I went out a couple of times yesterday at a local park and a schoolyard, about an a hour and a half to two hours at each spot. Both times, and as happens each time I go out, when I'm packing up it occurs to me how small an area I actually detected. I tend to concentrate on getting a good 1/3 overlap with my HF DD Eliptical with each swing, and keeping my swing speed about 2 seconds across a width of about 4+ feet or so, but I'd say that after an hour I've only hit a 50' or 75' square area. I think much of it is that I dig iffy targets but I'm ok with that. For instance I dug one yesterday where the tones danced a little, but not enough to bypass and it turned out to be a nickel about about six inches. feel like I'm being thorough enough where I'm confident I'm not missing much, but when I see pictures of folks' day trips to big parks and fields they detected in a day I wonder if I'm being a little slow. What are you're thoughts and experience?
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How fast do you guys go?
- Thread starter Johnp3
- Start date
IMO, there's no such thing as going too slow, or being too thorough.
Those posts that show a field hunted in a day....show a field that either has items left in it, or one that they will return to several times because they didn't really hunt it all.
Don't worry. You're doing it right.
Those posts that show a field hunted in a day....show a field that either has items left in it, or one that they will return to several times because they didn't really hunt it all.
Don't worry. You're doing it right.
I have to keep slowing myself down but the good part of this i can rehunt the area many times from different directions. When in trashy areas hunting very slow and listining closely to the signals and watching the numbers is very helpful. I also have pulled nickels and dimes out of very trashy areas by just hearing a slight high sound of a flash of # 10-12 for a nickel along with a junk target. I am using the 10 x 5 DD right now but will be getting the 6" Coiltec soon.
Hey thanks OLH, I appreciate a little perspective! I see videos of guys hunting an area and finding great stuff, but find myself wanting to go in behind them because of big gaps in their swing coverage or how fast they swing or walk. It seems common, so if someone tells me there's nothing left in a good spot they've been to I'll never believe it.
Digger 45, that's what happened with the nickel yesterday. It's hard for me to explain, the signal was iffy but not... I could tell there was something there, but it might have been something that others wouldn't have bothered with. Hey, it only a nickel but I learned something! I am also going to get the Digger coil, but Gawd, if I'm slow now just think about how it's going to be with a coil that's half as long as my DD Eliptical!
Digger 45, that's what happened with the nickel yesterday. It's hard for me to explain, the signal was iffy but not... I could tell there was something there, but it might have been something that others wouldn't have bothered with. Hey, it only a nickel but I learned something! I am also going to get the Digger coil, but Gawd, if I'm slow now just think about how it's going to be with a coil that's half as long as my DD Eliptical!
Mark in S.E. IA
New member
John, I would say your swing is a lil too fast if your looking for the deep old coins. a 3 to 4 sec speed would be a lil better. A 1/3 over lap is ok but with a DD coil you only need a 1/4 over lap.
atomicscott
Active member
Longhair (as usual) is right on with his answer! I usually swing about 2-3 seconds per swing, sometimes a bit slower than that even. I'm sure I swung my other detectors faster, but I've found many more goodies with the slow swing speed of the "slow responding" X-Terra. So many people say 'oh this detector is faster than that one, blah, blah, blah'. It seems logical that in super trashy sites, the slower the better with ANY detector if you don't want to miss good targets in the trash! Going for my second hunt with the 10.5 DD 7.5 coil. It definitely covers more ground due to less overlapping, but I still swing it very slow.
brgordon17
New member
It's a good question that I ponder myself sometimes.I know why going slow is important when looking for deep targets and in trashy sites etc. The question is, how do you approach an area that's new and big? Personally, i prefer to cover as much ground as possible, beginning with those areas that I might consider hot spots. Once i've identified the best areas, I can go back another day and go much slower and cover every inch of ground.
Either way, I think it's important to be methodical and have a plan. The more you hit a site, the more you learn about it.
Either way, I think it's important to be methodical and have a plan. The more you hit a site, the more you learn about it.
mapper65
Member
I think something equally important that most people don't talk about is keeping your coil parallel to the ground. I see so many people on TV and in You Tube videos that if you were standing face to face with them about ten feet away their swipe looks like the bottom part of a "U". The loss in efficiency of your coil when at the outer ends of your swipe with a swing like that is staggering. When you are off to your left you're losing from the middle to the left edge of the coil and when you are out to your right you are losing the middle to right edge of your coil. I see many people with more of a less exaggerated golf swing than a detector swing so to speak. I don't know how many episodes of Diggers I've seen and they are doing that. It may just be part of their b roll re-creation shots but I have to believe that if someone says to you "show me how you swing", you are going to do it the same way that you always do it.
I can't count how many coins I've found at the outer ends of my swipe that if I was using the wrong swing style I more than likely would have not picked up on. Naturally our arms in a swing pattern do not travel in a way that allows us to keep the bottom of the coil parallel to the ground so it requires you to adjust your hips and/or shoulders during your swing to maintain level coil swing. I know this sounds like common sense to many of us but take notice of other people detecting and you'll be surprised how inefficient their swing is. I always say take a wide, level and reasonably paced swing. The wider your swing the more chance you have of finding something. You would think this would all be common sense but take notice of others and keep an eye on yourself. get everything you can from your swing.
I can't count how many coins I've found at the outer ends of my swipe that if I was using the wrong swing style I more than likely would have not picked up on. Naturally our arms in a swing pattern do not travel in a way that allows us to keep the bottom of the coil parallel to the ground so it requires you to adjust your hips and/or shoulders during your swing to maintain level coil swing. I know this sounds like common sense to many of us but take notice of other people detecting and you'll be surprised how inefficient their swing is. I always say take a wide, level and reasonably paced swing. The wider your swing the more chance you have of finding something. You would think this would all be common sense but take notice of others and keep an eye on yourself. get everything you can from your swing.
Good point, because if you're not touching rocks occasionally or skimming grass through the whole arc you're losing maybe 50% of your swing effectiveness. For me, I have a little wrist turn at the end of my swing that helps keep the coil flat and low through the whole swing - without the wrist turn it's not as easy to keep the coil level unless my arc is very narrow. As to speed, Digger has some good advice in his eBook about that. I laid down a tape measure and measured my swing and it's about the same as his, so I swing a 48" arc in two or three seconds. If it's there and I'm set up correctly, I'll get a "sniff"...
I know what you mean about those shows depicting how they swing, which is horribly. The Meteorite Men were bad at it as well. I can only think that they did it on purpose, but then again these shows are contrived and manufactured. There is nothing "real" about them. The producers keep things moving on the shows with invented stories. Don't look to those knuckleheads for any example of anything other than how to get yourself shot or arrested.
I know what you mean about those shows depicting how they swing, which is horribly. The Meteorite Men were bad at it as well. I can only think that they did it on purpose, but then again these shows are contrived and manufactured. There is nothing "real" about them. The producers keep things moving on the shows with invented stories. Don't look to those knuckleheads for any example of anything other than how to get yourself shot or arrested.