Metal detecting in Maryland

diggin_history

Full Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2013
Messages
160
Location
Pasadena, MD
Hi all, needing advice on places to hunt in Maryland. My wife detects and we bring our kids. It’s a family affair for sure. I didn’t realize moving here that the parks wouldn’t allow it. The schools are extremely tough to get permission. Please help.
 
Hi - google Maryland Freestate Treasure club - there is info there on different jurisdictions.
 
I detect schools all over Anne Arundel County, stop asking for permission. It’s public land with no explicitly stated prohibition on detecting. I detect summers and weekends and have never had a problem.

You can join a local club in order to get a permit for Baltimore parks. I detect Anne Arundel County parks because there is no law or code against it. Some county dweeb tacked on a list of rules on a website that included no detecting, but there is no ordinance/law/code to back it up. In 5 years I’ve had no issues, and park personnel come up to me al, the time to see what I’ve found. AACO cops stop all the time to look in the finds bags, both at parks and schools. But we all have to do what we think is right in this regard. I’ve been chased off of public property also, like the old hospital in Crownsville that now belongs to the County, but that’s more because the druggies use it as a doping spot. I just leave and go back another time. I also don’t use a shovel in public, and if it is high traffic area I put on a safety vest and people probably think I’m looking for utility lines.

With that said, this area is active with detectorists and they’ve been through all public land like locusts. The best detecting you’ll find is permissions, and it’s easy to get around here. I have way more yes’s than no’s.

I'm in California and hunt schools and parks .Schools on Sat/Sun.
 
... I didn’t realize moving here that the parks wouldn’t allow it.....

Curious where you got that information ? Is there some actual written law or rule there that says "No md'ing" ?

... The schools are extremely tough to get permission.....

Chris answers this beautifully :

I detect schools all over Anne Arundel County, stop asking for permission. It’s public land with no explicitly stated prohibition on detecting. I detect summers and weekends and have never had a problem....

In other words diggin-history : It appears you are just becoming the latest victim of the "No one cared UNTIL you asked" psychology phenomenon.
 
Thank you all for the replies. I’m gonna get after my local parks and school yards on the weekends.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Good Luck with AA Co parks, I have been asked to leave and not allow to cross, or walk thru with a detector. And that was just a few weeks ago...... A few years ago they started putting signs up...And on the list of not to's...No Metal Detectors allow. Odd is they won't let me walk thru the parks to get to the water, but yet I can bring my detector in my boat thru the gates and launch from the boat ramp....All of the rangers have been very nice.

The schools were fine when I did hunt the land.
 
Which park was that?
Fort Smallwood is one......Years ago when I first started detecting I was hunting away, two AA Co park rangers at SawMill creek park dropped in and said detecting was not allowed in that park. This was 2007/8 if I remember correct. Very nice, young...I asked where does one go...they told me OC MD on the beach, or Sandy Point..So then began my water hunting. Never looked back..

I had many encounters with the public when hunting in the water the last 11 years.....but all were quickly cleared up with a intervention by the DNR.

As far as the signs ask Lance at the club, he was the one who informed everyone at the club meeting of the New signs been put up.....Next trip out I'll get a picture of the one at FSW.
 
Though I think you said before that you don't bother with Sandy Point anymore and stay in OC.

Rarely do I hunt Sandy Point, I hate the 6am to 9am hunt time. I'm just getting out of bed at 9am..:shock:

I linger up and down the bay mostly, from the Delaware river down to Scotland (St Marys) then over to Colonial beach. I hate up North but have had some good spots, rocks every where. Not been to OC in a couple of years now, I like the old stuff better but do miss the big gold chains, or any gold chains for that matter. Going to be a interesting year if we get to see the Impulse "AQ" . Just wondering if it will do as said. Lots of these spots are starting to get weak on the gold. Could use a good deep dig all detector.
 
...... A few years ago they started putting signs up...And on the list of not to's...No Metal Detectors allow.....

And I have a sneaking suspicion of how that got in-their-craw. As something that needed this new rule to be implemented. Care to take a guess ?
 
And I have a sneaking suspicion of how that got in-their-craw. As something that needed this new rule to be implemented. Care to take a guess ?

Hate to say it but it is a good thing for me, keep those detectors out of the parks. Discourage them from hunting, mark the beach's private..No Trespassing......While I come around by boat and enjoy the place, Alone.......:shock:..

Which is a little bit of a pain but nice getting out of the boat and having the place to yourself, all year.
 

Attachments

  • OBN-0031.jpg
    OBN-0031.jpg
    24.5 KB · Views: 908
Hate to say it but it is a good thing for me, keep those detectors out of the parks. Discourage them from hunting,.....

Haha, you're sounding like my hunting buddy. He has the same attitude of "let them stay huddled and safe in their sand-boxes". If they feel the need grovel, or consider ANY catch-all boiler plate stuff "might apply", then ... heck, that's just more for us. :laughing:

In fact, when we do long distance travel to detect, sometimes it boggles our minds the type virgin spots we find. When we'd simply have assumed that the "locals probably already hoover-vacc'd it". (Since, the spots are no secret to the history books). Yet lo & behold, we've found some places were not slammed. And all we can figure is: Local folks were probably timid. Couldn't get the red-carpets rolled out for them, so they simply didn't hit it ?
 
Haha, you're sounding like my hunting buddy. He has the same attitude of "let them stay huddled and safe in their sand-boxes". If they feel the need grovel, or consider ANY catch-all boiler plate stuff "might apply", then ... heck, that's just more for us. :laughing:

In fact, when we do long distance travel to detect, sometimes it boggles our minds the type virgin spots we find. When we'd simply have assumed that the "locals probably already hoover-vacc'd it". (Since, the spots are no secret to the history books). Yet lo & behold, we've found some places were not slammed. And all we can figure is: Local folks were probably timid. Couldn't get the red-carpets rolled out for them, so they simply didn't hit it ?


Very true Tom, my best spot last year fits that perfect.
 
Have you ever detected the Cape St. Claire beach? You can borrow my guest pass if you want to have at it. I’ve pulled a couple vintage gold rings out of it but haven’t been in it with any decent detector.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you....Maybe in the future. I get hooked on a couple spots each year and can't get away from them. Two spots last year gave me 89 gold rings, hard to find time for others when that happens.
 
Figuring either a spill or the remnants of a group hunt. They were all within 10 feet of each other.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Figuring either a spill or the remnants of a group hunt. They were all within 10 feet of each other.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Had to be from a club hunt, MARS or FreeState have there hunts there in Oct...then sometimes they have members only hunts.. Silver in the bay from that many years ago would be black...
 
Had to be from a club hunt, MARS or FreeState have there hunts there in Oct...then sometimes they have members only hunts.. Silver in the bay from that many years ago would be black...



Yeah that’s what I thought too. I was definitely excited to find them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Back
Top Bottom