Metal Detecting in Nevada

1. The rule, in full

Nevada – NAC 407.103

Read from the consolidated Nevada Administrative Code at leg.state.nv.us (Legislative Counsel Bureau), chapter NAC 407 in full, revision date shown 4/13/2026. Re-verified word for word 3 Oct 2026.

Operative text, NAC 407.103:

"NAC 407.103 Metal detector. (NRS 407.0475, 407.065) Except as authorized by the supervisor of the park, no person may use a metal detector in the park." (Added to NAC by Div. of St. Parks, eff. 11-12-93.)

That is the entire rule. One sentence, and the re-read of 3 Oct 2026 found it character for character as quoted here.

Scope, NAC 407.010(1):

"The provisions of NAC 407.050 to 407.150, inclusive, apply to all lands administered by the Division."

Determination: Division of State Parks land only. Does NOT reach municipal parks. Status is permit_required – the park supervisor can authorise it, and the rule says so in its own first clause.

The antiquities statute was checked and is state and federal land only:

NRS 381.197: "a person shall not investigate, explore or excavate an historic or prehistoric site on federal or state lands or remove any object therefrom unless the person is the holder of a valid and current permit."

Permits under NRS 381.203 require the work to be "undertaken for the benefit of a reputable museum, university, college or other recognized scientific or educational institution" – so there is no hobbyist route.

One provision in Nevada has no land limit at all

Recorded rather than filed as a municipal-reach entry, because the conduct is remote from detecting – but it should not be missed.

NRS 381.225(1): "It is unlawful for any person to commit vandalism upon any historic or prehistoric sites, natural monuments, speleological sites and objects of antiquity, or to write or paint or carve initials or words, or in any other way deface, any of those objects, Indian paintings or historic buildings."

There is no "on state lands" in that sentence. Unlike NRS 381.197 two sections earlier, which says "on federal or state lands" expressly, 381.225 is written without a land qualifier and so reaches municipal and private ground.

What it reaches is vandalism and defacement, not detecting and not excavation. A detectorist recovering a coin from a city park has not committed vandalism on a historic site. The distinction is worth stating on the page precisely because the section is unlimited in its reach and limited in its conduct – the opposite balance from most of this project, and the easy error is to report "Nevada prohibits disturbing historic sites on all public land", which overstates it.

Penalty under 381.225(2) is graded by the value of property damaged, per NRS 193.155. NRS 381.227 makes any other violation of 381.195 to 381.227 a misdemeanour.

Also recorded: NRS 381.223 provides for seizure and forfeiture of any object of antiquity taken without a permit from a site covered by 381.197 – that is, from federal or state land only. NRS 381.207 splits finds between the State and permit holders and mentions political subdivisions, but only as possible permit holders or recipients, not as a scope clause.

Sources: leg.state.nv.us NAC-407.html and nrs-381.html. Checked 20 Sep 2026.

2. Cities in Nevada that publish a rule

1 city in Nevada publishes a rule we can quote, out of 10 checked.

Of the 10 checked, 8 had pages on the city’s own site that we found and read. For the other 2 we could not locate a municipal source, so nothing is claimed about them either way.

3. County rules

County rules exist in Nevada, and they govern county land only. 1 county rule surfaced while checking cities in this state. Each was read and then set aside, because a county park rule does not answer whether a city park allows detecting, and it is not the state rule either. They are listed because their existence is the useful fact: if you are in a county park, a separate rule probably applies to you.

0 of these 1 name their county in the text that was read; the rest name only “county park” or “county parks”, so the source is given instead of a county name. A county is never inferred from a web address.

4. Cities checked - no published rule

9 cities in Nevada were checked and have no published rule on this page. Of those, 8 returned no rule, and 1 did return something that has not been published – mostly rules that turned out to govern county land, which are in the county section above. A city here is not a city where detecting is allowed. It is a city whose own published material did not answer the question.

All 9 were checked on 13 September 2026, in one sweep, so that date applies to every row.

5. Land this page does not cover

This page answers for Nevada state land, and for city and county land where the state rule reaches it. Several other kinds of ground are not covered here, and naming them is more honest than letting a reader assume the page is complete.

Tribal land. This directory does not cover it, and will not.

There are 574 federally recognised tribal nations. Each is a sovereign jurisdiction with its own law, its own permitting, its own enforcement and its own cultural-resource provisions, and none of them is answered by a state's code or by any federal rule quoted on these pages. A one-line instruction to "get tribal permission" would be worse than this paragraph, because it implies one process and one authority where there are 574. If you are on or near tribal land, the governing law is that nation's, and the place to ask is that nation's own offices. Nothing on this page applies there.

BLM land is covered, partly, in its own place. The Bureau of Land Management holds about 245 million acres and the federal rule names metal detectors and permits them, which is the opposite of the national park rule. See BLM land: the detector is named, and permitted. That page covers the base regulation; it does not yet cover the supplementary rules individual BLM State Directors issue for particular field offices.

Named and not examined. These are recorded so their absence is visible rather than silent. No claim is made about any of them:

• Military withdrawn land, including ranges and training areas.
• Bureau of Reclamation land, which surrounds a great many reservoirs.
• Water district and irrigation district land.
• Wilderness, Wilderness Study Areas and National Conservation Areas, which carry designations of their own. And one general point about signs. The commonest piece of reasoning in this subject is "there was no sign, so it was allowed." Arizona's State Land Department answers it in writing, in condition 2 of its own Recreational Permit terms:

"You will comply with all laws, rules, regulations and ordinances. Posting is not required for these provisions to be enforceable."

That is Arizona's sentence about Arizona's provisions and this directory does not present it as the law of any other state. But the proposition it states is the one to carry: nothing read for this project makes a published rule's enforceability depend on a sign at the boundary. Where posting does matter, a specific provision says so, and that provision is quoted on the page where it occurs.