grassy strips

[greasecarguy]

I've seen videos of a guy who spends a lot of time in these areas of sidewalks finding the goods. In high trash areas, it would seem that the good stuff is probably underneath the garbage and thus would be masked. Is there any way around this? I can "see" in between the trash by moving slowly...even with a stock coil. These spots are probably overlooked by competitors, ni?

 

[sangamon]

those berms between sidewalks & curbs can be productive, and are usually city property.

...as with anyplace else, the trash doesn't cost extra

 

[Nick A]

Around it? No.
You have several options though:

1) Use the Minelab Pro Coil (but actually any DD coil will increase finds in trash).
2) Dig the everything and see what the trash is masking.
3) Go slow and cherry pick the coins from the trash.
4) Buy a smaller coil (but I don't believe you'll find much more than you would with a Pro coil)
5) Grid. Hunt the area at 45 degree and 90 degree angles to your original approach. This will reveal otherwise masked targets.

If hunting in trash was easy, everyone would be doing it and detectors would sell like hotcakes.

As far as the grassy strips, check your local laws. Usually these are easements owned by the city, but that must be maintained by the homeowners. Many homeowners see this as "their" property, so, as always better to ask first then to be confronted by an angry homeowner or have the cops roll up on you. It's not so much that what you are doing may be right or wrong, it's how we as detectorists are perceived. I know if I saw you detecting in front of my house, I'd have a few choice words for you!

 

[sangamon]

i only ever hunt the berms in front of vacant houses or empty lots, unless i've gotten permission from a homeowner

 

[dewcon4414]

These are good spots.... but times they are a changeing. Used to be snow shovel and such thru coins and trash up into these areas.... but now street sweepers are coming into the picture. Ive hunted a few of the ISLANDS and a lot of times thats where they put the main utilities. These areas are trashy but worth checking especially in older areas where people parked on the street. Some people hunt them in AM... i only do that after using a pattern to cherry pick, then its slow way down gird, AM, and i turn off fast. Why? because it makes the sounds less cut off and ive found as slow as i have to move in these areas im just NOT missing that much. Working trashy areas can really pay off just because a lot of hunters just dont have the patience so they pass them up. The pro coil is good, but i still dont think its a substitute for a good small coil. Try reducing the sensitivity way down as well. Sometimes too much will not get you any deeper because of the nulls deeper iron give.

Dew

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Just as with parks, schools, or anywhere else: sometimes you have locations that are just too blighted and junky. So can either knock yourself silly trying to see through and/or around trash, OR just go to a more upscale side of town, and find cleaner better-kept-up sidewalk strips

 

[TokenDigger]

These grassy strips (tree lawns, devil strips, berms, etc.) are great for hunting but you do have to work through the trash. About five years ago we hunted some that were being replaced by the city along with the sidewalks in a late 1800s-early 1900s area. The property owners didn't care since the area was all torn up (some people thought we were with the gas company). It was so trashy we only dug the coin signals (this is after the grass and about 2-3 in. of topsoil were removed). We would have liked to dig up more of the iffy signals but the city was rapidly reseeding the areas and we were under a time crunch and we could only hunt when the workers left for the day. We only used the small stock coils. We found seated dimes all the way through to Walking Lib. halves. We also found marbles and a few neat smaller bottles. We would avoid the parts of the strips where they would put their rubbish out for pickup - that was usually pretty trashy and not worth the limited time we had. We also hunt these strips in public places like old schools and parks. Most have been overlooked by other detectorists. Where I'm at, the city owns these strips but we only hunt them with the owner's permission - it's not worth the hassle arguing about it with the homeowner.

 

[deeponedge]

a small coil works wonders in these places. as well as going very slow.

 

[george decker]

One of my "job" responsibilities is to replace sidewalks in my city. I have not found a coin under the areas where old s/w has been removed inorder to replace w/ new concrete. sure don't know why...