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:veryangry:I was Doing Some Coin Hunting In A Sports Field This Weekend And Man Am I Ever Angry :nono:

John-Edmonton

John-Edmonton

Moderator
Staff member
Some idiot had recently hunted this sports field at a school, and had dug like 10-12 inch square holes, plugs only 1/2 inch thick, DEAD.....with the corners flipping up because they were so dry. They were brown, and stood out like the spots on a leopard against the lush, green grass. If someone cannot pinpoint at all, and needs to cut up a plug larger then the coil on his/her machine, they deserve to be caught and fined for damaging public property. There was most certainly a target in the dirt, probably on old goal post. The audio remained intense even with the coil at 3 feet over the target. As I walked around the field, there were dozens of these! On a nearby hill, someone had again dug multiple targets 2 feet around the base of a tree. Can't they figure out that a lot of large trees are planted with a metal cage around the root ball to keep the dirt and roots intact? It's been about 15 years since I have been warned by a park maintenance to not dig holes, because someone decided that the easiest way to get a target is to use a garden spade.

If I ever see anyone in a park or school property with a any type of handled shovel or army trench shovel, they are going to get a lecture, and if they tell me where to go, I am going to take photos of them, the holes and call the police. NOBODY should be digging large plugs in a city park or sports fields. All you need is a screwdriver and/or an electric pinpointer to find the target, then carefully pull it out of the ground with minimal damage. If you want to dig deep holes, go get permission to hunt plowed homestead fields and knock yourself out. NOT IN THE CITY PLEASE!

Folks.....there's enough areas in a city to share for a everyone. Use your common sense, and get the coins, jewelery or whatever you hunt and don't leave any trace of it. Schools and sports fields are especially sensitive areas. I know. Both my oldest sons played and coached soccer. Games are cancelled from heavy rains because the city wants to protect the turf. There are soccer moms and dads at all the games in their neighborhoods. If you hunt sports fields...there is someone probably watching you. Crime is running rapid in all neighborhoods. Don't ruin it for the majority PLEASE.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to deal with people who dig 10 inch plugs for a coin at 2 inches deep?:shrug:

Anyone else having issues?
 
someone here in Boise Idaho went to a location on the historic Oregon trail ,they dug over 300 holes which were left open .They do not know who did this yet but it is a federal offense ,the people who did this punched this hobby in the face with a very negative image,it was on the news
 
And that kind of information getting on the news brings it out to the public eye and really accelerates the process of getting metal detecting either banned or restricted. Not good.
 
Thanks for your reply.....I want my kids to enjoy this hobby with their own kids later on in life. Targets will always be there.......permission to get them might not.
 
Somebody with NO common sense. Thats the problem, most laws, restrictions and the associated fines imposed are due to people that have no common sense! Bummer!:sadwalk:
Mud
 
Those kind of things sicken me to no end. I've been enjoying this hobby for almost 50 years and all it takes is a few (very few) idiots to screw things up. For most people, perception is reality.
 
John,

There is no cure for stupid.

God knows I've tried to discover one.
 
I am going to do a presentation on how to get coins/rings out of the ground properly, and pin it at the top of this page. Hopefully that might help some people who seem to be drastically struggling.
 
Hopefully, if someone else ( that means you ) sees someone damaging property to get at a target, they will spend a few minutes to address that person on proper target retrieval and the warning that failing to do so will get us all banned from the hobby.
 
This is a very good (hopefully eye opening) post/thread & posts such as these indeed do need to be made!----It also actually breaks my heart to read them due to the fact of seeing/knowing the direction this great, wonderful hobby of ours is going because of the actions of a few IDIOTS (mainly in target recovery).----I have "preached" along these lines for years.----The sad part of it is---the ones that need to hear all this the most are the ones that never read the words of wisdom/common sense.---I also think the ones that are doing these things & know better are the same ones that just plain "couldn't give a ---- less", they are the ones that are putting the final nails in our coffin.-----We are loosing ground boys--literally.-------Somehow, some way, there HAS to be a way to educate (or wake up) the minority in this hobby that are doing the damage, it's killing us.------If not, in the future, you & I are going to see signs such as the ones John posted all across these lands.----------Del
 
John just this year I was kicked out of a very productive park where my wife, brother and I have found many nice old coins and relics. The day i was told we had to leave was a very upsetting day for me. This park is close to home and a nice play to go when you only had a small amount of time.

The gentlemen who asked us to leave said someone has been digging holes and not filling them and digging holes in the ball field and killing grass. He admitted to me that our plugs were very nice and he couldnt tell where we have dug. Otherwords, a perfect case of somebody else ruining a great place to detect for responsible detectorists. The man told me that no signs have been put up yet but they were being made because i did argue a bit about no signs or rules posted against detecting. He iinformed me that if he couldnt convince me to leave he would call someone who could. So we left since the last thing i wanted to do was push the issue. Needless to say, their website now clearly states no metal detecting allowed and i suspect the signs are there on site as well.

I know the good Lord says to love one another but if i knew who it was that caused this to happen and us reaponsible detectorists to lose a valued site like this i sadly would have to say that i would have probably rung this persons neck.
 
Thanks for sharing your story. It's a factual example of what happens when property get damaged. And often times, it doesn't take very much either.
 
Well hey lets get more shows like "Diggers" and "Dig Wars" showing everyone how they can get rich with a metal detector. With no metion about resposible detecting or how a metal detector works. That will help right. But hey as long as the manufactures sell more machines, who cares if there is no where to go detect.
 
I believe those detecting shows are a HUGE problem....they show the guy whipping out a lesche and digging a hole in a well manicured lawn, big enough to get a good camera shot and use the pinpointer of course...so all the no-common sense newbies figure its just fine, to go ahead and use the shovel wherever they want..as in every outdoor pursuit oriented sport, theres always a dummy that ruins it for the rest of us no matter how hard a fellow tries to educate or police his own ranks...the hunters got together and formed power political consortiums like DU to protect their hunting rights and areas from dummys...we have no such structure that lobbies for the good of the sport, not that I entirely agree with that anyway, its just what it is. .
Mud.
 
The shows are definetly increasing the number of users. I believe there are at least 4 detecting reality shows currently.
 
I hope that they are aware of the damage being caused by a large influx of new users, as well as the dealers. Everyone loses in the long run.....
 
I ran into a man and his young son at our local high a few years back, digging away out in the football practice field with a cheapo detector and a freakin' garden shovel!! Holes the size of a football and they weren't putting the sod back, just leaving the holes. I was on 'em in a heartbeat and made sure they were aware of the proper way to hunt and dig. I tried to do it in a way that wouldn't embarrass the dad in front of his son. I worked with them for about an hour, loaning them my digger, probe and pinpointer and showing them a few things about use of their detector. They seemed to get it and were appreciative of the help. I've never seen them again, maybe they didn't find too much in subsequent hunts and gave up detecting. But if you see someone screwing up out there, don't confront them, offer to show them the right way of detecting and digging and the importance of protecting our hobby!!
 
I read this post and remember when I first got started in the hobby back in December 2007. I praticed in my own yard first and read the posts on this forum several years before I got out in public and learned how to recover my targets with the least amount of damage. Getting the propointer and learning to pinpoint with my detector coil were the keys to faster and better recovery of my finds. When I finally started going to places that had grass, I knew how to dig where most people could not go behind me and tell I had been there. This was motivated by wanting to do this and not get kicked out of a park or ballfield and being a positive influence on our hobby. Some people want to do better, but don't know and some just don't care and they are the ones who hurt our hobby the most. When I'm in the woods or a field, I carry a shovel. This serves two purposes. One, it helps me recover deep targets quickly and I still make cuts in three sides of the ground and fold the plug back over and two, it helps me get up using the shovel to stand. Out in public areas, I use the screwdriver for shallow targets and the probe and propointer and deeper targets I use my garrett digger and cut the smallest plug possibe.
Having said all this there are people who think they have the right to do anything they want to on public or private property. A landowner gave me permission to metal detect her property and said people had been going out there taking artifacts like arrowheads and other stuff without her permission and someone told my pastor they had recovered over 200 arrowheads from this property. I told him to let them know if I saw them on the property, I had the landowner's permission to call the law and I also contacted the DNR and the local sheriff's office about this. I haven't been able to get out there but twice, but people like this who are in it for the money make it hard for people who respectfully ask for permission and don't deserve any slack.
 
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