To River Hunt, or Not To River Hunt?

[Silas]

Hello All,

I haven't been out much within the last few weeks since my last post but today I stumbled upon what, at least I consider to be something very promising.



I found myself walking along a river in town and to cut the story short I stumbled upon what I believe is a turn of the century-1920 era dump. I'm talking crockery, plate shards, tops of kerosene lamp globes, the leather soles of shoes (and not new ones either!) bottles (two so far) and horseshoes (my timing estimation could be a bit off, as these are the wildcard in the mix.) This place is very promising.

My question is, is it legal to bottle hunt in a public river? I don't even know who I would ask. Any thoughts?

 

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[Red James Cash]

My question is, is it legal to bottle hunt in a public river? I don't even know who I would ask. Any thoughts?

I have,all youre doing is taking whats considered trash by some out of the water.There a building downtown here that use to be a bar and whore house in the late 1800s.When the water is low you can sometimes see bottles in the gravel,ive dug that quite a few times.Lots of keg stoppers

 

[Silas]

I was hoping that was the case, I mean the place is loaded with turn of the century garbage and your right all were really doing is doing our part to clean it up! I'm going to take any exposed broken glass with me so no one gets hurt on it in the future. I really appreciate your reply, it's sort of late and I was assuming I was going to be checking this until tomorrow afternoon. Thanks so much!

Cheers and happy hunting!!

 

[Red James Cash]

I was hoping that was the case, I mean the place is loaded with turn of the century garbage and your right all were really doing is doing our part to clean it up! I'm going to take any exposed broken glass with me so no one gets hurt on it in the future. I really appreciate your reply, it's sort of late and I was assuming I was going to be checking this until tomorrow afternoon. Thanks so much!

Cheers and happy hunting!!

No problem,make it look good,bring a few empty trash bags with you

 

[Jeremy S]

Hello All,


My question is, is it legal to bottle hunt in a public river? I don't even know who I would ask. Any thoughts?

What public entity owns the river? You can look up laws and rules on their webpage (usually). Being in a river, probably the only law enforcement officers that will be watching the place would be a Conservation Officer. Check your states DNR pages.

Is the land bordering the river where you will be accessing it privately owned? If so, I would just get their permission (to use their land to get to the river) and go for it, especially if you are far away from where any law enforcement officers will be. The thing that gets a CO's attention around here are shovels. It is against state law to dig on major river banks, that law was passed as guys were strip mining areas for Indian artifacts and causing major erosion problems.

 

[Landlord Jim]

A Navigable river (even with a kayak ) is Held in trust by the State for recreational use by the public. The Supreme Court of the US said so. If you can legally get into the river on a public access you can walk and metal detect and pick bottles--even thru private property. Just don't step on the banks! Stay in the river or creek and you are free to go!

 

[NJSouth]

Hey all. I too am just getting ready to hunt a lake across the street from my new house. I've never hunted in water before but could anyone share some dos and don't with it?? I have a Bounty Hunter Tracker IV. Any good in water? The water I'll be hunting in is between 8"-12". Lots of plant life. Will be waiting a few weeks to go but any advice would be appreciated.

 

[CincinnatiKid]

Go for it!
In my area, Landlord Jim is correct.
Keep us posted...
Peace

 

[DFX DAVE in M.D.]

Low tide during the full moon is the best time to detect and look for relics at the waters edge. I have seen people in the water almost waist deep with a long shovel like scoop trying to keep their detector box out of the water. I will not do it, I just go at a good low tide.

 

[Red James Cash]

No tides in the the river here.It all depends how much the dam is open and rain conditions.Sometimes the water is down a few feet exposing a gravel bar,other times it could be up to your thighs.

 

[Silas]

Hey everyone!

I got back out today this morning and was amazed! I ended up finding fourteen more bottles today!! ( I included the two from yesterday in the pic.) By my research most are from within the 1895-1919 era. As I mentioned I did pull any broken glass I saw out of the river bottom where I was walking (the stuff I could see that is.) I ended up carting off a big load of broken crockery, bottle shards and rusted iron to a dumpster. I know I'm not the only one who walks around down there, (as evidenced by the empty beer can and taco bell bag with wrappers still inside that was placed neatly in the bushes, and regardless if their a litter bug or not, I don't want somebody getting a piece of 100 year old glass in their foot.

Toward the end of my excursion I was pretty much done bottle hunting and had taken up the search for broken glass in all of its forms. While I was walking along I came across a place with a nice little "debris field" of old bricks. Seeing a promising area, I started eyeballing it pretty closely. Within a few seconds I had caught sight of a horseshoe or mule shoe, I'm not sure which and a big coin sized object. After I had retrieved the horseshoe I went after the large cent (I assume that's what it was, by the size.) As I clenched it in my gloved hands it slipped through and into pretty much the abyss. My look was somewhat equivocal to a child whose ice-cream fell off the cone and onto the sidewalk, and yeah I was close to tears XD I'm going to go back tomorrow after double checking with the authorities, and with the thumbs up I'm going to bring out the AT Pro and find that large cent, or Waldo, whichever one I find first. I've also attached a few pictures of todays haul.



Thanks for the advice and support, its always appreciated! Best of luck to us all, and happy hunting!

 

[lookindown]

What are you going to "double check" with the authorities? If you don't need permission to walk there, fish there etc. then you don't need permission to detect there. Why do people think detecting is different than any other activity? Asking authorities is a good way to get a "no" from someone that doesn't know for sure but will tell you no to cover their selves. Look it up yourself and don't run asking for permission. Ask enough people and you will get the "no" your worried about. Looks like you've found a great place to detect.

 

[Red James Cash]

Lookindown is right there silas.Dont ask anybody anything.

 

[Rodbuster209]

I agree with lookingdown & Red James Cash, Do not ask anyone anything, just go there and detect it. With all the iron you are talking about sounds like you need to do some sifting, it would probably be way more productive. Goodluck!

 

[Moresound]

I like the giant white porcelain bottle you found that all of the other bottles are sitting on.