I spent a week near Rocky Mountain National Park, and found nothing more than one penny.

jordanmills · Aug 2, 2021

Probably because I didn't try bringing gear into the park. I figured I didn't want to see how that would turn out.

But I did get to show my eight year old nephew how to detectorate and he found a dozen quarters in the sandbox (that his father hid there a few minutes earlier). The nokta makro simplex is a little heavy for him to swing for very long, but he got the hang of it and found them all (with a few suggestions).

So that was fun. Also it looks like Mineral Palace Park in Pueblo, CO would be a great place to detectorate. It has a nice playground for kids (which is why we went there) and some old buildings (dating to the 1880s). But the big "park rules" sign at the parking lot said something about no digging, and I was busy watching my kids so I didn't try there either.

GKL · Aug 2, 2021

Places where there is no digging allowed, I wonder if just taking your pinpointer to look for very shallow finds that require no digging would be okay ?

CPT_GhostLight · Aug 2, 2021

Most Colorado city parks are "no digging plugs", but popping stuff out with a screwdriver is usually is okay.

jordanmills · Aug 3, 2021

GKL said:
Places where there is no digging allowed, I wonder if just taking your pinpointer to look for very shallow finds that require no digging would be okay ?

I was thinking of something like that. I'd swing the big detector, but just not have a shovel on me at all. But I wasn't going to be there long enough for it to be worth it, especially if I encountered someone with authority who wanted to make trouble over me for digging without digging.

Contrast that to the city where my in-laws were when we visited them earlier. I looked and didn't find anything about "no metal detecting" or "no digging" so I brought the gear out while I was watching my kids at the playground and went to town (nope, Tom_in_Ca I didn't go asking anyone, just checked for any clearly posted prohibition then went for it). In the wood chips, I found a couple of dimes, a penny, some bottle caps, and a couple of pieces of scrap metal. A couple of other parents came by with kids and looked interested (in the bad way) when their kids asked what I was doing. But that turned to smiles pretty fast when I pulled a few sharp pieces of scrap metal out of my pocket and showed the stuff I pulled out to trash so our kids wouldn't get cut on them.

jordanmills · Aug 3, 2021

CPT_GhostLight said:
Most Colorado city parks are "no digging plugs", but popping stuff out with a screwdriver is usually is okay.

Yeah I could see that. It seems like the grass in a lot of places there takes a long time to get established, can get torn up easily, and needs a lot of water to re-grow when they tend to not get that much (unless they get way too much, which is even worse).

That's part of why I stuck to the woodchip play area. I got the impression that any plugs I dug in the grass would have been way too obvious and damaging.

GKL · Aug 3, 2021

jordanmills said:
I was thinking of something like that. I'd swing the big detector, but just not have a shovel on me at all. But I wasn't going to be there long enough for it to be worth it, especially if I encountered someone with authority who wanted to make trouble over me for digging without digging.

Contrast that to the city where my in-laws were when we visited them earlier. I looked and didn't find anything about "no metal detecting" or "no digging" so I brought the gear out while I was watching my kids at the playground and went to town (nope, Tom_in_Ca I didn't go asking anyone, just checked for any clearly posted prohibition then went for it). In the wood chips, I found a couple of dimes, a penny, some bottle caps, and a couple of pieces of scrap metal. A couple of other parents came by with kids and looked interested (in the bad way) when their kids asked what I was doing. But that turned to smiles pretty fast when I pulled a few sharp pieces of scrap metal out of my pocket and showed the stuff I pulled out to trash so our kids wouldn't get cut on them.

Yeah, I can understand not wanting to risk being unfairly hassled when your not even going to be in the area that long.

( :laughing:

Glad you clarified that for Tom_in_CA, he should get a laugh out of it also :laughing:

)

Smart public relations work letting the parents know the good that detectorists do by removing sharp trash ! :thumbsup:

dickyoung · Aug 3, 2021

Some one on here once said that he deliberately kept an assortment of sharp things in his pouch to show if someone hassled him.Really want to get their attention,have an old syringe sans needle and show that,works every time.Sneaky but it works.

jmaryt · Aug 3, 2021

CPT_GhostLight said:
Most Colorado city parks are "no digging plugs", but popping stuff out with a screwdriver is usually is okay.

that sucks! glad don't live out there! sounds like too many "clowns" have wrecked it!

(h.h.!)
j.t.

Tom_in_CA · Aug 4, 2021

jordanmills said:
..... But the big "park rules" sign at the parking lot said something about no digging,....

GKL said:
....

( Glad you clarified that for Tom_in_CA, he should get a laugh out of it also )....

Did I hear my name called ? :?:

Jordon, this rule (that you saw) about "digging" (that you worried might encompass md'ing) is in EVERY single park across the USA. Aka : alter, deface, molest, etc..... But in each case, you see that it implies the end result : Ie.: alter vs alterED, and so forth . So if you leave no trace of your presence, then presto, you're in compliance. Thus I do not see those as applying to us.

Now will every last busy-body agree with those semantics ? OF COURSE NOT ! :roll:

So just go at lower traffic times and avoid such lookie-lous. Presto, problem solved.

CPT_GhostLight · Aug 4, 2021

jmaryt said:
that sucks! glad don't live out there! sounds like too many "clowns" have wrecked it!

(h.h.!)
j.t.

Yeah, I thought that too, so I just started learning how to probe & pop and after a while I got pretty good at it. Now I can get down to about 8-9 inches with a 1-2 inch hole that closes up after pulling the target and it's completely invisible. It takes a little longer to recover targets sometimes, but nobody complains and the cops and groundskeepers just wave and go about their business. Here's a sample of what can be pulled with a little practice.

jordanmills · Aug 7, 2021

Tom_in_CA said:
Did I hear my name called ?

Jordon, this rule (that you saw) about "digging" (that you worried might encompass md'ing) is in EVERY single park across the USA. Aka : alter, deface, molest, etc..... But in each case, you see that it implies the end result : Ie.: alter vs alterED, and so forth . So if you leave no trace of your presence, then presto, you're in compliance. Thus I do not see those as applying to us.

Now will every last busy-body agree with those semantics ? OF COURSE NOT ! So just go at lower traffic times and avoid such lookie-lous. Presto, problem solved.

Nah it's not in every park. Not by any stretch. Every City of Houston park is wide open, as long as you don't leave damage or interfere with someone else's use of the park. I'm sure its that way for many others, I'm just not familiar with them (I know one of the assistant directors of Houston Parks and Recreation, and asked him about policy on the down low).

This was weird, long, and explicit. I wish I'd taken a picture of it. It was something about it being illegal to dig, excavate or remove any dirt, earth, or soil, but longer. On reading it, I had the impression that someone had been taking dirt from the park as fill dirt for their yard or something.

If I were local or there for a while, I'd probably decide it didn't apply to responsibly pulling a plug and replacing it, and let someone come ask me to stop if they felt the need to. Apparently it's not really that prohibited: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyRyyVmoQ3o No loss for me, since quality time with my kids trumps MDing. Also, from that video, it looks a LOT more picked over than I assumed, so not having the time probably just saved me some frustration.

I spent a week near Rocky Mountain National Park, and found nothing more than one penny.

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