Time to school the newbie!

[DianaPrince]

Hey everyone!

I'm a newbie to metal detecting but have always been interested in the hobby!

I have a trip to the beach planned soon & can't wait to try it out in the sand! That being said, I'm trying to do my due diligence and research all the requirements and rules before just running out like a dummy & acting out of line. There are laws for everything & then some laws for those laws it seems!

That being said, I've researched the laws for the beach I'll be at & they have no rules against it so I'm good there. I'm researching laws for Florida rest area MDing (even though I plan on only spending a few minutes at the rest stop before my crew & myself hit the road again) but haven't found anything solid. What I have seen is just advice from others who suggest asking for forgiveness after if anything comes of it & being sure to cover any holes dug during the search. Can anyone confirm this or point me in a better direction?

I'll be testing out my MD on my parents yard because their home is on land that used to be a farm so I expect to get a lot of junk hits & from what I'm understanding, that would be a good place to learn about my MD & the differences in tone.

My questions for you all are these:
What is the most important lesson you've learned that would you wish someone would have shared with you beforehand?
What is your favorite part of the hobby? The anticipation during the dig? The being outdoors? The history?
Have I missed anything in my research?


Can't wait for my first search tomorrow!

Thanks for all the help!!


(Mods, if I've posted in the wrong section, please move to proper area)

 

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[bigfoot1]

seems like you have a good handle on getting started...yes I would say just show up and give it a go on the beach.The more time you can use your machine the better.a sand scoop sure is a cool tool in the sand.

advice I wish I had gotten....dig every target untill you are right 6 of 10 digs

good luck

 

[DianaPrince]

Awesome! I appreciate it!

Here's another question. I haven't done much research on it so I may just be able to find the answer here on the site already but I was also hearing some say that the pull tab tone can sometimes be silver rings? Is that true? I would have thought that would be under the quarter tone but I'll still be digging all my tones for the first few outings for sure.

Oh yeah, & I've been seeing glass bottles found too. Does it take a special, higher quality detector to find glass?

 

[Carolina Tom]

The detector can not find glass... only metal. Most of the bottles you see come from places where people dumped them a long time ago. You can either discover the dump, and dig to uncover bottles... or sometimes they are eroding out of the dump site.

The silver ring will come in nice and high... like a silver coin. The gold rings are lower, like nickels and pull tabs.

 

[DianaPrince]

Ah, you know, maybe that was it... Gold getting the tone that is similar to pull tabs. Thank you!

 

[Boatlode]

My advice is dig everything until you learn your machine. And get a good sand scoop for the beach - you will thank me later.

Best of luck to you!

 

[bill from lachine]

Diana,

If you're hitting the beach best bet as was already mentioned is to dig everything....as to best advice when in doubt dig and don't trust what the screen tells you gold can pretty much show up anywhere depending on size and depth of the item but mostly in the nickel/pulltab range.

And remember it's the thrill of the hunt that counts and the finds are just icing on the cake and yes those rings in the avatar are real...all dug at urban green spaces so I've got a bit of experience at this game.

Good luck!

Regards + HH

Bill

 

[Tom_in_CA]

As for the part of your question about road-side rest-stops, a few observations:

These would have to be either state-owned, or federal owned locations, right? (depending on which particular freeway). Because I don't think counties or city's have any "road-side rest stops", haha. Ok then: be aware that any rule you might read on forums that govern the particular state, or federal, don't necessarily apply to this. Because usually those rules are in context of state PARKS and federal PARKS, etc.... A roadside rest is not of that sort. It would fall under road right-of-way. So don't make the mistake of thinking that all state land is state PARK land, and so forth. There's different types of land.

Ok then, that would then bring you to the question of : "what are the rules of road-right-of-ways" ? I highly doubt there's anything cultural heritage, and ESPECIALLY not specific enough to say "no metal detectors" at said sites. I mean, you could knock yourself silly researching to make sure, if you wanted, but ...... I'm betting that the most anyone could say to you, would be under the category of something like "altering" or "defacing", etc... (if you appeared to making a mess, leaving holes, etc....). Ok, fine then: don't leave messes, holes, or be an eye-sore nuisance begging for such scrutiny. Worst case scenario, you're looking for the ring you lost there, right?

I personally would not hesitate to hunt a road-side rest, if I had some reason to want to (if it were very old, or whatever). Or, you can ask higher and higher up chains of commands, and find someone to tell you "no" if you want. But at some point, you have to ask yourself: Does anyone really care? Probably not, so long as you're using common sense, not being a nuisance, being neat, etc.... But that's just me.

 

[DebiC]

I found out the hard way not to step off the beaten path at those rest stops in FL. The truckers laughed their heads off at me when I came shreaking out of the jungle with fire ants stinging me all over.

 

[DianaPrince]

I found out the hard way not to step off the beaten path at those rest stops in FL. The truckers laughed their heads off at me when I came shreaking out of the jungle with fire ants stinging me all over.

Yowch!!
Yeah, that doesn't sound very fun :P

I would probably just stick close to the car lot area and be looking for loose change (maybe even enough to buy me a reward from the vending machine for all my hard work

 

[Msbeepbeep]

Learn you machine best advice out there.

Ya, you have to be very observant when in new territory and stepping off the path, anywhere!

Fire ants are bad enough, but laughing truckers ...bad bad.
They use meat tenderizer on bee stings may work on fire ant bites.