Newbie

[MelissaPA]

Hi, my Fiance are just getting started, I actually bought him a BH MD for his birthday which is next saturday, he is going to be thrilled when he opens it up! I wanted to have some places we can go the day after his birthday to check out, how do you know where you can and can not use your MD?

Thank You!

-Melissa (Northeastern Pennsylvania)

 

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[jeff of pa]

Welcome Melissa

Cool Birthday Gift for your Fiance

best thing to do is first try your own yards, learn your detector
and proper digging procedure.

Once you have that down Move on to small Public Parks,
and maybe friends and relatives yards When they are not Home

Just Kidding on the Part about them Not being Home

If He (You's) Realy get into it

Check out The Black diamond Metal Detecting Club
up there.
http://www.geocities.com/treasureport/bdthc.htm
They have a Big Get together 1st weekend in August.
at Moon Lake Park

 

[hotrod53]

Melissa, congratulations... you may be about to create a monster! I hope that you bought it for him with the intention of going with him, otherwise you may not see him as much...LOL.

It's a great hobby and for those of us who have been bitten, it becomes somewhat of an obsession. Like Jeff said, start out in the parks and get used to your machine. Being familliar with the machine is more important that what machine it is.

You'll probably follow the same progression over the years as did I:
(1) look what I found in my yard
(2) hey this is neat, I can find coins in the park
(3) ya know, I'm tired of park hunting, I want to find older coins
(4) the easy spots are all gone, lets do some research to find the tougher and more rewarding places
(5) I'm constantly scanning the roadsides looking for signs of a good spot, many times with a detector in tow.
(6) then comes the GPS, wipimapia, google earth, and the internet.......... I need help!

If I could make one suggestion of what helped me understand detecting, and I'm sure everyone has their own experience, find a book called "detectorist" by Sickler. Lots of useful information that helped me turn non-productive detecting into producing good stuff. I started detecting in 1974 and never really advanced until the early 90's after getting a new understanding. I think that the book is still available if you search the net. Learn the theories of "people magnets", searching techniques, and understanding old homesites and terrain, it will help you greatly. You learn to see things from a different perspective than non-detectorists do.

WELCOME!

 

[deepskyal]

Welcome Melissa,

I really cannont add anymore than Jeff and Hotrod...just wanted to say hi.

Al

 

[P.B. and Dylan]

Hi Melissa,
You got some good advice already....Welcome to Treasure net.
Paul

 

[Gary in Pennsylvania]

Hi, my Fiance are just getting started,
-Melissa (Northeastern Pennsylvania)

Welcome.

I'm a noob too.
I'm pretty sure that my wife won't do much huntin' with me.....but I've got 4 kids (4,5,8,9) and my oldest (a daughter) will be connected at my hip whenever she can!

I live in the Moscow area just outside of Scranton.

You

-

 

[jeff741972]

Hi and welcome!

 

[sniffer]

listen to the solid advice and dig the good tones

Sniffer

 

[baspinall]

Welcome and good luck not getting totally obsessed like the rest of us

SEPA/Chester County here.

Brian

 

[robbuckalew]

welcome to Tnet.
Your fiance will be thrilled to see his gift.
I am in Stroudsburg

 

[MelissaPA]

Thank you! My Fiance and I live in between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre in Luzerne County. We love taking day trips so one day he mentioned how interesting it would be to get a MD and take it with us. Ever since that conversation he has not stopped talking about getting one. So his birthday is this upcoming weekend so I thought how perfect of a gift it would be. My plans are to give him his and we can go out together and see how it works and than I will be getting my own, it is something new and interesting we could do together! We are not looking to go and make tons of money, it will be to find cool things and have fun but if we do find something worth something that would just make it even better! Does anyone know of any locations that would we should go check out??

-Melissa

 

[Gary in Pennsylvania]

WOW! Great area to live!
The Pittston/Dupot/Duryea area is full of history. It hasn't been overly 'urban-ated' yet and you still have dozens of parks/open areas to hit. TONS of railroad activity - the rails (or railbeds) are still present, but the buildings aren't.....hit 'em.

And I LOVE how the suburban neighborhoods seem to just stop at the base of the West Mountain.......There ought to be interesting older sites along there as well.

But most importantly.....you've got the river! If you dig deep into your area's history, you'll see that much of the earliest settlements happened along the river. And MOST of that riverfront is still open - or at least it is NOW. Back then, the river was the place to BE!


You oughtta have a BLAST!


-

 

[MelissaPA]

How do I know where I can and cannot use a MD in my area?

 

[savant365]

Hi Melissa and welcome to Tnet. Its all good advise above but if you want to go to the park and detect start with the volley ball courts (sand) and the woodchip pits around the playground equiptment. You don't have to worry about holes and these areas usually hold lots of coins and other goodies. The best thing you and your fiance can do to start is learn how to dig a hole and fill it it back in so it doesn't show. There are several videos on youtube about metal detecting that show how to do this and several other things.
Make sure you take your camera, we like to see lots of pictures of finds and a picture of his face when he opens his present would be cool too.

Happy hunting, Charlie

 

[savant365]

How do I know where I can and cannot use a MD in my area?

If its public property like a park or school yard it should be ok. If its private property you need to ask the owner if you can hunt there. I just called the parks and recreation dept here and asked if there were any rules about using a metel detector in the parks. good luck, Charlie

 

[deepskyal]

How do I know where I can and cannot use a MD in my area?

Some of us "old school" md'ers, don't believe in asking permission to hunt public property like parks, schools and such. Usually, if some maintainence person objects, you smile and say thank you, then leave. I've only come close once to being asked to leave a place in the last 20+ years. His issue was underground sprinklers and simply asked me to detect a different part of the park where no sprinklers were....even gave me a tip of a lost wedding band in a baseball infield...I ended up leaving
anyhow when I ended up with a crowd of small children following me around.

Most local and county parks are fair game.

Pa. State gamelands are a no-no.....(enter at your own risk and risk losing your equipment if you run into some gung-ho trooper)...but heck...sometimes I like a good risk...but that's me....and I simply disagree with their reasons. All I see there is a big "Welcome to Pennsylvania State Gamelands" sign...nothing about no detecting...but on their website...the rules are listed. (you didn't hear that from me)

Pa. State parks...it's a good idea to check in with the ranger.

National historic sites ....definately a big no-no....you'll ruin the hobby for everyone if you get caught. This is a big reason for a lot of laws we suffer with now. People stealing obvious historic treasures.

Pretty much, if it's your tax dollars supporting it and it isn't posted, it's open game. Just use some common sense. Don't do schools while they're in session, don't do beaches when lifeguards are on duty (pretty sure that's the rule in Erie), etc.

And above all, be courtious at all times and fill in your holes. Don't leave a trace of your being there.

Have lots of fun and great finds,
Al