Clearing a spot in my yard for a coin garden that leads to a NEW hunting location

[MarkCZ]

Well, I live in what at one time was a golf course and about three houses up from me is this log house. So today I was out in my front yard clearing a spot with my 1266 to plant a US war nickle to add to my 8" test garden when the owner pulls up in his car and starts talking to me about his place (the log house cabin) he says that his place is pretty old and he thought it would be interesting to detect it (he don't have a detector) From that as surprised as I was, I jump at the chance to get permission and though he seemed to want to do it while he was there (some Saturday) he said we could split the findings (I plan on before I spend much time hunting his place to work out some more details on "Splitting the finds"??
Anyway back to the property,
I knew that when this was a golf course that the cabin was the club house and right across the street is a little place (building) that was the pro-shop (no place to hunt there). But what I didn't know was that the log cabin and property is 115 years old I just thought it was built as a cabin for the golf course, so the owner is telling me that when he bought the place and checked out the dead that is "115 years old" what that means is when they built the golf course this cabin was on the property and they converted it to the club house and arranged the golf course around it, then added the store (pro-shop) across the incoming drive.

The property set vacant for a couple of years and I never thought to hunt it because I didn't figure it was really old enough to find anything really old on it, turns out I was wrong.

For now I told the guy that it has been to hot and to dry to really dig anything, but we did work out a best day of the week for him and that would be a Saturday. So, I'm waiting for a little damper cooler condition to take him up on his offer.

The moral of this story is sometimes just out in your front lawn with a detector can open up an opportunity for a possible GOOD hunting spot!
As for my yard, well I've been using it for a testing ground for ALL my detectors sense about 1982 LOL! and now for practice I just go out and dig some low conductive targets like nails, screws pull tabs, ect.. but its still good to do when I need to test a detector and I don't have time to really go somewhere. Maybe today it may have landed me a hunting spot that is a close walk away, and over 100 years old!

Mark

 

[JimmyCT]

Way to go Mark!. Yes, I would make sure he clarifies "splitting the finds" because if that is the case, dig every junk signal and give it to him. Then maybe he will become disgusted and back off with his idea of "splitting the finds" - just a thought. Hope things work out and you locate some nice stuff. - Jim

Side note -

I remember this woman asking me to hunt her home that was built in the 1700's (I live in New England) She wanted me to travel an hour to her house, teach her all about metal detectors then metal detect her multi-acre property....and then she would decide what I could keep and what I could not.(basically she would be hanging over me while detecting) I am all for negotiating (to a point) but there was no negotiating with this woman. I can see she would of given me a rusty horseshoe for my time. lol Thanks but no thanks lol I will spend my time elsewhere. I truly hope this doesn't happen to you. Best of luck and keep us posted.

 

[smell]

When I first told a cousin of mine about metal detecting she started ranting about how I can't go onto peoples property and steal what they have. I don't understand the mindset that when asking permission someone doesn't understand what the purpose is of why we hunt. If it's about being stingy and deciding what we can 'have' then I wouldn't waste my time, IF the property owner is interested in history and the thrill of the hunt then I would have no problem on sharing the finds.

To me it's more about the history and the thrill of the hunt, not looking for a 'get rich quick' scheme. Since my cousin ranted at me about how she felt and how she thought others would feel about the idea of hunting on their property, it made me realize that even though people don't know or care what is buried that they wouldn't want you looking, recovering and preserving what is there because they would feel like you are 'stealing' from them......I don't have a problem sharing the sport and explaining myself but just some people.....also I'm not going to just hand over everything I dig, if the owner isn't interested in history, learning the sport and seems to be just about keeping the finds then they can go buy a detector and dig it themselves.

It's more about the research and tracking down places that will pay off on hunts, just as a deer hunter won't go out to the middle of the ocean, or just handing over the finds to someone, for myself it's about learning history, seeing research pay off and enjoying the finds, if sharing the finds with a property owner that feels the same way then I have no problem with splitting the finds, if I feel like they want to 'keep it all' or seem to want to profit then I say "NO" and move on. Unlike what my cousin thought I was getting into this sport by stealing from people, I'm trying to share an experience and learn about history and myself, but in the best case scenario once I ask and get permission to hunt I would prefer to do it alone without anyone standing over me.

 

[MarkCZ]

WoW! this is unbelievable

The cabin I was taking about is home to two adults and their 9 year old son.
Just a little bit ago 12:30am I was getting ready for bed when I noticed a car with it flashers on about 50 feet down the street from my house, I then noticed a lot of lights a little farther down the street, then through the lights I seen smoke.
Its raining out so I put on a rain jacket and walked up the road to find out that the cabin is fully engulf in flames!
People on the seen said that it came across the scanner that ALL the people that lived there is safe and accounted for. Its really sad know that these people have lost everything they owned.
And its a bit sad that the little land mark 115 year cabin will be gone!
Its literately on fire as I type, (its 1:10am now)
The fire department was already on seen before I even knew it was on fire. I didn't see anything that I could do but like the others just stand there and watch someone else's home burn down.

Mark

 

[Dodqe]

Man, that's horrible! Glad no one was hurt though. Fires that start in the middle of the night are the most deadly. Scary.

 

[MarkCZ]

Pictures I took this morning.

It wouldn't have been a large piece of property to metal detect.
I may get to detect it someday after the family recovers ALL their loses.

Mark