Truth be told, most of the well-known nugget producing areas in the US have been hunted hard over the past several decades. There’s still gold to be found on public land, but you have to outsmart and outhunt the hundreds of detectorists that have come before you.
The best thing about private land is that most of the areas have not been hunted nearly as hard. As a result, they are some of the best places to find gold nuggets with a metal detector.
Here are a few tips to gain access to new ground on private land:
1. Find the owner
Sounds easy enough, but it’s not always clear who owns the land that you want to prospect on. If there isn’t a house nearby with the obvious owner, you may need to do some research first. Land records can usually be obtained from the county, but nowadays one of the easiest ways is to use a hunting app like onX. This is probably the quickest and easiest way to obtain landowner information.
2. Speak to them in person
I have tried calling landowners on the phone, and I have very poor luck doing it. By far, the best way to gain access is to approach them directly, face to face, and let them know your intentions. This way they can look you in the eye and make sure that you aren’t a sketchy wierdo. Dress nice, shake their hand, and tell them that you would like to spend a few hours prospecting on their land. I emphasize a few hours. Don’t leave your request open to interpretation, and don’t abuse the privilege.
Finding gold nuggets is harder than ever. Most of the well-known goldfields have been hunter HARD over the years. Private land is one way to access ground where less prospectors have been. It is one way to increase your chance of success.
3. Don’t knock on their door like you are “ready to go”
Don’t have a metal detector in your hand. Don’t wear camo. No shovels or picks.
Imagine that you are being approached by a stranger asking to enter your property, but they look like they already assume that the answer is yes. Not a good look… Remember, you are asking permission… it is not a foregone conclusion that you are actually going to get access. It’s their land after all.
4. Explain how metal detecting works
If you can get past a quick “NO” from the landowner, they may have a few questions for you. Be sure to explain clearly how metal detecting works, how you will carefully fill any holes that you dig, and that there will be no negative effects on their land. I always tell them that the vast majority of what I dig up is only a few inches deep and are easily filled in with a few scrapes of my boot.
5. Offer a 50-50 split.
You can offer whatever split you want, or no split at all, but I find that a 50-50 offer is good incentive. If it gets me access to good ground then its worth it to me.
With the price of gold at record highs (around $1850 per ounce as I am writing this), offering a 50-50 split with the landowner is worth it to me. Some folks might think that’s too high, but if sharing finds helps me gain access to productive ground then I am happy to do it. It beats hunting old hunted-out ground over and over like a lot of prospectors do.
6. Show them your finds when you are done, even if you find nothing!
If you get access, ALWAYS come back to the house when you are done and show them what you dug up. This is one of the most important parts of KEEPING access to new ground. There’s nothing sketchier that asking permission, offering to split finds 50-50, prospecting for a few hours and then leaving without touching base with the landowner when you are done. There’s a good chance that they will assume you found gold and just left!
Even if you don’t find anything, a few hours of detecting is certainly going to turn up some old relics. For someone that doesn’t metal detect, this old junk is actually pretty cool stuff. Show them all that stuff, the square nails, musket balls, boot tacks, etc. It’s actually pretty interesting and a neat connection for landowners to see the history of their land.
7. Take NO with a smile
Unfortunately you are going to hear “NO” more often than not. Smile and be courteous even when you don’t like their answer.
Why not just cuss them out and kick over their mailbox as you are leaving? Aside from the obvious, one main reason is that I will be coming back and asking again in a few months. Don’t burn your bridges.
Usually after getting denied access, I will say something like this:
“No problem. Thank you for your time. I might come back and pester you again at some point. I’d sure like to detect your land some day and see what kind of cool stuff there is. Have a great day!”
This does a couple things. It plants the seed in their mind that there might be some gold/coins/relics on their land. By saying that you’ll probably come back and ask again helps to prepare them for your next visit. When you come back in a month or two, you won’t be a stranger anymore. They’ve had some time to think about it. They won’t be caught off-guard like the first time you knocked on their door.
I can’t tell you how many times I have been denied access to metal detect on private land the first time I asked, only to be granted access the second time. It works.
5 Gold Nuggets Found with Metal Detectors