The Golden age of Metal Detecting is over

[Tom_in_CA]

reply

.... and have a great deal of respect and enthusiasm for our hobby. I simply try and abide by state laws so we don't seem to be a nuisance or sneaky law breakers to the watching eye of the community or media.....

lifes-a-garden, you are mis-understanding what we're saying. By all means! "obey the laws". No one here is suggesting you go break laws. But that information about laws can be acheived by looking them up for one's self. To "obey laws" does NOT mean go ask someone "can I metal detect?" You can have looked up the info. for yourself. And if nothing there said "no metal detecting allowed", (simply silent on the issue), then presto, it's not prohibited. And then no, you're not going to be "ticketed" "fined" "confiscated", etc... if there were no law that said no detecting.

I know you're probably thinking: "what's the difference? Isn't asking "can I?" the same as having looked up rules for oneself ?" No, it's not the same. Unfortunately there's been scores of examples where no such rule *specifically* said such a thing. But the pencil pusher gives the "safe" answer, to the "pressing question", and searches too and fro through his rule books to find something else that might apply. Ie.: not disturbing earthworms, or harvesting/collecting, blah blah blah . So there's actually been cases of "no's" being given, in places where ..... quite frankly .... no one had ever had an issue or problem before.

See how that pyschology works? Thus no one's saying to break laws. We're telling you to look them up for yourself.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Upgraded Night Vision Monocular Digital Infrared Monocular Telescope for 100% Darkness with 8X Zoom - Grab it through Amazon!

[Hot zone]

Agreeing with Tom, the point I was making about not looking like you are doing something wrong, because you are not! Avoiding the busy times and not acting sneaky and carrying a shovel to the park can reduce the confrontational moments, be it from a tree hugging grass blade protecting nosy busybody or other... That being said, most public places around here are hunted to death... Why! Because it is legal to hunt these areas!

 

[Jarl]

I got squelched in a state park by the park ranger. I got as far as across the road and he zoomed up a hill in his truck exactly then, passed me, flipped around and told me no detecting. I hadn't so much as turned my machine on yet...was literally just scoping then BANG! If you're caught fishing without a license...they fine you and often take everything. Iowa can be slightly fierce about their state parks.

I never had the delight to detect during the golden age, but I can imagine how great it must have been.

 

[oldsodbuster]

why use a detector when you can give a know it all a piggy back ride so they could point out the all yella rock to ya?

 

[jhen999]

I have never taken a shovel in a park or school..I mean that kind of looks bad in the first place, now if I were on a beach or relic hunting in the mountains or nugget hunting I would..but in parks and schools... if I cant dig it out with my digging knife, I wont dig it, and I have done that more than a few times, get a good solid hit and by the time I am at the bottom of the hole with my knife and I don't find anything, I fill it back in....that's just me...somebody else might do it different...

 

[signal]

jhen999, i understand you won't bring a shovel because you want to be discrete, which is smart. But putting that aside, from a practical standpoint, you can cut a much cleaner plug with something like a Sampson or other spade vs. something like a nice standard Lesche digging tool. So the reality is, although it may look more intimidating, the reality is the spade will be better for the park. So then the matter just becomes being discrete enough. I use a smaller spade, a mini Sampson (I think its 18"), which stays in a sheath. I realize it may cause some double takes, but the holes I leave are pristine compared to what I would need to do with a smaller dig tool, so in the end, after digging 20+ holes in a park, I leave the place looking much nicer, which is my goal.

 

[rwd mo]

I was metal detecting back in the 1980,s, got away from it for about 10 to 15 years, and got back into it in the early 2000,s for a year or so, and then got back into this last year for health reasons. I guess I should have checked with local law enforcement here in California..I got kicked out of a state park here today. I guess you cant do any metal detecting in state parks here, he said try the county and city parks..i am not sure about them either now. Here in California they have laws for everything , if you turn around here you might get a ticket for it...I just don't get it..in all the years I have been in this hobby that was the first time I have ever had anyone say anything about you cant do that....I thought we lived in the land of the free...Doesn't seam like you do to much....just a vent....

Talk about hurt I live in sw Missouri and in a city of 165,000 pop we have 12 colleges and ALL are OFF LIMITS to detecting have been for ages unless a student gets a permit from security to get a guy to find their earring etc. 2 clubs here and most is picked over bad so its out of town maybe 50 miles to a river to find rings. rwd mo keep-a-diggin'

 

[jhen999]

Rwd Mo....I was born in that part of Mo. in Cassville...ever heard of it...I haven't been back there in 50 years..i still have family there all my dads brothers and sisters live back there...its getting that way everywhere, I am always looking over my shoulder to make sure someones not coming to run me off...