Getting land owners permission

[gadigger81]

What would be the best way to approach a land owner? Letter? In person? Phone? If by letter, does anybody have a good template to go by? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Terry Soloman]

What would be the best way to approach a land owner? Letter? In person? Phone? If by letter, does anybody have a good template to go by? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

In person, without your detector. Know what you are going to say and be polite even if they are not. Good Luck! - Terry

 

[Woodland Detectors]

In person with a big a$$ smile

 

[Rockin Chairs Gold]

In person. My wife seems to have better luck then me, guess she has a nicer smile then I do. She gets permission I'd say 95% of the time. Right now we have more places to hunt then time.

Not getting rich but having a lot of fun. Rick

 

[mobile miner]

In person. My wife seems to have better luck then me, guess she has a nicer smile then I do. She gets permission I'd say 95% of the time. Right now we have more places to hunt then time.

Not getting rich but having a lot of fun. Rick


Is your wife available

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Ga digger, as the others have said, in person. And preferably not by having to knock on a door, because then you might appear to be akin to a door-to-door salesman (and we all know that we routinely tell them "no thanks", w/o ever fully listening to their speal, right?). The best way to do "in person", is to catch them, so-to-speak, out on their front porch, or when they're coming or going, etc.... In that way, you're not intruding on/in their space, by knocking on their door.

The letters, calls, etc... are the worst way to do it. Because, think of it: what do YOU do when you get junk mail, or phone solicitors, from total strangers? throw the junk mail away, and hang up on phone solicitors, right? Well md'ing is the same psychology: mail and phone calls are a quick way to get nowhere. And forget search contracts you may have seen posted on the net anywhere. Because again, think of it: what would YOU do if a total stranger handed you a contract to sign? It just conjurs up images of legal hassles, or that you are gonna find a gold chest there, blah blah Best to just shake their hand, and let them know they're welcome to anything good you might find.

 

[Rockin Chairs Gold]

In person. My wife seems to have better luck then me, guess she has a nicer smile then I do. She gets permission I'd say 95% of the time. Right now we have more places to hunt then time.

Not getting rich but having a lot of fun. Rick


Is your wife available

Back in the 70's and 80's my father-in-law always told me I didn't seem to know a stranger as I was always the one asking permission, but as I've grown older I don't seem to be as at ease with talking to total strangers as I once was. But the Mrs. doesn't have any reservations about it at all, and for some reason they for the most part want to say go ahead and hunt to her, and hay if it works I say let her have at it. Rick

 

[gadigger81]

Thanks to everyone for their post! I think you guys are right about just speaking to the owner face to face. I actually seen some of the documents online about the contract some people use. The one thing that first caught my attention was the word PROPERTY DAMAGE. I know that it was meant that the owner would be released from any liability issues if you was to get hurt from any property damage they might have had. Still the word property damage jumped out at me. I could see them thinking in their mind, OH-NO, not on my property. I'm no lawyer and some of this things are written up like the gibberish they would use. Who understands that stuff anyway?? Thanks again!!

 

[Monty]

In person and dress decent (don't wear your digging clothes). Be ready to demonstrate how you dig a plug and don't leave a scar. Monty

 

[Roland58]

The method used would depend on if you know the owner and how well. For example, I called a lawyer that represented me in a lawsuit in which I was suing......we won. Although I called yesterday and the case was three years ago, he still remembered me. After a minute or two of casual conversation, I mentioned my new hobby and asked if I might get permission to hunt on his property. Without any hesitation, he immediately said, "Sure, knock yourself out." He asked only that I show him what I find! The property involved is his law office, a glorious mansion from the late 1800's on a large corner lot in town......one of the first large homes built here. This street still has old cast iron 'hitching posts' along the sides of the street! I am double throw down excited about this, I doubt the property has ever been located and has enormous potential. I may not find a thing, but, the thrill of what may be there is giving me butterflies already!! I will report as the search progresses in the "Today's Finds" forum.

Back on topic, if this had been someone I was not acquainted with, I would have approached them in person and in the manner others have mentioned......clean cut and prepared to answer questions and demonstrate 'non-destructive' techniques. All of the replies, thus far, have been good ones with good points.

 

[pyledriver]

Just throwing in my agreement with:

In person
Dress should be decent
Smile and be super polite
Explain your interest in history
Give the landowner something to become interested in too-like the history of the place
Be willing to show finds if the landowner asks about it!

 

[TheNewCatfish]

This is an important subject and deserves more attention. Failure to make good and proper local contacts are the quickest way to massively screw up any venture. I just returned from New Mexico and Arizona where I walked in like I owned the places. After months of planning, travelling hundreds of miles and spending hundreds of dollars, my adventure went pretty badly.

Next time, i'm going to set aside several days to meet the locals instead of racing to where i'm going. Their on the ground knowledge and help identifying land marks, water sources and potential problem areas would have saved me "lots" of headaches.

This goes hand in hand with approaching a stranger. There's no better way to meet someone than by "friendly" introduction. Meet someone local and if he's on good terms, ask him to introduce you to the land owner. That's how i'm gonna do it the next time.

 

[gadigger81]

This is an important subject and deserves more attention. Failure to make good and proper local contacts are the quickest way to massively screw up any venture. I just returned from New Mexico and Arizona where I walked in like I owned the places. After months of planning, travelling hundreds of miles and spending hundreds of dollars, my adventure went pretty badly.

Next time, i'm going to set aside several days to meet the locals instead of racing to where i'm going. Their on the ground knowledge and help identifying land marks, water sources and potential problem areas would have saved me "lots" of headaches.

This goes hand in hand with approaching a stranger. There's no better way to meet someone than by "friendly" introduction. Meet someone local and if he's on good terms, ask him to introduce you to the land owner. That's how i'm gonna do it the next time.

Good point! I went camping over the weekend at a state owned park and I know you can't hunt there with a MD. I also seen were you can get a permit to hunt SOME state property. So I decided to ask a Game Warden to get more details. Before I could get MD out of my mouth he stopped me with a big NO! I've met quite a few Wardens over the years and no one so far has been as rude as this guy. Some people I guess...

 

[spartacus53]

You were given a ton of good information from everyone, but if it doesn't work, use my method..


Intimidation Make the man fear you, and you will be able to detect at your whim

 

[gadigger81]

You were given a ton of good information from everyone, but if it doesn't work, use my method..


Intimidation Make the man fear you, and you will be able to detect at your whim

LOL

 

[Roland58]

A little OT, but, what the heck........

With great anticipation, I got to the lawyer's property just after sunrise on Sunday morning, six days after obtaining permission. I hunted for 6 hrs. The electrical interference was the worst I have ever encountered.....nothing I tried would remove the noise. Moving the sensitivity to 20-25 only made the noise 'tolerable', but, on a good note, I was still able to find a dime at about 7 or 8 inches. On a bad note, that was one of 3 or 4 I found and on a worse note, they were all clad.....1980's and up. No silver or copper, not even an indian head or a Merc........bummer.