A great piece of advice for summer land hunting

[Andy Sabisch]

Wayne Tevlin posted this on one of the Facebook groups and it deserves to be reposted wherever it can be . . . . .

With the dry summer most of us have been having, digging in any grassy area is a recipe for disaster. As careful as you might think you have been, go back in a few days and you will be shocked . . . dead grass and plugs falling out. My wife and I hit a site recently where a mower had pulled every one of the plugs someone else had made which a a great way to have sites closed forever.

I know a lot of people just got a new detector and can't wait to dig up treasure but you need to put the brakes on and wait for several good rains to soak the ground. If you have permission to hunt private yards, it will be gone if you try hunting when the ground is dry not to mention you get better signals when the ground is wet.

Wayne gave permission to repost this wherever it might help so feel free to share it as widely as you can.

Thanks

Andy & Charlene Sabisch

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[size=large]I'M NOT HUNTING GRASSY AREAS THIS SUMMER!

I'm suspending all detecting at my permission properties until we get enough rain to make the ground moist enough to be sure my plugs will not burn and incorporate back into the lawn.

The permissions I have are large properties and will take a number of days to completely detect. I wouldn't want the property owners telling me not to come back because my plugs were drying out and killing their grass. A number of my permissions are right next to each other, so you can see how this might snowball if one owner tells you not to come back. I'd rather wait for wet ground (which is a much better conductor) than lose my permissions.

This is something everyone should consider.

This was a public service announcement.

Wayne Tevlin[/size]

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[KinTN]

Totally agree. I learned early that digging in concrete-like soil leads to fewer targets recovered per hour and a very sore wrist and blistered hands. If its your own property, Have At It, but we should always treat the property of others with the greatest respect/concern.

 

[CopyTech99]

Agree 100%, been about 2 months now. Tough, but necessary.

Wish I could do more clad stabbing though.

 

[Johnnyanglo]

If the ground is dry, cut a single large plug and go deep enough to get the roots. If you try to avoid damage by going small radius and shallow you will kill the grass and the plug can be easily torn off by a mower, just the opposite of the desired goal.

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

n/t

 

[MINELABBOB]

THIS IS ANOTHER BIGGY !!
how often do we consider moving on, and do we even think of the summer drought.and what it does to a plug!!
and yes you will get kicked out of a park and not be ask to come back! here were a back up plan comes in to play.
farm fields that have been harvest and or patch of woods. look 4 areas were they dont care about you digging!
it is up to all of us to do the rite thing, and promote the hobby of metal detecting,with the highes regard 4 other
people,and there land.



minelabbob

 

[Justme]

Killing me but I've suspended my football fields for now until a few good rains

 

[Bell-Two]

Yes we haven't been out lately since it has been so dry. Last hunt was at my nephews place an old house he is going to gut and redo he said the entire ground is going to be torn up and he didn't care what it looked like. Even so we were as careful as we could be.

 

[BigTony]

Yup, I stopped detecting awhile back.....too dry in NJ.....and I am not fond of beach hunting in the sun.
I recently went to a scrapped constructon site and it was so dry the dust was swelling up as I walked around.
I was able to dig because this entire parcel of land will have several new homes built and all new lawns.
But even here I was not able to dig ---- just too dry.

 

[Digger]

Yep. But even when the ground is too dry or too frozen to dig, there is a bright side........2 months of summer heat + 3 months of winter frozen ground = 5 months to spend on research for places to hunt those other 7 months. HH Randy

 

[Stever0812]

Yes I am dying to get out, but wayyyyy too dry in upstate ny.

 

[GKMan]

The other day on my way through Gloversville NY I saw a guy detecting a park and shook my head. The grass around him was pretty brown already.

 

[Andy Sabisch]

I've stopped and talked to people doing that before - most do not realize what they are doing and will stop. Twice I called the Parks Department and they ran the guy off when he said I needed to mind my own business - hunting there was my business so I made sure he was recalibrated

 

[glenn3-88]

Andy,
I am now hunting 3 parks in my home town that is off limits to hunters. What happened was when I got my CTX the police went out
to the park and told me that they just ran off a guy for messing up the grass. After discussing the fact that there were no laws against
hunting I asked the 2 policemen (one of which was the chief) to show me one of the 29 holes I dug. They could not. Then the Parks
Dept. Director came up and he too agreed that I was doing a good job of repairing my marks. That was Aug. 4. Approx. 2 weeks later
the Director called me and needed my help locating the sprinkler heads for the park football field. Being retired I had no problem being
"Johnny on the Spot" for him and located every one of them in 45 minutes. He was really impressed. His words to me were exactly
this--""If anybody gives you any mouth about being out here you give me them my phone number (and he gave it to me) or you tell them
to come see me""". If anyone else comes here to metal detect, and You want to take responsibility for them and the kind of detecting they
do then you let them hunt. If you don't know them send them on down the road. Thanks to Xchange2 I can attest to 249 finds thus far.
He also "urged" me to try another park in town that was older and the original high school that was built in 1923. I ran up on another
hunter before I got my CTX at another school out in the country and he was making such a mess that I called my neighbor (sheriff's deputy)
and made a report after I ran him off so they wouldn't think it was me. Deputy found out he was from another county and told him if he
ever caught him back in Marion County he would lock him up until he paid for the damage he did. We as a group must weed out by
whatever means we have to those who do not respect and care for the land. If we don't, we can all sell our detectors and buy a checkers
game and sit on the corner for the rest of our days

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Interesting story Glenn. Do you realize another outcome of this could have been the following:

The md'r is accosted by the cops, who boot him out of the park. The md'r, asks "why?" (as you did) and is told "because of holes". The md'r, not wishing to have any confrontation or be seen as "argumentative", obediently tucks his tale between his legs and leaves

Then the md'r tells his fellow hobbyists in his town that "the parks are off-limits now". Those hunters, in turn, tell other md'rs they know. Afterall, that's what friends are for, and ..... you wouldn't want to get a ticket or confiscations afterall!

Someone posts it on a forum somewhere, that "such & such city parks are off-limits". That gets picked up in subsequent google searches, and linked to compediums being made of laws, rules, etc.... Others find it, and take it to heart, and link it to yet-other-sites.

Before long, it's just taken as gospel fact.

I know this sounds silly, but I have often seen THIS EXACT THING HAPPEN. Here's a typical example:

Someone comes on a forum asking "is md'ing allowed at such & such park [or beach or whatever]?". Someone else comes on and says "no, it's not allowed". I come on asking the person who gave that answer "where did you get you rinformation? Ie.: "says who?". The answerer links me to the location he got that from. And it will be someone else's earlier post, on some other forum, where this was said. Ie.: someone posted "it's not allowed". Notice that the MERE FACT of seeing it in print somewhere, automatically bodes in people's minds as "law" now.

And then one day, 20 yrs. later, md'rs look around at each other asking themselves "says who?" and "where is that written?".

 

[INSAYN]

Yup, other than a few water hunts I pretty much clean, charge and store my detector until the fall/winter rainy season is in full swing. I have other hobbies that are better use of the hotter drier months without killing grass. Instead I get to kill fish in the ocean via sit on top kayak. This summer (last week actually) I caught my first EVER Chinook salmon from my kayak. Did it completely wrong in the eyes of the elite.

It was like metal detecting with a Radio Shack detector and finding a silver dime at 6", it should not have worked.

Let me set the stage for ya.

Fishing in the ocean. Just launched through the surf and got out to maybe 15 ft of water behind the surf zone.
Stopped to pull my gear out of the hull, set up the fish finder/gps unit, fishing rods, fishing hat, sun glasses and all things that need to be topside for a day of fishing that could get lost if I was unsuccessful in my surf launch.

I was using my Shakespeare Tinkerbell kiddie fishing rod, spooled with 20lb braid and tipped with a 6" white curly tail grub on 1oz jig head. Yes, this bottom fishing gear at it's finest.
Flipped the curly tail out to my side about 15', left the bail open and began my slow troll out to the first set of wash rocks (about 1/2 mile away). I made it maybe 20 yards, closed the bail and figured I had enough line out to trigger a strike from something near the bottom. Instantly I got the tug, and thought I had snagged bottom but I'm still over sand and only in 20 feet of water.

WAIT!!! What the heck! Head shakes and a tail walk just to my side. Freaking salmon!

For the next 10 minutes I was on in a tug of war with this 15lb fish. He would test my 2' long kiddie rod's drag pulling several feet off the reel at a time, then I would reel it back. Over and over this went on, all while I was being pulled in a clockwise circle.

Finally it tired out and I was able to bring it starboard side and take a good look at.

Reminder, I wasn't salmon fishing so I didn't have a net on board. Screw it! He's whooped so out came the lip grippers.
Three attempts at it's pointed mouth and BAM, got it! A quick lift and into my lap, and covered with crossed legs to keep it from going nutz and jumping back over board.

Ran the stainless steel game clip through it's gills and out the mouth and pinned it shut.

DONE!!!

This fish is mine!

My 3rd longest fish ever at 35" inches, first salmon ever from any craft or shore. And I was only on the water a total 20 minutes by the time I had this fish bled and bagged behind me.


Okay okay, I know this was dirt fishing related but is a good example of how to kill time between wet seasons.
So looking forward to digging my first plug of this coming wet season. I have a new spot to milk on Sunday mornings and really hoping for my first Barber coin.
I've got Mercs, and Seated, but no Barbers!

 

[KinTN]

....I was using my Shakespeare Tinkerbell kiddie fishing rod....

Hilarious! Would love to see a pic of your fishing gear!

I too kayak fish, but haven't yet gotten out in the salty stuff yet.
I still haven't gotten a depth/fishfinder unit either. I don't want to put much into a kayak one, but don't want crap either. Can you recommend one? Mainly going to use it as a depth indicator to locate the offshore bars.

 

[INSAYN]

....I was using my Shakespeare Tinkerbell kiddie fishing rod....

Hilarious! Would love to see a pic of your fishing gear!

I too kayak fish, but haven't yet gotten out in the salty stuff yet.
I still haven't gotten a depth/fishfinder unit either. I don't want to put much into a kayak one, but don't want crap either. Can you recommend one? Mainly going to use it as a depth indicator to locate the offshore bars.

To keep from getting this thread too off topic, I sent you a PM.

 

[DetectorCdunk]

Having to jump onto your sampson t-handle for 3-4hrs takes a toll, going to do ole rain dance soon. Been dry while visiting home for 3weeks and the dry speel I guess has lasted longer than that.

 

[INSAYN]

It's been since at least April/May of this year that I was actively detecting, and dirt started to dry up and the kayak fishing season started to take off. But, yesterday my detecting/fishing buddy and I just had to get out and do something, as we were both bored. We hit our "hunted out" park near his house again, and both of us pounded the still solid ground for a few hours with the Sampson ground negotiators. I believe he only managed to scratch up a handful rusty nails, and I managed 3 surface zincolns, one crusty 50's wheatie, one nail and 3 broken beaver tails. We kept it short and simple, as detecting uses different muscles than our summer kayak fishing muscles that are finely tuned. So far today, I just need coffee and not a full body massage (although I would not mind one).

Since I don't normally dig dry dead grassy areas, I hadn't really put together a solid way to make my dry dusty plug look feasible before moving to the next target. However, yesterday quite by accident I came across a method that I feel is worth merit. Once I had my target removed from the hole, I would take some of the very dry loose soil from the bottom of the hole and more or less pour it round the perimeter of the open hole. Then just plop my plug back in the hole where it will now sink just a bit and reduce the dreaded stomping needed to get it packed in there. Then push that perimeter soil around the edges of the hole and swipe the coil or my foot over it a few times to evenly spread everything level and pretty. Magically the plug disappears and totally blends in to the surrounding dead grass. Done!

Looking forward to the rainy season to soak things a bit.