Where to start hunting

[treasure4pleasure]

I am trying to figure out how to get ahold of old records so I know where to MD to find some old coins hopefully.
I haven't had much luck getting any kind of records online. How do you all find good places to hunt?

 

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[TerryC]

Local library first, Platt maps, Old people, Roads out of town. (you don't show your town/city) TTC

 

[treasure4pleasure]

I am in central Indiana. Are local parks legal to md?

 

[dustytrails123]

Try searching historical aerial photo's for your state and check some parks for changes that someone else may have not noticed yet you could get lucky and old parts and grown up woods now and alot cleaner then the parks and have a good chance of being missed

 

[Tom_in_CA]

reply

I am in central Indiana. Are local parks legal to md?

You mean city parks? county park? state parks? fed parks? The answer is, if there is no rule specifically forbidding metal detecting, then ..... presto, I guess there's no rules forbidding detecting.

If you're talking city parks, for instance, the city websites will usually have a listing of laws, codes, etc... And there's usually a sign posted at the entrance to parks ("park closes at sunset, no dogs", etc...).

That's not to say you can simply go waltz over people's beach blankets, or crash an archaeologist convention, etc... The hobby has "connotations", and ANYONE can still gripe because they think you'll harm the earthworms, or whatever. So a little discretion (go at off-traffic times, avoid busy bodies, etc...).

later, Tom

 

[treasure4pleasure]

we have quite a few parks so i guess i will need to check out the signs then. I haven't found anything yet online about them.
I may talk to our town marshall too, he is a schoolmate and lives in my "hood"
Some of the parks in the city are ... let's say less than desirable to hang around. Unless I am packing heat!

 

[Shambler]

I normally respect Tom's opinion, but you can get an expensive citation at a few places in Indiana where it's not posted. Go to the local detecting club and talk to people. Please for the other 450 detectorists in Indiana, DO NOT GO TO ANY TOWN OFFICIALS AND ASK! Read one of Tom's articles for more information.

Plus, the parks you're allowed in have been destroyed by high end machines for 20 years. It will be tough to find old stuff with an ACE250. Sorry.

 

[Shambler]

Don't listen to shambler, he's always so negative. You've got a great machine there. Just listen for the faint targets and you will be digging silver in no time!

3" Coin


5" Coin


7" Coin

 

[treasure4pleasure]

Well for the record my 12 year old son is the owner of the ace 250, I am preparing to buy my own md and am pretty set on a tesoro vaquero.
How can you find out where it is legal and not if you don't ask? I surely cannot afford an expensive citation. Fortunately in our town we are friends with pretty much all the cops so I kinda doubt I would get anything other than told to not md.

 

[TerryC]

Plus, the parks you're allowed in have been destroyed by high end machines for 20 years. It will be tough to find old stuff with an ACE250. Sorry.

Don't MESS with my 250! Or my Garrett GTAx 500 (out of print). I'll put them up against anything you got. (Don't take it too hard, I'm just spouting.) TTC

 

[dustytrails123]

I hunt with a ace 350 my friend uses a minelab se pro hes not very savy with it i dig more coins with my unit then he does thats for sure

 

[Tom_in_CA]

reply

Shambler says:

"you can get an expensive citation at a few places in Indiana where it's not posted."

I believe in context (if you go back to look at my post, where I had said to check the sign at the park entrance), was that perhaps it's a rule down at city hall, which doesn't happen to be on the wooden sign at the park entrance. For example: perhaps the sign at the park entrance doesn't say "no nudity". Yet if you show up naked, perhaps you'd get a ticket, eh? And if you said "but there's nothing on the park sign prohibiting nudity", the cop could simply tell you that it's city law, downtown, on the books there. I will Grant Shambler that. Yes, not every rule will fit on a park sign. HOWEVER, this STILL does not mean you need to go to city hall and ask permission. Because there is STILL a way to check the rules at the city-level, too. Either one of two ways: If the city has a website, go to it. On there, is usually tabs for the city charter, the municipal laws, codes, regulations, etc.... And some of them even provide a key word search, for example. So you can just go through looking for key words "metal" "detectors", etc... If it is silent on the issue, then presto, you will NOT get a "citation" for doing something for which there was no prohibition. So please take Shamblers statement in context. If your city has no website, then still, the laws and codes have to be on display somewhere (like in book form down at city hall somewhere) for public viewing. So that is how you can find out if there are any prohibitions or not, without grovelling around begging for "no's" (from people who quite frankly, probably never really cared or gave the matter thought before).

Sure, once in the field, someone can try to say you're harming the earthworms, or "altering" or "removing park features" (those pesky coins and pulltabs, etc..), and any other number of things some busy-body might morph to apply to you. There is simply no way you're going to get around these connotations, that are inherent to our hobby. I mean if this really bothers someone (that not everyone is going to love their hobby, and believe/know you're not going to leave any trace), then you're either going to have to hunt for object on top of the ground (in which case, why even have a detector?), or stick to sand boxes (where no one cares if you dig), or simply don't do public parks at all. You're just going to have to accept the fact that this hobby is a bit like nose-picking: you gotta avoid certain busy-bodies that might make wrong connotations. Ie.: go at low traffic times, don't go waltzing over people's beachblankets, etc...

Because the trouble of asking at city hall "can I detect?", is that there are AMPLE stories of people getting a "no" to this type question, when, in fact, there really is no such rule (you merely got a desk-bound clerk whose image was geeks with shovels). And often times in those very locales, detecting at the parks was common place, and no one had ever cared before, nor had a problem! So essentially, you get a rule written (or morphed or whatever) to "fit your pressing question"!

Or conversely people have sometimes asked (thinking .... afterall... you "can't be too safe", eh?), they get a "yes". The go to the park and presto, get accosted by a cop or gardener. The md'r proudly names the person at city hall who said "yes". The cop or gardener promptly gets on his cell-phone, calls down to city hall or whatever, and says "He's tearing the place up!" (even though that's not true), and presto, your "permission" is promptly revoked.

So the best way is to satisfy yourself, by looking it up yourself. If there is nothing prohibiting it, and you're not being a nuisance in some other way (leaving craters), then no, you're not going to get a "citation". I have to chuckle when I read this constantly being floated on forums: "oh no, if you don't get permission, you can get a ticket, have your detector confiscated, and spend time in jail, ALL for going to the sandbox! Oh no!". But when you press these people for examples of persons getting tickets for hunting in non-posted non-illegal parks (nothing specifically prohibiting detecting), they never have any examples. The only examples of "tickets" and "confiscations" you will usually ever hear of, is someone sneaking obvious historic monuments, or someone who couldn't take a warning, etc.....

You may still not be convinced, and ask yourelf "well what harm will it do to go ask?" The harm is, as I've said above, is people have often found themselves a "no", simply because it was the easy answer. Ie.: the old "no one cared .... UNTIL you asked psychology". The danger of that is, that guess what's going to happen the NEXT time that same deskbound bureaucrat is driving the park, and sees another md'r? He's going to remember the earlier inquiry and think "aha! there's one of THEM", and start booting others. I've seen this happen before. And believe me, the rest of us old-timers can actually trace it back to these types who take it upon themselves to waltz into city hall and start this cr*p. I mean, for pete's sake, be sure to show up with a shovel in your hand, dropping words like "treasure" and "dig" and ARPA and indian bones, lest they not get the full implication of your question, eh?

 

[Shambler]

How can you find out where it is legal and not if you don't ask?

Tom is 100% correct. He posted all the good reasons and there are several "papers" running around stating the same.

Ask here: You are being directed to Hoosier Exploration and Recovery