1st MD hunt

[dlassy]

well today I went out for the first time to hunt my moms 60 acres. I found with the help of my fiance two 8 in railroad ties 1 hourse shoe 10-15 nails and a lot of soda cans not bad finding for the first time i dont think. what i am not happy about is no mater what reading i got it was a nail i had a lot of readings in the high 80's to 100 some in the 40's. it seems the ground is very heavy with iron minerals and when i pin point it never seems to be where the pin pointer is saying. i dig 4 inches and then it is saying 4 more or 6 more. i am still a noob and i really cant complain to much but i tjust did not seem my f4 worked how im told it should i have been reading the manual over and over for 4 days and playing with in in the yard before even going for a hunt. if any one has any advise or maybe what to try please let me know. i will post pics 2moro HH

 

[jim tn]

Sounds like your first hunt was on a quite trashy spot. I would suggest for the first few outings to hunt a spot with less trash and iron. If your local schools or parks have wood chips with playground equipment, such spots are a good place to get some coins and start to learn what your detector is telling you. Good luck, this hobby can be quite addictive. HH jim tn

 

[matthias]

Sounds like you are off to a perfectly normal good start. Remember there is a trash to treasure ratio. Gotta dig a certain amount of trash to find a certain amount of treasure. Some people dig all signals. Lots of trash, but lots of incredible finds also. Try making your own test garden using different targets buried at different depths. Watch your screen and listen to your tones carefully. Experiment with swing speed too. I am new at detecting also, but these are a few things that have helped me and maybe they will help you too. Happy Hunting. Matt

 

[dlassy]

i would like to find more places school ball feilds i just moved to KY and i really only have my moms 60 acre farm that she got 3 months ago i moved to Ky 2 weeks ago

 

[Roland58]

60 acres ought to keep you going for a day or two, at least!! There's a lot of history buried in KY, surely there is some on your land!!!

 

[dlassy]

2nd time out a large nail early 1900's 2 chain links and some more cans a 1 old pull tab still a lot of false readings i think depth is way off with pin point

 

[jim tn]

n/t

 

[dlassy]

well i have to say i have better luck just walking and digging random holes on a 1 hr walk i got 12 horseshoes 2 steering colums from tractors 10 nails. haha i dont know what to say what i am bummed about is 2 months ago when i first came down to ky to visit my mom on a walk thru 3 of the 6 barns she has i found a load of coin. on the floor on the shelves all over i get a MD and i cant find any i dig everything

 

[bthom]

Keep at it, remember its just like learning a new language, the more fluent you get the more your able to understand what the F4 is telling you...

 

[tvr]

If it isn't so trashy that you can't really hunt it, start hunting around the doors to the barns, or hunt the floors if they are dirt.

Hunt around the entrances to the house; along the path from the house to the barn. If you can find where the outhouse used to be, detect around there. Hunt around the cloths line. If there isn't one now, look for a couple of big old trees where a line may have run and hunt there.

It does take a while to learn detecting. Practice and patience go a long way towards getting better.

Read the manual more than once and try setting the detector up like it suggests. Then learn what changing some of the settings do and how they affect how the detector reacts.

Keep at it and share your observations and more questions on what you experience with your detector here.
Have fun hunting!
tvr

 

[boxofchocolates]

TVR gave good advice......one more thing relax and enjoy it......you never know what your walking over.......HH.......Dan
PS the others gave good advice also.....a lot of good folks here that will help you.

 

[dlassy]

thank you every one i cant wait to get back out and hunt but for this week i am on a job hut me and my fiance moved to ky she got a job before we left CT but i did not so i am out for a hunt now

 

[widebody]

[size=large]I don't have a fisher. i run a whites xlt. i'm 5 months into md'ing and the best idea i've seen here so far is to make your own test garden.
nobody has touched on the idea you might have a defective machine or coil or something like that. with the test garden you can determine
if it's you or the machine as well as learn your machine if it turns out to be you.. might wanna find a club around you and get some help. your dealer should be first in line to help. like the man said, you moved into a lot of american history.
just don't give up. once you get yourself up and running right nobody will keep you from enjoying the best hobby ever.

HH[/size]

 

[Stacy]

Don't be so hard on yourself. I must have spent the first 40 hours of my metal detecting hobby finding nothing but nails!! I remember how happy I was to find a simple clad penny...LOL. It takes time to learn the tricks of the trade as it were. Look for consistant signals on the display. If it bounces around alot it is probably trash. If the display stays fairly consistant while you swing over the signal, it's probably a coin. Good luck.

Stacy.