Kayaker
Jr. Member
Happy New Year, everyone! I'm Kayaker. Keith, actually, but kayaking is one of my favorite sports so that's my tag. My wonderful wife surprised me with a metal detector for Christmas! It's a "beginner model" and should do fine as a start, but it's a cruel, cruel present with the weather being like it is! During the "great blizzard of 2010" I spend a lot of time on the computer, researching how to use this thing, found this forum and a few others that seem OK, and started a list of where I'd like to try my luck.
I live in New Fairfield, which is just north of Danbury. Since I'm an absolute noob, I'm not sure what I'll be focusing on. I suppose I'll hit the local playgrounds and such first, and then try Squantz Pond (the little local state park/swimming hole in the area) and maybe Candlewood Lake beach in Danbury. I see the state laws in CT disallow the historic parks like Putnam Memorial, but the other state parks seem to be in bounds. I don't know the town laws, though. I suppose I need to find out before I hit the town beaches. The CT state law I saw quoted somewhere on-line says you can metal detect "on the surface", and only dig in sand beaches. I'm not sure how tough they are about that. It seems like the meadows and fields in the parks might be good places with a bit of digging, but I don't want to run afoul of the laws.
After I get my feet wet (figuratively, I hope... it's chilly out there), I think I'd like to focus on finding older places to hunt. Realistically, I'd hope I could at least find a bit of pre-WWII silver, but of course would hope to find something older - we have lots of history here in Connecticut. With a wife and fairly young kids, I'm not sure I'll get to hunt as much as I'd like, but hopefully be a weekend warrior on occasion.
With the snow and low temps the ground in my backyard is hard as a rock, but I was determined to at least try this thing out. Our yard was totally re-graded for drainage work about 10 years ago, so I don't think I'll find any treasures there. But I DID manage to scrape out a 1988 quarter and a 2001 penny from right under the sod! First and last find of the year... I'm RICH!
Happy Hunting! - Kayaker
I live in New Fairfield, which is just north of Danbury. Since I'm an absolute noob, I'm not sure what I'll be focusing on. I suppose I'll hit the local playgrounds and such first, and then try Squantz Pond (the little local state park/swimming hole in the area) and maybe Candlewood Lake beach in Danbury. I see the state laws in CT disallow the historic parks like Putnam Memorial, but the other state parks seem to be in bounds. I don't know the town laws, though. I suppose I need to find out before I hit the town beaches. The CT state law I saw quoted somewhere on-line says you can metal detect "on the surface", and only dig in sand beaches. I'm not sure how tough they are about that. It seems like the meadows and fields in the parks might be good places with a bit of digging, but I don't want to run afoul of the laws.
After I get my feet wet (figuratively, I hope... it's chilly out there), I think I'd like to focus on finding older places to hunt. Realistically, I'd hope I could at least find a bit of pre-WWII silver, but of course would hope to find something older - we have lots of history here in Connecticut. With a wife and fairly young kids, I'm not sure I'll get to hunt as much as I'd like, but hopefully be a weekend warrior on occasion.
With the snow and low temps the ground in my backyard is hard as a rock, but I was determined to at least try this thing out. Our yard was totally re-graded for drainage work about 10 years ago, so I don't think I'll find any treasures there. But I DID manage to scrape out a 1988 quarter and a 2001 penny from right under the sod! First and last find of the year... I'm RICH!
Happy Hunting! - Kayaker
