For those who have a hard time finding silver

[Bill_S]

I used to think I had to have the deepest detector on the market in order to be able to find silver in the public places I normally hunt. I have found some deep silver that was probably out of reach some other detectors but more and more I am finding the silver that is masked by other items. One of my oldest coins was a seated dime around an inch deep. I went to a spot yesterday I have detected before and got a good dime signal that was only a couple inches deep. I almost didnt dig it because I know I had been over this (small) area before and figured it was a clad dime. I dug it anyway and it turned out to be a 1943 mercury dime. I must have swung the coil at just the right angle this time.It was surroned by other trash items. I was in another local park and got a surface dime signal. Turned out to be a silver dime.

More and more I am finding silver, not real deep, but masked by trash. The other day I got a signal, dug it out, checked the area got another signal, dug it. Checked again, got a third signal and it was a silver quarter maybe 3-4 inches deep. I never heard the quarter because of the other two targets that were masking it. If you are in a real trashy (public) area and you know there should be silver there you cant realistically dig every signal so thats when I slow down and investigate all the little blips that may even hint of a coin. Go around the target and see if you can get a better signal. The AT Pro is real good at being able to use a super slow swing speed seperating out targets.

 

[Muddyshoes]

Great tips, thank you!

In the old days before displays, target analyzing and imaging, in really trash areas we'd just crank up discrimination. (Not all of us, some people would literally dig everything with no indication of what it was.) I'm sure the rest of us missed a lot.

I hunt mostly well-hunted areas now as I familiarize myself with new detectors. Because I know what the grounds are like and what kind of soil and objects are there, I can become familiar with the new detector more quickly. I still find stuff I missed, and that others have missed. Just going from north to south across a property instead of east to west may allow your detector to signal on coins or other objects that are laying in a particular position underground. Or going at an angle, same thing.

It's true in general, that the longer something's been in the ground, the deeper it can go, but many things can impede an objects downward travels. Heavy roots can stop a coin from traveling downward, although roots could, and often do grow OVER a target. Now and then I'll get a solid coin tone near the base of a tree under a humongous root that I just resolve to leave there rather than chance hurting the tree or attracting unwanted attention. Buried rocks, stones, broken bits of clay or other objects, left over from a home or home demolition might keep a coin near the surface.

When a home is taken down, the dirt is often tilled leaving a layer of debris, clay from drainage pipes, bricks from foundations and even pieces of wood from the structure. When you encounter this kind of debris in an open field in a neighborhood, look around at nearby homes. Where would a home be if it was on this lot? You can usually determine if a house used to be there. And if a house used to be there, then coins were and are there.

At places near railroad tracks, vibrations in the ground from trains can cause coins or buried objects to shift and rotate. A coin undetectable one year may have turned just enough from the vibrations to be detectable the next.

And of course, as you mentioned, sometimes good and/or old things are buried right under our noses underneath a nail or piece of metal that we just didn't want to dig.

Thanks Bill, for the reminder, that discrimination doesn't just keep us from digging the bad stuff, it can keep us from digging the GOOD stuff too

- Muddyshoes

 

[John-Edmonton]

And real deep silver might not read as silver either, so if it is a real deep signal, and appears coin size, dig it. The ATP has the advantage of also having the digital numerical readout. And because of it's super separation abilities, numbers shooting into the 70's to 80's should be further investigated.

 

[Bill_S]

I noticed on the AT Pro that sometimes on deep targets I may not even get a numerical readout but the sound is good so I dig them too.

 

[dahut]

I practice the method recommended by Canuck John - if it signals cleanly above foil - DIG!
Then double check the source of the signal, once the trash is removed.