174 year old church

DW0378 · Apr 4, 2012

So I have found a church local to me that is 174 years old. I would like to get permission to hunt there but do to the hours I work it is near impossible to stop by when anyone's around. I have opted to start with an email and see where it goes from there. I am posting what I have planned to send and would like some feed back from those of you who have gotten permission to hunt places like this. Is there anything I should remove or add?

Hello my name is Darren I am a 41 years old married with two beautiful daughters. I metal detect as a hobby, and am very interested in the history of your property. I do not know if you have had any other requests like this , burial interested in doing some metal detecting on the church property with your permission of course. I take great pride in conducting my hobby neatly and try to leave as little a trace that I have been there as possible. I would also donate any church related finds back to the church preferably after I get a picture for my collection. If you have any questions or concerns I would be happy to stop by and meet with you as well as give a brief demonstration of exactly what I would be doing and how neatly I try to do it.

Thank you for your time

Darren Wetsell

40acre1870 · Apr 4, 2012

DW0378 said:
So I have found a church local to me that is 174 years old. I would like to get permission to hunt there but do to the hours I work it is near impossible to stop by when anyone's around. I have opted to start with an email and see where it goes from there. I am posting what I have planned to send and would like some feed back from those of you who have gotten permission to hunt places like this. Is there anything I should remove or add?

Hello my name is Darren I am a 41 years old married with two beautiful daughters. I metal detect as a hobby, and am very interested in the history of your property. I do not know if you have had any other requests like this , burial interested in doing some metal detecting on the church property with your permission of course. I take great pride in conducting my hobby neatly and try to leave as little a trace that I have been there as possible. I would also donate any church related finds back to the church preferably after I get a picture for my collection. If you have any questions or concerns I would be happy to stop by and meet with you as well as give a brief demonstration of exactly what I would be doing and how neatly I try to do it.

Thank you for your time

Darren Wetsell

I would leave out the word burial... Good luck and let us know what they say.

DW0378 · Apr 4, 2012

wow auto correct on the Ipad really stinks that was supposed to be but I am. Will have to fix that.

40acre1870 · Apr 4, 2012

Ha Ha... I believe that auto correct was developed to make us all look like fools. :lol:

How much property does the church own?

DW0378 · Apr 4, 2012

From what I can see probably 3/4 to an acre give or take. I have not walked around it yet so I'm not sure how much may be a patio in the rear. Will ave to see.

Milhaus · Apr 4, 2012

Churches seem to be a very mixed bag when it comes to permission. Your email is short and sweet and gets to the point, that is the right way. The go-getters in the permission game, have said that stopping by and asking permission in person is the most successful way.

DW0378 · Apr 4, 2012

Milhaus said:
Churches seem to be a very mixed bag when it comes to permission. Your email is short and sweet and gets to the point, that is the right way. The go-getters in the permission game, have said that stopping by and asking permission in person is the most successful way.

I figured as much as far stopping in personally. My 80 plus hour weeks are killing me as far as being able to get there when people would be present. But I will make the time soon.

Flyerdog · Apr 4, 2012

As a pastor I can tell you THE best way is to go to a Sun morn service - shake hands with the pastor after the service - tell him "great message -btw would u mind if I used my metal detector on ur property sometime". Would be surprised if u got turned down.

adiroit · Apr 5, 2012

Flyerdog said:
As a pastor I can tell you THE best way is to go to a Sun morn service - shake hands with the pastor after the service - tell him "great message -btw would u mind if I used my metal detector on ur property sometime". Would be surprised if u got turned down.

Wouldn't that somewhat be evident of someone who only went in order to ask for the permission? In my eyes, I would say go to 2 or 3 services, and make your face known to the pastor on each time.. and finally asking after a couple times.

Loxlie · Apr 5, 2012

adiroit said:
Wouldn't that somewhat be evident of someone who only went in order to ask for the permission? In my eyes, I would say go to 2 or 3 services, and make your face known to the pastor on each time.. and finally asking after a couple times.

But what better way to ensure the person would keep coming to service?

It's a win -win!

Flyerdog · Apr 5, 2012

adiroit said:
Wouldn't that somewhat be evident of someone who only went in order to ask for the permission? In my eyes, I would say go to 2 or 3 services, and make your face known to the pastor on each time.. and finally asking after a couple times.

Speaking for myself only I would gladly make the "trade" to get someone in church. I would depend on my message to bring him back for the second and third time.

DW0378 · Apr 5, 2012

I have to say while mi do believe in a supreme being, I am definitely not a church goer. That and my schedule just does not work for being there Sundays. I will try and get down there when I have a few free minutes maybe before I go out detecting one day and try to talk to someone.

Flyerdog · Apr 5, 2012

just a suggestion as to the best way of getting a yes to your request - i detect my church all the time.

Azmodeus · Apr 5, 2012

I hunt a ton of old 1800s churches down old back roads. I got one lined up for Saturday actually. What I usually do is get the name and address of the church and try to Google either a phone number or the name of the pastor and then find his phone number. Alot of times there will be a sign in front of the church that already has the pastors name on it so you just gotta look them up. Other times there won't be a pastor's name but if the old church also has an old cemetary on the property (they usually do here) then there is sometimes a sign that says the cemetary is taken care of by: NAME HERE and please send donations to: ADDRESS. So you can do a reverse address lookup and get a phone number for that also. Out of dozens of churches I've only been told no two or three times so far. The problem is, if they look that jucy to you then most likely every other detecorist has thought so over the years also and already hunted it several times with permission or not. I just get lucky every now and then to squeak one or two deep oldies out that people missed.

DW0378 · Apr 6, 2012

Flyerdog said:
just a suggestion as to the best way of getting a yes to your request - i detect my church all the time.

Flyerdog I did appreciate the suggestion didn't want it to sound like I was trying to blow it off.

Milhaus · Apr 6, 2012

I know the feeling, with work and family and weekend classes the hundreds of 1850's farms surrounding me go undetected... by me...

DW0378 said:
I figured as much as far stopping in personally. My 80 plus hour weeks are killing me as far as being able to get there when people would be present. But I will make the time soon.

Twinkies · Apr 8, 2012

Love that auto correct

DW0378 · Apr 8, 2012

Well no reply to the email going to stop down there this week hopefully if I have a chance.

174 year old church

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