What state has the most metal detector friendly laws?

[rustyman9791]

Looking for the least restrictive state for MDing.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

reply

Looking for the least restrictive state for MDing.

Do you mean at the state land administered level? Because of course, entities lands within an individual state (county and city lands) might be totally relaxed, and no one cares, etc....

Have you consulted this list yet? : Federation of Metal Detector & Archaeological Clubs Inc.

But even that needs a few footnotes:

a) it's only for state PARKS lands. And of course, there are other types of state administered lands that are not necessarily "park" land

b) often time beaches are treated differently than land parks. For example, that list says of CA that we are to inquire of each park, get permission, blah blah blah. But I can tell you for a fact that you can hunt state-of-CA administered beaches here till you're blue in the face, and no one cares. (so as you can see, it would be an UN-wise idea for anyone to go seeking clarification of that, RIGHT? )

c) That list was gleaned decades ago (and altered at needed, I suppose), by a seemingly obvious method: Whomever starts a list like that simply sends off an inquiry to all 50 states head-park-dept headquarters ..... and asked! Doh. Seems logical enough. I mean, who better to ask, than the states themselves afterall But oddly, whenever the desk-bound bureaucrat way-back-when receives such an inquiry, what do you think the safe answer was going to be? A lot of them sent back odd replies tying in odd-ball stuff like cultural heritage verbage, etc... with dire sounding answers. But the odd thing was, that in a lot of those "dire sounding states" detecting in their state-level parks had simply gone on, as long as anyone could remember (and perhaps still does at some parks). And no one had ever had a problem before. So you had old-timers looking at a list like this, scratching their heads, saying to themselves "since when?" (see the self-fulfilling squeeky wheel psychology here?)

And even if someone could tell you that any particular state has "lax laws", it would only mean they didn't ask high enough up the chain of bureaucrats and archies in their state, with the right combination of buzzwords. Becuase if you ask long enough and hard enough, you can always find a "no", even at the most inncuous of sandboxes. And so, conversely, if someone thought their state was "not relaxed" and had "ominous laws" it might be that they're just too skittish, and reading archaic dusty minutia which, in the field, no one really cares about or enforces (unless you're being an absolute nuisance snooping around obvious historic monuments).

 

[cudamark]

In reading some of the state responses, I find a few of them hilarious! Talk about political BS. For instance....."you may use a metal detector but you may not remove anything". WTF? What do you think we're trying to do using a metal detector? Just take it for a walk? Why not just come out and say that metal detecting is banned? Jeez, that's like saying you can carry a gun but it can't have any bullets in it.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

mark, the rules that say ".... but you can't take anything", are born out of verbage that disallows "collecting" or "harvesting". And those type rules are in EVERY park or beach or campground at ANY level. And if you think about it, they made sense when instituted, and have a reason for being on the books. They are for things like the following:

What's to stop me from thinking I can back up my pickup truck to the local park, and thinking I can take a bunch of tanbark (or sand, etc...) from the playground tot lot? Or what's to stop me from thinking I can harvest all the roses from the rose-garden, to sell at the flea market? And of course, if everyone picks up a single "pretty rock" at the beach, then guess what will happen over the course of 20 yrs, of everyone picking up "just one rock"? Of course the beach will no longer be "pretty". Doh!

So the laws forbidding "collecting", "taking" and "harvesting" have logical roots. But given enough logical morphing, there's nothing to stop those rules from being appied to our hobby. However, RARELY does anyone ever think of them that way. But as you can see, way-back-when someone asked all the states, and you pass the "pressing question" by enough lawyers, SURE, someone can say it violates these anti-collecting rules. Did anyone .... prior to that .... ever really make this connection? Does anyone *REALLY* care if your 6 yr. old daughter picks up a pretty sea-shell? But do the laws *technically* forbid her from picking up the seashell. Sure. Did anyone care till you asked? No.

 

[spartacus53]

Two words, New Jersey

 

[Sandman]

I have to laugh at Michigan's DNR. The state parks have maps on their website that shows where you can metal detect in the various state parks.. You are only able to detect in the area's marked in red which of course are paved parking lots.

 

[scaupus]

In reading some of the state responses, I find a few of them hilarious! Talk about political BS. For instance....."you may use a metal detector but you may not remove anything". WTF? What do you think we're trying to do using a metal detector? Just take it for a walk? Why not just come out and say that metal detecting is banned? Jeez, that's like saying you can carry a gun but it can't have any bullets in it.

Think "catch and release" "camera safari" "counting coup" "sport" "recreation".

 

[scaupus]

Two words, New Jersey

Tell us why New Jersey. I'd love to md New Jersey, some very early Puritan settlements in NJ.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

"Tell us why New Jersey......"

Because no one's gone and asked long enough, and high enough, of enough desk-bound bureaucrats, with the right combinations of buzzwords ?

 

[Night Stalker]

Georgia is pretty MD friendly, city parks & schools, never had issues...

 

[pong12211]

Pa. from what I understand does'nt give anybody to much trouble.. Unless you're trying to excavate a 8 to 10 feet deep hole on state game lands.. That will deffinetly raise a few reds flags but for the most part I have never heard of anybody being bother.. Except for that one exception which kind of is outside the realm of what a typical metal detector hobbyist will encounter...

 

[chakra22]

Beach front too