09/03/2026
Where to hunt, after you get your metal detector?
I would say the most hunted places are city parks and school grounds. Well, more and more people are turning to private property. When I started metal detecting again in 2009 after buying myself a descent new metal detector for Christmas, the parks are where I mostly hunted. And yes, I would find the occasional silver coin, but mostly clad, the newer coins made after 1965.
After metal detecting parks for about three years, I was hunting a park about twenty miles from where I live. A guy stopped (Dennis Wynne) and asked if I minded if he could metal detect the park with me. I didn’t know the guy, never met him before. We became very good friends. He was from Dallas, Texas, (Aledo) and was working in the area. He had been metal detecting since the mid 70’s. Let me get to the point of all this. He explained to me later that he knocked on doors to get permission to hunt private property.
Well, I continued hunting the parks for several more months. No way could I ask someone to hunt (dig) in somesones front yard. One Saturday I was hunting a park in Oklahoma that I had hunted several times and not finding much of anything. Looking around at all the old homes that surrounded this park, I started thinking about what I had been told about knocking doors to get permission to hunt private property, I got started. (door knocking) Man was that first door hard to walk up to. They said no. The second owner said yes, and I have been door knocking ever since then.
I have mostly hunted with the same hunting buddy since I started door knocking. We have found as many as ten silver coins in one yard. That’s a great day, and does not happen often. We have hunted yards that you know there would be silver and find no silver coins.
In the past three years or so we have hunted every town in a hundred-mile radius of where we live. We usually leave around 8 AM. We never start knocking until 10 AM. If we get to a town and it is too early to door knock, we hunt their city park. Yes, we do find the occasional silver coin in these parks. Some parks we have done very well. But we always have the best luck and most finds by door knocking.
A house we hunted in a small town about twenty miles from where I live, we found 9 silver coins. The house was built in the early 1900s. I went to the door to ask permission and the guy said yes before I got it out. He told me he had always wanted someone to metal detect his yard. I started out on the inside of the sidewalk and the first ten feet I found a Barber dime and my buddy found a silver quarter about the same time. That turned out to be one of the best yards we have hunted. The homeowner let us keep all our finds.
Last summer I was driving around town looking for an old house to get permission to hunt and I found an old two-story house on a corner across the street from one of the oldest parks in town. I went up and knocked to get permission. The homeowner was very nice. He just bought the house and was having it remodeled. We discussed the history of the house, and he gave me permission to hunt this huge corner yard. I came back that afternoon; it was the middle of the summer and 105 degrees. I hunted the side of the house by the street and found three silver coins. I went back the next week and hunted part of the front yard and found two more silvers and an old token. I didn’t hunt this yard any more till earlier this year. My buddy and I were hunting in town one Saturday and passed by this house and the home owners were home and let us hunt the rest of the yard. We dug up five more silver coins. That was a very productive yard.
One of the best towns we hunted is a small old town in Oklahoma, about a 45-minute drive. Most of the homeowners were very nice and gave us permission to hunt their yards. There were several yards we found 4-5 silver coins in. One yard we hunted I found a very cool old watch fob from the late 1800s. The last time we hunted this town I found my first silver dollar. It was an empty lot we had got permission to hunt. It was on the left side of the sidewalk going up to where the house used to be. It was only about two and a half inches deep. When I find something like this, I often wonder who dropped it and how many people have walked over it since it was lost.
I see some people who will call, send an email, mail a letter or leave a note asking permission to hunt private property. The best way to get permission is to go in person and ask.
If you hunt with a buddy, take turns asking. Two big grown men at a stranger’s door can be very intimidating. Don’t take your metal detector or shovel to the door with you when asking permission to hunt their property. Try to be clean and have a neat appearance.
This is what I say or something very similar. Hello, my name is David and I metal detect as a hobby. We are always looking for old homes like yours to hunt. Would you mind if we metal detected your front yard. I don’t have anything word for word I say each time. But something similar to this.
If they are hesitant or give me a funny look, I start asking them about their home. When was it built, do you know the history of the house, have you found any neat old stuff in the house since you lived there. Sometimes when you talk to the homeowner, they get more comfortable and say sure, go ahead. They may ask, why my house. I tell them it’s an old house with a big yard and the type of yard we like to hunt.
And then some will ask, what do I get. Then I tell them they are welcome to come out and watch us hunt and we will split everything we find. I can only recall two or three homeowners watching us the whole time. That was mostly out of curiosity.
And hardly ever does anyone want our finds. I have been asked, what if you find a buried treasure. My reply to that is always, if I do you will hear me hollering and you will see me jumping up and down. Just come on out and we will split the lost treasure. Everyone has always laughed at that reply.
This has happened several times. We would be hunting the yard and the homeowner comes out and gets in their car and drives off, leaving two complete strangers digging in their front yard.
I haven’t said all this to discourage you from hunting the city parks and school yards. But the best area to hunt that has produced the most silver and the best finds for me is knocking doors to get permission to hunt private property.
I became a metal detector dealer in 2014, 12 years ago. www.texhomametaldetectors.com I am an authorized dealer for Nokta, Minelab and XP metal detectors. And just this month started offering Hennessey Hammocks on my website.
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