Key Hunting Spot I've Watched, Destruction Of Business

[MartinL]

OK, this is a small city in Texas, which has had a strip of what looks like maybe 120+ storage units, but it has been used for flea market gatherings for as long as I have lived here. Most of the rentors of these units are always staged for these weekend sales venues, I'd say for at least 20 years if not more. Now, this is a generic spot on the side of a busy roadway so I see the gatherings each time,,,cars parked out on the gravel and grass strips along the 1/8 mile strip, and I always wanted to detect those areas where people parked and mingled. There's surely lots of fun to be had shere all those cars have parked over all this time, and shallow targets to boot.

Well, the place is being gutted, and some of the parking area space has already been covered temporarily with the cement from the pads underneath the buildings on one end of the strip after destruction. There's probably 3/4ths of the units still standing(well at last glance, they tear out fast these days), so I imagine that the refuse hasn't totally been stacked onto the hunting grounds I've eyed for years. I really imagine that some development may be going into the area, but have no clues to back that up.

Would you be bold and just explore that area real fast and take the heat if confronted, or does it soound like a logical place for a yes-answer if asking the owner to quickly detect the grounds before it's all a real mess? With the way it looks, there will be a lot of destruction activity going on there, so it might be tricky to get into that area and expecting nothing but &quot:daydream:beatdown:, go ahead and hunt. martin

[MassDirtFisher]

Myself, I would ask permission, all they can say is yes or no. Have fun and good luck with hunting the area. Sounds like its just full of goodies. thumbsup01

[coinnut]

Sometimes it is all in how you ask. If you start off by talking about the units being destroyed and what is going to be here now? then the conversation is established. Have your machine in the car and then mention that you always looked at this spot as you drove by and always wanted to spend a bit of time metal detecting it. Then quickly ask if he would give you permission to detect it before it becomes a parking lot lol Just one angle to look at it. Either way you go, I hope you can at least get a bit of time testing your theories on how good a site it can be.

[aloldstuff]

Just ask the person. Heck if you are married I know you have heard the word NO before.

[MartinL]

Thanks. First thing to do is find the owner, but that should only take finding the foreman of the wrecking crew. As fast as things happen, the whole place could be in a big heap in a couple of days, if not right now. I have really been licking my chops about hunting that parking strip for over a year since starting the metal detecting hobby. Gotta be some easy finds out there unless it's been hunted, and I never ever noticed it. I highly doubt that. I think I would have noticed such an activity, even back when I didn't hunt at all. There's enough area to cover there that a small group hunt would be an idea, since the landscape could be entirely scraped flat, depending on what's planned for rebuilding. The time may just be too short now though. That place has had over flows of cars there for a whole decade-plus of time I lived here, and before without doubt. That was just one weekend a month, two sometimes, but the lost stuff out there has to be just waiting. betweent he Texas heat and the construction going on...it won't be easy. martin

[Dimeman]

If the ground will be completely covered over, I would ask the construction crew foreman if you could search the area--and make sure to tell him you will not bother any equipment.

I had a similar situation and asked the crew foreman--------I got permission to hunt an open flea market parking lot, when they scraped the shell parking area to put down concrete. I found lots of clad coins( about $50 worth) and some junk jewelry items.