Hunting Private Property?

[MI Detectors]

It is becoming apparent that the parks in my town have been searched. There are several more for me to go to to hopefully find some old coins, but the last couple of places I've gone I thought would be good, gave up only clad. So, while I've spotted some abandoned farms out in the county that need searching, I'm eyeballing some of the houses in town that are very old, big old beautiful houses. I figure I'll start knocking on doors and ask to search some of these yards. How many of the members do this and do you do well?
Additionally, I guess I'm very curious what sort of locations are the members here searching. I guess most hunters are after the gold, but frankly right now I'm researching the history of the county in hopes of finding old coins and relics. I love old things of all sorts, and eager to find more, that horseshoe I found was very cool. Wife and I are planning on hitting the beach this weekend to see what the storms kicked up a couple weeks ago. Dave

[Digger Don]

I spend 90% of my hunting time doing private residences. I very rarely find gold rings, but I do find some old coins and some pretty cool relics.
Don't always go after the most obvious houses, sometimes the smaller houses in the middle of a block pay off pretty good. Or not, you never know.
Best of luck to you

[MI Detectors]

I spend 90% of my hunting time doing private residences. I very rarely find gold rings, but I do find some old coins and some pretty cool relics.
Don't always go after the most obvious houses, sometimes the smaller houses in the middle of a block pay off pretty good. Or not, you never know.
Best of luck to you

And it looks to me that you do very well, thanks for the reply. Do you go door to door looking for permission, then come back, or are you ready to search when you go to ask permission? Do you offer to give the owners anything? Like relics relating to the house itself, or a portion of an object that may be worth a LOT? Sorry for all the questions, I want to appear that I know what I'm doing when I get started asking permission. Thanks, Dave

[Digger Don]

I always hunt at the time I ask. If they ask, I will share my finds, but they usually don't. If I find jewelry, I will usually show it to the homeowner. More often than not they tell me to go ahead and keep it. Tell them that you have done other houses in the area so they don't think they're the first. Also, if you see neighbors out while your detecting, go ask them to do their property. They seem to be a little more at ease knowing your already detecting a house on the block.
And above all, dig clean plugs, don't make a mess.
If you get a no, don't get discouraged, just move on to the next.
Good Luck

[Isaac]

I always hunt at the time I ask. If they ask, I will share my finds, but they usually don't. If I find jewelry, I will usually show it to the homeowner. More often than not they tell me to go ahead and keep it. Tell them that you have done other houses in the area so they don't think they're the first. Also, if you see neighbors out while your detecting, go ask them to do their property. They seem to be a little more at ease knowing your already detecting a house on the block.
And above all, dig clean plugs, don't make a mess.
If you get a no, don't get discouraged, just move on to the next.
Good Luck

Well said man.

[Bucknut]

Hope the door knocking works out for you. It can be a little nerve racking sometimes but I always get a thrill when I get that yes from the landowner! I have also become better with my "sales pitch" over the last couple years. I suggest you come up with your own "sales pitch" and tweak it as you see fit. Parks are a great place to find silver but the vast majority have been picked over pretty heavily so old homes are a decent bet to be unhunted.

In older communities I like to try to door knock entire blocks. After I get the first permission I then go next door and say that I was over at your neighbors Mrs Smith's house the other day ... It is usually a good thing to "name drop" a neighbor if you can remember. I try to keep decent notes for that reason alone. Then I just keep going door to door down the street until I have asked everyone.

When I ask permission for homesites that are long gone I always like to bring a printed out copy of an old map and show it to the farmer or land owner. I have found that it is a great tool to show the owner exactly what I am doing and it can be a good conversation starter. You can get old maps from historicmapworks.com and then compare it to google earth or google maps.

Winter is the time I like to do my research for the next year. With a little practice and research I am sure you will find some amazing relics and coins over on the west side...plenty of history there.

[aloldstuff]

Private property, farm fields, old parks, they can all produce. I've gotten a lot of good relics at private residences, and I am not a relic hunter, just lucky. Old farm fields have done very well for me in the coin dept, seated, CT coppers, LC's, just to name so of the coins. Robw and myself started to hit an old park that was torn up and redone and between us we got over 200 silvers out of that park. So as you can see, they can all produce.

[MI Detectors]

Thanks for the tips guys! I was out yesterday searching a beach and struck out badly, but on the way home I took back roads to find some properties that looked juicy. We turned onto one road and found this amazing looking farm, with lots of very old out buildings and even had the stone foundation of the original house right there in the side yard still. A very unfriendly looking fellow working on a car, I told him what an amazing piece of property he had and straight out asked if I could detect the yard, he said no thanks. What about abandoned properties? Would you effort to find someone to ask permission or would you park it and go for it since there's no one around anyway. We have tons of abandoned farms out in the countryside around here. Dave

[Skamaniac]

Personally I never detect without permission. I work hard to have a good reputation and one incident of detecting without permission could ruin that. As for door knocking, I had some hobby cards printed up. Just like business cards only I list myself as a metal detecting hobbyist. It has all my contact information so they know I'm not hiding anything. On the back I list a few of my personal code of ethics, like never leaving a hole uncovered, always taking any trash I find with me, etc. It also says I'll help look for lost jewelry free of charge. It works pretty well but nothing is 100%.

Like you,we also have lots of old abandoned farms. The county has a website that lists all property owners so it's pretty easy to locate and speak to owners. Check your jurisdiction; the amount information online these days is amazing.

[MI Detectors]

Great ideas! Thank you

[sonofdust]

I have a listing of old historical homes that are scheduled for demolition in the Saginaw area if it's not to far out of your way.

[MI Detectors]

I have a listing of old historical homes that are scheduled for demolition in the Saginaw area if it's not to far out of your way.

That would be a fun thing to have if I were to come that way, I was in Owosso last weekend. I'm still working on reading the local tax maps to find ownership of several abandoned properties in my area. Thanks, Dave