Paying to hunt?

[mts]

If you've been following my posts you have probably noticed that my biggest issue is finding good places to hunt. I've read out here about posting on Craigslist and how some people have luck doing that while others don't. I wonder if you would get more takers by offering to pay people to hunt their sites? Now before you jump off the deep end on me, keep in mind that I do this as a hobby. I'm not in this to make a killing. So if I could pay someone a little money to hunt a prime site a couple of times with the hope of finding something good I'd be inclined to take that over hunting the same old public parks again and again. But maybe that's just me. It's a risk you take and you obviously don't have to do it every time. You could be choosy about where you spend your money. And in this economy I can see a lot of people wanting to make some quick cash by letting you come to their house and look around for a while. Finally, if you are paying them then I would think that the conditions would be more favorable for you to negotiate a higher stake in the claim. I don't see it being any different than paying to play golf every week. Except that in this case you could actually find something very valuable.

I haven't put much thought into it yet but I'm thinking of putting an ad on Craigslist just to see how many takers I would get. I probably won't follow through with it unless someone tells me they are in a prime location.

Thoughts? Go ahead, let me have it!

 

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[shaun7]

i have to pay my local farmer £5 a day to go on his fields and i havn't found a good one yet

i don't have much of a choice though as he probably owns 90% of the land in my area!

 

[Montana Jim]

May I ask where you live that it's so hard to find someplace to detect?

 

[jeff of pa]

been there done that.

One year Paid $100.00 for ten's of Thousands of Acres
of land in my county.
only Problem most of it was Grown Too Thick
by the end of spring, even the land with abandond homes.

So didn't buy in again.

But am considering it on this house for rent



dated 1825 26.5 acres

I May offer to rent the land
for a week but Havn't decided on a fair offer
if he says no to hunting it when I Ask

 

[mts]

I live in Ohio. There are plenty of public places (parks, schools, etc.). But so far I haven't found any good stuff. I would like to find some private places to hunt instead. I've got some good leads and haven't exhausted all of my options. But the bottom line is lining up private places takes a lot of time and patience. I have neither. Time is money and I'd personally rather spend a little cash to maximize my hunting time instead of spending all my time trying to convince people to let me detect their land.

I'm just wondering if having people come to you with leads (for a small fee) might not be a decent alternative. It's like flipping the tables. People come to you to see if you will detect their land instead of you going to them. You screen the person and the lot and pick and choose the ones you want. Obviously, I wouldn't want to pay a lot of money for some place that I don't really know much about. So I'd do a little research and decide if the place had some potential. Then I'd float them a little cash to let me hunt there. I figure it is probably going to be a losing proposition most of the time. But at least I'd have the potential to find some old stuff instead of just picking up rotted clad off of my local tot lot.

It's just something I'm thinking about. I'm glad to hear that others have had similar thoughts and even paid to hunt. Although so far, it doesn't sound like you guys have had overwhelming successes with it. I'm still going to start trying to find places without paying by playing the treasure angle on Craigslist. There are a lot of desparate people out there right now and the notion of potentially finding a sizable treasure on their property might bring some people out of the woodwork that would let me hunt for free. But I'll keep looking at the option of paying people to detect on their property if I don't have any success finding private places to detect. If nothing else it's good to have a little variety now and then.

Thanks for the feedback. If you have any stories (good or bad) about paying to detect I'd still love to hear them.

 

[ldablo]

It certainly sounds like one viable approach.

LD

 

[mts]

Yeah, I think so to. I'm really starting to like the idea. Imagine this:

1) You place an ad or two on Craigslist saying that you will pay $20 for the right to hunt a property. The amount could be more or less it's up to you.

2) You get 20 emails from interested parties. These people are likely to be in lower income areas (which in my town means "old"). I wouldn't normally have access to these areas anyway.

3) You screen the 20 applicants down to two or three that you really like.

4) You go to each one whenever your schedule (and theirs) allows.

5) You hunt for 4 hours or so. Maybe you ask to come back a second day.

6) If the place is really paying off you go back the next day with a dozen muffins or some nice gift basket to thank them for their time. Then you ask them if they think any of their neighbors would be interested in the offer as well. At this point you've hopefully made a good impression and shared some treasure with them as well as fattened them up with muffins or other baked goods. The idea would be that if you find an area that is really producing then other parcels near by might have similar results (but this is obviously not guaranteed).

7) You do this as little or as much as you like. So 9 months out of the year you hunt tot lots and try to line up other private lands that you can detect. But when that becomes tedious you run an ad and schedule a house or two to break up the monotony. It costs you a couple of bucks but at least you get to hunt an old private home now and then.

As I said before, I'm definitely going to consider it. It may never go anywhere. Then again, it may open up a whole world of possibilities that I wouldn't otherwise have access to.

 

[Joe(TX)]

...................I have heard a variation on this theme......offer the landowner a scrap silver dollar ....................................

 

[Joe(TX)]

...............If your time is valuable............I would put an ad in Craigslist and do not offer more than $10.00 for a single outing!!.....I would not screen any out ......I would hunt them all!...Tell them that you get to keep everything..................except...........Offer to return any family heirlooms......and have at least a 50/50 agreement if you accidently recover Jesse James Gold Loot!!.......LOL.......

 

[BillW313]

I have been away from MDing since the 80's. In March I bought a Prizm III and last week I got a GTP 1350. I have been hunting all my old sites and some new ones and have found nothing but clad. That really got me thinking about paying to hunt some older homes but just haven't gotten ready to do it. My hunt yesterday changed my mind about paying for awhile.

I went to a church I hunted in the 80's and hunted 3 times with the Prizm. Nothing but clad. I decided yesterday to give the 1350 a shot at it. The church was built in 1902 with an addition in 1935. I had pulled many old coins from there when hunting in the 80's. I'm sure some others have been there in the last 20+ yrs. I hunted the main side lawn for almost 2 hrs with the 1350. Nothing but clad. It then occurred to me to try the fringe areas. I went to the backdoor and started with a tiny patch of grass next to it. I got a solid dime signal at 3". I figured another clad. I dug and out popped a '34 Merc. I crossed the sidewalk and found a '71 Kennedy. I later found a '19 and '26 Wheat. A site I thought was shot wasn't. I think that as long as there are fringe areas to hunt I will put off paying to hunt for awhile.

 

[koolmac68]

I live in the Historic city of Bridgeton NJ and this sounds like a good idea. There are a lot of houses and properties built in the early 1800s so I could probably find lots of old relics and coins. Thanks for the idea, I might give it a shot.

 

[treasurehound]

I personally have not ever paid someone to hunt but I guess if I find a place that really looks good and the owner request something then I might see. There are so many parks and schools to hunt that should keep anybody busy for a while. This is a good place to ask questions and we all learn from the replies. Some of my suggestions are to ask some people you work with if you can hunt their property or maybe they know someone you can go ask. A warm call is better than a cold call. I do a lot of research on the internet and it really pays off. I recently seen a park that looked pretty new but after researching on the internet I found that it opened in 1916. It must have been updated recently. I have seen where people have put something on the bulletin boards in public places asking if they can hunt their property or find something they lost. Get creative. The suggestions about Craigslist may pay out but I don't know if I would start out by offering to pay someone to hunt. I have hunted for 30 years and have never paid anyone to hunt other than a club hunt. But like I said get creative. I saw on here where someone offered to mow the persons yard if they can hunt it. Again the replies on here are for all of us to learn. Maybe I can pick something up that might help me as well. Good luck and good hunting.

 

[mlayers]

I have put ads on Craigslist. I have gotten old places to hunt. I am going tomorrow to a old one room school house here in Ohio. the owner and I agree after the hunt we would lay everything out and split it. I have another old place a 1820 house and the owner told me I could just hunt it and keep evrything that I found. He would just love to see what I found. So I don't I will be offering to to pay to hunt land yet. Not as long I can still get landowners to let me detect for free or for some of the finds....Matt

 

[Joe(TX)]

.................To set things straight I have never paid to hunt anyone's property either except for the organized seeded hunts!..................Being an old sea dog having hunted for almost 40 years.....I have seen the public places almost get hunted out.................most of my best find's have come from private yards!!......The problem is what do you do after you used up all your relatives, friends and friend of friends yards........I know that some have no problems with Cold Knocking but that method has not really worked for me.......................The basic problem is that you are asking an absolute stranger to use a strange device and dig holes all over their yard!!.......How do you even the playing field ??................ offer them a 6 Pack??............Silver dollar??.......10 dollars cash??........50/50 SPLIT??.........

 

[allen]

id pay to detect an area if i knew there was an old
homestead, school, church or something like
that might give up some old nice relics or coins.

 

[architecad]

CAN YOU RENT TO ME THE BASEMENT?

been there done that.

One year Paid $100.00 for ten's of Thousands of Acres
of land in my county.
only Problem most of it was Grown Too Thick
by the end of spring, even the land with abandond homes.

So didn't buy in again.

But am considering it on this house for rent




dated 1825 26.5 acres

I May offer to rent the land
for a week but Havn't decided on a fair offer
if he says no to hunting it when I Ask

 

[Goes4ever]

where in Ohio are you? I run ads on craigs list people email me and I go detect them. I have had about 6-7 houses to detect from these ads, and I have not paid them a single dime, and not one person has wanted any finds either.

Another thing I do is look for houses that are for sale, call the realtor and ask to detect them, twice in the last ten days I got old farm houses to detect that way. In this economy there is a LOT of foreclosed, empty homes and realtors around here do not care if you ask to detect them.

have u tried craigs list?

the last option I do is just knock on the door and ask, I am getting about 7 out of 10 yes answers that way.
what do you have to lose? all they can say is no.........big deal, then just ask the neighbor..lol