Places To Hunt Dwindling Due To Thuggery

[relicmeister]

Better to drive a distance and detect with piece of mind than to deal with what you have described. That would make me want to give up too. Study maps and seek out your piece of seclusion. A couple big permissions would do the job as well. Stick with it, think n unorthodox ways and never give up. 

[kac]

There some areas here I don't go to due to the homeless camps. Fortunately come this fall and winter they migrate south.

You should check out some the woods hunting. I see in your list you have an Orx, be a very nice machine for that. Look for modern hiking trails and off those you may notice old hunting trails usually thin with hard pack dirt. Majority of my old coins come from the woods.

[strick]

Every school and I mean every school in my area has a big high fence around it...and has had one since I started detecting...so that automatically rules out schools for the most part...I dont let it get me down I just detect other places...If you quit then there is more treasure for the next guy!

strick

[Tom_in_CA]

On 8/2/2020 at 3:38 PM, Sven1 said:

All because some idiot couldn't get it thru his head shovels in local parks is a no-no.

Signs recently went up.

Sven, I notice  you attribute this city-decision, and sign, to "someone left holes".   And perhaps that's the knee-jerk reaction we md'rs have, when we hear of a rule, or see a sign like that.  Heck, perhaps it's EVEN THE RATIONALE given to you by the city people, if you asked "Why ?"   Ie.: they might, in fact, answer :  "Because of holes".

 

So we md'rs go around muttering under our breath:  "Durned those md'rs who must've left holes".  Right ?

 

But not so fast !  I'm not so-sure that it always points to "md'rs who left holes".  Because let's be honest:  What is the connotation by a lot of casual passerbys, if they see a man with a metal detector in nice manicured turf ?  HOLES of course !   They think that you might be about to dig and leave un-covered holes and scars.   EVEN IF THE MD'R WASN'T EVEN DIGGING.   And EVEN IF HE WAS LEAVING NO TRACE !   It's merely the connotation he draws from nosy-parkers at the mere sight of an md'r sometimes. 

 

So if you get scrammed (or if  a law or rule or sign is invented), they will rationalize it by saying "holes".   Yet notice it doesn't necessarily mean that anyone truly ever left any holes.

 

The same can happen merely when someone (bless their little heart) shows up at city hall asking "can I metal detect ?" (as if they needed permission).  The desk-jockey can get an immediate mental image of "holes".   So they answer:  "no because of holes"  EVEN IF THEY'VE NEVER EVEN SEEN A  DETECTOR IN THE PARKS THERE.  So the md'r walks way muttering "durned that md'r who left holes".

 

Hence :  Don't be so fast to assume that there were holes involved.  EVEN If city people say it directly.  It can most often simply be because that's what they assumed was about to happen.   And even though 99% of us turf-hunters know how to leave no trace.

[GB_Amateur]

3 hours ago, kac said:

Look for modern hiking trails and off those you may notice old hunting trails usually thin with hard pack dirt.

And wear orange, especially hats, shirts, vests, jackets, gloves,...  The higher on your person the more likely it will be seen.  Depends upon the USA state when hunting season runs, but at least some states have already started for some kind of season (e.g. squirrels).  Fall and winter are when I wear orange if I'm anywhere hunters might be, legally (on their part) or not.  And if possible, talk to a local (might be at a gas station or just a farmer in the field) and ask if they're aware of hunters, where they've been, etc.  That's always helped me, and if a hunter happens to come along afterward the person you talked to can say "I saw a crazy treasure hunter headed over that way, so watch out for him!"  😁

[Rick N. MI]

Try lake and river hunting. I'm in northern Michigan and have run out of areas on land to hunt and the last 3 years I have been hunting the lakes. You probably have good streams to hunt too. My streams are all fast water trout streams.

[strick]

Remember hunting once at the beach in santa cruz...I was in the wet zone where a wave comes in and fills your holes while you are digging the target.. a nice older couple comes up and stops and is watching me dig a target...the fellas asks if it's legal or not...I tell him yea...this is the USA not Russia...he looks at me an nodded his head in approval... people are getting brain washed...some cities will soon have an ordinance against blowing your nose out in public!

strick