Extra depth in moist soil?

[Boston Metal]

I had an hour to hunt after dinner and checked out a new spot yesterday. It had rained earlier and the ground was a little wet. Anyways, the F4 was picking up coins at depths I hadn't personally seen before. I grabbed two separate dimes at 8 inches. (the pinpointer said 10!, but they dug out at about 8.) I have heard tips from others about wet ground and it really seems to make a difference.

This was a new site for me and it was a joy to work, easy to dig and "pop". I was popping out dimes at 4 plus inches. The bad news is the oldest item found was a 67 quarter. The dimes were from the eighties. I can't imagine how deep I'd need to go there for silver if 80's dimes are sitting at 8 inches :-(.

Frank

 

[BobbyBridge]

I have found the same thing happen to me and I attribute it to the fact that some one was there before me.
Remember back in 1980 or so, when Silver hit a HI on the ounce and every one was out there with metal detectors.

 

[osgood]

I personally find a lot more stuff and increase depth in moderately moist soil as opposed to very dry- to me there is no doubt about it. That is with all the machines ive worked with (magnum six magnum, Ace 250, F4, f70, F75ltd). If the park is newer you probably wont find anything old unless you know it was built over an older occupied or busy area. Ive found in the old parks I find usually more older dimes than quarters- I supposed people minded there quarters more in the old days than dimes. And some recent MD ers might just go through and area and dig the loudest most obvious signals and miss the smaller (dimes) coins etc. Keep hunting, Still plenty of time left this season. I like to beat the falling leaves though. CO

 

[rick in mi]

I agree,have gotten better depth in moist ground here also. One thing I dont understand,the other day i dug up a quarter 6 in. deep in the ground and it was a 2005.How in the heck did it get that deep in less than 5 years?? Everthing else was 2-3in. The neat part about it was it was under a dime and a penny,at first i thought i was on to some silver!!!

 

[Cal_Cobra]

It's definitely true that targets "light up" better in moist soil conditions, BUT (there's always a but right?), it comes at a cost. The cost is that the wet ground also enhances irons footprint, so you end up with better target depth, at the price of more iron masking.

No free lunch in this hobby

 

[jim tn]

I personally like hunting in dry dirt, providing that I can still dig and don't have to be concerned about dry spots, as I feel targets are more distinct and as Brian mentions, there is less masking. I feel I dig more good targets that are co-located with a trash item in dry ground, as I can hear each target better. HH jim tn

 

[f75tom]

Definitely-it would be hard to find anyone that disagrees with you. Where we hunt here in iowa, you don't have to worry a whole lot about depth-we're finding late 1800's coins at only 5-6 inches deep. But, the best thing about moist soil is that it cuts like butter, and you don't have to worry about grass growing back. This is my first year detecting, but I've found a lifetime worth of treasures, and i attribute it to monsoon season-everything comes in clear and precise on the f75. I'm curious to see how things come in on a drier season.

 

[JeffNS]

Wet ground definitely allows better depth....but....most detectors will not discriminate iron as effectively than they can and do when ground conditions are dryer. Dry ground will reduce this but at the expense of less depth. If you're in an area with a very high percentage of iron trash and know there should be some goodies amongst it you may have better success hunting when these areas are really dry to prevent iron masking of good targets.