Non-park city owned property OK to hunt?

MTDetector_Dan

Full Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2011
Messages
116
Location
Great Falls, MT
I am in the midst of checking through all non-park city owned property in my town. As I am concerned, if the property is city owned than it is public property. As long as there is no ordinances against MD'ing on city property and it is not protected by any historical designations, then I should be OK to hunt it. Am I reasonable in my thinking on this?
 
yes, or atleast in my area. i was chit chattin with someone from the township building(when i went to pay my water/sewer bill) and i asked them about a vacant lot, they said it was zoned to be a future tot lot but nothing ever came of it so its far game ta hunt, the township also maintains along a creek that runs a couple miles....thats also detectable, basically the woman told me anything the township maintains is open for detecting, including around the township building........thats all i needed ta hear:lol:
 
If your county is teknumlogikly advanced like mine is, you can go to the Tax Appraisal District and do a property search for "NAME OF CITY, City of" and get back 1,000's of city owned properties. Don't tell anyone about this as it is my best kept secret. :cool:
 
Yep best kept secret

Yep, thanks for the feedback. I am using an online Montana Cadastral to let me know whose property is owned by whom. It's amazing sometimes how the seemingly small slivers of vacant lots are actually owned by the city. Can;t wait to hunt all these spots I am compiling.;)
 
I really need to do this myself. I have been through several towns and skipped lots as I did not know if they were public or private. I need to get more aggressive about researching it.
 
Well, here in my city I have not found any codes on it and signs at city parks do not state anything about it. I have ask Police and Park employees about MDing in parks and it's fine as long as refill holes. We have a city auditorium built in 1926 on a hill where lots of events went on and lots of people would sit on the ground outside all around for concerts and such. I bet this has been searched before but I plan on searching on weekends when I can why the weekend well during the week lots of traffic and lots of city offices are inside like the city counsel chambers and Mayor's office city attorney ect, don't want to disturb anyone you know.
 
there's a city lot in my town with a federal building on it. like going to the zoo then falling into the tiger cage.
 
A couple of times a year our city auctions city owned lots. Most of them are condemned houses the city took ownership of and demolished. I called to see if it was alright to go on the properties to get measurements and stuff. They said to help myself. "and stuff" covers a wide range of activities. If nobody cares if you walk a dog or throw a frisbee you should be able to detect. There is really only one way to find out. Just do it.
 
... If nobody cares if you walk a dog or throw a frisbee you should be able to detect. There is really only one way to find out. Just do it.


I would not hesitate to detect such sites.

Since when is md'ing so evil that it needs some sort of sanction before being ok to do it ? I consider md'ing to be: harmless, positive, innocuous, educational, benign and nutritious.
 
there's a city lot in my town with a federal building on it. like going to the zoo then falling into the tiger cage.

There is nothing more satisfying than hunting on city land, only to have the Feds come out of the building and confiscate your gear. Huh? I had no idea that that small building was in fact an ATF office and the city lot was technically federal land.

It hasn't happened to me yet. I am really tempted at times though. There are these wonderful hay fields I drive past all of the time. I tried finding the roads that lead to them, but, it seems that they are all part of what is left of the land the feds maintain from what is left of Fort Devens. I guess, past those hay fields are a whole lot of firing ranges.
 
There is nothing more satisfying than hunting on city land, only to have the Feds come out of the building and confiscate your gear. Huh? ....

Bottle-cap-king: For something innocuous like this (the lawn surrounding a building where it wasn't clear fed vs city) : Can you cite ANY case of someone having their detector confiscated ? I can certainly understand a "scram" (we're in an odd-ball hobby after all). But when it comes to confiscations, if you can find any example, it's not going to be for something benign like this thread is portrarying. It will invariably be for someone night-sneaking an obvious historic sensitive monument. Or someone ignoring a sign. Or someone who can't take a warning, etc....
 
Bottle-cap-king: For something innocuous like this (the lawn surrounding a building where it wasn't clear fed vs city) : Can you cite ANY case of someone having their detector confiscated ? I can certainly understand a "scram" (we're in an odd-ball hobby after all). But when it comes to confiscations, if you can find any example, it's not going to be for something benign like this thread is portrarying. It will invariably be for someone night-sneaking an obvious historic sensitive monument. Or someone ignoring a sign. Or someone who can't take a warning, etc....

I think you are taking my post just a wee bit more seriously that anyone should..
 
Not all city owned property is "Public" property.


Have some experience with that. Was detecting some property owned by the county commission which they got from FEMA. My understanding was that once FEMA takes the land over it becomes public property. So I was happily detecting my new site, see a man come striding toward me with an air of purpose. OH no, I've been through this before maybe I stepped off the FEMA boundary onto his property or something. I met him halfway and he questioned me what I was doing. Turns out he has a lifetime lease on the property. I apologized and said how I thought it was public property. If I'd of known he was leasing it I'd have asked him for permission. He said it was okay and I could go ahead, but he said he was curious just like I would be if I saw someone on my property.
 
pplinker: I've had this happen to me before, on various types of land (public or simply unknown). Someone's heading towards me and I think "oh no, someone's gonna say scram". But , like your situation, They say: "What's the best thing you've ever found ?" Or "Just be sure to lock the gate on your way out", etc... :roll: Doh ! :laughing:
 
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