Well, for starters, you're asking about "Iowa hunting laws" (which is the title of your thread afterall), but then in the body of your text, you switch to city level issues. So which is it? state owned/operated land? Or city level owned/operated lands? Because they're two different entities. State level laws would have nothing to do with the curb-strips, parks, schools, etc... in a city, that are city owned.
And to answer the question about city level: Most all cities rules have nothing at all specific about metal detecting. Ie.: you RARELY ever hear of a city having something that says "no metal detectors". And rarely ever (only in a few bigger cities) is there every a "permit" (I can think of only 3 or 4 in all of CA, for instance, out of hundreds of cities). So the answer is: It's almost always silent on the issue.
However, someone *might* morph something else to apply to you, if you were a nuisance in some way: Like they could try to say you're leaving holes, or hurting earthworms, or ........ who knows what. But so long as you're not being a nuisance in some other way, then as you yourself have seen: most people could care less. However, I bet if you walked in to enough city offices, and talked to enough bored desk-bound clerks, you would finds ones who say "no". Simply because perhaps they have an image of geeks with shovels. Who knows? But odds are, those would simply be cases of "no one cared, till you asked".
So do what you're doing, which as you say has seemed to pass muster. Heck, if a city worker or cop passed me, with nothing but a friendly wave, then why oh why oh why would anyone question that?
Well, for starters, you're asking about "Iowa hunting laws" (which is the title of your thread afterall), but then in the body of your text, you switch to city level issues. So which is it? state owned/operated land? Or city level owned/operated lands? Because they're two different entities. State level laws would have nothing to do with the curb-strips, parks, schools, etc... in a city, that are city owned.
And to answer the question about city level: Most all cities rules have nothing at all specific about metal detecting. Ie.: you RARELY ever hear of a city having something that says "no metal detectors". And rarely ever (only in a few bigger cities) is there every a "permit" (I can think of only 3 or 4 in all of CA, for instance, out of hundreds of cities). So the answer is: It's almost always silent on the issue.
However, someone *might* morph something else to apply to you, if you were a nuisance in some way: Like they could try to say you're leaving holes, or hurting earthworms, or ........ who knows what. But so long as you're not being a nuisance in some other way, then as you yourself have seen: most people could care less. However, I bet if you walked in to enough city offices, and talked to enough bored desk-bound clerks, you would finds ones who say "no". Simply because perhaps they have an image of geeks with shovels. Who knows? But odds are, those would simply be cases of "no one cared, till you asked".
So do what you're doing, which as you say has seemed to pass muster. Heck, if a city worker or cop passed me, with nothing but a friendly wave, then why oh why oh why would anyone question that?
Since you'd be surprised how often this happens. It is not uncommon to fetch a "no", and have them cite something silly to back themselves up. Usually the dreaded "alteration" verbage, but it can be other stuff, like rules that forbid "collecting" (which was meant so no one can back up their truck to the park and help themselves to all the tan-bark, or roses, or whatever.) The trouble then becomes, if you object, and fight that, guess who's going to win? You'll only end up getting rules further interpretted and even specifically written, to "address this pressing issue". (when perhaps no one would ever have cared, or even noticed, doh!)
The moral is that it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission.
