especially that pasture long enough for mineralisation to build up within the soil structure) should be left alone. Note the excuse offered for going even deeper into unploughed land, that finds are "damaged" higher up - what's happened to the PAS-fluffy argument that by digging them out willy nilly detectorists are "saving" artefacts from further destruction? Anyway, if one thought that the cost of a GPX site wrecker machine was too high, J.C. Malony informs the wannabe site-wrecker:
£100 odd quid down and £160 a month for two years... split three ways. Job done. Still learning mine which has been bought for a job and if it goes to plan I`ll understand the machine by the time the site is ready and its paid for. Loads of helpful folk around that can shorten the learning curve but if your mates used one before your most of the way there.("bought for job" on a site that's not ready?). How long before this type of machine is used to add yet another unknown to the question of what damage metal detecting is doing to the archaeological record of Britain and on what scale?
Photo: the new model of the GPX-5000mp3. For an extra couple of quid, this model has a built-in mp3 player with prerecorded classical music tracks to relax searchers in the long dark hours when they are finding nothing (An optional extra are lessons on how to use the apostrophe which many detectorists both sides of the Atlantic seem to find a challenge).