Metal Detecting Etiquette

[GioTheGreek]

Greetings,

As I eagerly await my metal detector...

I'd like for you all to share some etiquette, digging tips... etc. that could help me out and at the same time, give me some insight on what to do and what not to do..

I know most of it is common sense like filling your holes, but I'm sure there's something I can learn from you all

Dont be shy!

Gio

 

[auferret]

Metal Detectorist's Code of Ethics

I WILL respect private property and do no metal detecting without the owner's permission.
I WILL fill all holes and excavations.
I WILL appreciate and protect our heritage of natural resources, wildlife and private property.
I WILL use thoughtfulness, consideration and courtesy at all times.
I WILL build fires in designated or safe places only.
I WILL leave gates as found.
I WILL remove and properly dispose of any trash that I find.
I WILL NOT litter.
I WILL NOT destroy property, buildings or what is left of ghost towns and deserted structures.
I WILL NOT tamper with signs, structural facilities or equipment.

 

[GioTheGreek]

That's what I'm talking about auferret!

I WILL remove and properly dispose of any trash that I find.

Good one

Maybe Ill carry a little garbage along with me pick up a bottle or two

 

[auferret]

Take it from another newbie, you will find a LOT of trash. Both above and below the ground.

 

[Shortstack]

If you take out the trash items you dig; you won't have to re-dig them the next time you're at a particular location.

Do your very best to leave NO sign that you were ever there

Practice in your own yard to develop your techniques for digging, probing, recovering that leave no sign; or at least no sign that can be seen without walking right up to the spot; one that will disappear with the next rain. Take great pride in leaving no sign. THAT will give you the best reputation.

If there has been no rain for awhile, do not dig. Use a screwdriver to recover targets no deeper that grassroot level. You will find that most of the good stuff will be no deeper than root level UNLESS the area has been filled in and / or re-sodded in the past. If the soil is moist enough to use the plugging method, use the method that greenskeepers at golf courses us to relocate the cups. Clean, DEEP plug that keeps the grassroots secure in the soil. Again, practice in your own yard and get your methods down pat before carring it out into the parks and other private yards.

Get permission from property owners BEFORE hunting their property. If the owner of a vacant lot lives out of town, get their permission first. Don't say, " well nobody will care. It's vacant land." If you don't have permission, STAY OFF OF THE PROPERTY. (Capitalizing those words are not yelling........it's for EMPHASIS) One of the ways we hobbyists get the bad reps is by people ignoring common courtesies and not using common sense.

When you're hunting a park, yard, or school area; try the hard places, too. Look under the big, old bushes. Look in that narrow strip between the old bushes and the fenceline.

 

[GioTheGreek]

Great tips, keep em coming

I believe I'm receiving some sort of little shovel with my kit..

I'll go well out of town and mess around there, practice.

My girlfriend had her dogs running around at a local field... soccer field.. and a guy was detecting there digging it up.

She said something to him but he ignored her.....

What a guy. Of all places to look, a soccer field.....

He must think people play soccer with change in their pockets.

 

[lafatlife]

Actually they do, especially if they are kids. Ball fields are a great place to search just take extra care in them when you replace your plugs.

I always think of it this way, if I were playing on that field would I step in a hole and break a leg?


My tips, wear headphones...it keeps the questions at bay from others but you can still hear them most of the time if you want to answer them.
Patience, patience and more patience.
Learn to trust what your machine is telling you.
Expect to dig a lot of trash before you find treasure.
Remember it is a hobby (for most of us) so don't let it get your blood pressure up!!
Bring water!
Wear gloves!
Remember why you decided to try this hobby and don't let the joy disappear!!
Take a few minutes each hunt and look around and enjoy what you see!!
Always scan your holes before you fill them back in!!!!
Research will help you find the "good stuff".
And most importantly....HAVE FUN!!!

 

[jb7487]

Soccer fields and athletic fields in general are great places to detect if you can get permission. Parents bring lawn chairs and sit along the sidelines in great numbers. They put things in their pockets that end up falling out. So check the sidelines. The field itself can contain goodies as well but not nearly as many.

Around my area they take soccer very seriously and have a huge soccer complex. There must be 20 fields. However, you aren't allowed to detect on it because they fear that you will tear it up. They have full time groundskeepers whose job it is to shoo everyone away.

 

[jb7487]

I will second the suggestion to practice digging plugs in your own yard first. But be sure to check back a week later. This was the biggest surprise for me. I thought that I was doing a perfect job of digging plugs. But a week later I had brown spots all over the yard. It turns out that the ground was really dry and we didn't have any rain after I did my digging so the grass turned brown. It didn't die but you could definitely tell where I had been digging.

Even with perfect technique you can still end up leaving a bunch of dead spots in the grass. Only dig plugs when the ground is moist already or if you are expecting a lot of rain later in the week. Of course, you can't always trust the weather man so it's best to only dig when the ground is wet. Some people actually take along water and poor it onto the plug when they are done. That's a bit excessive in my opinion. Especially for the weed-ridden parks that I hunt. But it may be worthwhile if you are digging in someone's yard.

Welcome to the forum and the hobby! Do your best to represent us all in a positive light.

 

[scrubber]

Ball fields are a great place to search just take extra care in them when you replace your plugs.

And remember that you do not have right-of-way in playgrounds and totlots. Let the kids do their thing. I usually don't like to MD if kids are even close by. They get curious and can get in your way, and sometimes it's easy to be impatient with that. But if you're too friendly, they'll bug the heck out of you.

One time two kids kept following me and asking questions, so I got my spare detector out of the car and showed them how to use it. I let them use both detectors while their grandpa and I sat and talked for over an hour. By the time I left, he knew what their next birthday presents would be. That was a fun and memorable day. Sometimes it isn't just all about finding your treasure.

scrubber

 

[GioTheGreek]

Awesome stuff guys, thank you...

As for the fields... I'll check the sidelines. I won't go mess around in them seeing as I play on a few of them and knowing karma, I'd roll an ankle on one of my old holes

I'll stay away from the children, that's for sure

I'm more interested in searching places with a bit of history... and the odd beach or two

I'm in one of the oldest cities in Canada... surely there is an old coin, arrowhead... bullet... loyalist weaponry... something to be found!

lafatlife made a good point... for the most part it is a hobby... so dont get worked up.
I'm fairly mellow.... just getting out and walking and digging should keep me in good spirits

I have my prospecting license, so I'm allowed on crown (federal?) land to nugget shoot etc.

From what I gather from your posts.... it all comes down to common sense and respect.

Respect for others and your environment.

Good stuff all!

 

[treasurehound]

Welcome to this great hobby and the forum. This is a great place to ask questions and get all the help you need. I love to hunt the tot lots and parks this time of year. I am saving my relic hunting for when the weather starts to cool off more. I usually start my day hunting the tot lots first thing in the morning. I am almost always swinging by daylight. I try to hunt a few tot lots early in the morning before people start playing there. One word of caution on the tot lots. If you dig down and find a fabric or plastic bottom do not cut through it. Even if you still have a signal you must leave it. We all have dug for our target and found that it is under this bottom cover. That cover is there for a reason and you don't want to destroy metal detectors rights to hunt them by cutting through. Dig every target. You have to find trash to find the rings and other jewelry. Most tot lots are not very trashy so I get pretty excited when I get an other than coin signal. Football and soccer fields are another great place to hunt. The last football/soccer field I hunt I found over 60 coins and a nice silver wedding band in a very short time. These are great places to find jewelry and coins. So a great place to get started would be the tot lots and football/soccer fields. And you must learn your machine no matter what brand it is.

 

[Montauk3]

Everyone that uses a detector on the beach MUST drag something behind them to indicate to other detectorists that the area has just been covered.

I have seen many times, 3, 4 people working the sand and they never leave an indication to tell me that the area has been worked.

The punishment for said offense shall be the surrendering of their best find to the aggrieved

HH
Ralph.

 

[Shortstack]

Everyone that uses a detector on the beach MUST drag something behind them to indicate to other detectorists that the area has just been covered.

I have seen many times, 3, 4 people working the sand and they never leave an indication to tell me that the area has been worked.

The punishment for said offense shall be the surrendering of their best find to the aggrieved

HH
Ralph.

Everyone that I've ever seen detecting on beaches leave such wide swatches of undetected sand that there's absolutely NO WAY they find it all. I never see anyone truly searching with SLIGHT overlap of their coil sweeps. I'm amazed that they find anything. When they do find something, it's got to be dumb luck. If you get angry from what I've just written, then sit back and watch them the next time you go to a beach. The slipshod way the detectors are used is comical. Ralph, just follow behind them, using better techniques, and you'll find the good stuff......if any is there.

 

[Montauk3]

My post was intended to get a laugh. I have been told at times that I am very methodical in my searching method.

I do in fact overlap my paths and overlap the coil by about 1/2width.

Slooow and never over 2 inches above the ground.

At times I enjoy watching the golfers swinging at a marathon pace. (Brings joy to my heart)

 

[Shortstack]

My post was intended to get a laugh. I have been told at times that I am very methodical in my searching method.

I do in fact overlap my paths and overlap the coil by about 1/2width.

Slooow and never over 2 inches above the ground.

At times I enjoy watching the golfers swinging at a marathon pace. (Brings joy to my heart)

Yeah, they look hilarious and when they don't find anything but buried beer cans, they get p----- off and blame the detector. That's exactly the reason no place is ever hunted out---too many hobbyists just don't have the patience you (and I) do.

That "if you get angry"....part in my previous post was not meant for you in particular, but for anyone reading it and thinking I was making fun of them. Which I AM, but..........LOL

 

[Montauk3]

No offense taken, the only ones that offend me are the politicians.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

If you watch, half the people hunting beaches are swinging their detectors so fast, and at a 160 degree arc, odds are slim they find much anyway. I have no concerns about following them. Now if I see lines 4 feet apart in set pattern, I move on...........

 

[littletwig]

The guy that got me into tecting was a guy that went to all the big money hunts. He is so fast that I can't even keep up with him. He does really well at the seeded hunts. We live in the very same small town, 1000 people, and he has been hunting in and around it for 30 years. I tried keeping up with him and found nothing. I read the book "detecting previously hunted sites" and the emphysis was to go sloooooow. I then started hunting very methodically and slow in some of the same sites, parks and ball fields, that I thought he had cleaned out. It is unbeleivable how much he missed. I have been hunting his hunted out sites for 2 years now and still continue to do really well.

 

[scrubber]

The guy that got me into tecting was a guy that went to all the big money hunts. He is so fast that I can't even keep up with him. He does really well at the seeded hunts. We live in the very same small town, 1000 people, and he has been hunting in and around it for 30 years. I tried keeping up with him and found nothing. I read the book "detecting previously hunted sites" and the emphysis was to go sloooooow. I then started hunting very methodically and slow in some of the same sites, parks and ball fields, that I thought he had cleaned out. It is unbeleivable how much he missed. I have been hunting his hunted out sites for 2 years now and still continue to do really well.

I haven't attended a money hunt but I have a theory about what you said. I have found when doing tests that freshly buried coins give stronger signals than old ones in hard-packed ground. If I've dug down to an object and then refilled the hole without taking it out, the signal seems stronger than it originally was. Perhaps that's why he did well in a seeded hunt going fast. Just a thought -- I may be wrong.

scrubber