Detectorists outside the US

[freightdawg747]

I fly for an airline and end up with multiple day layovers in different places world wide. I am considering picking up a detector like an ACE or F2 to take apart and keep in my bag when traveling to do some hunting. Would love to hear from members of the hobby that may like to team up to do some hunting in the areas I have listed below. It would also be nice to get local info on any law restrictions concerning detecting and finds. The biggest issue I am finding from the research I have done so far is that I would have to buy a digging tool at each stop...no way a good quality digging tool is getting on one of our planes (we don't check bags).

Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland ( I have hunted NZ before, I use to live in Gore) Shanghai, Dubai, Germany (Hahn, Morbach areas), Campinas, Santiago.

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

reply

I fly for an airline and end up with multiple day layovers in different places world wide. I am considering picking up a detector like an ACE or F2 to take apart and keep in my bag when traveling to do some hunting. Would love to hear from members of the hobby that may like to team up to do some hunting in the areas I have listed below. It would also be nice to get local info on any law restrictions concerning detecting and finds. The biggest issue I am finding from the research I have done so far is that I would have to buy a digging tool at each stop...no way a good quality digging tool is getting on one of our planes (we don't check bags).

Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland ( I have hunted NZ before, I use to live in Gore) Shanghai, Dubai, Germany (Hahn, Morbach areas), Campinas, Santiago.

Freightdawg, I won't try to take a stab at each individual location you listed, but will say this, as far as "laws" and "travelling" in general (as it pertains to detecting). Anytime anyone over the years has attempted to make a list of "laws", odd things have happened. For example: there is an on-line link you can easily get (I'm sure someone else will link you to it in this thread after me) that lists the "laws" for a bunch of European countries, for instance. Or for the USA, there has been several lists, and even a book on the subject, with the intent of listing the laws. Sounds logical enough, right? So that persons can travel from state to state, or country to country, and know ahead of time the "laws". So to address this, the logical thing for someone to do, is to go ask. I mean, who-better-to-ask, than the country themselves? And such was the method most such lists used, to arrive at their answers, that they would them put into compendium, list, or book form.

But the odd thing was, that when such lists started making the rounds (or answers floated in various threads when a specific country came up for question), was that there might have already been hobbyists there, clubs, dealers, etc.... Yet if someone were to look at the supposed "laws" of that country (or state, or whatever), he might think that he was forbidden.

For example: On that European list of laws on the link, there are some pretty "dire" sounding countries. Yet there are hobbyists in those countries. Hmmm. If you were to ask them, they'd tell you that those "laws" only pertain to public lands, but you can detect farmer's fields with permission till your arms fall off, as that is outside the reach of laws that dealt with govt/public land.

Or there's the humorous example of Fisher Co, who back in the early 1980s, fielded a question in the Q&A section of their monthly periodical. Someone who was getting ready to vacation in Mexico (beach resort or whatever) had written in to ask if metal detecting in Mexico was "legal". Fisher's answer was "no", and to "leave your metal detector at home", etc.... In the NEXT edition of that same periodical, several other readers had written in to .... uh .... "take exception" to Fisher's answer. They were asking things like "since when?" and "who told you that?" and "we go there all the time and don't have a problem", etc... Fisher, in order to answer all those who objected, gave the background for their answer: THEY ASKED. When they had received the earlier inquiry, they merely forwarded it on to whatever border consulate, or Mexican lawyer type, or whatever. I guess whomever had fielded their question, had couched it in terms of shipwreck salvor laws, or exporting gold bars across the border, or raiding the pyramaids, etc... I mean.... doh ... you asked! But what was odd is, metal detectors are a common site on tourist beaches in Mexico. There are detector dealers in major cities there (including Fisher dealers! doh!). Thus you can see, that often times, even if someone can answer your question with dire sounding fears, answers, etc... you really have to ask yourself: what's the real skinny? Does anyone really care? If you were to ask enough USA bureaucrat's too, I'm sure you'd find some that would also say you can't detect here either. Perhaps they're couching it in terms of ARPA, or lost & found laws, or Mel Fisher legal hassles, etc...

 

[freightdawg747]

Thx Tom......good advice. Thats why I'd like to find those that detect in these places. Locals would know the laws better than anyone.....