Always be honest! Just as D2 said these folks can probably help you out.
Here's what I typed on another forum:
I have been doing alot of research on alot of different places. I always report to the landowners and what I find on their land. There has been only one ask me to do this, but I feel I should keep them all informed. I always offer them the first of whatever I find and inform them by the way of summery of what and where I have found items.
I have been searching this one landowner's land for a good while. He gives me the run of the place. I found a large Confederate camp on his land, he also has another Confederate camp on his land that I have not found as of yet and there are also lots of other very good points of intrest on his land. All he asked for is for me to keep him updated on what I find, if I find somethin pretty valuble we split it if it gets sold and to not publicize what is on his land until he decides how it needs to be handled. I understand his situation. The guy had some land in another county that an Indian mound was found on. The government came in and shut his farming down for a good bit while they dug the site. Afterwards he couldn't do anything to his land but farm it.
I old him that I would respect his wishes and do exactly the way he wanted me to do.
I found a couple of Enfield rounds from the one camp along with some other items. I went to find him to show him what I had found but was unable to locate him. I tried several times after that to catch him at his farm. It was like I just missed him. One day I caught up to him and told him about what I had found and told him the story about the camp. I told him that I was going to give him the first round with short story about the camp. I offered to give him whatever he wanted out of the stuff I found and a summery of the locations found. He told me that anything else no matter what it was I could keep it for my own collection or sale it for funding of my search. He told me to keep on keeping a log book and the summeries because it would be nice as a part of history of his place. He was very appreciative about me being honest with him.
A few days later I was approached by another landowner that has land adjacent to the other landonwer. He told me that he had heard that I was doing research and heard how I treated this other landowner. He told me that I was welcome to hunt his property with no strings attached. That made my day! I have been trying to contact this landowner for awhile to see about hunting his property because there is some really good stuff from the ORs about his land. I told him about what happened on his land and he enjoyed the story but he also knew a bit about what happened there. It's been too wet to hunt his property so I haven't been out there yet. I have been doing alot of research on the place and getting my maps inline. I will offer him the first relic(no matter what is is, including an 11 star CS buckle) with the letters from the ORs that tell about his place.
The more honest you are the better your chances of hunting more and more property.
