Some of you have posted that you are "running out of places to detect" or are having "dry periods".Here is what I have been doing to keep that from happening when I get to those times...seeing I am dealing with an endless "honey do list as of late"...I have been compiling a 3 ring binder book (actually books) of all the old houses dating from 1959 to my earliest date 1900 (you could probably go into the early 1960's to still find silver coins but I chose 1959 as a target date) and researching alot of historical data for this county to add to these books.
You can get the plastic insert paper protectors that go in these binders to place your subject homes in at any office supply store or Walmart. If your county has a website that has their GIS mapping option available too you and you search the aerials you can pretty much see older homes this way. Get the section, township, and ranges of these target homes (our addresses) and access your Property Appraisers website to find the info on the target home plus the owners address info for contacting. I write down the home or homes designated letter (home "A", "B", "C", etc..) with the owners name and address info under the letter and under this I put the earliest date shown for the home. The Property Appraisers info should give you the AYB (About Year Built date) and this is what I use for my reference material in these books. Usually you can go back several years and see where older homes were located and replaced with newer homes. Also you may be able to check plat records and such for more possible info for old sites.
I have easily collected over 200 targets in these books so far as of date and I have not completed but 1/5th of the county. The second book I have separated info for county parks, public places of interest, historical areas on private lands, known "hot locations" that may be as simple as a topo map marked with the known location, beaches, boat ramps, fair site locations, special event locations, old maps, historical documents that reveal potential locations, etc...
I will be sending letters in the mail soon to these potential target owners and hopefully a few or more may respond with "yes" to access their properties. After all asking is the first step. This opens a whole lot of options and will keep you from "drying out" with detecting locations.
When I get out of this "home repair/yard upgrade honey do list" I should have many potential places to get out and detect.
Just think of the potentials if you add surrounding county information and locations or other states to this list! You could be very busy for quite a long time.
Don
You can get the plastic insert paper protectors that go in these binders to place your subject homes in at any office supply store or Walmart. If your county has a website that has their GIS mapping option available too you and you search the aerials you can pretty much see older homes this way. Get the section, township, and ranges of these target homes (our addresses) and access your Property Appraisers website to find the info on the target home plus the owners address info for contacting. I write down the home or homes designated letter (home "A", "B", "C", etc..) with the owners name and address info under the letter and under this I put the earliest date shown for the home. The Property Appraisers info should give you the AYB (About Year Built date) and this is what I use for my reference material in these books. Usually you can go back several years and see where older homes were located and replaced with newer homes. Also you may be able to check plat records and such for more possible info for old sites.
I have easily collected over 200 targets in these books so far as of date and I have not completed but 1/5th of the county. The second book I have separated info for county parks, public places of interest, historical areas on private lands, known "hot locations" that may be as simple as a topo map marked with the known location, beaches, boat ramps, fair site locations, special event locations, old maps, historical documents that reveal potential locations, etc...
I will be sending letters in the mail soon to these potential target owners and hopefully a few or more may respond with "yes" to access their properties. After all asking is the first step. This opens a whole lot of options and will keep you from "drying out" with detecting locations.
When I get out of this "home repair/yard upgrade honey do list" I should have many potential places to get out and detect.
Just think of the potentials if you add surrounding county information and locations or other states to this list! You could be very busy for quite a long time.
Don