I have seen a lot of posts where people hunt on school grounds. Do you have to have permission or can you hunt the playgrounds?
Thanks,
CC
CJ Tuffy
Sorry a little long
Here in Charlotte, officially you are not allowed on school grounds it's trespassing. But I have hit them since 1996 and no one has ever approached me and said anything but "What ya finding?".
I only go when the children are not attending. You would be really Mr. Creepy if the kids were there as well having a bunch of kids following you around and I'm sure in 2 minutes the administration would be there asking you to leave.
I would seek out the oldest schools in the area and start with them. The kids back in the 50s and 60s did not have a lot of pocket cash, but it was in silver and wheaties. Search in the grass around large shade trees and along the edges. The playground may have been relocated around on the grounds so see if you can find where the old playground was.
As far as new schools I only hit the playground area because of all the construction debris that they buried around when the school was built. Remember that there is landscaping cloth down a few inches and don't dig targets that read 8 inches because it would be below the cloth and most likely trash (experince.. LOL). I have found alot of jewelry and clad at schoolyards. My routine was the schools on the weekends and the public park's (tot-lots) playgrounds in the mornings during the week. Kids lose alot of stuff but you do not want them following you around while you are detecting. I also have been confronted by parents asking why I was there and so on. I usually showed them some rusty iron nails or bullets and tell them I'm saving their kids from injury. "What kind of parent would let their kids play where there were dangerous nails?)...kidding
I have stopped hitting school yard because of lack of time but when I was hitting them hard I would pull out a map of Charlotte and plot out every elementary school and divide them up in quadrants and hit these 8 –10 schools over here and next day I would hit these over here on this side and so on. I had developed a routine because they were constantly being replenished. I guess I was getting at least $50 or more a month just in clad. Middle schools have more jewelry but no playgrounds and are very trashy. Now I don’t have the time, competition has gotten stiff here. My favorite play ground s have been redone to rubber mats or moved to a trashy area.
Good luck and let us know what your getting….CJ
nc-joe
I have not had any issues detecting at schools. I have even stopped and chatted with a police officer as I was detecting a school. Like Charlie said, just be sure to go when there are no kids there. I seem to find a stray silver dime and some wheaties here and there when hitting the older school sites.
Good luck and be sure to post your finds!
By the way, which detector did you end up buying?
cercisnc
Well, I got my detector off of ebay - Prizm 4 - very reasonable and it came with the metal beach scoop, the pinpointer(looks new but does not appear to work though), coin probe, another metal stick, the 50 dollar ear phones (new), the padded bag(new), leather pouch, another fabric apron(new), and one of the metal shovels(new) - think that is everything. The reasoning behind my selection is that if I can find enough places to hunt I will upgrade but keep the prizm and let my nephew use it when I go home to Georgia to hunt -make it a family thing. Detector was new and I am not really upset about the pointer because I got all that stuff for a pretty good price. Might see how much it would cost to ship it off for repair.
My detector came last Wednesday and I have searched my yard and gotten 2 quarters, 2 dimes and 10 pennies. I really wanted to go somewhere this weekend but totally chickened out. I tried to go to a school ground but felt like I was doing something illegal. I was tempted to go to a park and actually did pull in but there it was posted in the rules - no metal detecting. It is frustrating that there are not more places. I may have to check out the surrounding counties. Charlotte seems to have a lot more places to hunt from all the posts or maybe you all are just braver than I am at this point.
There is an old golf course not far from me that is being converted into houses - almost stopped there early this morning but was not sure it would be safe to go out in alone or at least at that time of the morning.
I know a couple of good places in Georgia that I want to check when I go home and I am going to the beach at the end of september. So unless either I get braver or find more places that are MD friendly I may end up sticking with the prizm.
Thanks for all the info. How do I find out about the club hunts? I emailed about the club forum but did not get a response -are there dues to pay? I doubt I could make the meetings but a weekend event would be possible.
Thanks
CC
cadit
Like Charlie says; schools are good places to hit as long as you're not out there while school is in. But after hours and week ends it's all yours. Some areas I would be careful in, take a buddy along. I would suggest taking someone along anytime you’re in an unfamiliar area.
