Help On Deeper Coins For Newbie Please?

[chipmaker29]

Hello Everybody!

As you can see I am new to this forum. I recently began this hobby and I do not know anyone personally that is in to this sort of thing, so I have turned to the web for help. After researching, I have come to the conclusion that this is the best topic related forum that i could find. I am glad to have found it because it seems that there is a HUGE amount of knowledge & experience here. Please bear with me as I learn more about this hobby.

With all that being said here is what i need help with. I have been reading/researching this hobby for months & love it! I am currently unable to afford the type of detector that i want so I have been saving because i did not want to buy a cheaper detector & waste my time. Until i can afford mine, i have borrowed one from my wifes family that they purchased awhile back for her husband to find land survey stakes with. He is in construction and that is all he has ever used it for. They new little to nothing about it but I think after reading and using it ALOT i have become pretty fluent with it. It is a Whites XT with a Deep Search 950 coil on it.

Anyway....i wanted to start out learning here at my home until i am unable to access other places. My home is a great place to start, IMO. It is the 2nd oldest house in the county. It was built in 1840 and i have 7 acres of property to learn on here. After historical research on my home, I have learned that is was possibly a "stopover" place for people traveling in the early days so I figured a dynamite place to find old coins! Finding coins is probably my favorite thing to look for. My results havent been that great in my opinion. I am frustrated and needing advice as to how I can improve my searches/results. I have found all kinds of things buried here and it has been really fun but I would LOVE to find some old coins! I have found the following here in the past 4 days that I have been using this detector:

*13 horseshoes (some really deep, over 11")
*shell casings
*many unidentified iron objects
*a 1950's era Texan Jr kids cap gun in great shape
*over 40 coins total, including silver 1940's quarters, buffalo nickels and the oldest being a 1930 wheatback penny. many clad coins
*broken bracelets
*TONS of junk...whew!!

I found a 1942 quarter, 1935 buffalo nickel & 3 1940's nickels in the same hole not but prolly 4" down. So, i have had pretty good success for my efforts but the old coins that i think MUST be here I cannot find! What am I doing wrong? Please give me some direction and advice on settings or best places to search? I use headphones with the White and have been searching primarily in Coin mode b/c that is what I am primarily after but i get LOTS of false positives on coins. Many times it jumps around on target id from coin to foil to iron then back to coin, I dig my butt off & get junk. Other times it tells me coin only with strong positive signal and it is a junk target or bottle cap. Other times it has been right on but still the older coins have alluded me. I have went to very slow sweeps and search smaller areas very well from all angles, etc.

Can any of you experts direct me? Am i correct in assuming that there has got to be some old coins here? I first thought maybe this property had been hit in the past and old coins found & removed but I would think that if that was the case then they would have found the older coins that i have found as some of them were pretty easy. Are the oldest ones to deep for this detector or what? So idk...if i am incorrect please lend your expertise. Sorry for long post but man guys I need help, as I love this hobby but I have gotta find me some old coins!!

Thanks Much!!
Mike

 

[Ken in NC]

Mike

It sounds like you are doing most everything correctly. I assume you are using a White's XLT?

I would suggest that you bury a quarter at 6" and another at 8" and see if the machine can detect them with the settings you are currently using.

 

[dave5710]

You want my expertise (that's funny). Old coins doesn't always mean deep coins. When you say the house was once a stopover place, are you saying overnight or while the stage changed horses. People on a stagecoach would want to stretch their legs, wash the dust off their face and get something cool to drink. And not sit down. Is your house the original house? Has it been moved? Is there a dirt floor in the basement? I would hunt all 7 acres and start where there is a water source, well, stream or creek. Have you had alot of dry weather? Coins/targets will be easier to find in moist soil. Just some thoughts, good luck and keep us posted.

 

[Dan-Pa.]

I thought you meant XLT also but now assume its a quantum XT and idea of planting some coins is an idea to get the ballpark audio is a good idea...Have no extensive knowledge of hunting with your type of unit, but just hard to explain what a deepie sounds like and the perfect solution would be to go out with an experienced hunter and when he hits a deepie let you hear with your unit what it sounds like...Honestly many think this is an easy hobby to learn and if digging shallow clad in a local park it may be but when you go after the deep old coins it takes a lot of practice in the field...Most Whites.. XT included need a fast swing for depth which may help...and also knowing where the well..outhouse...playing area were will greatly increase your chances and would theorize most of you land was not busy so only a small portion should be productive..Personally think you are doing well and practice makes perfect as hunted several seasons myself before I became proficient at finding old coins and remember way back when money was tight and not many silver coins were lost...

 

[chipmaker29]

Thanks alot for your responses!! It is appreciated!!

On side of the machine i am using it says Quantum XT & the coil says DeepScan 950. I am not familiar with this detector other than the manual i downloaded when i borrowed the unit. I have read some reviews but info has been sketchy & i am assuming this is an older unit but idk. I also have no idea the best settings for this machine to operate the best.

When i say "stopover place", i am meaning from what i have been told is that the earliest settlers here used the 2nd front door that leads into a large room, to board overnite or short stay guests that were passing thru. The other door was used by family that lived here. The basic 4 wall structure is original although it has been added on to in the rear prolly 30-40 years ago. You can still see old musket holes that were in the walls (from the outside) in the block that have been crudely patched. Some say it looks bad but i wouldnt have it any other way. It just adds to the nostalgia here, imo. Also, the floor underneath is all dirt with giant trees as part of the floor bracing.

There are also 4 giant black maple trees in my yard that have to have been here for many many years. I also many smaller but the 4 maples are massive. The silver i have found here was under one of the maples.

I will try some coin tests and see how machine responds. I have done some of this and the machine confuses me by the way it reads certain coins. Why do my signals flutter back/forth on id? And in coin mode, I dont understand why it id's large objects as coins. I was hunting the front yard and got a loud, strong coin signal, solid signal with no flutter and i was pumped! dug a decent size plug and nuthin. Ended up having to did way, way down to find what detector knew was there and it was a VERY old wagon wheel. Deep, like 12-15" down. It was cool to find but i thought, coin cache or sumthing and it wasnt.

So i am gonna keep trying b/c there has got to be old coins here. Hard to believe I have found so many horseshoes as well. All over the yard and if i put machine in relic mode and dug all signals, omg, i would be doing nuthin but digging holes every few feet cuz there is metal objects in the ground everywhere here.

If anyone has recommendations on settings or advice of any kind please tell me. One thing that bothered me about the Coin mode is, when in this mode the machine almost dosent detect gold jewelry. I can shallow bury a 14k decent size ring and scan over it and sometimes no signal and sometimes maybe just a bit of flutter but machine will go crazy on a quarter @ same depth.

Thanks again for all the help guys!
Mike

 

[dave5710]

Some of those hidden metal objects could mask the coins that are nearby. (inches)

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Mike,most seasoned metal detector user's are self taught,you'll doing well if you are finding silver coins.Everyone has favorite equipment,but most important get familiar with the detector you are using now.Read the manual and figure the strong and weak points of the detector.Old places are hard to work out keep going over and re-hunt areas and you will find the older coins.Good Luck and Welcome to the Forum HH Ron

 

[chipmaker29]

Thanks Ron for the welcome! I am gonna keep trying as I am afraid this hobby has created a monster outta me. I love it. Everyone thinks I am crazy but it is much fun to me...lol

Is anyone on here an expert with the machine i am using? How would I attempt to find them to learn more about it? Also, i have some old abandoned houses not far from me. They are probably late 1800's to early 1900's but man it is pretty overgrown around them. Have any of you hunted places like this?

Thanks again!
Mike

 

[GimmieThe Loot]

I've hunted an abandoned house in the woods that only had the foundation left. Didn't find anything except the backyard garbage dump site. All that were left were old bottles and jars. Most of the metal had been rusted through except for the really thick iron and what was left of some kind of old studebaker truck.

As for finding the deep coins, its gunna take time. In my 4 months in this hobby I just found my first old coin this week and feel pretty lucky about it because I almost didn't dig it. I was getting mixed signals of a 50 cent peice and a bottle cap. Sure enough, there was a pull tab 2 inches down, and then I rescanned the spot and was still getting a signal. About 6-8 inches down I found the 1907 penny. I was surprised as hell but have no clue why it was reading a 50 cent peice. Mr. Garrett states that it will take about 100 hours of practice before you are fluent with your machine. I beleive him.

HH

 

[chipmaker29]

HH,

Thanks for the tips! I can definitely believe the 100 hr statement. One of the old houses i was referring to is just as u described. nothing but foundation left. i thought it might be promising but i hated hearing that u didnt have any luck.

mike

 

[RandyNorthridgeca]

Welcome to a great hobby.

First thing that is a must read is Dan kowski's "Fisher Intelligence". You can go to the below site and download it free. I reread it every now and then. It has some good information about detecting. It's a good read for anyone that detects and it doesn't make a difference which detector you swing.

http://www.dankowskidetectors.com

 

[chipmaker29]

thanks alot man! i appreciate that tip!

 

[john2009]

WELCOME TO THE FORUM

 

[chipmaker29]

thanks! i love it. great info here...