Metal Detecting Guides & Reviews

A plain-English guide to the Archaeological Resources Protection Act for detectorists: where it applies, the 100-year rule, the coin and bullet exclusion, and penalties.

State park metal detecting rules vary from outright bans to designated areas and permit systems. Here is how to check your state's rules and what to ask the park office.

Hobby metal detecting and gold prospecting with hand tools are generally allowed on BLM land. Here is what the rules say about claims, artifacts, closed areas and what you can keep.

Metal detecting is legal in many US places, but the rules depend on who owns or manages the land. Here is how federal, state, local and private-land rules fit together.

Arizona's best gold ground sits in the Bradshaw Mountains, around Wickenburg and Rich Hill, near Quartzsite and in Mohave County's Gold Basin. Here is where to look, which land you can legally work, and what gear fits desert gold.