If Someone Was Detecting Your Land Without Permission?

[Tom_in_CA]

...So, If you caught someone detecting on your land or a property that wasn't your residence, would you really care?

Nitric: This is an ironic question to ask on a forum for md'ing enthusiasts. Because, go figure: We all love md'ing, so ... a lot of us would probably enjoy meeting other fellow hobbyists anyhow. And the usual "how ya doing" chit-chat.

So perhaps to make a correct analogy of "how would you feel", the activity would have to be changed to: Someone flying RC controls planes on your field. Or someone flying a kite in your field, etc...

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

.... Depends on the situation too.

When I was a kid, our neighborhood was at the edge of town. So beyond our backyard was all hay fields. And us kids would do the short-cut through there to school. And make hay-bail forts. And catch frogs in the pond, etc... Little did we know how horrible we were, since it was someone else's land.

 

[Nitric]

Nitric: This is an ironic question to ask on a forum for md'ing enthusiasts. Because, go figure: We all love md'ing, so ... a lot of us would probably enjoy meeting other fellow hobbyists anyhow. And the usual "how ya doing" chit-chat.

So perhaps to make a correct analogy of "how would you feel", the activity would have to be changed to: Someone flying RC controls planes on your field. Or someone flying a kite in your field, etc...

Yes! I was really bored this afternoon and had to come up with something!

Your right...It doesn't really make sense when you really think about it.

I'm up for anything though! RC planes, would work too! But....Peepee and twins art work? I'm not good with that on my rocks! I know it's "art". I'm just not a middle of the woods spray paint art type of guy!

 

[Tom_in_CA]

.... Depends on the situation too.

I grew up in a small, rural community and every body knew every body. We couldn't get away with anything. We pretty much had the run of all the land we could get too as kids, with or without permission as long as we closed all the gates we opened and was respectful of people's property.....

When I was a kid, our neighborhood was at the edge of town. So beyond our backyard was all hay fields. And us kids would do the short-cut through there to school. And make hay-bale forts. And catch frogs in the pond, etc... Little did we know how horrible we were, since it was someone else's land.

 

[Nitric]

When I was a kid, our neighborhood was at the edge of town. So beyond our backyard was all hay fields. And us kids would do the short-cut through there to school. And make hay-bail forts. And catch frogs in the pond, etc... Little did we know how horrible we were, since it was someone else's land.

Ya...Did that too! Bike or dirt bike trails or mazes probably weren't cool either! I rode across a wheat field on a dirt bike and the farmer would chase me all around on the road in his vehicle, ya.Like I was going to stop! I messed with that poor guy just to do it. But maybe he was chasing me just to do it! He probably would have liked to have killed me! I did some dumb stuff too. Thinking back? I'm sure he could have figured out where I came from by the trails in his field, right to my backyard! So maybe it was a game for him.

 

[against the wind]

If you want to do something on my land,, you must ask for permission first. That applies to camping, hunting, metal detecting, etc.
Recently, my neighbor and I had to post our land. We had discovered that someone set up a tree stand, and had cut down trees. I wouldn't do that on anyone's land unless I was helping them clear an area.
What makes people think that they can get away with that behaviour?

 

[pepperj]

If you want to do something on my land,, you must ask for permission first. That applies to camping, hunting, metal detecting, etc.
Recently, my neighbor and I had to post our land. We had discovered that someone set up a tree stand, and had cut down trees. I wouldn't do that on anyone's land unless I was helping them clear an area.
What makes people think that they can get away with that behaviour?

It's called the right of entitlement some folks have it seems. Just because it's not fenced, signage up on every tree and post they feel that it's just there to use as they see fit. We have a popular land trust that borders our property, and it's been a pain at times of folks that take it that it's ok to trespass across our land to go to the trust to avoid the gate fee. Prior to the charge the trust turned away 1100 hikers on the Easter weekend (trails closed till late may) so many thought it was ok to go through our lands. Our insurance policy states no hiking on the property, if somebody was allowed and did fall off a rock cliff I'm sure we'd be getting a call from some ambulance chasing law firm.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Don't care what they are doing, if they haven't asked permission to be on my property then they are trespassing and must leave, asking after your caught want work with me either.

 

[Oddjob]

On our ranches you need to have permission, end of story. We have caught all sorts of people on our lands or even pinching our land doing anything from poaching, dumping, steeling livestock, metal detecting, dredging, offroading, camping, mountain biking.

It depends mostly on what cowboy catches the violator, we have some who are not exactly very friendly We have ranches in several countries, all staff are allowed to hunt, fish and MD, and nearly all of them do, but we also lease out hunting as well and we allow them to camp, stay in the hunter cabins, fish and MD. Even have a few hunters who like to dig through our old trash dumps for bottles and other odd ends, they like to decorate (so to speak) the hunter cabins.

Point is, just on the 21 North American based ranches we have a little more than 400 workers and about half of them are live on workers with their families, many third and second generation staff; they do not share with any outsider and act like it is directly personal when they catch violators.

We have a Justice system, any violators caught will have a chance to explain their situation in accordance with the law.

Personally I have never actually caught an MDer on any of our properties, caught all sorts of other violators though. Did have the property own neighbouring our land in Switzerland reach out to me once through his lawyer. He had claimed he tried everything to contact me with no luck (I can believe that) because months before he was MDing on his land and got a target on our property line that he says he just had to dig and it was a 6.8 gram nugget. He want me to be aware and thought it would be best if disputed ownership, he had even reported him self to local authorities.

Me I was just so darn happy for the fella because my best nugget for that entire country is like 1.2 grams, heard of bigger, but never actually seen one. Basically from what he showed me was that he dug it on the property line, but he claimed that since it was like 18 inches down and the accuracy of pinpointing with the MD is not perfect that when he saw what was in the hole he just grabbed it in a panic of joy without looking to see if it was over the property line.

That is the story he tried to sell the police who would not even entertain him until he threatened their station with a law suit if they did not at least file a report. Now I have only known the man for about 25 years or so, but at best see him once a year. We allow him to raise bees during the season on that property; and from what I have seen with him is that if something is up to interpretation that he directly caused then he will step forward and claim fault.

But knowing him and how he is I just showed him what our leasing contracts look like in every country our family owns a ranch in and explained to him that even though we do not have a contract for bee keeping, if we did then like all other contracts the fine print does mention activities such as camping, fishing, hunting, MDing, gathering firewood for personal use. He was cool with that but did ask for a contract to keep his bees on our land, which we made sure he got.

The man totally killjoyed his own find though; I did tell him that if someone from not around those parts decided to MD the shoulder of the road and got a target on my fence-line between the shoulder and my land, that as far as I am concerned the nugget would belong to that person and I would congratulate them just same. He did not exactly agree with me on that, but who cares.

 

[seekandfind]

I am sorry people. I think you are answering this post with your metal detecting in mind. imagine if you had never seen a metal detector or heard of one. let alone find someone roaming around on your private property. I am pretty sure the response would be " get off my property!! The next time you will be warned with a bullet!! Think about it, in todays society we do not truly know people or their intentions. Sorry for that bit of REALITY. Be thankful for any permissions you get. Be careful and goodluck metal detecting out there.

 

[McKinney_5900]

I am sorry people. I think you are answering this post with your metal detecting in mind. imagine if you had never seen a metal detector or heard of one. let alone find someone roaming around on your private property. I am pretty sure the response would be " get off my property!! The next time you will be warned with a bullet!! Think about it, in todays society we do not truly know people or their intentions. Sorry for that bit of REALITY. Be thankful for any permissions you get. Be careful and goodluck metal detecting out there.

Same here. Y'all who are casual...just come home once and find a smashed window and your house robbed. It makes you wonder who and how the knew the layout for entry. It can cause suspicions of everybody. Friends of friends, if they've been around or in your house, won't rob their friend, but will rob you. I've known some friend's of friends with an admitted thieving background have told me this.

It's just not smart IMPO to start letting unknown people come uninvited, and that includes outlaying property. It just ain't worth it in these times. I wouldn't go ballistic, but I would quickly confront someone, if they had not given me some communication ahead of time. My property is private, and I value my privacy.

I might be one of the hardest person to let someone show up to detect unless I know them from a previous communication beforehand. One bad experience changed me. Nobody needs to know my layout.

 

[roaddust66]

I have hunted from Cumberland Mall on 41 all the way to Chattanooga. I have hunted in Dallas. A generation ago farmers were mostly agreeable to let you look. I was never afraid to ask. I had a woman holding a knife on me at her front door just below Calhoun on old 41 but when she saw I was a gentleman she let me hunt her farm. I snuck into a few large tracks of empty land to see if there was relics there and if there was I would usually seek out the land owner for permission. Today people are different about you being on their land. They can be down right hostile where 30 years ago a farmer would wave at you as he drove thru his pasture . pull up and say " finding anything ? " That doesnt happen today. Stay off property that you do not have permission to hunt. In Georgia you must have written permission in your pocket to detect. Game Wardens mostly enforce those laws. Not cops. Any questions ?

 

[RustyGold]

I would go like "Hey! I'm a metal detectorist too! What kind of detector do you have? I love metal detecting! Want a beer?"

 

[Peyton Manning]

male or female?

 

[Honest Samuel]

We all have to be better to let people search our property.

 

[pepperj]

We all have to be better to let people search our property.

Well I guess I'm not going to a "better" person in your eyes.

 

[victhedog]

would shoot first ask a few questions later better to be safe.

 

[Goldfinger450]

I was raised-- Ask permission, that is just the way it is done. That act alone has got me onto some of the Best Hunting and fishing Alaska had to offer and usually made a new friend, there have been a few times I was denied but those are rare. There Are Still places in the world where asking anyone anything is Not needed, No one to tell you no.