sluice, I've been reading your posts, and they are well written. Glad you are chiming in. Thanx. To address a few things you're saying here:
The reason places become off limits is because careless people feel entitled to detect anywhere they wish......
This notion has always struck me as odd. Because: For a place to "
BECOME" off-limits, implies what ? It implies that it WASN'T off-limits PRIOR to that. And if that is the case, then what's presumputous about md'ing ? Hence the statement sort of explodes in on itself, as self-contradicting.
.....they get mad when some idiot starts digging up their grass.....
And what's the implication of that ? And is seen in the rest of your post too: HOLES (mess, craters, etc...). If someone is doing
THAT, then sure , they will catch flack from gardeners, cops, and fellow md'rs. But it seems to me that if you leave no trace of your presence, then presto, what's the problem ?
Yes I agree that detecting has "connotations" (that you might be about to dig, and won't be neat, etc....). Thus yes, a passerby might gripe, even though you NEVER EVEN STOOPED down to dig. The solution is simple: go at lower traffic times and avoid such gripers. I know you think the better way is to go get a city person's blessings beforehand, right ? But what do you do? Go in and say "
Hi, can I dig holes in the park please?" Seems to me that's the FASTEST way to get a "no", when in fact, perhaps you'd never even have been bothered or hassled, unless you were a nuisance sticking out like a sore thumb.
In other words: to the extent what you're saying is true, the solution is not that the rest of us need to go around grovelling to city halls everywhere we come to. The SOLUTION is for that one md'r to a) take a repeat in the "target recovery 101 class", and b) take a lesson in a little .... uh .... discreetness so as not to stick out like a sore thumb, in the first place.
.... Nobody gets mad because somebody asked permission.....
Get
mad ? You're right, I wouldn't call it "mad". But what has frequently happened (and I can give you many examples), is someone waltzing into city or county offices, asking around, and getting a "no". And oddly, this has often occurred in places where detecting has never been an issue before. Hmmm. And pretty soon you have old-timers scratching their heads saying "since when?". See how that works ?