Pa State Park MD rules

[Elric]

I live in Pennsylvania and am new to the hobby and just purchased a new Fisher F70 and just ran into my first snag, finding good places to hunt that are allowable. Here is my big question that I want to see how you guys interpret. MD is allowed in Pa State Park in certain areas and during certain times of the year in other areas. These are their rules for retrieval of targets in the ground (ie digging a plug): "Shovels, spades, garden trowels, and other similar tools may not be used to dig into or turn over ground areas that are covered by turf, vegetation, shrubs, or trees. Permissible digging tools are screwdrivers, ice picks, and other similar narrow pronged devices." I always cut a square plug under the grass roots, refilled the hole with the dirt when done and tamped the plug down neatly and firmly..., but exactly how does one use a screw driver or ice pick type tool to find the targeted object or better yet get it out of the ground!! I am confused, can anybody help me with these rules?

 

[mudlizard]

n/t

 

[Boris]

I have done this and a buddy does it almost exclusively, after pinpointing the target in whichever manner you want (the pinpoint option or the "x"ing the target option) you can use a pick for a probe and gently jab it into the soil "till you feel the target, then stick your screwdriver under the target and pry it out of the ground. It will be difficult at first but after a while it gets easier. I gained a lot of knowledge here in this forum and one idea I got was to use and old solid fiberglass fishing rod, cut it down to 8" leave the handle on it and use that instead of a pic as not to damage the target,,,,, I used and old ice fishing pole and it works quite well.

 

[Daniel A.]

I almost always use a scewdriver you need a good pinpointer then when you have the target push the scewdriver into the ground to probe until you feel the target.
Then open the ground with the scewdriver and pop the target. Reseal the slit and move on to the next target, if the ground is to dry this won't work well but then one should not be hunting groomed parks in those conditions as the grass will be damaged and we all pay the price for it. In some areas birds come along and pull the plugs and thats why some parks have made rules like that even though a plug looks great, also if its to dry the plug won't recover. HH Dan

 

[jackintexas]

Is that the way you retrieve coins that are 5--6--or 7 inches deep?

 

[SpokaneDigger]

I locate target with the tiny tec probe. It has a 8 1/2 in tip on it. At this point i have a hole just big enough for my finger to fit in. I slide my finger in the hole with my brass probe along side and move the probe around my finger untill i feel the coin move.Then pin the coin between my finger and brass probe and pull out. If that dont work i get the backhoe out!!! Deeper targets just require i little big hole so i can get a few fingers in.
So many rocks can feel like coins and incase anybody cares I HATE PULL TABS!!!!!!!

 

[Rivermarine1]

Not wanting to take you away from this good site, but here is a link that might be of help. It shows different way of retrieving coins.

http://greatlakesmetaldetecting.com/phpBB3/portal.php