Critterhunter
New member
I think I'm going to change my strategy for now on starting this spring. Sure, it's not something you are going to do everyday or at more productive spots that still contain some easy silver, but I'm talking about a method I plan to use at my old sites that very rarely give up a good coin anymore. You know the sites, the ones where a few years back you could still find the odd coin that was either very deep or mixed partly in trash so long as you worked at it. Even those types became harder to find and less often turned up, and now you just drive right by that favorite old spot of yours. Even the deeper coins have been picked out with bigger coils, and the harder masked coins in trash have also been picked over using a 5" coil. Not much point in hunting there anymore? Think again...
Despite improvements in detectors over the years one can't change the laws of physics in that a coil's detection field can't be made to go around corners, meaning trash. Even using a tiny coil a coin can very easily be masked by trash. If the trash is over the coin, even not exactly over it, or the trash is much shallower and off to the side a good bit, the coil will never see that coin. Think about all the round tabs and other trash that was dropped near a coin. Before the coin was masked in the 60's or 70's those primative metal detectors might not have been able to see it anyway due to ground minerals or depth. Before better machines came along the tab or other trash was dropped over or very near it.
Then there are the coins on end, being partly masked by iron or other junk, not to mention gold coins, rings, tokens, and other odd coins that just don't give a classic coin signal. Or even highly mineralized ground that makes even silver coins read like junk or something else. And how about those coin spills that sound like a large can, or coins mixed together that give you a signal that is averaged between say the silver dimes, pennies, and nickles all laying together? Or how about those silver coins that for some odd reason read like a zinc or copper penny or like some other clad coin? Incidently, I just recently dug a silver half that read like a clad quarter on two machines before we dug it. It was shallow yet had a penny and buffalo nickle with it so nobody ever bothered to dig it thinking it was clad.
What is the solution to all the above problems that virtually any metal detector, cheap or not, can use to overcome them? Mark off an area 10x10' and then grid it, digging every signal above iron. After that grid it from a 90 degree angle because iron might null out a good find from one direction. Use a small coil like a 5" coil to further prevent iron from nulling out stuff. Once the area has been gridded both ways and all targets removed, come back a month or two later when the ground has healed using a larger coil to see if any deeper signals remain. When the ground heals you'll often get better/deeper signals, and all the trash removed no longer masks them.
Pick an old site such as a park where there is high trash content and enough age to hide older coins under years of trash. Ideally a site that goes back into the 1800's so that more valuable older coins, along with those odd ones that read further down the scale like gold coins usually aren't dug as well. Keep a map so as the years go by you can keep track of what areas in the park you have truly cleaned out. Think of not just masked or odd coins you'll find, but also the gold rings and other keepers that nobody digs.
Sure, you won't want to do this everyday or at a site where the pickings are still pretty easy with a little effort, but on those days when you can think of nowhere else to go don't show up for the 100th time and wander aimlessly all day still trying to find that easy silver signal. Start digging it all in small grids. Now thate site is in a way virgin ground again as you remove all the "junk", and just one large old park will take you a life time to "hunt out" for real this time, doing what nobody else will do. That's when even a $200 detector can blow away the big boys who are still trying to find the "easy" silver.
I would like to hear your thoughts on this and your success at digging it all at sites others consider "worked out".
Despite improvements in detectors over the years one can't change the laws of physics in that a coil's detection field can't be made to go around corners, meaning trash. Even using a tiny coil a coin can very easily be masked by trash. If the trash is over the coin, even not exactly over it, or the trash is much shallower and off to the side a good bit, the coil will never see that coin. Think about all the round tabs and other trash that was dropped near a coin. Before the coin was masked in the 60's or 70's those primative metal detectors might not have been able to see it anyway due to ground minerals or depth. Before better machines came along the tab or other trash was dropped over or very near it.
Then there are the coins on end, being partly masked by iron or other junk, not to mention gold coins, rings, tokens, and other odd coins that just don't give a classic coin signal. Or even highly mineralized ground that makes even silver coins read like junk or something else. And how about those coin spills that sound like a large can, or coins mixed together that give you a signal that is averaged between say the silver dimes, pennies, and nickles all laying together? Or how about those silver coins that for some odd reason read like a zinc or copper penny or like some other clad coin? Incidently, I just recently dug a silver half that read like a clad quarter on two machines before we dug it. It was shallow yet had a penny and buffalo nickle with it so nobody ever bothered to dig it thinking it was clad.
What is the solution to all the above problems that virtually any metal detector, cheap or not, can use to overcome them? Mark off an area 10x10' and then grid it, digging every signal above iron. After that grid it from a 90 degree angle because iron might null out a good find from one direction. Use a small coil like a 5" coil to further prevent iron from nulling out stuff. Once the area has been gridded both ways and all targets removed, come back a month or two later when the ground has healed using a larger coil to see if any deeper signals remain. When the ground heals you'll often get better/deeper signals, and all the trash removed no longer masks them.
Pick an old site such as a park where there is high trash content and enough age to hide older coins under years of trash. Ideally a site that goes back into the 1800's so that more valuable older coins, along with those odd ones that read further down the scale like gold coins usually aren't dug as well. Keep a map so as the years go by you can keep track of what areas in the park you have truly cleaned out. Think of not just masked or odd coins you'll find, but also the gold rings and other keepers that nobody digs.
Sure, you won't want to do this everyday or at a site where the pickings are still pretty easy with a little effort, but on those days when you can think of nowhere else to go don't show up for the 100th time and wander aimlessly all day still trying to find that easy silver signal. Start digging it all in small grids. Now thate site is in a way virgin ground again as you remove all the "junk", and just one large old park will take you a life time to "hunt out" for real this time, doing what nobody else will do. That's when even a $200 detector can blow away the big boys who are still trying to find the "easy" silver.
I would like to hear your thoughts on this and your success at digging it all at sites others consider "worked out".
