18k ring in soccer field. Trippy sounds until out. Make gold #9 for the year

[Tom_in_CA]

Sweet! Congrats on yet another gold.
So are you actually digging on the playing field itself through the SOD?
I'm pretty sure I would be walked away in handcuffs if I tried that around our area. Our state forbids MDing everywhere.

Huh ? Can you cite any such incident of an md'r "being put in handcuffs" for md'ing in sod ? Me thinks you're over-thinking this. I don't deny that digging in nice-manicured-turf has ... uh .... "connotations", but .... ok then.... go at lower traffic times when said-singular-lookie-lous aren't present.

And what state are you in that "forbids md'ing everywhere" ? There is none of the 50 states that "forbids md'ing everywhere". You might be confusing with verbiage/language on the state park's level, and think that means : "In the entire state". But no, that's not correct : That would only apply to STATE administered level parks. Not federal level, county level, city level, private level, etc...

 

[Bear stalker]

Huh ? Can you cite any such incident of an md'r "being put in handcuffs" for md'ing in sod ? Me thinks you're over-thinking this. I don't deny that digging in nice-manicured-turf has ... uh .... "connotations", but .... ok then.... go at lower traffic times when said-singular-lookie-lous aren't present.

And what state are you in that "forbids md'ing everywhere" ? There is none of the 50 states that "forbids md'ing everywhere". You might be confusing with verbiage/language on the state park's level, and think that means : "In the entire state". But no, that's not correct : That would only apply to STATE administered level parks. Not federal level, county level, city level, private level, etc...

Well, I don't know if they ever caught him to put handcuffs on and I'm not sure this place had sod, but here's one case where a MD'r would have been or did get cuffed.
I sure don't want to the feds breathing down my back just for going out and trying to have fun.

Artifact thief digs holes at South Carolina historical site

Federal agents in South Carolina are looking for someone who used a metal detector and dug 19 holes earlier this month at a historic site.

www.wbtv.com

Obviously this person went way beyond where most of us would ever hunt, especially without permission. But the devil is in the details when you read our local laws. Here's a brief overview.

**************************************************************************************************************************************
Metal detecting is restricted or prohibited on South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) lands and in South Carolina State Parks, often requiring a permit and specific restrictions on where you can dig. However, rules for city and county parks, like Greenville County, vary and may allow metal detecting in certain areas but prohibit it on manicured turf and near historic sites, requiring you to contact the specific park authority for their rules. For private land, including school or municipal soccer fields, you must obtain explicit permission from the landowner.
On Public Lands (State Parks & SCDNR):

• SCDNR Lands: Metal detecting is not permitted on any SCDNR property, including Cultural Heritage Preserves and Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs).
• State Parks: Metal detecting is generally restricted and may require a special permit from the Park Manager, who will specify approved areas, dates, and times. Digging in sensitive areas or near utility lines is prohibited, and any historic artifacts found must be left in place and reported to park staff.

On Local/City/County Soccer Fields:

• Check Local Regulations: The rules for metal detecting on city or county-owned property vary by municipality.
• Contact the Park Authority: You must contact the specific park authority (e.g., Greenville County Parks Recreation & Tourism) to get information about their specific metal detecting policy.
• Prohibited Areas: Even where permitted, you will likely be prohibited from detecting on manicured turf areas and near sensitive locations like historic sites or landscaping.

***************************************************************************************************************************************
The devil is that little mention of "Historic sites". That's what can unknowingly get yourself in trouble around here.
And I'm not talking about the blatantly obvious ones like that news article talks about. That's just asking for trouble.
There are so many places labeled or marked as "Historic sites" that it makes nearly every state park or county park off limits.
I'm not sure, but I think the CCC built all of our state parks in my area which I have been told (as recently as last weekend) by park officials that no metal detecting is allowed on any CCC construction property because it's considered ... wait for it.... a "Historical site".

I don't know about you or others, but I would like to simply get in the car and go out metal detecting someplace without having to wait for the "manager" or someone to give me permission for the next few hours that day. Or to spend hours tracking down the appropriate person to ask just to be told NO. Hell, we can't even pick up rocks around this place without being considered lawbreakers.


I've taken your advice that you've given to others here (yes I lurk and read a lot of threads) where I just said "Screw it, I'm going to detect in this county park because there isn't a sign that says I can't." But I was miserable the entire time for fear of some Karen or Park ranger showing up to kick me out or worse. And yep, not a single person said anything but I asked myself and my wife if we enjoyed it and the answer was no not really because of the guilt feeling of doing something wrong.
Now if we would have found some yellow stuff i'm sure our answers would have been different LOL

In my younger days I didn't care about being arrested because, like you, I knew I would likely only be told to leave.
Now that I'm an older fart with higher standards for myself, I have trouble ignoring the fear or guilt.
Or is it that my gonads have shrunk?

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Well,...

Bear stalker : Your first link was as I anticipated : A link to someone snooping around an obvious historic sensitive off-limits sacred monument. NOT to someone hunting a benign turfed city park somewhere. Thus : No relevance to the fear that "handcuffs await us all". Your link has nothing to do with routine park turf hunting .

Your next cut & paste has to do with state parks . Ok, fine, stay away from state parks if you want. But that has nothing to do with Fed level, county level, city level, and private level.

And as for the admonition that you and I must "contact the specific park authority" (aka : "Grovel wherever you go"), I say : B*llsh*t. That's simply not true. Because on the contrary : If there's no rule or law saying "no metal detecting", THEN PRESTO : Not disallowed.

Since when is md'ing so evil and harmful that it needs express say-so ? Since when does it need red-carpets rolled out for us ? I mean, would you think you need permission to fly frisbees ? If there is any reason they might *think* you need express sanction say-so, is because perhaps whomever drafted that text you quoted, has : Holes and digging in-mind. Which could run afoul of boiler plate language about "alter and deface", eh ? But here's the solution : You and I leave no trace of our presence (we cover, stomp, and fluff up). Thus you have not alterED or defacED anything. NOW HAVE YOU ??

Dude, if you resort to thinking you need to grovel wherever you go, is the day it simply becomes self-fulfilling. You will run into the psychology of : "no one cared ... UNTIL YOU ASKED" routine. The mere fact that you think you need to ask, is when you ALREADY cast aspersions on yourself . As if md'ing was no dangerous and harmful that it needed a desk-jockey's express say so. This implication is not lost on the person you're asking, and presto : You get the safe answer of "no", to your "pressing question" . And presto, another "no" or "rule" is born.

And no, no one's "getting arrested" for detecting benign mundane parks and beaches. If you can find anything to the contrary, it's, as I say, someone night-sneaking an obvious off limits sacred historic monument. Or someone being obstinate that can not take a "scram".

 

[Bear stalker]

Your next cut & paste has to do with state parks . Ok, fine, stay away from state parks if you want. But that has nothing to do with Fed level, county level, city level, and private level.

And as for the admonition that you and I must "contact the specific park authority" (aka : "Grovel wherever you go"), I say : B*llsh*t. That's simply not true. Because on the contrary : If there's no rule or law saying "no metal detecting", THEN PRESTO : Not disallowed.

Since when is md'ing so evil and harmful that it needs express say-so ? Since when does it need red-carpets rolled out for us ? I mean, would you think you need permission to fly frisbees ? If there is any reason they might *think* you need express sanction say-so, is because perhaps whomever drafted that text you quoted, has : Holes and digging in-mind. Which could run afoul of boiler plate language about "alter and deface", eh ? But here's the solution : You and I leave no trace of our presence (we cover, stomp, and fluff up). Thus you have not alterED or defacED anything. NOW HAVE YOU ??

Dude, if you resort to thinking you need to grovel wherever you go, is the day it simply becomes self-fulfilling. You will run into the psychology of : "no one cared ... UNTIL YOU ASKED" routine. The mere fact that you think you need to ask, is when you ALREADY cast aspersions on yourself . As if md'ing was no dangerous and harmful that it needed a desk-jockey's express say so. This implication is not lost on the person you're asking, and presto : You get the safe answer of "no", to your "pressing question" . And presto, another "no" or "rule" is born.

And no, no one's "getting arrested" for detecting benign mundane parks and beaches. If you can find anything to the contrary, it's, as I say, someone night-sneaking an obvious off limits sacred historic monument. Or someone being obstinate that can not take a "scram".

No, my "cut and paste" covers every scrap of land in the state including Federal land (Historic sites) Soccer fields and over 1.1 million acres of WMA lands which really pisses me off because there are some great locations I'd love to MD that I've found while deer hunting out in the middle of nowhere. But thanks to the idiots that just had to ASK years ago, they have now put even those lands under their BS rules in writing.

Everything you have ever said about DON'T ASK I agree with 100%. I wasn't the one that ASKED years ago that caused them to put it in their little rules book. But the fact is NOW these places ARE PROHIBITED unless in some rare cases where you can ask permission.
It's not a matter of "if I think I have to ask" it's in their BS rules that say we MUST. And if we don't then we're breaking the law.

I also get what you're saying about no one's being arrested for detecting mundane parks and such. I'm getting to the point where I think my wife and I just need to grow a pair and simply deal with being told to take a hike rather than completely obeying the law in fear of being arrested. This is easier said than done for us though.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

No, my "cut and paste" covers every scrap of land in the state ....

Again, when you see rules for "state" park/lands, it's easy to think that means : The entire "state", border to border. But no, that's not the case . It only refers to state parks. Not other forms of government land.

And think about it B-stalker : Rules differ ALL THE TIME between park to park, right ? Eg.: Some require dogs on leash, others have no such rule. Some allow camping, others prohibit overnight camping. The rules don't "subrogate downwards" automatically, from the higher entity to the lower entity. It never meant "all the state, border to border". It only meant : Those particular parks administered BY THE STATE. But other parks can be county , city, or county, for example - And they may have no such rule.

Also remember that not all state land is state PARK land. Not all county land is county PARK land, etc... There's other forms of government land. Like road right-of-way, eminent domain (vacant) land, and so forth. And even within a single level , things can differ. Like on the fed. level : NPS is different than NFS and those are different than BLM . 3 different forms of fed. land. Yet NFS and BLM have EXPRESS ALLOWANCE for md'ing. (beats the heck out of being "silent on the subject", eh ?)

And most importantly : While it's true that your cut & paste (wherever you got that from ) does indeed make it sound like "border to border" , or "grovel everywhere", yet : What you posted is only someone's compendium commentary. It's not codified law or rule. And whomever penned that : I disagree with them. You NEED NOT HAVE EXPRESS ALLOWANCE (grovelling, permission, etc...) at all-the-other type parks/beaches. Instead, if you are skittish, you and I can CHECK FOR OURSELVES. If no rule exists that said "No md'ing", then presto : Not prohibited.

But thanks to the idiots that just had to ASK years ago, they have now put even those lands under their BS rules in writing.

Everything you have ever said about DON'T ASK I agree with 100%. I wasn't the one that ASKED years ago that caused them to put it in their little rules book....

Ok, we're on the same page. And yes, whenever we CAN find rules that say "no md'ing", then yes : I have a sneaking suspicion how most of them originated decades ago. Because I've seen the phenomenon happen first hand, since having started this hobby as a teenager in the 1970s. Places that NEVER USED TO BE A PROBLEM (it never occurred to us that there ever WAS a problem). Till one day, we hear through the grapevine that "such & such place is a no no". So we research what led to this supposed "no" or "off-limits" or "new rule", and .... Yup, you guessed it : We find out that someone (bless their little hearts) went in asking if they could metal detect. Thus presto : A new rule is invented, or a safe "no" to answer this "pressing question", eh ? Yes, even on the state level, I have proof of this evolution/origin !

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Let me give you another example of what I meant when I said "Commentary" : There has been several attempts (decades ago), to develop one-stop shopping compendium, list or book, for all the 50 states. The FMDAC's list is one such resulting example. And the 1980s book "Treasure Laws of the United States" by R.W. Doc Grim is another example. And while you MIGHT find "dire sounding wording" in those lists (making it *seem* as if you must "stop at each kiosk", blah blah), yet when you look closer, you see and realize that those lines are only COMMENTARY. They're not codified laws or rules. Instead, they'll be citing some answer they fetched when they asked some pencil jockey there.


Here's what I mean : Let's say that there was no *specific* no md'ing rule that covered every single state park in my state (barring the obvious historic sensitive monument ones). But let's say I went in to a desk jockey, back in the 1980s or '90s and asked them : "Can I metal detect ?". That pencil pusher might say "Ask at each kiosk", right ? Since he's playing it safe (some might be historic themed cultural sensitive stuff). So he simply says "with permission at each location". Right ? So then notice that THAT quotation is what makes it into the rules list or book. Yet notice that : No where was that codified, as any actual rule or law.


The same psychology often exists where a single person got a stink eye or "scram" 30 yrs. ago : He puts out the word that "such & such parks are off-limits". MERELY BECAUSE HE GOT A SCRAM from a single archie or lawn mower guy. Then : Links lead to links , and before long, you can never put it to rest. So do you see the difference between commentary vs actual law/rules ?

 

[Bear stalker]

Welp... After researching directly to the source here in SC, this is all I'm seeing. Which gives me a little hope.

I also picked up on something interesting under the SC Code of Laws for the Heritage Trust Program, which is another way the local government has taken control of over 100,000 acres of privately owned land.
I hereby declare myself as a " historical researcher" and my wife is my assistant.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Go look for the wedding ring that your wife lost last week there.

And also remember : Just like when nose picking : You ... uh .... opt for discreet timing ". So as not to offend the squeamish". So too is it with metal detecting sometimes : You're not going to convert every last person on earth. The hobby has connotations (no disputing that). So if this means going at lower traffic times (so as not to be an eye-sore) SO BE IT !

There are some nicely manicured turf parks here in CA that I only do at nights. So peaceful. So serene. NOT because there's some law or rule against it, but SIMPLY to "not offend the squeamish".

 

[matmit]

Congratulations!! Great play by play, thanks for sharing.

 

[gismapper]

...I have a motto “when in doubt, it comes out!”...

A great Saturday morning.

I love the play-by-play and your thought process as you think through your targets. Congrats on the excellent finds! A great Saturday, indeed!

 

[lburgguy]

Congrats! I'm gonna say everyone has local soccer fields or sports fields close to them. I have one three minutes away. What is the strategy? I mean when are people losing jewelry? Is it while their running back and forth, all sweaty or is it when they are taking off a clothing item on the sideline? Or is it something else?

 

[History Hound 1]

Congrats on the gold - always makes a hunt a whole lot better

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Congrats! I'm gonna say everyone has local soccer fields or sports fields close to them. I have one three minutes away. What is the strategy? I mean when are people losing jewelry? Is it while their running back and forth, all sweaty or is it when they are taking off a clothing item on the sideline? Or is it something else?

Good questions. Sports fields create "frolicking motions" which means rings can come off.

And yes : Sometimes people take off their jewelry, for safe-keeping, before they enter into a soccer game, or a swim, or a basketball game, volleyball game, etc.... How ironic that they take off jewelry for "safe-keeping", only-to-lose them anyhow, eh ? And they will set their belongings (their school books, coat, beach towel, etc...) along the sidelines, or by the goalie-net, etc....

Another reason why sports venue fields are better for jewelry ratios, is that *presumably* there is less junk there, than you would encounter in picnic area (picnic benches, BBQ pits, etc....) . Because whenever you introduce "eating" (BBQs and picnics), is the immediate recipe for pulltabs and foil. As opposed to soccer fields (for example), which are for the express purpose of Sports. Not eating and drinking. So the junk ratio should drop, for when you're on a field where the express purpose is only sports, and not picnics-type-usage.

 

[PaulRevere’sGhost]

So today was first game of the season. My grandson told his teacher he would score a hat trick today for her. (He’s 8) and I’m thinking, this place is HUUUGE. There’s like 10 games going at once. Then I realize it’s all Astro turf. Oh well. So half time we’re down 3-0. And he pulls 3 goals out of his hat. Can’t make this stuff up. BUT! He plays football too .Walking distance from home. Nothing motivates like gold. I’m not a fan of dirt, but the beaches aren’t producing. I know that field is sod because I composted it with peanut shells all last season. I may have to check it out. Thanks for the motivation.

 

[an808state]

Awesome find. You put in the work for sure.

I am a nube, but I saw an interesting video by Treasure Outdoors where he buries 6 different gold targets, and they all ring up with different tones. All over the board. Some were rings, a cross, a pendant, but he showed how the shape of the object affects the tone. Then, a commentor mentioned something I'd never thought of before... most gold is mixed with different alloys, copper, silver, platinum, sometimes even iron, so that probably also explains why the signals for gold jewelry vary.

 

[stetam]

Awesome find. You put in the work for sure.

I am a nube, but I saw an interesting video by Treasure Outdoors where he buries 6 different gold targets, and they all ring up with different tones. All over the board. Some were rings, a cross, a pendant, but he showed how the shape of the object affects the tone. Then, a commentor mentioned something I'd never thought of before... most gold is mixed with different alloys, copper, silver, platinum, sometimes even iron, so that probably also explains why the signals for gold jewelry vary.

The signals(tone/vdi) vary due to size, shape, depth, orientation in the ground, soil type and so on and so on. Finding gold in the dirt is all about being in the right place and luck.

 

[Kansashunter]

No way!! Congrats

 

[atomicbrh]

Congratulations! The play by play action report and photo quality was awesome.

 

[angelito1]

nice haul

 

[tnsharpshooter]

Very nice find,
Be a good place to run Deus hf2 doing what I do looking for gold rings.
Thanks for sharing.