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G

Gold Ponies

New member
Well, I read the manual and watched the DVD twice then headed out to my yard. The Garrett Ace 250 beeped continuously! We bought this 1877 farm five years ago and I think all the previous owners were 'good ole boys'. I now have a nice supply of bottle caps, rusty nails, old bullet casings and a little brass thing that appears to be part of a plumbing fixture...maybe.

I decided to let my husband play with my new toy :twodetecting: HE got to do the digging....our lawn has dig marks all over the place. We've decided to blame it on the dog ;) I need a new tool for the digging....I'm using this claw looking thing for gardening. Tears things up so I can't put the divots back. I've got a lot to learn and a long way to go! But I liked it!

Has anyone else had such a dismal first time????

Anne
 
It will take a while to learn the good signals form the junk. Beeping constantly? Are you on all metal. with all that junk, I would go coin mode. If you get a lot of falsing, lower you sensitivity. I usually run mine at 4 bars. Lawn digging. I use a screw driver. A pin pointer probe is a must on lawns. I would stick to the dirt areas until you get the hang of it. Learn to identify signals and pinpoint. Bury a few coins of different denominations to learn the tones and pinpointing. The key to success, practice, practice, practice. There is bound to be some treasure left at your place. Don't make me come over and find it for you:rofl:
 
It will only get better Anne, thats a typical first time experience it takes a while to get used to a detector if you haven't used one before. You are lucky when I started back in 74 we didn't have the luxury of discriminateing detectors. They were plain old metal detectors and that is what you found, junk and lots of it. I must say though the very first thing that I found was a babys goldplated ring with a blue stone,but then I started finding all the junk but things improved when the disc detector was invented a couple of years later. Have fun it will only get better and train your hubby to be a good digger. HH Ken
 
Yeah I forgot to say, be sure you're in coins mode and run your sensitivity at four bars and no more than that. Plus tape the cable straight up the shaft for about a foot. Your coil will pick up the cable if it's flopping around.

Bill
 
Sounds like a normal first time Annie. You will experience that for the first 5 to 10 hours, but it gets better. We all went though the same feelings. you are learning a new skill. For now, try and hunt around children's play equipment, because of the easier digging, waive a few coins over your coil to see where they will show up on the metre and only dig targets that give a steady reading or bounce to the next notch (to where those coins showed up) and this should make your earlier hunts a bit easier!
Mick Evans.
 
Just keep at it. It's all practice and learning your machine. My place is an old home as well. There is plenty of junk. I bought a Sniper coil and am going back over it. So far I have found a buffalo nickel and a couple of wheaties I missed last summer. That Sniper really works and is something to consider. As for digging, I use a probe and then cut a plug with my hunting knife. You can easily replace the sod plug and after a couple of rains you'd never know anyone has dug there.
 
Yesterday I skipped digging if it registered a 'just a penny'......NOT TOO SMART! Just for kicks and giggles I looked up pennies on ebay and YOWSER....some of those are going for BIG bucks! See you all in about 4 hours!!!!

Annie
 
[quote Gold Ponies]Yesterday I skipped digging if it registered a 'just a penny'......NOT TOO SMART! Just for kicks and giggles I looked up pennies on ebay and YOWSER....some of those are going for BIG bucks! See you all in about 4 hours!!!!

Annie[/quote]You need to dig all good locking targets. Your to new to not dig pennies. Plus, you might have passed up a wheat pennie, or an Indian head or Lord knows what else. You need to learn the sounds of what you are digging. You need to write 100 times, "I will dig all targets" :crylol:
 
Nice to see you got out with it Annie,
Many of the guys will agree you have to dig everything including all the junk to get the goodies.
But with the passage of time and lots an' lots of practice you will eventually dig less junk.
Hey you don't ask a learner builder to build you a house, you get the guy that's been doin' it 30 years.
Hang in there kiddo.:twodetecting:
 
Do you know of anyone else in your area that has been detecting for years or a club? Spending one hour with someone that has been detecting for a long period of time is equivalent to 6 weeks to 6 months trying to learn on your own.
Swing slow. If you're getting more than signal- high on the one end and low on the other end of the screen, you probably have more than one target under the coil and it's trying to tell you that.
Leave your farm to get to know your machine. One hint was given to go to a park (or school ground) and hunt the area of the playground equipment. Don't get more than 6" inches or closer to metal posts. Under monkey bars, in front of swings and under anything is a good place to start. The reason to leave the farm is that they contain a lot of iron pieces.
If you hunt homes (farms etc.) search under the clothes line, paths to and around dug wells and/or outhouses. Large trees near fields where the farm hands would set to eat lunch. They haven't invented a better burglar alarm than a chicken and farmers would hide money there and in and around the inside of a barn. Maw would hide her butter and egg money in sight of the kitchen window.
Hope all these helps work for you.
HH Paul(NWO)
 
and go buy a good small spade like you would use to plant bulbs in the garden the ads on here are a good source of tools used to recover your finds and when you cut the divot cut it in a v shape leaving one end attached so it folds back that way the divit stays in place when the mower gos over it!
 
...Since you live on a farm, you can expect no end of ferrous trash. This stuff mucks with your detector something awful, distorting signal reponses and giving plenty of grief. Especially if you have the SENS too high, as most newbs do. Try this for awhile.

Now that you have swung it for awhile - get out of that danged "Coin" mode. If there is a lot of iron trash sround, it causes no end of spurious half beeps and noise.
Instead, grid off a 10 x 10 area and switch to the ALL METAL mode.

Now work over that 100 square feet real good. In the AM mode you will hear the iron signals and will soon become well tuned to the other tones when they chime in. Take notes on this 100 square feet.

Now switch back to Jewelry or even Coins mode and notice how things have changed. Youre not digging here, your learning under controlled conditions. Now try that same method on a couple more 10 x 10 grids around your place. You might be surprised to learn just how much iron there IS around you and what its doing.
 
As far as digging. A large butcher knife works well. It will cut a plug and is strong for prying. Use what you have especially in your own yard.
You are hunting perhaps the most difficult site -old farm house. You really need to start in some cleaner sites IE. tot lots, sand and bark chips.
I would start out in the coin mode and for now and notch out the nickel. This will get you digging better targets and learning pinpointing and recovery techniques.
Then as other have said reduce the sens to 4 bars.
Only dig REPEATABLE targets at first.
When you get a beep. Reduce your sweep over the target to only 2 inches each way. If it beeps every time then dig it.
As you gain experience then add notches and increase the sens.
Drink plenty of fluids!
 
I will take all advice given to me....I will take all advice given to me...I will take all advice given to me. My new mantra! Today's dig brought more bullet casings and plenty of unidentified metal pieces. 100 ground hogs could have done less damage to my yard (used a spade)! Tomorrow I will pick up a sharp trowel...limit myself to one small grid at a time...only dig at playgrounds and beaches until I can recognize the various sounds and practice, practice, practice.

I guess I'm just too excited to find relics that will tell me more about the people who lived on this farm land and that of our cabin before us.

Thanks for all the advice everyone...it's great that you all take the time.

Annie
 
I would suggest a digging knife - not a trowel. Go to Lowe's and buy the Fiskars digging knife. It's about 10$. A 3 prong plastic hand garden cultivator works good in the bark chips.
 
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