Detecting random fields?

[MightyMouse]

I keep driving by this huge grass field area and ever time i do i can't help but to think what might be buried there. Then i keep telling myself how it looks like a field that doesn't see alot of action or play. My question is how many have hunted random fields that they know nothing about? And what if any thing was found?

 

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[lostcauses]

First find out who owns it and ask if you can do such. Yes they can be good. Research as in old maps and photos of an area can help tell what was on these lots. Some had old houses that were removed for some reason, camps, work sites etc..

 

[Jason in Enid]

Hunting random fields isn't likely to get you anything except broken tractor parts and skoal lids. You aren't in England.

 

[gleaner1]

If there is a random field to detect, there surely is a random coin there. How's your patience level?

 

[Dave44]

Yes there could be something there. And then there may not. As long as you have permission you might as well enjoy the time and the gamble that you will find something.

I often do no research at all, just need to walk an unknown field, with a small chance. But then that is my relaxation. Might not be yours. I used to like to fish too.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Jason is right. Here in the USA, not likely to be worth it to just walk out to any cultivated field, and expect to be worth it. There simply has to be some reason for you to hunt it. Eg.: a camp was there, a house used to be there (cellar hole, etc...), a fort, a stage stop, a carnival used to set up there, etc...

About the only place where it might pay to just hit random fields, is a 2000+ yr. old place like some European countries. There, they've seen thousands of years of continuous cultivation of the same fields. So ... yeah.... even if there were no actual habitations or specific usage, yet odds are, with that many years of field hands coming and going, stuff eventually adds up. But here in our relatively young USA, you're talking needles in hay-stacks with our fields that are, at most, 200-ish years old of crop-usage. *Maybe* some possible exceptions in super old areas of the older eastern colonial areas? Still though, even there, I'm sure they still research what was in fields, when picking fields, so they're not just "random".

 

[TerryC]

Random field? No such thing. Find out who owns it. Tax records will indicate where and who is to be contacted. Get the place into your "places" notebook. Keep checking. Is there evidence kids hang out there? Old trees there? Get this all in the book! RESEARCH the place thouroughly. Now... it no longer is a Random Field. Go for it! TTC

 

[Swartzie]

I have hunted what looks like a random field. But back in the mid 1700's there was an indian village nearby this field. I knew there had to be something around given the history of the area. The field and surrounding woods are public. So after hunting for over a year looking a productive site on the many,many acres of land I finally found a productive site with many fur trade era relics on it. The site itself was only 50 feet in diamter or so. I'm currently looking for another site on the same land further downstream. Maybe within a year I'll find another productive site. If there's history there and you have plenty of patience then I'd say go for it.

-Swartzie

 

[K Zack]

Is it worth hunting a random field or would it be a waste of time?
First off, old maps are not the do all and end all. Sometimes they are Right,
Sometimes Not. Many of the real old places are Not on the Maps.
In 15 or 17 years or what ever it has been since I first picked up a Metal Detector I have hunted many fields just because I had permission to do so.
I have done real well in some, got a days walk in others.
Can I say that I ever wasted my time on these empty fields?
NO, I did not waste the time, I was outside doing what I love.

 

[Cool Hand Fluke]

Random fields can be feast or famine. Found this in a "random field" in 8 inch high dead grass/hey:

 

[lostcauses]

Well at least you did not have to wear them bracelets away from that field.

 

[goldentruth]

Random Field?... Check it out anyways. "It's like a box of chocolates" Ya don't know what you'll find.
or Ya dont know what is it until ya step in it. ( I've heard of a guy who was plowing a field and "Ka Blam" he hit a small Gold boulder.)or (The guy who bought a building and a old safe was inside, he threw it out into the vacant lot nearby and the cops saw it was abandoned so the had a cutting torch to it to find if any guns etc were inside and it had $200.000 in bills inside!) NO VENTURE...NO GAIN!

 

[CASPER-2]

guys that say - there is probably nothing there -are wrong
I hit random fields all the time
as long a people worked those fields - being for crops or hay
be it 200yrs ago or to present day
you should be able to find all kinds of items lost
just make sure you get permissions
do some research on the areagood luck