What about tot lots?

maxxkatt · Nov 10, 2018

I am 7 hours away from any ocean beaches and 40 minutes south of Lake Lanier. Not much luck lake beach hunting, because one guy I know hits those beaches 5 days a week or more.

So left with new parks from the 1980's with volley ball courts and tot lots. All the old parks in Atlanta are in unsafe areas of the town.

Have found most jewelry this year from volley ball courts. Three items.

But tot lots I hit occasionally and find mainly bobby pins and clad. Never any gold or silver jewelry.

Where to hunt in a tot lot. Swings, slides, climbing things?

How often to you hunt tot lots per month and what time of day do you hit them.

Need to know if I am missing a good hunting area in tot lots.

Timbertodd · Nov 10, 2018

My favorite areas are the swings and monkey bars where the kids can hang upside down. I will cover the whole area though. I have had good luck with gold/silver jewelry finds.

DIGGER27 · Nov 10, 2018

Those volleyball courts, do you mostly just hunt the sand?
The reason I ask is even though many great things have been found in the sand for me the perimeter is where it's at.
On volleyball courts but especially around basketball courts.
That is where people make piles of their clothes and sometimes put their jewelry in those piles because they don't want to lose them on the courts.
Sometimes, a lot of times, they forgot that jewelry was in those profiles and it drops out when they pick up their stuff to leave.
I have found many silver rings around mostly basketball courts, some fantastic silver chains, too, including a rope chain that weighed almost an ounce.
Oh yea, also one gold religious medallion and about 11 gold rings.

As far as tot lots good stuff can be anywhere but the better mom and dad jewelry should be looked for in places where adults hang out and interact with their kids.
Behind swings, at the bottom of slides, all around the base of monkey bars or any other climbing apparatus.
Also around and under benches.

It really ups your percentages if you hunt these things with a tool that can get ultra close to the big metal, fence posts and bench legs in these sites, Tesoro Compadres and Mojaves are mind blowing great at this, but any decent detector can do a good job in a tot lot.

GroundSweeper · Nov 10, 2018

I hunted tot-lots for 4 years and never found gold only silver. Then 2018 rolled around, four golds including a 22k. 1 by by the slide, two by the swings, and one by the steps to the structure. They’re easy to hit, so I’ll keep hitting them.

sandgroper · Nov 10, 2018

Hit them as often you can. Even if I'm hunting an old park for old coins and there's a playground with sand, I'll quickly swing over the obvious spots (i.e mainly the swings, monkey bars). If I don't find anything good there then I usually just go back to the old coins.

But playgrounds are good, digging is easy and usually doesn't take that long to cover one.

amc rulz · Nov 10, 2018

I envy those that find gold. I’ve hit the playgrounds for ten years, not a single one for me. Good luck.

KinTN · Nov 10, 2018

amc rulz said:
I envy those that find gold. I’ve hit the playgrounds for ten years, not a single one for me. Good luck.

Same here. I've found a few small silver rings and plenty of junk jewelry, but no gold in years and years. Still, they are easy digging so I keep checking them from time to time.
Except the ones that have good signals below the underlying fabric of modern totlots. I hate leaving good signals behind.

.

dirtykneese · Nov 10, 2018

I have had good luck in tot lots and around the outside edges. I have many gold and silver juleary. Many chains. And hand fulls of change. nothing old. I hit the ones in my town about once a month. Early in the mornings, Before the kids show up. KEN

sandgroper · Nov 11, 2018

amc rulz said:
I envy those that find gold. I’ve hit the playgrounds for ten years, not a single one for me. Good luck.

Only ever found one playground gold in my 11 or so years of detecting, and that was a pendant found two years. (here's a picture of it, lighting isn't very good but it's a bright yellow)

Gauntlet · Nov 11, 2018

maxxkatt said:
I am 7 hours away from any ocean beaches and 40 minutes south of Lake Lanier. Not much luck lake beach hunting, because one guy I know hits those beaches 5 days a week or more.

I thought you have a Nox?

My understanding of your post, goes against what I've read regarding their abilities.

Why not hit the beaches, and find all that the other guy missed?

FreeBirdTim · Nov 11, 2018

Tot lots that have mulch in them are great for finding jewelry. Easy digging and you don't leave any trace of holes.

GLASSHOPPER1955 · Nov 11, 2018

FreeBirdTim said:
Tot lots that have mulch in them are great for finding jewelry. Easy digging and you don't leave any trace of holes.

Except those lots with the cut-up rubber tire chips. Those can drive ya nuts with all the false signals from the tire bead pieces. :mad:

georgeinsc · Nov 11, 2018

I hit tot lots from time to time. On rare occasion I might find a piece of silver jewelry but have never found anything made of gold. They are an easy detect and a lot of guys hit them.

Skippy SH13 · Nov 12, 2018

maxxkatt said:
I am 7 hours away from any ocean beaches and 40 minutes south of Lake Lanier. Not much luck lake beach hunting, because one guy I know hits those beaches 5 days a week or more.

So left with new parks from the 1980's with volley ball courts and tot lots. All the old parks in Atlanta are in unsafe areas of the town.

Have found most jewelry this year from volley ball courts. Three items.

But tot lots I hit occasionally and find mainly bobby pins and clad. Never any gold or silver jewelry.

Where to hunt in a tot lot. Swings, slides, climbing things?

How often to you hunt tot lots per month and what time of day do you hit them.

Need to know if I am missing a good hunting area in tot lots.

My best IN tot lot finds come in the cold weather, my best "around" tot lot finds come in the warm weather. Sounds counter-intuitive, as the volume of people is higher in summer, but the reality is that jewelry (especially rings) come off for a reason.

In the summer that reason is sun-screen. Most sunscreen applications are not IN the lot, but around it.

In the winter, that reason is cold hands (causing the fingers to shrink). Most cold hands are being used in and around the slides to catch kids, and at the swings pushing them.

That being said, neck jewelry and earrings are all-year-round, as the incident rate of being knocked free by kids doesn't seem to change much.

That's my take on Tot-Lots.

Also, in Atlanta, do "drive by detecting trips" where they last less than 10-15 minutes and you'll feel better about it. I've done this in the northern part. When I did it, I got to thinking about ways to make it safer. I recommend a bright orange vest, and cap if you can get them (the official nature tends to push conflict away). Look for grassy strips around basketball courts or volleyball courts. You can usually do a quick search around them in about 10-15 minutes, then move to the next one.

If someone asks, just tell them, "I'm looking for dangerous scrap metal that could hurt players. Excuse me, but I need to get back to it, I have a lot of these to do today."

Another "safe place" is usually elementary schools. Go just after school, when all the kids are gone. You'll find the lots are pretty empty of people, but because custodians/principals are still on site, very little rif-raff will be around.

Cheers!

Skippy

T-Man · Nov 12, 2018

I've had mixed success in totters, found a few silver and some costume jewelery but no gold. Always good for some easy clad. What drives me insane with a few of them around here with the wood chips is I swear they must get it from some type of recycling yard. Find a ton of balled up canslaw in them. You can tell they went through the same machine that the mulch was ground up in. I can get 20 signals in a 5 foot area and all little balls of aluminum.

Scooterjim · Nov 12, 2018

I always start from the nearest shade tree with a bench and work towards the tot lots with my first trip around a few feet from where the grass and chips meet, second trip I'm straddling the chip/grass line. most of my ring finds are outside the line. I credit sunscreen. Clad I find in the chips.
I do my best clad stabbing in the parks in the "bad" part of town. I don't know if that's because they don't get as many detectorists or maybe poor folks use cash more than rich people. It bothers me that local hunters don't feel safe in our parks. If they ain't safe for old men and their detectors the kids don't have a chance. I refuse to let the hoodlums control our parks. I probably wouldn't be as brave in the bad parts of Atlanta.
Last hunt someone had piled walnuts under the monkey bars. I have no idea why, other than kids do weird things. Walnut picking is big business around here $15 per hundred pounds, they don't stay on the ground very long.

Walknstik · Nov 12, 2018

I've only started hunting tot-lots this past year trying to get away from all the non-ferrous trash you find in the parks. Children don't seem to litter near as bad as adults so in the tot-lot I can run minimum discrimination...plus it's easy digging with no trace left behind. My finds have mostly been clad, girls costume jewelry but have found some silver ear-ring backs and a heavy gold cross from a charm bracelet. I found the gold right up next to the raised cement curb which encompassed the tot-lot...right where a mom would sit!

ugadigger · Nov 12, 2018

My best gold ever came from a totlot a Bracelet I sold on CL for $950 back in February. Check out my page for a pic of it. It was from a podunk town in a suburb of Atlanta. You never know! My first gold came from a totlot as well. A child 14k ring.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

spenglure · Nov 13, 2018

I hit them if I’m in the area. Only picked up modern coin drops and junk. But I continue to hit them just in case.

metaladdict · Nov 13, 2018

Tot lots can be good, try elementery school playgrounds.

What about tot lots?

maxxkatt

Timbertodd

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DIGGER27

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GroundSweeper

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sandgroper

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amc rulz

KinTN

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sandgroper

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