Hunting Snow Piles In Parking Lots

[Critterhunter]

I've heard of this type of winter detecting in the past but never tried it. I could see why you'd find a lot of rings, coins, and other items this way. People reaching for keys in their pockets with cold hands, slipping a ring off by accident or dropping a few coins. Think about it, all that square footage of ground is being "hunted" by the snow plow and deposited in one nice small area for you. I'm no expert on cement so I would have to wonder if all blacktop store parking lots have metal rebar in them like many sidewalks and driveways do. If they all do then I could see where this might be a problem. Anybody done this type of hunting and how well have you done? Are all the large parking lots at stores going to have rebar? Might have to hit a few today and see for myself. Perhaps the iron mask nulling feature on my Sovereign GT can still produce a decent signal while ignoring the rebar. Enough to hunt it, anyway.

 

[Joel-Winnipeg]

Early last spring I did some of that snow pile hunting.
As it was melting you can see lots of sand and junk foil and nuts and bolts etc.
all kinds of trash. The only problem is the coins and jewelry were covered with a thin layer of gray dirt which made it hard to find the good stuff.
I went back after a good rain and saw the coins laying around that I'd missed with the detector.
Just be ready to find lots of junk crushed pop cans ,pulltabs etc. for the good stuff.
Also Got to get there before they sweep the area clean.

 

[etracjoe]

There would be no rebar in the lot itself unless made of cement. there is no use of rebar in asphalt but they would usually push the snow to the curb which could be cement, and would have rebar. Great idea though. I work for a paving/plow company and we do a huge mall here in NY. I always thought of doing the area in the spring where they put all the snow because here we haul it all out on dumptrucks and put it all in one massive pile. They have been doing this for 20 plus years. And im pretty sure never been detected.

 

[JOHNMARKHAM]

intresting thought...im sure theres stuff to be found but im sure allot of junk too..but it would be interesting to try ...let us know how you do...

 

[Bugar In. USA]

I tried it i finaally gave up, was so many cans, antennas, door handles, and trash, If you had the time to pick the trash up, there's good stuff there, HEY, mebbe get a job with the parkin lot owner to pick up trash, and carry the detector along, get paid if you don't find stuff , that be cool, there is good stuff there, Don't need worry bout Iron mask, just trash

 

[Flapjack]

Another good place to detect in the snow is at places where people sled down hills, at the bottom of the hill.