Detecting permission/ or not on land for sale

[MissIron.Maiden]

There are some old farm properties near me . Where there are 100's of acres of land for sale. The only houses on the land look so derelict that it's hard to imagine they could be occupied. Curtains blowing out broken windows. Junkers rusting out in the yard. The signs for the property have been up so long they are falling down n barley readable. If I avoid the house ( because if it is inhabited , it's not by anyone I'd want to run Into ) and stick to further away fields do I really have to ask permission?
I've done the route of calling the realtors on such properties and get a blank answer . Basically an answer that sounds like " why are you bothering me with this ?" And without even saying it, no is implied.
The land will go to developers. , who couldn't give a damn about history. So would it still be like I wAs stealing? It's just such a waste to not try to save some history.

 

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[MissIron.Maiden]

I guess I've been lucky! I'm learning on these threads all the trouble detectors run into! Guys, we are basically digging up trash!(except for the lucky few)Even the coins I've dug are basically worthless! They are so corroded you can't even read some of them! It might be the law and it might be trespassing, But are people that mean in this country? Maybe times have changed or I was very lucky to live where I did! I'd much rather run into someone detecting on my land, digging up some nickel or lost quarter! Rather than running into 4 wheelers, dirt bikes, guys camping and leaving trash, hunters nailing tree stands to my trees! Sry to side track here, Just can't believe the trouble some of you run into! I catch you on my land don't make a mess. lol And steal all the bottle caps,nails,and hundreds of years of buried trash you want! I don't leave rotted up coins on my nightstand, so you can have those too! lol jk

And then the wise one spokeExactly.
Here is what I'm looking at . 300 acres of farmland. That a developer is gonna snatch up and rape the land to plop flake board houses on. Does the Realtor or the developer care about it's history? Of course not. If the owner( which obviously no longer even resides on the property cared at all for the history and or had an emotional connection to the land cared at all about it, they would have taken the pay cut and sold the land into the open land preservation... Which my grandparents and many farmers in the area have done . So I should feel guilty cause I want to rescue a few iron hand forged items , maybe a button if I'm lucky.. Possibly a coin worth $10 ?
If it makes everyone feel better, I will take my findings to the police . And probably get escorted to the nearest mental health facility for turning myself in , having stolen some tab tops, nails, and tin foil from a property no one inhabits.
Now having said that, if I have any chance of getting caught, I'm not risking it... I don't want to be known as the weirdo that got escorted off a property with a pocket full of nails n tab tops.. Lol.
In this case, if I can get away with it , I will.. Sorry.

 

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[MissIron.Maiden]

Tom, you are a master of scenarios however, this is all for naught as the subject is about PRIVATE PROPERTY not parks. Why would we feel guilty about taking finds from a park? Let me try painting a scenario...... I notice an old farm house out in the rural backroads that no one is currently living at and the nearest neighbors are several miles away. When I enter the property, I notice a padlock on the door and think that no one will bother me as I give the yard a try. After a days work, I head home with a small pile of old coins, some jewelry, and a few collectibles that appear to be from the early 20th century. A good haul to most but not all that satisfying to a relic hunter who focuses mainly on the 18th century. A week later, I've got nothing really good to hunt that day, so I decide to try that old farmhouse again and drive out. Upon arriving, there's a vehicle in the driveway and I realize it's the owners. Now I have a chance to finally ask and get permission and go to talk to a middle aged man in the front yard. As I'm talking to him, a little boy comes out hobbling on crutches to join the conversation. The nice owner explains that his son "Tiny Tim" has been saving money for years to buy his first detector because his dream is to search his family's farm house to find things that his dad, uncles, and grandparents may have lost so he could make a special family display for future generations. I wish them well and leave to find somewhere else to hunt. That night in bed, I can't stop thinking about those coins, jewelry pieces, old toys and collectibles that mean very little to me and how exciting those finds would have been to that little boy. This my friend, is a story about stealing and the guilt that follows. Everyone needs a good night's sleep! Cheers, Dave.

Dave , tell us another story please. But make this one believable . You know , where a kid doesn't care about history... Lol.. I'm just razzing you. I hear your point. We all have our thoughts on this and that's ok

 

[Muddyhandz]

Dave , tell us another story please. But make this one believable . You know , where a kid doesn't care about history... Lol.. I'm just razzing you. I hear your point. We all have our thoughts on this and that's ok

Well then, I guess I’ll tell you a story that is true.
After years of digging for old bottles, when I turned twelve, I was interested in metal detecting after seeing what my best friend was finding who just started out.
I worked as a gopher at a construction job all summer to buy my first detector (Whites Liberty II) and was ready to start hunting the following spring.
My first spot was my grandmothers house next to door to where I born and raised.
The house was built in the early 1940’s and my dad grew up there.
After finding all kinds of cool things, I would show them to my family.
I remember my dad saying “Wow! that old white porcelain, blue-swirled gear shift knob was from that old Ford farm truck we had when I was a kid!”
Or my grandmother thought that little sterling child’s ring belonged to my aunt’s friend. Almost everything had a story.
A year later, I was giving my dad heck for failing to tell me that the town’s first railroad station was in our back alfalfa field.
All the obvious spots in town had already been hammered and that R.R. station produced my first small silver nickel, large cents, old quarter, etc..
Now, I imagine what I would feel like if someone had snuck into my grandmothers yard and looted it. Or the R.R. station and robbed me of my first old coins.
Would I have been interested enough to stay in the hobby? Would I still be detecting 27 years later?
This was my actual reflection that led me to paint that scenario.
Here’s the first page to my journal from those days......



I know you’re just “razzing” me but I wanted to show you a kid that did care about history.

 

[Rangerbb]

Just to spin it another way with the people saying it is stealing from the property owner what about this....the couple who recently FOUND 10million in gold coins on THEIR own property. According to the government these people do not own the gold coins (even though they own the property), they were found and have to pay income tax on the coins... So how would it be stealing if someone else found these coins on their property?

 

[MissIron.Maiden]

Ok muddy hands . Sweet story. I 'll give you that.

 

[Fletch88]

Just go detect and have fun! Don't feel guilty because it will be under asphalt in another 2-3 years anyway. If you get asked to leave jut be polite and leave. I'm going to hunt a spot where another Dollar General is about to be built.( like we new another one around here) The previous owner let me hunt but now it's sold to a corporation. When the first 2-3 layers of junky topsoil are scrapped away I will be there every night detecting since it's 1/4 mile from my driveway. If you listen to everyone on here you may as well sit in the corner at home and sell your detector. Public parks are boring to me and too many busybodies wondering what your up to. Old relics and a few coins are much more satisfying than a handful of modern clad.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Just to spin it another way with the people saying it is stealing from the property owner what about this....the couple who recently FOUND 10million in gold coins on THEIR own property. According to the government these people do not own the gold coins (even though they own the property), they were found and have to pay income tax on the coins... So how would it be stealing if someone else found these coins on their property?

Uh-oh, ya better watch it there ranger, you're gonna be the next "master of scenarios" to muddyhandz

Again, private vs public vs abandoned vs WHATEVER aside for the moment, I am just pointing out that .... for some reason ... md'rs seem to think of coins/objects in the ground as somehow being different than objects above the ground. No one of us would DARE pick up something off someone's nightstand, or off someone's desk at city hall. But .... for some reason things UNDER the ground are deemed un-known, no one's loss, abandoned, and no one's any worse off. Yes I know legally that doesn't hold muster, and despite the object's rotting for the next 1000 yrs unknown to anyone, yet, .... still belongs to the entity is charge of the place.

Like I say, this is not a "legal" observation, but just one that comes to mind when words like "stealing" are thrown out, when a question of hunting an abandoned derelict property get floated. Yes, if I went and took the doorknobs, etc.... And perhaps the coins underground have no different definition (legally) than those doorknobs. Yet for some reason, we all have an inherent knowledge of some sort of difference.

 

[lookindown]

I bet some of the same people that say "follow the law exactly, its the only way" break the speed limit when they drive...do whats right for you because everyone else does whats right for them.

 

[MissIron.Maiden]

This is one of the abandoned for sale properties I'm stalking .. Lol. Nobody is going to give me permission to hunt there:/ . It looks like a lawsuit waiting to happen


Awesome though isn't it?

 

[Fletch88]

Yes it looks promising Ms IM! What kind of a lawsuit is waiting to happen? Find out who owns it is the first step. I'll comment off air on the second and third step, I hear some high horses riding in!

 

[Peyton Manning]

tough one, I understand completely the desire to find old stuff no one cares about
then there are the rights of ownership to consider ( suppose you owned a bunch of land with an old homestead on it- you want someone driving by and detecting it?)
as far a developers raping the land with flake board houses - well the earth is patient. what is buried in it will survive long after the houses now have become like the ones in your picture. The land always wins. the history isn't lost, just waiting....

 

[dholland02]

Like I said b4 if it a not owned by a private person I'd be there in a heart beat and wouldn't think twice about it.

 

[Fletch88]

Like I said b4 if it a not owned by a private person I'd be there in a heart beat and wouldn't think twice about it.

We're just a bunch of outlaws dholland!

 

[MissIron.Maiden]

If it isn't owned by a private person ,I'd have no issue detecting it... Except for the humanoids that might live in the Basement. And it's wide open ... My truck would be visible wherever I parked .

 

[Fletch88]

If it isn't owned by a private person ,I'd have no issue detecting it... Except for the humanoids that might live in the Basement. And it's wide open ... My truck would be visible wherever I parked .

Can you take someone with you for safety sake? If it's not all posted everywhere and someone did come up on you, I can't see them wanting to have you arrested. At least not where I come from. Just be polite, show them the canslaw and bottle caps in your pouch (the ones you found last week) if they ask and leave if they tell you to. I'm pretty sure you won't spend the night in the pokey for it. It looks like you could spend several days there gridding it.

 

[Keppy]

I've done the route of calling the realtors on such properties and get a blank answer . Basically an answer that sounds like " why are you bothering me with this ?" .

..Well if i was still selling real estate ..I would say the same thing to you.. Why are you bothering me with this…………… But on land like this as i have said before my self i would just go hunt and not waste my time calling around … And as i said before to many just worry to much over nothing …. Go hunt it and stop wasting your time asking … And stop wasting the time of the people you are asking……….. Like …..lookindown …..said the ones that said go ask some one are the ones you see speeding down the highway over the speed limit…….. most on these forums want others to think they are all so wonderful ………. But not me …I would hunt it so go hunt it…….

 

[Muddyhandz]

Do you see people coming on here bragging they broke the speed limit?
No, most people break the speed limit and KEEP IT TO THEMSELVES.
I couldn't give a flying what you do in your world.
Do you really have to come on the internet and tell all about how you think it's o.k. to break the law?
100,000 viewing here and you have NO conscious whatsoever about leaving the wrong impression?
"......Let no one know what, were (where) or when...."

 

[MissIron.Maiden]

Do you see people coming on here bragging they broke the speed limit? No, most people break the speed limit and KEEP IT TO THEMSELVES. I couldn't give a flying what you do in your world. Do you really have to come on the internet and tell all about how you think it's o.k. to break the law? 100,000 viewing here and you have NO conscious whatsoever about leaving the wrong impression? "......Let no one know what, were (where) or when...."

Are you talking to me? Settle down over there. I'm sorry you think it's ok to lie to make yourself look better , but I don't live by that. And yes I do speed. I do an average of 15 mph over the speed limit at all times . Apparently you do care what I do in my world , cause you sound like your going to pee yourself about it.

 

[Keppy]

Do you see people coming on here bragging they broke the speed limit?
No, most people break the speed limit and KEEP IT TO THEMSELVES.
I couldn't give a flying what you do in your world.
Do you really have to come on the internet and tell all about how you think it's o.k. to break the law?
100,000 viewing here and you have NO conscious whatsoever about leaving the wrong impression?
"......Let no one know what, were (where) or when...."

You tell how you feel about it .. OH that's different no one's opinion counts but your's and the one's that agree with you.. As i have always posted you do what you want and i will do what i want….

 

[Keppy]

Are you talking to me? Settle down over there. I'm sorry you think it's ok to lie to make yourself look better , but I don't live by that. And yes I do speed. I do an average of 15 mph over the speed limit at all times . Apparently you do care what I do in my world , cause you sound like your going to pee yourself about it.

Maiden .. I speed at times also but there are some that think they are God and never do wrong well they want to look good for every one so they always say they never did any thing wrong They are just angel's