I’ve been exploring something new lately.

Private Property.

For years I’ve been *mostly* limiting my detecting to the “easy” spots.  You know – public parks, schools and tot lots.  Sites that have been swung hard and hung up wet for the past 40 some-odd years.  But I read the forums.  I get foamy mouthed at posts about the old farmhouses, the turn of the century yards.  Hand fulls of old coins.

Last weekend I went freestyle knocking.  I drove to 6 private houses and walked to the door.  My heart pounded as I ran the script through my head while waiting for someone to answer the door.  Well, the first 4 houses NO ONE answered the door.  But let me tell you, it got easier to approach the door.

On the 5th house a nice lady answered the door.  I vaguely remember rattling something off about looking for a spot to metal detect, and that I would love the opportunity to search the yard.  Heck, I even offered to give her (are you sitting down?) EVERYTHING I found.  She told me that she didn’t own the land, but gave me the name of the man who did, and she told me where he lived.  She did tell me that he wasn’t available that day.  She was very nice and asked me for my name.  I nearly cursed myself for not introducing myself FIRST! (note to self…) .  I walked with my tail between my legs back to the car, but in hindsight it wasn’t bad at all.

I was determined at this point and decided to hit one more spot – an old bed and breakfast.  I figured at least someone would answer the door.  No such luck, and I struck out again.  So my time allocated to detecting was spent knocking, and I didn’t even get to swing the coil.  Still, the experience was invaluable.

I’m going to hit those spots again this weekend.  Maybe someone will be home.

So I’m asking you:  What’s your secret to getting permission to hunt private property?  Do you have a great opening line?  Is there a way of asking that seems to work better than others?  Is there something you NEVER say?  Do you offer to split the finds?  Ever offer to give ALL the finds?

Please share YOUR tips on gaining permission!

Have you ever detecting a spot like this?  Any luck?  How would YOU detecting this site?

Comments welcome!

Hey folks.

Beautiful spring weather means one thing around here – back to detecting!
I was able to get out for a couple of hours the other day. It was a rather impromptu hunt, so I hit “The old home…” again.

I’ve hit this site several times with several detectors using more than a couple coil combinations under varying weather/soil conditions. Finds? Not much. As a matter of fact the best day there was the hunt I wrote about back in July.

I was hoping that the Minelab X-terra 70 with the little DD coil might pick a couple goodies out of the trash, but after an hour or so it just wasn’t going to happen.

This site has officially made it to the “Written Off” list. You know these sites – for whatever reason it just doesn’t produce. I figure I’ve been there half a dozen times at least and it just ain’t happening.

That’s ok though. I have some great ideas in mind for other detecting spots. Hopefully I’ll be writing about some great hunts soon.

In the meantime…do you have some “awesome” sites that just don’t produce? Do you have a “Written Off” list?

Hey folks…
I recently picked up one of the little 6″ DD High Frequency (18.75kHz) for my Minelab X-Terra 70. I figured it would help me out in some of the super trashy areas I hunt. The general rule is that those higher frequency coils are better at getting the lower conductive targets (ex. gold) while the lower frequency coils nab the higher conductive (silver) targets. I just wanted a little coil to get in between the junk, and the DD construction helps in my tough ground.
The weather wasn’t exactly conducive to extensive hunting. Temps in my parts of the woods have been in the low 20’s F, but cabin fever forced me outside for a couple hours anyway. I decided to layer-up and hit a late 1800’s homesite that I had hunted once before. The home is now in a field shared with roaming cows and hasn’t been inhabited in about 20 years.
The previous trip was disappointing – the only thing to turn up was screw caps, and a lot of them. To say the site was trashy would be an understatement. Every swing caused 4 or 5 “nulls” in my detectors threshold, indicating an object that was being discriminated out. When I got to the site I quickly did an auto ground balance and set the sensitivity to 24. It was smooth without any falsing.
Just a few minutes into my very cold outing I got my first good signal. I pinpointed and struggled to dig a shallow, small plug. Frozen ground! Ugh. Not something we have to contend with in these parts very often!
Scan plug..nothing.
Scan hole…yep, still in there, but off a little bit.
Widen the hole a little bit…still off.
I finally nabbed the target. A coin!
The entire time I was here last time I didn’t find a single coin. This one was a penny, and I was hoping for an Indian Head. Wiping away the red clay revealed a copper memorial. Eh, oh well. It was a coin. The little coil was doing what it was supposed to.
I covered my hole and kept at it. Not 10 feet away I get another signal, this one a little higher on the X-terra’s meter. For some reason this one was tough to pinpoint too. Then I figured out my error – this is a double d coil, not a concentric! A total “duh” moment. DD coils are “hot” from tip to toe, while concentric coils are more sensitive in the middle. I wiggled the coil over the target, then slowly pulled BACK until the signal went away. Keeping an eye on that spot, I turned 45 degrees and repeated to verify. The object should be right under the front edge of the coil. I dug down, and sure enough, there it was. A dime. Clad. From then on I had no trouble pinpointing and didn’t even use the pinpoint feature of the detector.
I detected in the frigid cold about another hour, dodging cow patties that littered the turf. I received several other good signals, but a few I had to abandon because the ground was rock-hard. I was plenty impressed with the little coil. I couldn’t test the depth limits because I just wasn’t able to dig deeper than 4 or so inches, but a couple of the coins I retrieved were at least 4”. Unfortunately all the coins were modern. I’ll have to give another report when the ground is more “digable”!

Thanks for visiting. If anyone wants to share some experiences with little coils, detecting in freezing cold, digging in frozen ground, dodging cow patties, or anything else, go for it!

Hey folks.  I’m very thankful to my friend Bill Bertke for writing an awesome guest post regarding metal detecting and public property.  A lot of you may know Bill (Beetle662) from some of the detecting forums.  Well, Bill is also a police sergeant in the great state of Kentucky. 

In his post, Bill presents the topic of metal detecting and “public property” from the perspective of a police officer.    Again, thanks Sgt. Bertke for your time!

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Detecting and “Public Property”

Metal detectorists are always looking for new places to check out.  Private property seems to be the key to good finds, but gaining permission to privately owned property is not always easy, let alone granted.  So, we look for easy spots… spots we take for granted that we can hunt anytime.  School yards, playgrounds, and city and county parks.  But I ask you, have you asked for permission to hunt those? I’d be willing to bet most detectorists haven’t!

Here’s the deal.  All of that publicly owned property is governed.  Not by us, but by those we elect.  And those elected officials enact laws and ordinances that prohibit us from doing things that, in general, are not good for one reason or another.  They may have dedicated a street as being one way, or perhaps they regulate parking to only one side of street.  Those matters concern safety.  Do you know if your local government has enacted any laws or rules regarding detecting on public property?  You had better check, because the repercussions could range from a fine all the up to forfeiting your hunting equipment, and maybe even both!

So, if this is “public property”,  I have a God-given right as a tax-paying citizen to detect on it right?  WRONG!  Think about this.  “Public property” is actually owned by your city, county, state, or even federal government.  The “use” of that land is governed by that agency.  And that governing agency sets into place rules and regulations regarding the use of that land.  You couldn’t go build a new house in the middle of that city park you like so much.  What makes you think that being able to detect on that land should be any different?

Rule of thumb… check the ordinances and laws in your area to see if there are any on the books concerning metal detecting.  If you find out that there are laws, then abide by them.  If you don’t like them, do the right thing and petition the appropriate governing agency for a change.  And if there are no laws on the books about detecting that old 1800’s park you’ve been eyeballing over the winter, then you are free to go detecting!

What if there are laws that say I can’t detect there and I want to anyway? Don’t do it!  Fight for change, but fight in the council chambers.  Do your research.  Find out why there is a law in the first place.  Educate the governing agency about your hobby, stressing the positives as much as you possibly can.  Take some of your finds from other areas and show them how rewarding it can be.  Buddy up with a councilman/woman.  Get them on your side by showing them that when done properly, detecting is fun and brings no harm to the public property. Chances are that if there are laws regarding detecting on public property, they are there because of abuse by previous detectorists.  Don’t be a hindrance to future detectorists and cause laws to written because of your failure to fill your holes or leave your trash behind.  Treat public property as if it is your own.  Yes, you do have a stake in by being a taxpayer!  Don’t ruin it for the other taxpayers that want to hunt it too!

Bill Bertke

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Again, thanks “Beet”!  Comments are more than welcome…they’re encouraged!

Another quickie post, but a good one.

In this post I’m going to show you how to find some good historic spots to metal detect using the Yale Peabody Museum website.

Here’s how:

1. Visit the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) page at Yale Peabody Museum.

2. You will be given the option to enter a search term in the box. If I’m searching for schools I put “school”, if I’m searching for parks…well, you guessed it: “park”. For this tutorial I entered “school”.

3. Select your state from the dop down menu.

4. Select what kind of feature you want to search. Select the same thing you put in the search box. Check out all the features you could search.

5. Enter your county.

6. Click “SUBMIT”.

The results page will give you a long list of schools (or parks, etc). Hopefully there will be some that you weren’t aware existed, even some designated “historic”. My search for “schools” in my county revealed 29 historic schools. Your search will give GPS coordinates for the location.

So now grab your GPS, or look up the coordinates on google earth, and have fun.

Comments welcome. Did you find any possible detecting spots? Many spots designated “historic”? Any other tips for using the Yale search?

Hey folks, a quickie today.

I’ve driven by this drive-in for years and never bothered to pursue permission to detect it. The place closed down in the 80’s after being open since the 50’s. I envisioned the place packed with classic Chevys, guys on dates with the friends hiding in the trunk (ok, before my time, by I’ve heard stories from my dad).

I’ve also imagined the TRASH that must be in a place like this. Old style pull-tab heaven. I’m thinking that narrow, slow sweeps, a small coil, and reduced sensitivity would be the way to go.

What’s your experience with old drive-ins? Ever detect them? Any luck? Any advice?

Permission.

You gotta have it to metal detect. Sure, we could discuss “public” property like parks, beaches, schools, and so forth. But I want to talk about those other places where we all want to be able to detect. The old houses. The fields. The churches.

Taking a slightly different approach, I’d like to ask the non-metal detecting landowner a question:

Would you let a stranger dig on your property?

You’re minding your own business and there’s a knock on the door. You open it up, and there’s a guy standing on your porch. He seems a little apprehensive, but he introduces himself and begins talking about his metal detecting hobby. He says he likes to look for things that people may have dropped over the years – coins and whatnot. All seems OK until he mentions digging. The grass isn’t exactly golf course quality, but it looks good. After he says that he’ll cover his holes he says that he’ll split whatever he finds.

How generous!

So Mr. Landowner, what do you say?

Now let me propose another question:

What would it take for you to let him metal detect on your property?

• I trust him.  I’ll give him permission!

Ah, the ultimate landowner – a detectorist’s dream.  This is the landowner that gives permission without any discussion of giving over or even sharing finds.

• Go ahead and detect, but I need a cut of the finds.

There might be some valuable objects in my dirt!  Before he goes you’ll need to see what popped up in case you want to keep some of it.

• Have at it, but we’re going to split the finds!

You’ll check on him every once in a while to see what he’s found, and before he leaves you’ll divvy-up the finds.

• The only way he gets to detect my land is if I keep ALL of the finds!

It’s your’s anyway!  He can have fun detecting.  Take pictures if he wants.  But anything found is your’s!

• Get outta my yard!

Nope.  You can’t metal detect here.  You don’t want some stranger walking around your house, digging holes and scaring the kids!

Ok, now that we’ve covered the “traditional” method of gaining permission (or getting turned down), let me offer an alternative:

Mr. Landowner, what if you were PAID to allow someone to metal detect your yard?

It’s your yard.  You’re letting someone dig some holes, enjoy themselves, and maybe even have some financial gain if they find something valuable.  There’s nothing wrong with asking “What’s in it for me”?

So what if the guy on the porch said “I’m looking for some good new places to metal detect.  Some of my research suggests that there could be some interesting history involved with your property.  Would you allow me to metal detect your property and keep anything I find if I paid you $10 an hour?

How likely would you be to grant permission then?

Detectorists…what do you think about this?  Would you be willing to pay someone in order to metal detect their property and keep anything you find?  If it was a place with awesome potential I sure would!  Think of similar “pay to play” pastimes – golfers, for example, happily pay similar amounts for a few hours on the links.

So landowners, what do you think?  Under what condition would you allow someone to metal detect your property?

Detectorists, what would you be willing to do to gain permission to metal detect private property?

Comments please!

I have to thank the World Metal Detector Community for the inspiration for this post. In their membership application they ask what seems like a simple question:

Most Significant Find?

Well that got me to thinking. I’m not one of these detector guys that go out for a few hours and return with a handful of wheaties and a few silver coins (though I’d like to be). In my detecting world I’m lucky to get a wheatie and a handful of clad coins. Silver is another matter all together. But I digress…

When I bring up detecting to my non-detecting acquaintances, I’m asked the same general question: “What’s your best find?” I realized that a good find is usually one of the following:

• Historic Value

Yep, Oldies. In my book this is the best kind of find. I’m a little envious of you folks in the New England area with cellar holes and colonial home sites to search. Colonial coppers, Largies, buttons, buckles. Civil war relic lovers fit in this niche, I’d say. And we can’t mention oldies without bringing up you folks on the other side of the pond. Hammered coins and centuries old jewelry – oh my! Just the thought of who owned it, why was it lost, and all that has happened in the world while the treasure rested just below the surface of the ground.

What detecting dreams are made of!

• Metallic Value

This section almost needs a few subsections, but I’ll try to condense a little bit.

A large portion of the metal detecting community are gold hunters in some form or another, whether it be for jewelry or nuggets. I’ll admit this isn’t an area of detecting in which I have much experience, but I gotta tell ya, the idea of pulling some of the gold stuff out of the ground is very appealing. I’d love to hear from some of you nugget shooters out there. You guys usually have dedicated gold machines and have to deal with some pretty tough conditions to get those pretty rocks out of the ground. Like wise if you enjoy sweeping the beaches for the bling.

• Sentimental Value

Last year my daughter lost a locket that her grandmother had given her. She pretty much knew the exact spot at the school playground where she noticed it was missing. I grabbed my detector and had the locket in hand in no time. The look on her face was priceless. Now THIS was one of my best finds ever. Nothing old, no real monetary value. You folks that have had the awesome pleasure of returning a lost item to the owner know what I’m talking about.

• The “weird” factor

I once found a coin labeled “Palestine” from the early 1900s at an old school in rural west Alabama. How’d that coin get there? I know of MD’ers finding old foreign coins at new schools and parks, interesting “whats-its”, and various other goodies. These finds have no real value but the uniqueness of the find, location, or combination of both makes the find that much more interesting.

I’d love to get your input on this. What would you consider your best find? Does it fit into one of these categories? Is there another category you would suggest?

As always, thanks for visiting!

If you metal detect, you’ve been there. Maybe it’s an old  home site, maybe a beach, maybe a civil war campsite. Could be the site of a former village or even a cellar hole.  Everything seems perfect for a day of great digs. Then you get there, swing for several hours, and have nothing to show for it.

I’ve been thinking about why this might happen, and have come up with a list.

Look it over, and let me know if you have anything to add.

• TOO MUCH TARGET MASKING/TRASH

I think this is one of the most likely reasons that goodies aren’t popping out of what should be a banner site.  What happens is that a good target is located too closely to an “undesired” metal object.  The metal detector “sees” the bad target and isn’t able to reset fast enough to indicate the presence of the good object.  You can see the result of masking by placing a coin and an iron nail next to each other on the ground.  Swing the detector over them and see how many “hits” you get.  If they’re close together you’ll likely only get one.  See how far you have to separate them, and how slow you have to swing before you can detect both objects.

Masking can sometimes be reduced by using a “faster” detector, a smaller search coil, reduced sensitivity, and/or different “tones” settings if your detector is capable.

• THE GOODIES ARE TOO DEEP

Sometimes it doesn’t matter how good your machine is, how “hot” you run the sensitivity, how low you have the discrimination, or  how big your coil is,  the good stuff might be down too far.  Just consider how grass, leaves, rain, mud, dirt, and footsteps can push a coin down into the ground as years (or centuries) march on.

• MINERALIZATION

There’s more than just “dirt” in your dirt.  Depending on where you live, there’s variable levels of iron and minerals in your ground as well.  To be effective the detector has to adjust to this ground mineralization and pick the good stuff out of these metallic-like ground conditions.  The higher the mineralization, the tougher it might be for the metal detector to weed out the good stuff, particularly at depth.

To compensate for this, use a detector that has manual or automatic ground balancing rather than a preset ground balance level.  Sometimes using less sensitivity is effective as higher sensitivity can be likened to using our bright-lights in the fog.  It just doesn’t go far.

• THERE’S NEVER BEEN ANYTHING GOOD THERE

I know, we don’t want to think of that. But consider “who” lived, worked, or played at your site in the past.  Are you at an old sharecropper house?  Not likely they dropped many silver dollars.  That would represent a month’s pay, and if a coin like that was discovered missing I’m sure they wouldn’t sleep till it was found.   Same with smaller denominations.  Money meant something to prior generations and it was guarded carefully.   If the folks didn’t have money, they didn’t lose any!

• OPERATOR ERROR

Yes, I had to go there.  Metal detectors are complicated machines and require PRACTICE! If you have a new detector or you are new to the hobby, LEARN your machine.  Read the manual, then read it again.  Set up a test garden and see how your machine responds to different items at different depths with different setting and different sweep speeds.  Reasons such as too fast sweep speed, sweeping too far off the ground, and arcing the coil are all reasons that good targets might be missed, and all can be corrected with practice and learning the machine.  Be sure to check the online forums, such as the ones listed in THIS POST , for help on using your detector.

• IT’S BEEN HUNTED OUT

No one likes to hear this one, and its usually not the case.  For the most part you can assume one or more of the above reasons has PREVENTED the site from being hunted out.  Still, a site that has been pounded to death by everyone with a metal detector is quite possible squeezed dry.

The remedy?  Do what other’s have been unwilling to do.  Go to the overgrown areas, swing the coil under the bushes.  Go to the part of the site that is “forgotten” about.  Or go somewhere else.

And if all else fails, find somewhere else to detect.