Big Boys Hobbies

Someone have to ask (Maryland MD's 2019)

3

31-coinshooting

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May 8, 2019
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This post is for the newbies that are still confuse after hours of hours of research to where you CAN, CAN’T or/and MAY metal detect. I’ve seen so many posts in this forum with great finds. Without getting in the discussion of specific places, such as State Parks, County Parks, State Forest, DNR, etc. Where do you guys metal detect, do not tell me everyone is hunting ONLY in Private Land! I think people should share their experience, I’m not talking about telling the location of your jackpot, I’m talking about where are YOU hunting, most important what kind of LAND it is. To clarify, I’m just trying to resist to the fact the LAWS, REGULATIONS, RANGERS, OTHER PEOPLE are just making this lovely Hobby harder every day. Finally, before you criticize my thoughts remember when you started this hobby and compare to where this hobby is taking us now. Just like when they say it does not hurt to ask, have you ever ASKED permission to metal detect in a City park?
 
Some of my best finds are on public land trusts. Most towns buy open spaces to keep them from being developed forever. Never had anyone bother me at those sites. Just be sure to avoid any that are posted as bird sanctuaries. They don't want you swinging a coil through the brush and bopping a baby bird!
 
Depends on the type of property, run by state, county, city, town, village etc. Depends who's overseeing property. I've found county best source of info. friendliest of people. Maybe start there. Go to office vs phone call, bring donuts.
 
Springfield, Mo. is trying to fix years of storm water mismanagement by buying homes along the drainage ditches that used to be creeks and turning them back to creeks, most with a walking trail beside them. We also have a bunch of areas where homes were torn down to widen roads. The land is turned over to the parks dept. You get a lot of torn down house trash, but some areas are good hunting. I don't ask, I just go, but our parks dept is detector friendly
I have asked the grounds keepers if I could hunt along the inside fence lines of highly manicured ball fields that are normally locked tight and was told only when they where there and stay off the playing field itself.
Once our groundskeepers know you they just wave, but if they don't know you they will tell you about the no digging/disturbing laws and that if you make a mess they can and will kick you out.
 
Don't know what part of Maryland you're in, but parks in Balto. City and Baltimore County are mostly open for detecting, but permits are required, free in Balto. County, $25 per year in the city. You might want to check the website for Freestate Treasure Club. I'm temporarily unable to detect due to a minor knee problem.
 
95 % of my hunting is on private property that I've procured permissions. The other 5 % is parks, that yes, I've asked for and received permission. Whether it's through township offices, parks and recreation administrators, a well written email and/or phone call or two seems to work for me.
It's not all that hard really, gotta use your imagination and figure it out. Right now I have permissions to keep me and my hunting partner, hunting virgin ground for the next year and a half.
 
Most of my hunts are on private land. I would prefer hunting fields, woods and creeks than parks to find old "stuff". Don't get me wrong, I occasionally hunt public parks, but there are so many trash targets, I get annoyed. When I get a good signal in a field or the woods, it gets my heart beating a little faster than if I get the same signal in a park. I find fewer items overall, but I enjoy it more personally. Plus most of it hasn't been hunted, the land owners rarely care as long as no crops in the fields, it is quiet, and I can just "zone out" while I am out there. By the way, the 4 oldest coins I have ever found have been in fields.
 
I have never asked permission to hunt on ANY public land, be it parks, ball fields, soccer fields, playgrounds or whatever. When you ask you are opening a can of worms that gives the one you ask a reason to say no because he or she most likely doesn't know the law so will refuse you just to cover their behinds.
If you want to hunt a park go right ahead unless there's a specific sign that says metal detecting is not allowed...…...something like the one on my avatar which is a real sign in a park not far from where I live.
 
diggin4clad said:
I have never asked permission to hunt on ANY public land, be it parks, ball fields, soccer fields, playgrounds or whatever. When you ask you are opening a can of worms..….....
Click to expand...

Correct. Do NOT become the latest victim of "No one cared until you asked" psychology.

If someone is skittish that there might be a law or rule, then they should look it up for themselves. Park rules and muni codes are not hard to find these days. Eg.: dogs on leash, no fireworks, etc... If it doesn't say "no md'ing", then presto: It's not disallowed.

31-coinshooting said:
.... Just like when they say it does not hurt to ask, have you ever ASKED permission to metal detect in a City park?
Click to expand...

31-coin-shooting, I'm having a little trouble understanding what you're getting at. Are you trying to imply that there are horrible laws and rules on public land that are snuffing us out ? If so, I'd have to disagree. It's actually EXTREMELY RARE that any places ever dreamed up any language that specifically says "no md'ing". Very very few cities or county park systems, for instance , ever have anything that specific.

Perhaps they could gripe on other ground (deface/alter). Ok, fine, go at lower traffic times and avoid those singular lookie lous. Problem solved.

As for whether it could "hurt to ask", yes: As diggin4clad alludes to: Sometimes that just swats hornet's nests, and you get a safe answer "no". And oddly, this has been known to happen at places where it was never an issue before. Thus: Look it up for oneself, if one is skittish.
 
Asking permission to hunt city parks, nope. That’s like asking permission to walk your dog or play baseball at a city park. I’ve seen more grass killed by soccer players than harm a detectorist will ever do to a park :D
 
Silver_Seeker said:
....It's the last great frontier of the hobby....
Click to expand...

I'm not having any trouble finding md'ing places on public property, whatsoever.

Maybe I haven't worn enough neon yellow, and paraded myself through enough purist archie's conventions waltzing across their beach blankets. Shame on me. :laughing:
 
I have been hassled by police twice hunting in local parks in my hometown. The first time ended with a "doesn't seem like you're doing anything wrong, so have at it." The second time was a much poorer interaction, where I was told I could be cited for vandalism and basically told to vacate the premises and contact the head of the parks department about it. It's worth noting that I do, in fact have a permit to hunt *county* parks, but that was apparently not good enough for this city cop. It makes me wary to detect public parks around here again.
 
I don't bohter with parks and what not really. I door knock and then door knock. I door knock in towns. I door knock in villages. I door knock at farms. I door knock. Most parks around me are beat to death. I don't wanna spend 4 hours a find 3.00 in clad and a wheat. It's not worth my time.
 
31-coinshooting said:
This post is for the newbies that are still confuse after hours of hours of research to where you CAN, CAN’T or/and MAY metal detect. I’ve seen so many posts in this forum with great finds. Without getting in the discussion of specific places, such as State Parks, County Parks, State Forest, DNR, etc. Where do you guys metal detect, do not tell me everyone is hunting ONLY in Private Land! I think people should share their experience, I’m not talking about telling the location of your jackpot, I’m talking about where are YOU hunting, most important what kind of LAND it is. To clarify, I’m just trying to resist to the fact the LAWS, REGULATIONS, RANGERS, OTHER PEOPLE are just making this lovely Hobby harder every day. Finally, before you criticize my thoughts remember when you started this hobby and compare to where this hobby is taking us now. Just like when they say it does not hurt to ask, have you ever ASKED permission to metal detect in a City park?
Click to expand...

State, county, city, Corp of Engineers, BLM, Nat. Forest... I asked them ALL.. Got permits where required, handwritten permission at some and just a name and phone number with the ok from others. Only no I ever got was from PRIVATE owners so to heck with them. All free. Historical is the biggest block so just dont go there. Pick up trash, fill your holes, return what you can. I made sure the city park manager saw the handful of rusty nails I pulled out of their sandy tot lot and he was like Thank you for that!
 
For me, I hunt either public property (city parks, schools, beachers, etc) or private property where I have gotten permission.

It's also legal (in most areas as far as I know) to hunt curb strips, but I haven't done that yet
 
PrussianBleu said:
.... where I was told I could be cited for vandalism .....
Click to expand...

Which might be true *IF* you left marks and damage. Right ? But since you cover, stomp, and fluff your spots (leaving no trace of your actions), then presto: You have not vandalizED anything. Now have you ? :roll:

Will that logic convince everyone ? Of course not. Fine then: Go at lower traffic times and avoid such lookie-lous.

I too have been given that same song & dance that you got from that cop. And ... of course .... I give lip service and move on. However, you'd be surprised how often those encounters are simply flukes. Like perhaps the cop was only there because miss-lookie-lou called you in (and the cop had to justify the call out). Or perhaps the cop was having a bad-hair day. Who knows ?

And at scores of those places, ... after "giving it a rest", we still hunt those parks to this day. Like ... we'd tell some other md'r 6 months later about the scram, and find out that that md'r goes there all the time, and has never heard so much as "boo". Leading us to conclude that it's ok now, and the scram was a "fluke".

Thus I do not construe every single "scram" to constitute gospel law. Nor constitute something I must now go to city hall and fight. Sometimes it simply means: "Avoid that one individual in the future".
 
Tom_in_CA said:
Which might be true *IF* you left marks and damage. Right ? But since you cover, stomp, and fluff your spots (leaving no trace of your actions), then presto: You have not vandalizED anything. Now have you ? :roll:

Will that logic convince everyone ? Of course not. Fine then: Go at lower traffic times and avoid such lookie-lous.

I too have been given that same song & dance that you got from that cop. And ... of course .... I give lip service and move on. However, you'd be surprised how often those encounters are simply flukes. Like perhaps the cop was only there because miss-lookie-lou called you in (and the cop had to justify the call out). Or perhaps the cop was having a bad-hair day. Who knows ?

And at scores of those places, ... after "giving it a rest", we still hunt those parks to this day. Like ... we'd tell some other md'r 6 months later about the scram, and find out that that md'r goes there all the time, and has never heard so much as "boo". Leading us to conclude that it's ok now, and the scram was a "fluke".

Thus I do not construe every single "scram" to constitute gospel law. Nor constitute something I must now go to city hall and fight. Sometimes it simply means: "Avoid that one individual in the future".
Click to expand...

That logic was indeed not working at the time and naturally, I was replacing my plugs and not being a nuisance.

I believe that you are absolutely right that not all "scrams" are not gospel and can definitely be chalked up to hard days on behalf of the police or trying to follow through on complaints by nosies. I have spoken with other diggers who say that they detect all the time the spots where I was told to C&D from.

I think it is really all down to timing and just trying to be a exceptional ambassador for our hobby i.e., don't be a nuisance.
 
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