Focus on UK Metal Detecting and that Pasture Land, Which has Never Been Ploughed

Responsible detecting as good as its going to get in deepest darkest Wales - thank goodness for all that very expensive PAS outreach to these lads, eh? From a metal detecting forum near you:
Advice on Pasture land (January 29, 2013, 05:48:34 PM).

Hi all. I have a promising area which is pasture land, which has never been ploughed. The question is what differences can i expect to find through signal strength and tone? I have done beach work and ploughed areas, which i have found a happy medium with my Whites 300DFX. Pasture is leading me astray in ground balance and settings. I have taken to keeping on all metals for now as i have began to tell pitch differences on the other areas mentioned, but the tones and readings all seem different on pasture. ?? Anyone with a whites who can help, or anyone who has similar problems?

Now, the real answer to that is "keep off, that's what the Code of Practice of responsible Detecting in England and Wales says". So how many of the responses which this chap got on a forum with several hundred members, all of whom would like you to think they are "responsible" actually said anything of the sort?

Let's see:

"Al you have a Exp II listed in your signature, if you have one then can I ask..Why aren't you using that on pasture or the beach for that matter?"

"get the explorer out for know al Wink"

"ahhh dont listen to them alun Grin...... roman rays doing alright...... ask him he'll put you straight Wink"

"as long as its not on a beach , he couldnt find his arse with both hands down there Cheesy Cheesy but he does well on farmland Smiley"

"ray has good rallies , better than dw anyway Wink"

"hi alan i put a program on here the other day to help 2 of the members who also had the d.f.x..im trying to find the right topic it was in..such as..general discussions..metal detecting finds.ect-ect..i cant bloody find what topic it was in...so i could put it back on here for you mucker.save me writeing another one out.i could just copy and paste it back up for you..bare with me mate. it should say help with the d.f.x.." 

"any idea if these settings would also work on my whites xlt spectrum ?"

"[...] i could.nt really say if it would be the same on the XLT mucker..no harm in trying them ..i here theres not much difference in both machines.give it a go mate".

I would say that this is hardly a very coherent presentation of any ethical standpoint on best artefact hunting practice, the ethical Code has been totally ignored here  in favour of low-brow banter and nerdy stuff about machine settings.

People like these are precisely the sort of people the PAS wants to grab more and more millions of public quid to make into the "partners"  of the British Museum, archaeological heritage professionals - and to whom they want us all to entrust the exploitation of the archaeological record. Take a good look and decide what you think about that as a sustainable heritage management "policy". 

Vignette: Pasture in the mists of time