gulf-coast bum, look closely at this one sentence of yours:
" After reading Treasure Hunting Legal Issues as well as several other web posts regarding laws and ordinances regulating the sport I've become concerned."
This is the modern-day problem of the internet: Is isolated scary stories get posted, and WHAM, everyone reads them. Those scary stories get thrusted to the top again and again, and read over and over. And people "project" them into: "Oh no, I might be in trouble in my city or state". For example: if a single city had an issue (a booting, or a law, or a ticket, or something), and yet, 10,000 other cities did NOT have any bootings, laws, or tickets, guess which city is going to make it to the top post? The "oh no the sky is falling" type posts? The ONE city (or state or county or whatever), NOT the 10,000. And you, the skittish newbie thinks "oh no, what if I'm arrested like that guy?"
For example, I distinctly recall back in the early 1980s, before there was any internet, all there was treasure mag. articles, & brick & mortar clubs. And pretty much you only knew what was going on in your area, what you heard from old-timers who got you into the hobby. Period. But by the early 1980s, the "FMDAC" had been formed, and started sending out their monthly periodicals. For the FIRST TIME scary stories were read aloud at club meetings, about potential flaps from far away places. You know the drill: "Hurry and send your solidarity letters to repeal such & such", Or "watch out where you hunt, because look what happend to Joe Blow in Chicago", blah blah. All of the sudden, when these stories were read out load, where no one had ever heard of such things, you could FEEL the mood change. It was as if "oh no, we're doomed, coming to a city near you! We better rush out and grovel at each city hall we come to, lest we be 'arrested' " and so forth.
Do you see? What changed in that case? Nothing at all here. There was no reason at all for these people (or you in this case) to fear. The only thing that happens is you read of isolated cases, and *assume* that "oh no, I wonder if there's any rules in my local sandbox?", etc...
But it's as Treasure Hunter in Orlando is telling you: So long as you avoid obvious historic monuments, and/or perhaps a few specific spots (get to know local long-time hunters to know what is what), and presto, no problems.
