Lexington, KY

Joseph92 said:

Just moved to Lexington, KY. I don't have any spots and I'm not sure of the exact laws around here. If anyone in the area wants to share some info, I'd appreciate it.

-Joe

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You have not specified city, versus county, versus state, versus federal locations. And even within each of those is some reading between the lines. Ie.: what you might read for state "parks", does not necessarily apply to other forms of state land (because not all state land is state "park" land. And not all federal land is federal "park", land, etc....).

But beware if you start googling KY and related words for md'ing, laws, etc...: There was a big scuffle several years ago, where some KY archies (bless their little hearts), went public with some news-bites (in interviews that got picked up in periodicals and the news, that frowned on md'ing everywhere in KY). In those archie quotes, they tried to maintain that it was illegal on ALL public land. They got this conclusion by citing something on the state level, and just *assumed* this subrogated down to county and city level public lands. Since, afterall, the county is merely a sub-part of the larger state, right ? And the cities are merely a sub-part of the larger counties, right ? Thus their opinion was that anything that could construed at the state (or federal level) therefore subrogates to all lower level entities, so as to be in keeping with the state-level.

This is not true legally. I am not going to go into it now, in the interest of space. But if you run into anything that's saying something especially dire about KY, you can probably take it with a grain of salt. There's plenty of md'rs in KY, and they are having no problem finding places to hunt. Yes even (gasp) on public lands.

I had been doing some research and kind of stumbled onto some old article getting into what you're talking about. I also read some people were detecting in county/city parks in my area, but I didn't know if laws had changed or whatnot.

I just moved from a county in Virginia where it was illegal to detect on any land other than private with permission. Illegal on all public and county-owned land there. Ridiculous. So I am somewhat skeptical when I hear about legal detecting on public land without some code to back it up.

However, thanks for the info.

Joseph92 said:

.... I just moved from a county in Virginia where it was illegal to detect on any land other than private with permission......

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Not to hijack your post about your new home in KY, but ....... I am curious about your statement re.: your old area in Virginia. I am going to venture that it only pertained to county land (like county parks). And not "every city within the county" too.

Because city level laws (like for their parks) differ from other entity parks ALL THE TIME !! So for example, if a certain county's parks require dogs on leash, or "closes at sunset", or "no alcahol", etc.... doesn't mean that, therefore, all city parks within that county are under the same standard. So too do rules-of-use differ all the time. Some allow over-night camping, others don't. Some are silent on the subject (hence not dis-allowed), while others have a specific dis-allowance of something.

So I have a suspicion your info about your old county in Virginia isn't correct. I have never heard of a county in the entire USA, where "all public land in that county (whether city, county, state, or fed) is "off-limits". And that only private land can be hunted.

If you have some link saying otherwise, I'd be interested to see that.

As far as I know

Tom,

I use this site: https://www.municode.com/library/va...Ids":[]}&nodeId=CO_CH58OFMIPR_S58-2MEDEDICOPR

Powhatan is its own county without any cities to or anything like that within it. I was told by an older gentleman that they passed the law 10 or 15 years ago because people kept finding ordinances from the local national guard and certain people were not covering their holes in the courthouse area.

Joseph92 said:

.... Powhatan is its own county without any cities to or anything like that within it.......

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Ok, I looked at the link. As I suspected, it said "county property". But you're saying there's no incorporated cities within the entire county ? How about state or federal land ? If there's no state or federal or city (municipalized incorporated) within the entire county, then you'd be right.

And a quick look at the wiki on that county confirms that .... oddly .... any little community (mosley, etc....) is "un-incorporated". How strange that a county exists, without a single incorporated city within its boundaries !

Next I check to see if other forms of public land. I see the Powhatan wildlife management area. And a quick check of that shows it's state administered. Not county. Thus there's a form of public land that's not county there. A quick check shows no prohibition and no mention of md'ing in their website. Stopped looking there. No doubt there's other forms of public land that's not county, within that county.

Tom_in_CA said:

Next I check to see if other forms of public land. I see the Powhatan wildlife management area. And a quick check of that shows it's state administered. Not county. Thus there's a form of public land that's not county there. A quick check shows no prohibition and no mention of md'ing in their website. Stopped looking there. No doubt there's other forms of public land that's not county, within that county.

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Oh yea, I knew that was there, I just never thought to question if it was allowed. Always thought it wasn't. You're much better at this than me. But thanks for that; lesson learned. Anyhow, if you're looking to detect in central VA, don't go to Powhatan unless you want to be pinned down in one area.

Just west of ya up 64 in Shelby county. State parks such as Taylorsville lake will run you off but I've found the small city parks don't care as long as you are filling in your holes. Louisville parks won't allow it but it's not a law. Asked a couple cops In Louisville one day and they said sure go ahead but I've been told the person in charge of the parks will run you off. That being said I don't know much about Lexington parks. I would assume the same as Louisville. I haven't hunted a park in over a year though. I'm a big fan of those early 1800 foundations that are long gone

Joseph92 said:

... I just never thought to question if it was allowed.....

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Well, the operative question is not "is it allowed?". But rather: "Is it DIS-allowed?" (eg.: a rule saying 'no metal detecting'). An activity need-not have an express allowance (eg.: "frisbee flying allowed here"). On the contrary, if there is no dis-allowance (ie.: silent on the subject), then presto, it's not dis-allowed.

Serial Digger said:

.... Louisville parks won't allow it but it's not a law. Asked a couple cops In Louisville one day and they said sure go ahead but I've been told the person in charge of the parks will run you off. ...

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There is a perfect example of a situation where something is not necessarily illegal, yet ... you/I/we still need to use common sense and not "swat hornet's nest". Because our hobby has admitted connotations, and someone might get their panties in a wad. So in a situation like you describe (where a single person in a city of 100,000 might gripe), I would choose low traffic times, and avoid said person. Rather than thinking it's my obligation to get this single person to love and condone me.