Low and Slow is the Way to Go

Thunder Bay Metal Detecting Group

Seven years ago, Trevor Bellin purchased his first metal detector, a hobby he had been interested in pursuing since childhood. After searching online forums for fellow metal detectorists in Thunder Bay without any luck, he formed the Thunder Bay Metal Detecting Facebook group. Ryan Cameron stumbled across Gellin’s page while also looking for local metal detectorists. They connected and have been hunting together ever since.

Initially, the group only consisted of five members, but has since grown to 130. Cameron credits the pandemic with their increase in members. “Part of the reason why it has grown so much is COVID because people are looking for

something to do,” he says. “At one point it was hard to buy [metal detectors] because more people were getting into it.” The group shares unique and interesting finds, and is a place to ask questions about metal detecting such as where are the best places to hunt and what are the best kinds of metal detectors. People have even asked for help finding lost jewelry. You don’t have to be a metal detectorist to join the group; there are lots of members who simply like to see the treasures people find.

“A medallion commemorating Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1896 from London is one of my favourite finds,” Bellin says. “That and my cartwheel penny—a penny produced in 1796. It was the one year this penny was made and I found one. Some metal detectorists hunt their whole lives and never find something like this.”

Cameron was hooked once he found an old silver coin. “It’s kind of like fishing—you don’t know what it is until you get it to the surface. That is the excitement, that and the story behind the find,” Cameron says. “Look at a coin from the 1700s. It travelled through time from England to here, to some spot on the ground. If only it could tell you how. How many people have touched it? Did it buy someone a beer? It's kinda cool to think about how it ended up there.”

They do most of their hunting in city parks and last year when Boulevard Lake was drained, lots of people turned up with metal detectors eager to have the opportunity to explore the bottom of the lake.

Cameron offers some tips for beginners. “Swing it back and forth at a slow pace and as low to the ground as you can. There is an etiquette to metal detecting: leave it better than you found it, take your garbage, if you find something you might be able to find the owner of, return it, if you find someone else’s hole, then fill it in. As long as we don’t make a mess in the parks then they shouldn’t give us a hard time about it,” he says.

For more information or to check out some of their cool finds go to Thunder Bay Metal Detecting Group on Facebook.