Tot Lot ?????????s

[rluckadoo]

Tot Lot 's

I haven't spent a lot of time searching the more "recent" parks and "tot lots" (am more of an old silver hunter), but would like to spend more time there in 2010. These places are very convenient, don't usually require permission, and can satisfy that urge to swing the coil for an hour or so....even on the way home from work, etc., unlike some of the old homesites I hunt which are a decent drive away from home.

My question is this: "What do you look for when scouting for a productive tot lot?" When you say "tot lot", are you literally meaning a lot where small childern play, or do you consider a tot lot a soccer field, park, playground area, etc. Are you looking for tot lots at parks, school play grounds, etc.?

Just wanted to get some ideas on how you professional tot-lotters consistently come up with so much awesome loot year after year, and how I would go about narrowing down the literally thousands of tot lots here in a large city

Hope this will be a very helpful topic for others just like me, who would like to tap into this bounty!!!!

Thank you in advance for all your advice.............

 

[Argentium]

Re: Tot Lot 's

I'm pretty sure that when folks refer to "tot lots" , they are talking about those wood chip or
sand covered play areas that often are found in city parks or elementary school grounds .
There seems to be an above average number of decent gold jewelry finds from these areas
I would be interested to hear some of the theories as to why people would lose gold more
frequently here as opposed to say parks in general and athletic fields in particular . Argentium.

 

[rockyredbaron]

Re: Tot Lot 's

In my opinion, and this is just my opinion....... tot lots are any playground areas either at a school, church, or park, where the kiddies play on the swings, monkey bars, etc etc. I do a lot of "Google"ing in the surrounding cities. I also hit a lot of sand volleyball courts in the parks around where I live. Your chances of finding something good is to hit as many as you can as often as you can. Go slow and methodical especially around the metal bars. If you can remove the metal signals off the bars and around the swing areas, the closer you can get to them the better. I tend to find a lot up close. A smaller coil is recommended to get into the tight areas. Hope this helps. We all look forward to seeing your rewards and finds very soon.

Good Luck and Happy Holidays


Rockyredbaron

HH to all

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Re: Tot Lot 's

I think we seem to find more jewelry there because it is a concentrated area with lots of parents there playing with their young kids in a small area. For me a tot lot is any playground where kids play, wood chip, rubber chips, saw dust, or white sand is the best as lost items sinks fast. I have found gold rings in tot lots that were just dirt so you can find it on any kind of surface...

Good luck hunting...........

 

[Capt.E]

Re: Tot Lot 's

A tot lot is a playground for kids but you can hunt soccer fields and baseball fields and parks . They can all be very profitable, I know because I have found 22 rings this year in parks and soccer fields and baseball fields and that does not include all the gold necklaces and gold pendants etc... so get out there and hunt.

 

[tymcmurray]

Re: Tot Lot 's

Age of the lots are always better for finding consistently good finds.
Good luck.

Ty
_________________
Tips, Techniques, and Tales at:


http://www.justgometaldetecting.com/

 

[RonnieAZ]

Re: Tot Lot 's

The main reason the finds are better in the play grounds "tot lot" is not just the kids its the mothers if you go to play a sport, soccer, baseball,softball, ect you would'nt usually see women running around on the field all decked out with jewelry most of the time people wear different clothing and take off loose jewelry to play sports, however mom spending an hour in the play ground chasing her kids around and pushing them on a swing set most of the time is wearing her every day clothes and yep you guessed it all her jewelry. Just my observation from watching people and detecting parks. HH - RonnieAZ

 

[RonnieAZ]

Re: Tot Lot 's

Ok Ok I dont want to give out all my secrets but here's one that has worked for me everyone hunts tot lots and regular parks but one place ive done well and may not be well known by everyone and for the same reasons I mentioned above, the local area here where alot of women walk thier dogs has been good to me, Ive watched some girls with larger dogs get snatched all over its a good tug of war some times. - RonnieAZ

 

[rluckadoo]

Re: Tot Lot 's

Wow! This has become a very informative post!!! Keep the info coming, as you have definitely peaked my interest in Tot Lots!!! In fact, if this rain will cease, I may attack one of the local tot lots this afternoon.......I will keep you posted of my progress!

Someone did mention getting close to the metal bars Do you find that most of the good stuff is in close proximity to the metal bars themselves? I know this is a very, very general question. Just curious if you have noticed any trends.

RL

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Re: Tot Lot 's

Ok Ok I dont want to give out all my secrets but here's one that has worked for me everyone hunts tot lots and regular parks but one place ive done well and may not be well known by everyone and for the same reasons I mentioned above, the local area here where alot of women walk thier dogs has been good to me, Ive watched some girls with larger dogs get snatched all over its a good tug of war some times. - RonnieAZ

Just watch out for any "dog land mines".

 

[prodrigsr]

Our finds last time we went totlotting

45 q's
35 dimes
24 nickels and ring( silver)

 

[Des from down under]

Re: Tot Lot 's

That to me is a good topic, I myself have been reading other members finds at tot lots and assumed they were playgrounds like we have here, little barked areas with all sorts of creations so I started calling them that and no one knew what I was talking about...so I went and hit one first with my standard coil and had to keep away from the timber borders owing to the large galv nails sounding of and the metal holding down feet of all the gadgets, but I did suprise myself with the coins and little badges I found, I went back with my smaller coil and started working closer to edges and found a heap more..I also read on here that you have to paint the area sort of as the small coil at say 6 inches only has a very small detect area..so I slowed right down my sweep search and cranked up the sensitivity some more and found quite a few more in ground that I thought I had covered...good topic ...h/h

 

[Frodov]

Re: Tot Lot 's

Ah yes, what *is* a "Tot-Lot" ? Well judging from all the responses your question has generated already I'm sure you by now have a pretty good idea as to what would be considered a "tot-lot". And, as well, many of the gang responding to your question have offered suggestions as to hunting the surrounding park areas associated with said playgrounds. All these suggestions are good and valid and potentially proffitable to anyone thinking about detecting those sites. While it's true that, yes, most playgrounds and "tot-lots" are more recently created and won't offer much chance of old coins or old silver, you'd be surprised as to how much you can find in them. Including old coins and silver! Granted, most of that you might find will probably be a recent loss from little Johnny's or little Suzie's pocket because they borrowed it from Dad or Grandpa to bring to show and tell at school or whatever. That is sad for the original owner perhaps, but if you think about it every lost coin any of us find, no matter where, has some kind of story behind it.<grin>
I hunt the tot-lots of course, but I'm not exclusive to them alone. The tot-lots are good for several reasons, all of which have been pretty well covered already but I'll repeat: They're usually convenient and close by home or work. They are numerous and likely to be found everywhere you look. They are clearly (usually) well defined "areas" often bounded by fences or edge markers. They are frequently..uh.. "frequented" by kiddies and young adults or better defined as "replenished" on a regular basis. As others have said, you usually don't need permission to hunt them as they are generally on public property or in parks. *also* I don't think many have mentioned this, but the woodchips and rubber chips, even sand, tends to be a little more agreeable to the knees and such when it's cold, frozen or just soggy wet anywhere else you'd rather hunt. So, like you said, it's convenient and handy when you just really need to get out and swing your detector for a while.
Some rules to live by to keep in mind however if you decide to detect these small havens of treasure hunting goodness...Obey the local laws and ordinances.. if the parks are closed at dark, be gone. Don't intrude on other people already using the playgrounds. Personally, I try to avoid the lots when there are lots of kiddies there, I don't like being the pied piper so much. They tend to follow you around and harangue you with inquiries as to what you are doing and if you are finding anything etc etc. Some watchful parents get a little edgy (understandably) when they see a bunch of kids following around a strange adult (Stranger that is). And lastly.. <grin> Don't detect any schoolyard tot-lots or playgrounds during a school day when the kiddies are THERE! <laughing> I generally save the schoolyards for days when school is not in session or on the weekends.
On bit of advice. Don't overlook the less fortunate parts of your town or city. ALL kids have coins and stuff in their pockets. The playgrounds in the rougher parts of town are likely to be LOADED with coins and goodies.. why? because they are IN the ROUGHER parts of town.. hence, less likely to have seen anyone with a detector hunting them.. ever! Just remember to pick your days.. Pretty days are easy, but there will be people about, and kiddies wanting to use the playgrounds.. go on those cold, wet or cold and wet days when everyone in their right minds are indoors where it's warm and dry. <grin>.. but even on those days.. always be aware of your surroundings.. situational awareness! It's awfully easy to get so wrapped up in your hunting, especially when you're getting one target after another, after another, after another.. just remember to look up now and then and look around.
All that said.. get out there and enjoy! And, as always...

~HAPPY HUNTING~

Frodov

 

[Marty-Graw]

Re: Tot Lot 's

"situational awareness"......I like that phrase.........just to add a little to what he said about being aware of your surroundings......if at all possible keep your shadow where you can see it (with your back to the sun)....that way you can see someone elses shadow if they try to come up behind you.........my 2 nephews got metal detectors for christmas and I am gonna take them to a tot lot somewhere today and let them find something.....if they aren't finding much I will "bait" the area a little for them lol

 

[surprman]

Re: Tot Lot 's

Best place for clad at a tot lot:
Hands down, in the grass around those kid-powered merry-go-rounds (just outside the dirt path where they run around it.) Those things shake coins loose like nobody's business. I have found close to $4:00 at one time around some of them (mainly quarters for some reason). Look for a distinctive circle in a park (using Google earth)

Surprman

 

[cdltpx]

Re: Tot Lot 's

When I lived in Los Angeles I would go detecting in the area where I lived and I could not afford the best of neighborhoods but didn't have a high dollar detector either. I had the bounty hunter jr, a $50 detector at best and kept sensitivity low so i could pick the coins right on the surface. If I would be approached by any thugs they could have the detector but that never happened the worse that did was a kid swiped a silver quarter I found. If you like lots of targets in clad go to those less fortunate areas. One thing I have learned is that people in the hood pee their money away rarely will you find folks that save any amounts of money.

 

[jasper62]

Re: Tot Lot 's

One more rule ,Most of the Lots have a black Liner Fabric of sorts to keep the weeds from growing,Sometimes you're target might be below that line.Even tho tempting to cut the liner..Don't..
Doesn't look good on our Hobby if you're caught digging through it.I hit the same Lots about once a month.Sometime I score a lot of clad and sometimes I get skunked and sometimes I get Lucky

 

[EpsilonMinus]

Re: Tot Lot 's

Great post, I was wondering about this myself lately.

 

[Tank69]

Re: Tot Lot 's

these are your basic tot lots .(pictured below).

for beginner's an those that know of the lil treasure sites as a great place to hunt,Tot lots give out clad, good silver an older coins an jewelry an TONS oh just trash, truth be told an the sad part is you gotta dig the junk to get the goods.Tot lots are an entity all of their own an you can see this in your finds once you get into em , you will have god days an bad days , so so days an absolutely fantastic day's.Even on bad days when you don't really find anything or get just skunked , Tot Lots are allways refreshing an resupplying daily .I myself have found more clad than I can count , silver and gold jewelry, along with a few other suprises I wont mention. I don't care if you relic hunt , water hunt or even nugget shooting theres allways a handfull of Tot lots close by to hit an their allways fun to detect because you never know what the kids will get their hands on next to donate to our great hobby .

HH Tank

 

[Jeep]

Re: Tot Lot 's

Don't forget to look up at the playground equipment.

I have scored Ipods, PSP's, Gameboy's and all kinds of goodies that kids just leave there and walk away