How to Research

[Monkworks]

This post was written for the newer Detectorist, but even experienced Detectorists might get something out of it...

Researching to discover new places to hunt can be difficult depending on where you live and the laws in your land...I live in Ontario so i can offer the perspective from here.
I personally have never asked for permission to hunt on anyone's property (yet) because i focus on public locations.
I know if someone asked me to hunt on my land I would say no, for a lot of reasons, one of which; I just don't want anyone finding stuff on my property.I think I share this feeling with all other land owners. Sure if you ask ten landowners for permission, you should get one permission at lest. I personal don't have time for that. So whats left to hunt? Its public places that are not restrictive to metal Detectorists.

What are you after?
You need to define what you would like to find with your detector first. Silver? Gold? Old coinage? Rings and Jewelry? All of the above? Is important to understand who would have had these items and what time period the item existed in. Is also important to understand what coins are made out of now and what they were made out of in the past. Coin composition has changed over the last 100 years and you should take some time to know all about that. For example Canadian coinage stopped making coins out of silver in 1969... If you are Canadian and you hunting a park created in 1970 you would not find silver...

Places that are legal in my area to hunt are Parks, Conservation areas, Schools, Community centers, Crownland.

Parks, Sports fields
Parks are my main hunting locations. I have many Parks around me but not all are old enough to hunt at. You could still find coinage in the newer parks but it's all 70s and up... Not worth my time.
Parks that are 100 years old qualify as worthy of time spent metal detecting. However, 100 years old parks are not that common and worst is that some 100 year old parks have been (graded or landscaped), with up to a foot of topsoil there is no chance of discovering any 100 year old coins. So the requirement is now specific to 100 year old parks that have never been landscaped or graded. Finding said parks can be dawning at best. Research must be done on a Park you feel could be old enough and untouched in terms of landscape, to find out what the history was. Who visited this place in the 1800s and why?

Conservation areas, Crownland
Conservation areas tend to be overgrown in my area. Few parts of a Conservation areas have cut grass limiting the range you can hunt. These places are usually forests with rivers, used for hiking or trail walking. Because of the type of conditions Conservation areas can be very hard to hunt and might only be accessible in the fall, or after winter to avoid High grass and brush. You will also need to contend with wildlife or getting lost...These places usually hold some historical past that is worth investigating. For example I am researching a Conservation area that used to be an old 1800 steam train station in the 1800s, but now 100 years later overgrown with bush. But luckily it was also used in the 50 for camping and they continue to cut the grass around that part of the Conservation area...So its full of silver and could have 1800s coins. Crown Land is similar to Conservation areas but there is usually no cut grass at all and thinker bush for sure again only really doable in the spring and fall.

Schools, Community centers
When researching schools it's important to discover the age of the school and how many times it's been rebuilt over time. Generally when a school is rebuild they would grade the property with modern engineering techniques. That means a foot or more of grading has been spread around the property, usually for insurance purposes (flooding). Its important to understand what type of ground you're dealing with so as to not waste your time... For me if the place has been grade I don't bother...

Test for Grading
It might be worth your time to look up some engineering technical guides on property grading code used in your area to understand exactly what they do to the property. This will help you understand why it's so damaging to your attempt to find the old stuff...I recommend you test your location by digging down about a foot and a half to see if the wall of your hole has any sand or (grading) meeting the topsoil. This will tell you what your dealing with right away.

More on grading-
I have hunted locations that have been graded in the 70s and I still discovered 1800s coinage, but i was lucky to find parts of the property that had not been graded... Look for the lowest areas of the ground that may have been missed for whatever reason...even washed away land...

Tools for researching locations
Number one tool is Google Earth if you're not using that you would be missing areas. Libraries can also provide good maps, but it's far more time effective to just seach google. I also search google for B&W photographs from my area in the 1800s time period and try to reverse engineer back to where that location is now, jump into Google Earth to see where that is located, Looking to find out if it's near a park now or somewhere i can reach.

Probability
Use probability to determine if an area could be worth a hunt. Note the population around the area in the 1800s time period. Find out why patrons would visit this place to uncover where good spots within your location could be. Maybe it was a known picnic area, or a horse and buggy race track...all good locations for coins to drop. How much money where the people who lived in the area making, where they laborers, or gentry? was there a train track near by? or a dock or pier? this could provide a route that some people may have taken through your location in that time period. understand what kind of probability the location should have is a healthy thing to consider... Time is money...

When to research
An old timer told me “ It’s 80% research 20% detecting.” You should not just jump in your car and head out without a solid plan. You should take time the night before and work on researching to find a good location and then also find a backup just in case... never squander your time, your better off staying home and finding good spots than just blindly heading out. Winter is great time to search for locations and I always under estimate how many areas i should have ready to go for summer.

Word of Mouth
I like to check forums where older folks are posting about where they grew-up. They will always point out locations you should be hunting... some of my recent good hints that I found on a forum was an old guy talking about a river that had a rope swing set up in the 50s, near a river. another was a toboggan hill used in 40s...

The walk-up and talkers
People will always come up and talk to me. Some of my buddies really don't like talking to anyone about what they're doing. But these folks could in fact tell you something useful.. always view someone coming to talk to you while metal detecting as an opportunity to get insider info about your location.. recently an old lady approached me and asked me what I was looking for. long story short she lead me right to the best part of the park and found what I was looking for, I probably would have missed it if she hadn't pointed it out to me...

I invite everyone to add some more info about how to Research or how your find your hunting grounds.

 

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[MrMikeJackie]

"I personally have never asked for permission to hunt on anyone's property (yet)."
Im assuming this means you NEVER hunted on anyone's property then right?

 

[Monkworks]

Hi MrMikeJackie, That is correct. Never needed to. I am not sure how it is in NY. but here in Canada, Ontario we don't really need to use permissions because there is a lot of parks where you are allowed to Metal detect in public places. Much open space that is Crown land (government owned land) still no need for permission... Its legal to camp or do leisure activities on crown land.

sorry let me define permission. You need a permission to hunt on someone's land. When I say no need for permission, because we are not going to trespass we are going to hunt on locations that do not require permission. No permissions required because their public places...

 

[MrMikeJackie]

Gotcha buddy, your sentence kinda sounded like you hunt private property without asking for permission. Just clarifying, I'm tired

 

[Dagger Woods]

"If you are Canadian and you hunting a park created in 1970 you would not find silver...

Just a small quibble with this statement. I'd say this is not true at all. Just because the RCM stopped minting silver coinage the year before that doesn't mean that all the silver coinage still in circulation automatically disappeared. People still had it filling their pockets, piggy banks, and cash registers. People still carried silver coins well past the introduction date of clad and nickel coinage... and it follows that they still lost it here and there, too. Certainly, past that specific date silver coinage began to become increasingly scarce... but it didn't disappear over night. For sake of argument, I'd say a park created in 1970 - 1975 still has a very good potential to hold silver coins. Even 40-some odd years later, it's not impossible to see 60's era coins in pocket change.

 

[Monkworks]

"If you are Canadian and you hunting a park created in 1970 you would not find silver...

Just a small quibble with this statement. I'd say this is not true at all. Just because the RCM stopped minting silver coinage the year before that doesn't mean that all the silver coinage still in circulation automatically disappeared. People still had it filling their pockets, piggy banks, and cash registers. People still carried silver coins well past the introduction date of clad and nickel coinage... and it follows that they still lost it here and there, too. Certainly, past that specific date silver coinage began to become increasingly scarce... but it didn't disappear over night. For sake of argument, I'd say a park created in 1970 - 1975 still has a very good potential to hold silver coins. Even 40-some odd years later, it's not impossible to see 60's era coins in pocket change.

I thought someone would point that out. You are correct. But i guess my point is your probability would diminish greatly and it could give you the wrong idea about your location...because you found one silver dime and may expect the place to provide more but really you just won the lotto really...

Its is certainly possible to find older coins mixed in with more modern coins but is somewhat rare and I can't recommend looking for silver under this type of condition. Your chances are much higher to concentrate on a park that was actually around in the 60s, just my opinion.

 

[Monkworks]

I wanted to add a little bit more on researching Metal Detecting Locations. These are my personal options take them as you like. They are intended to provide you with insight, so you can make your own decisions.


Sharing your locations with other Detectorists
Be warned that sharing your hard work with other detectorists can lead to disappointment and can cause issue with your friends so be careful giving away your best spots. some examples. You call up your hunting buddy and reveal this fantastic location you have spend hours working on and you all agree to meet there on Saturday, But your buddy has the day off and heads up there without telling you and makes some great finds. Once you find out you may or may not be upset. But you go out there and then you spend a lot of time there and discover nothing, Where as your buddy walked away what a lot of silver, how is that going to make you feel? Another issue is there seems to be some out there that never look for their own locations just use locations others have found. Our group of Detectorists constantly gets “magpied” by our YOUTUBE subscribers, their only watching so they can find out where the spot is...Have some sense when telling others about your research. The old coins are only going to be there once... and when they're gone, they're never going to be replaced. You need to find the balance with sharing with others and looking out for yourself.


Researching doesn't mean your location will produce
This has happened to me so many times. I was so sure about a location, I was willing to put money on the great finds that would be discovered in this perfect location only to find nothing. So don’t be surprised if a lot of your research ends up in the rubbish bin. Out of five researched locations at lest one should produce if you have researched correctly. So don’t give up if you're not finding any good spots just keep at it, Hard work pays off eventually!

Unknown ownership
If you not sure about the ownership of a location just leave it and do not hunt it. Your better of never doing that it gives Detectorists a bad name and you could get charged for trespassing. Don.t play wild and loss with other peoples property.

asking the local police about the rules in your area
Man. I can’t recommend that to anyone. The detecting laws are not well known by the police and they may just tell you no because they're not sure. Read what you can so you know the rules, Fly under the radar, keep low key. Hunt in off hours and you will be fine. If you do make a big discovery I recommend you don't tell anyone. I understand if you're not that type of person i do get that, but in almost all cases of great discovery the person who found the treasure usually had to give part if not all of it away to others for whatever reason. So don't tell anyone about your big finds unless you completely trust them, and even then gold and money can change people on you..so be aware of that!

Little bit more on tools
When i find a good high resolution 1800s map I overlay that map into Google Earth and line it up by stretching the overlay around in Google earth. Then you can set the filer to see through the overlay to the Good earth map. This is extremely helpful for seeing what the area looked like 1800s and what is there now. You can also use the time travel tool in Google earth to go back a few years, so you can see the changes that have happened over the years.. an example is I can see that four years ago there was a baseball diamond in a local park but it was removed, i bet there is still a lot of coinage around that old baseball diamond but you would never know it was there...

 

[Msbeepbeep]

MonkWorks- that is really good info I believe T Net should have an info forum, it would be especially useful for newbies, where there's useful info on different subjects gathered. Guides them in the right direction and lots of useful info for all.

 

[Monkworks]

MonkWorks- that is really good info I believe T Net should have an info forum, it would be especially useful for newbies, where there's useful info on different subjects gathered. Guides them in the right direction and lots of useful info for all.

Thanks Msbeepbeep! I agree. When you first start you want to read as much as you can to get a footing.

 

[Argentium]

Some very helpful info here ! I would encourage the new detectorists to go ahead and hunt many of the newer park locations ,
to get good at pinpointing /coin recovery ,and to find their share of nice silver rings and pendants (possibly a gold ring as well)

 

[Higgy]

I especially like the part about walkups and talkers. I believe it to be a good opportunity. I ask them about where the old swimming holes were, where old picnic areas were, where they went sliding when they were kids, old ball fields, old fairgrounds, etc. I also ask them if they own an old house and can I detect there.

I also have ways of getting rid of them by asking them a lot of questions. If They don't own an old house, I ask them if they have any relatives or friends that do, and can I have their number and use them as a reference. Sometimes I can pull it off, but also sometimes this starts to make people feel a little wary and they make an excuse and cut the conversation short and bug out. Win-win, imho.

I still can't figure out how to get kids to go away. Usually if the kids can't provide info, or take a hint, I'll pull out my cell phone and call someone. Kids will usually take off after a minute or two. They need constant stimulus these days to hold attention.