What type place do you have in mind ?
There was a large group of California md'rs who were on a forum specific to just CA years ago. And we CONSTANTLY toyed with this idea. The problem always was: Any place that could accomodate 20+ hunters , will tend to be something lame. Eg.: the dry sand on a beach. And then naturally hardcore hunters wouldn't put much stock into driving a few hours just to dink around for clad. Sure, nice to meet fellow hobbyist, but ... no driving a few hours for that with no *real* place to hunt, wasn't enticing.
So we toyed with various parks known for still giving up silver. But the *moment* "20+ hunters" descend on any old park, is the minute a nosy passerby is going to ask "
gee what are all those guys doing ? " and "
gee is that allowed?" etc... (whereas just one or two farts are ignored)
So the obvious answer to this is to get on some private property (like they do for the CW hunting shootouts in the deep south). Eg.: a ghost town on private land, or something of that nature. But the problems persist: Anyone with any sort of "in" like that, is probably inclined to already be working that himself. Or some well-meaning md'rs chimed in with locations they thought were grand (an old farm yard). But seriously now, that's no different that working the front yard of any old house. Are 20 hunters really going to have fun hunting around farmer bob's chicken coop ?
Thus attempts to find spots that had to be :
a) were spacious and large enough were 20+ hunters could spread out, and
b) had the potential give up old coins, and
c) wasn't some public land where you'd risk being an eye-sore and
d) if on private land, was not already worked out, or
e) if on private land, not some lame suggestion of a singular family farm yard.
If someone here can get us all permission to descend on Bodie, I'll be the first to sign up !
