Crop circles in local park?

[Steve Keppel]

Went to a nearby park to hunt and relax [park has little to offer over the years], but just the opposite occurred. Looking around, I could see 6-inch brown circles, quite visible from a distance, in sharp contrast to the deep green of the grass. Alien crop circles? No. My guess is that some idiot with a shovel and detector had been there some days earlier, and either didn't know how to pin-point or just didn't care. I was boiling mad-my park had been violated! The 6-inch divots were about 3 inches deep, and you could easily lift them out of the ground. I drove around to some other parks on the chance of spotting this guy, as well as to alert groundskeepers to keep an eye out. Also went to city's park headquarters and complained. I wanted to be on the offensive, not defensive. Last weekend I saw someone hunting a school ground. He had a long-handled narrow red spade. He's my prime suspect!

 

[asiandigger]

Went to a nearby park to hunt and relax [park has little to offer over the years], but just the opposite occurred. Looking around, I could see 6-inch brown circles, quite visible from a distance, in sharp contrast to the deep green of the grass. Alien crop circles? No. My guess is that some idiot with a shovel and detector had been there some days earlier, and either didn't know how to pin-point or just didn't care. I was boiling mad-my park had been violated! The 6-inch divots were about 3 inches deep, and you could easily lift them out of the ground. I drove around to some other parks on the chance of spotting this guy, as well as to alert groundskeepers to keep an eye out. Also went to city's park headquarters and complained. I wanted to be on the offensive, not defensive. Last weekend I saw someone hunting a school ground. He had a long-handled narrow red spade. He's my prime suspect!

I agree with you, I posted on this site Shovel in public parks awhile back and got a lot of responses. Here where I'm at, we have some guys in the club whom uses shovel, I hated it and do not want to go detecting with them. There excuse is that they have bad back and can't bend down. I've been to a local park here one time and there was a about 40 plugs I can see that was horribly dug. I had to step on each and everyone of them so the lawn mower wouldn't suck it up. Just don't know why people have to dig a complete circle plug which you can pull it straight out of the ground. I dig a right angle, 3 side plug where I can just lift it up and retrieve my target and step it back down, the right angle will keep it from lifting out.... there's never a signs I've been there. This way I have one side which isn't cut and can still support it in case a lawn mower comes by. I guess some MD are in the wrong hobby.

 

[mudpuppy]

For some reason, myth, legend, lure of old silver coins, Atocha gold, whatever it is... Mostly ALL lone wolf new comers to our sport THINK they need to DIG a hole to retrieve a target...now if a guy was hunting in the woods or a plowed field, OK...but in ANY public park or Lord forbid, an active sports field...99.99 percent of the targets can get grabbed with nothing more than a screwdriver...definitely the signs of a noob when a guy comes across a plug the size of a garbage can lid for a 2" deep zinc penny, and missed it at that.....

I was lucky enough to run into an old timer on one of my very first outings afield who showed me the screwdriver trick and got me started off right, or I woulda been out there myself with a D handle tiling spade, a wheelbarrow for the finds, and a miners pick! ...One good thing I guess, these noobs will get tired pretty fast with poor results digging a big hole for a clad dime or shallow penny...bad thing is theres a new crop of them every year, and for some reason, they believe thats the only way to recover a target? Where did they get this notion? Do they think theres massive amounts of old silver coins all over the place in public settings? Who led them to believe this? I doubt theres anything official we can do about this conundrum except stay as fast and invisible as possible so as not to incur the wrath of the groundskeepers..all the detector mfgs never jump up and get involved in this issue as far as I can see, and nor will any of the distributors...no, they will sell a noob a rig and the very next thing a lesche.. then of course upsell the 'mark' a pinpointer too...(we've all been the mark once right?) OK, so a few of them will put some bullcrap "ethics" list together in fine print and toss it into the owners manual...

I know this is a tough subject, the right way to dig a plug and all that...but theres plenty of members here that never carry anything except a screwdriver and rack up over 10k coins per year....I'm sure if a guy thinks back, most of us were pretty dumb about this in one form or another and either learned through experience, or got discouraged and dropped out....if you are reading this, you learned!
Note: if you are accidentally seen by anybody while detecting a public area, (which should never happen under any circumstances) they should dismiss you as a yard boy with an electric weedwacker, and are either palsied in the knees, or genuflecting every so often...so dress and act accordingly, and you should have no trouble....
Mud

 

[ajaj]

I wholeheartedly agree with leaving as little a trace as possible; but, can someone tell me how to recover an Indian Head penny or Seated Liberty dime at 6 inches depth using a screwdriver in my local urban park? Using a screwdriver is great if you know you are digging clad (crap, but great beer money) and it's shallow (most likely freshly dropped), but it's difficult otherwise.

aj

 

[mudpuppy]

Yeah, sorry Ajaj, I should have stipulated that..I was speaking of targets a noob generally hears....a noob will not know the tone of an indian head, clad Q, manhole cover, sprinkler head, or a silver dime on the surface or anywhere else for that matter, let alone 6-8" deep.....you know what I'm saying though right? ...I'm sure a lot of us can dig a nice tidy hole quickly and leave with the target and no trace..as well as look the part and not display any big excavating tools full view....its just the dopes wandering around in daylight in a public park with a garden spade...full disclosure: if the signal is sweet enough, and theres nobody around to see what I'm up to, then yes! We all know by the tone and size at this juncture after this much time afield if its worth the dig..a danged old noob will dig up the footers of a swing set in the playground of a gated grade school in full daylight, in session, with a backhoe, hoping the signal is a mason jar full of Peace Dollars!
Mud

 

[Ayeti65]

Mud you have such a way of putting things, we have been suffering the same problems here locally. I suppose the TV shows have got people more interested in the hobby, plus all these groups on facebook I see noobs on there all the time. As stated earlier, we all were "noobs" once, but I would wager to say most of us had someone show us "how to", or at least a "moral compas" that told us we should leave as small of an impact on places as we can, so we can return again another day. I strongly think that the detector manufactors and the sales people should make it up front and their top priority to educate people, on how to do things in a proper way, it wouldn't bother me a bit if they took time in their TV shows to ask people to go to special educational channels on youtube for "how to's" from the "pros". If we aren't careful we will lose our spots to hunt due to this, people will be upset, no longer willing to allow permisson to hunt areas due to the actions of just a few people, cities will make it impossible to hunt parks, or worse, illegal.
'

 

[William-NM]

Anyone with an ounce of common sense knows enough to read and follow the 'Code of Ethics' (that's in the manual), follow one or more forums, keep a low profile and try to be an ambassador for the hobby. The others are unlikely to bother, but a gentle reminder is in order if you see an 'ethically-challenged' newb. If that doesn't work, try a sharp tap on the noggin with a 4" x 4" ...