Frustrating Colonial Homesite Search with gta 1000

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone! I have been given the oppurtunity to search the grounds of a historic 1742 home here in Moorestown, New Jersey. The grounds are very trashy and after 6 or so hours logged on the site with my GTA 1000 in coins mode I have only found three wheaties and dug alot of junk. I am having trouble with all the trash in the first 3" I suppose. Any suggestions would be much appreciated as I don't have much experience metal detecting but am very excited about the potential of this site! I just worry that I won't find much due to my lack of knowledge with the detector. Thanks, Bill

 

[Anonymous]

The 4.5" crossfire coil is the one for dealing with trash. New is about $70.00. Also you can try ebay ,there is one or two on there but i`m not sure which model there for. Digging all targets also may turn up a real worthwhile find along with giving you a good idea of what the GTA 1000 is telling you. Don`t hurry. One trade off is using the Surface Elimination. Go thru your menu to find it. This will let you detect objects starting at 2" below the surface and goes to 4" or 6" below. You will not pick up targets from the surface down to your setting. That is the trade off. Make sure that if you dig a junk target that you swing back over where you just dug in case a good target was hiding below or next to it. Your coil could be reading 2 signals at once and that comes with ,the larger the coil the more targets it may be picking up at one time. Read the manual well and practice. Hope this helps

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you Bob. Another thing; should I just go all metal mode and dig most everything just to make sure I don't miss anything good due to this being such an old site? Is the oldest stuff (Colonial and Civil war era) just too deep for my detector and 8.5" coil? I know that I have to be patient and learn but it would be nice to have a partner who knew what he was doing to help me! Thanks again. Bill

 

[Anonymous]

Your welcome Bill. The All METAL mode will get you some extra depth and a little more trash too. You can try it out and see what you think. You can switch back and forth between the two with the last mode button to compare also. The stock 8.5" will get good depth depending on conditions. Your soil ,size of target ,etc. I have the GTA 1000 Power Master and have the 4.5 ,8.5 ,12.5 and 10x14 DD coil. The DD is super for high ground mineralization and has more depth. I love this coil. Make sure you can hear your threshhold. There is also an Audio Boost on the menu for help with faint signals. The 1000 is a very capable machine. Again ,depending on cond. you should find a dime at around 6" ,maybe more ,maybe less. Here are the coils from Garrett at list price ,look under CX. These are what fit the 1000. Good luck and i hope this helps some more.

 

[Anonymous]

I will use a smaller coil, the 4.5" gets excellent target seperation and good depth. Sweep slowly and stack your sweeps... overlapping isn't good enough.
Good targets won't repeat in all directions nor will they ID solid in heavy trash. A coin may just 'click' one way and ID much lower than in clean ground. Narrow down your sweep once you get a signal that you want to check more closely, there will be less junk under the coil to confuse you. Turn 90 degrees and sweep from the other direction. X-ing works better for pinpointing in heavy junk.
I like to use a reinforced 3-prong cultivator to investigate 'iffy' signals, scrape a little dirt off of the top... often you will move a nail etc. out of the way and good targets will usually get stronger as you move some dirt, iron tends to get weaker, especially once you break the 'halo'.
You WILL dig flat iron that will sound 'iffy', that's the price you pay for hunting relics/old coins in junky ground.
For relics, disc. out small iron and dig everything else... for coins, you might set your disc. higher and investigate anything that meters at-all in the coin range but the meter will be secondary to listening. You will need to listen harder than you look.
Good luck! Old homesteads are some of the most challenging sites to hunt.
Skillet

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you Skillet and again Bob. I just got back from searching the site today and had to report my find. I dug many unidentifiable metal objects and just when I was about to head home I got a nice strong signal about 5" down and it read near the penny scale. Well I popped up a half cent! Can't make out the date yet. Any ideas on how to dress it up? I know cleaning can damage the coin but is there anything I can do that will safely bring out some details? Thanks, Bill

 

[Anonymous]

It is an 1803 half cent!

 

[Anonymous]

OUTSTANDING!! I am searching an old homesite, so I have been following your threads.

 

[Anonymous]

looked it up and it starts out at $25.00 in almost good condition. Be careful with it. I am not sure about cleaning a more rare coin like that but you could take it to a coin shop and check with them. Depending on cond. ,it may be worth much more. Exc. find once again. Hope you can post a picture.

 

[Anonymous]

She is pretty rough so I don't think much numismatic value here but it was fun to find! Here is a photo.

 

[Anonymous]

Too bad on the condition but at least you have a great find to talk about. OK ,BRAG about. Ha Ha. Keep doin what your doin and we`ll be lookin forward to your next FINDS. Keep diggin

 

[Anonymous]

Since I've been reading the Garrett forums, I've noticed that most of your tips are applicable to most other brands of detectors as well as the Garretts. Thanks for your insight.
Dave

 

[Anonymous]

I enjoy reading tips on the other forums as well. Most machines work pretty much the same, they just have different 'personalities' <img src="/metal/html/biggrin.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt="">
Skillet