Organizing your hunting grounds: my method

TriadHunter · Aug 16, 2017

Fellow detectorists -

How do you organize your hunting grounds and permissions? Maybe you just put them in your head, but I cannot keep track of them all. So I put them in a spreadsheet and I have started adding various columns to help me make a hunt decision on a given day.

For me, one of my biggest challenges is keeping my 9 year-old son interested in the sport, so pretty much every Saturday I need to come up with a good permission (or spot) that produces something. Otherwise I lose him to boredom. That being said, attached is how I am currently organizing my hunting areas and permissions. I didn't include the names and cities for obvious (selfish) reasons. Also, I only put my most powerful detector on the list (e.g. the ACE 300 isn't on there) as I feel that would have done the best job at the hunt area. Suit to your liking of course.

Anyone else go to this level of being a data geek? :laughing:

AirmetTango · Aug 16, 2017

I'm a mixture of old and new tech for keeping track of my hunts/potential permissions/interesting locations.

For the "new tech", I've been using Google Earth not only to help isolate promising sites and do some preliminary recon using "street view", but I also drop marker pins that get saved to the "my places" database. Then I can categorize things at a glance by changing the pin color or appearance so I can evaluate a site/jog my memory at a glance - hot/priority sites that need permission are red, sites with permissions already obtained green, already hunted sites are blue, sites with interesting but doubtful prospects are yellow, etc. The pin can be changed to a house, school, church, or whatever to reflect the type of former or existing site. Plus, in the "properties" window, I can add all kinds of additional info - parcel numbers from GIS, contact names/addresses, relevant history, notes on research, previous finds, you name it! I save the .kml/.kmz files generated by Google Earth to a couple backup locations so I'm less likely to lose all the hard work.

But I'm still old school enough that I keep a dedicated notebook filled with notes for potential sites. I'll carry this with me in the car on a hunt most of the time to refer to if necessary, and so I have something handy to take notes in case I can get leads or interesting history from a permission property's owner.

So yeah, you're not alone in geeking out and compiling way more data than you really need! :grin:

But it fills the time when I can't hunt, and hopefully the notes will help me use my time more wisely when I have more free time available to go out and swing a coil. Kids go back to school soon = more time for Daddy to go dirt fishing! Watch out silvers....I'm a' comin' for you! :cool:

NectarDetector · Aug 16, 2017

I have a map software that I pin all of my spots, pertinent info, color coded so I know which I have hunted, which I havent, and which I will in the future.

ALL are places long gone now, where houses, CW camps and other historical properties etc.

Some I enter best finds, others I don't enter anything...

I have a CW camp pinned down I plan to hit this fall as well as a 1930s camp!

PlasteredDragon · Aug 16, 2017

TriadHunter said:
Anyone else go to this level of being a data geek?

Yes and no, not so much my hunting grounds, but my individual hunts. I've tracked date, location, clad finds, precious finds, relics and miscellaneous data. So at any time I know exactly how much I've found. Then I take that data and parse it out in several ways.

(1) By location (hunting ground in your parlance) - so at a glance I can see which locations produced the most finds, and compute a score based on amount of finds versus times hunted -- that allows me to get an accurate read on how good a location actually is.

(2) By year - allows me to track which years were more active/productive than others.

(3) By month and year - helps me see when my annual hunting season tends to begin and end and gives me a sort of scorecard to measure how I am progressing as a detectorist.

I do all that in Excel of course. Finally there's a sheet which takes that data and produces the forum sig below.

So yes I'm definitely a data-geek. No idea how my geek-fu compares to yours.

Scooterjim · Aug 16, 2017

That's way too much thinking for me. It sounds too much like a job. I may change my thinking as I get more time in the hobby, but I'm having fun looking for treasures in the local parks. Most times I don't know where I am going until I back out of the driveway. For me it's about getting out and enjoying the moment.

TriadHunter · Aug 16, 2017

PlasteredDragon said:
Ye
(3) By month and year - helps me see when my annual hunting season tends to begin and end and gives me a sort of scorecard to measure how I am progressing as a detectorist.

I do all that in Excel of course. Finally there's a sheet which takes that data and produces the forum sig below.

So yes I'm definitely a data-geek. No idea how my geek-fu compares to yours.

I like #3. That's a good idea. As soon as I get more experience and start to expand my territory farther and farther out, it will make a lot of sense to track farther locations. Summer here is pretty hot/humid, so that would be a good time to go to the mountains, etc.

Your geek-fu wins, but I shall expand mine soon! :cool:

TriadHunter · Aug 16, 2017

AirmetTango said:
For the "new tech", I've been using Google Earth not only to help isolate promising sites and do some preliminary recon using "street view", but I also drop marker pins that get saved to the "my places" database.

Yes! I do this as well, but I don't pin. Good idea! I also Zillow a ton because I like to see "year built" in neighborhoods. :cool:

GA_Boy · Aug 16, 2017

I hunt so I can relax-----------spreadsheets tax my brain.
Marvin

sandgroper · Aug 17, 2017

Wow, that's really detailed! I've created 'profiles', i.e. a word/pages document, for each site (for example a park) where I note any important or valuable finds.

However, most of my information is in my head, which is convenient because it's portable! :lol:

Mud-puppy · Aug 17, 2017

I remember things and places that pay...I credit this to having been a trapper for 45+yrs and I can remember where all my sets were.....thats dating back into the 70's me buckos, running a everchanging fleet of 100+ sets or more....Never once forgot or lost a trap due to forgetfulness, and not taking one note!!

Yes its an odd skill, like a parts counter guy remembering 10's of thousands of SKUS...The human brain has this kind of capacity available, and like Logic and Reasoning, generally unused now a days, but we do have it, way back in our reptilian survival brain, and it certainly applies to this Sport!...Hell even lesser intelligently deemed quadrupeds have remarkable memories that would rival and outpace a College Professor!!

Want to have a bit of fun and learn something about Memory Power?

Just Google up the studies on "Squirrel Nuts" for instance! Your common Grey Squirrel, (Sciurus Carolinensis) can REMEMBER where they buried 10,000 nuts with a degree of accuracy approaching 95%!

So yeah...If a squirrel can do it, without a notebook or GPS...We have no excuse! Certainly we are smarter than them? Unless you are a Politician or a MSM host of course...Which have proven time and time again to be more "nuttier than a portapotty squirrel at a peanut festival"...

Squirrels are certainly smarter in this regards than most Humans, even taking into account they cant make it across the road without getting killed...So yeah...that may be a rodential 'depth perception vs. speed' discussion and have nothing to do with memory... :laughing:

I will say, nowadays Humans dont need to have much of a memory anymore...everything important like phone numbers and whatnot are stored and easily accessed on a smart phone...

Memory has to be challenged and developed at an early age too for it to be really good and trustworthy...I recited "The HighwayMan" by Alfred Noyes back in the 3rd grade...'The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees, the Moon a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy Seas"...

AirmetTango · Aug 17, 2017

Mud-puppy said:
I will say, nowadays Humans dont need to have much of a memory anymore...everything important like phone numbers and whatnot are stored and easily accessed on a smart phone...

Ain't this the truth! Sometimes I swear I can feel my brain wilting on the vine thanks to my "smart" phone! Thankfully I can still recite my wife's cell phone number (I shudder to imagine how many nights I'd be sleeping in the garage if I ever uttered the sentence "but I couldn't call - I don't remember your number, honey :shock:

). But if I ever lose my contacts list on my phone, I won't ever be able to call my own Mother again :laughing:

Mud-puppy said:
Memory has to be challenged and developed at an early age too for it to be really good and trustworthy...I recited "The HighwayMan" by Alfred Noyes back in the 3rd grade...'The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees, the Moon a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy Seas"...

Agreed again - for me it was Shakespeare's Marc Anthony speech around third or fourth grade: "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears - I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones..." Amazing what sticks with you over time while I struggle to remember what I had for breakfast :lol:

matmit · Aug 17, 2017

Mud-puppy said:
I remember things and places that pay...I credit this to having been a trapper for 45+yrs and I can remember where all my sets were.....thats dating back into the 70's me buckos, running a everchanging fleet of 100+ sets or more....Never once forgot or lost a trap due to forgetfulness, and not taking one note!!

Yes its an odd skill, like a parts counter guy remembering 10's of thousands of SKUS...The human brain has this kind of capacity available, and like Logic and Reasoning, generally unused now a days, but we do have it, way back in our reptilian survival brain, and it certainly applies to this Sport!...Hell even lesser intelligently deemed quadrupeds have remarkable memories that would rival and outpace a College Professor!!

Want to have a bit of fun and learn something about Memory Power?

Just Google up the studies on "Squirrel Nuts" for instance! Your common Grey Squirrel, (Sciurus Carolinensis) can REMEMBER where they buried 10,000 nuts with a degree of accuracy approaching 95%!

So yeah...If a squirrel can do it, without a notebook or GPS...We have no excuse! Certainly we are smarter than them? Unless you are a Politician or a MSM host of course...Which have proven time and time again to be more "nuttier than a portapotty squirrel at a peanut festival"...

Squirrels are certainly smarter in this regards than most Humans, even taking into account they cant make it across the road without getting killed...So yeah...that may be a rodential 'depth perception vs. speed' discussion and have nothing to do with memory...

I will say, nowadays Humans dont need to have much of a memory anymore...everything important like phone numbers and whatnot are stored and easily accessed on a smart phone...

Memory has to be challenged and developed at an early age too for it to be really good and trustworthy...I recited "The HighwayMan" by Alfred Noyes back in the 3rd grade...'The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees, the Moon a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy Seas"...

Your stories never get old! :lol:

I absolutely have to meet you.
Coming to Wisconsin any time soon?

Organizing your hunting grounds: my method

TriadHunter

Elite Member

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AirmetTango

NectarDetector

PlasteredDragon

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Scooterjim

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TriadHunter

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TriadHunter

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GA_Boy

"In Memory Of"

sandgroper

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Mud-puppy

AirmetTango

matmit

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