How thorough do you search?

[dmckee17]

I'm curious as to how thorough fellow detectorists search an area. I'm sure everyone goes about it a little different. Say you have a smooth dirt area (no grass) 100' x 100' to search and scattered randomly within are 2 or 3 half dimes (small targets). How do you actually practice your search in order to gather all targets within an area?
I'm interested in learning any different methods any of you fellows use. I personally grid the area mentally, and methodically detect a row at a time. My sweep is about 5' wide, and in dirt I'll slide my shoes to make a trail, in grass I slide my shoes also as it mashes the grass in one direction (I know it sounds strange but it works for me). Then on the next run I keep about 5' between my tracks, checking periodically my spacing from the previous run. My sweeps just meet each other but don't really overlap.
If I absolutely cannot see my path, I have been known to use sticks, pine cones, rocks or whatever I may find on site nearby and mark my path. I wonder if anyone uses stakes and string for a real grid, I haven't yet, I guess that would start to seem like work, but if targets were very important I probably would. Input anybody?

 

[dahut]

I'm curious as to how thorough fellow detectorists search an area. I'm sure everyone goes about it a little different. Say you have a smooth dirt area (no grass) 100' x 100' to search and scattered randomly within are 2 or 3 half dimes (small targets). How do you actually practice your search in order to gather all targets within an area?
I'm interested in learning any different methods any of you fellows use. I personally grid the area mentally, and methodically detect a row at a time. My sweep is about 5' wide, and in dirt I'll slide my shoes to make a trail, in grass I slide my shoes also as it mashes the grass in one direction (I know it sounds strange but it works for me). Then on the next run I keep about 5' between my tracks, checking periodically my spacing from the previous run. My sweeps just meet each other but don't really overlap.
If I absolutely cannot see my path, I have been known to use sticks, pine cones, rocks or whatever I may find on site nearby and mark my path. I wonder if anyone uses stakes and string for a real grid, I haven't yet, I guess that would start to seem like work, but if targets were very important I probably would. Input anybody?

I use stakes and string for something like that. The stakes are plexiglas or wood and common construction twine.

 

[tabdog]

I have been searchin and griddin so long,
I do it in my sleep.

I do tha same thing with sliding my feet
to make a trail of where I've been.

But something I do different, is that I will
over lap each time by about a foot or so.

I have found that one of tha most likely
places to miss a target is at tha far right
or far left of my swing. So I over lap to
compensate. I do find things tha were
missed on tha previous pass.

I can increase tha coverage if I can use
tha all metal mode.

Happy Huntin,

Tabdog

 

[Scully]

Ground condtions can change so you should re-hunt areas at different times of the year. Spring time presents nice wet conditions with saturated dirt and I can frequently find deeper targets at that time. Likewise, frost can move targets up and down, as well as plowing can move things around so conditions will vary year to year so keep going back.

Also, if you hunted the area back and forth East to West "last time", then this time you should hunt it North to South. You should also, next time around angle your pattern and grid it at 45 degrees and hunt it from NW to SE and so on. You will be surprised by how much more you will find going over the same area and attacking it from different directions. It is very easy to miss small patches of ground when hunting large areas of land so I never beleive I have a place "hunted out".

 

[slingshot]

The only thing I could think to add to the great advice above is that at it's deepest detection cone, the signal is very minute, so I mentally pretend to be searching for dimes and that automatically makes for a good overlap on each sweep. Guess what coin I find the most that others miss?

 

[nad]

I've been "flipping pages" and going back over all the old posts to see what methods have been used to maintain a uniform search pattern..There are several local fields that may be hiding both coins and artifacts..About the largest area I think I can mark and cover would be 200 square feet,or about one acre..Going around the perimeter of one site, the squares could be kept reasonably positioned..Once I got "inland," they would tend to drift ,since leaving markers ,stakes, ground spray would not be permitted. So, if North and South are fixed on one side..Could I use a compass to pace off the East and West distances with some reasonable accuracy? On 30+ and 70 acres, there is still going to be a lot of overlap and missed areas..Short of hiring Tab Dog, to mark everything off in a neat, orderly, and numbered manner, I am on my own...Cordially Nad

 

[slingshot]

Hidden objects follow no set pattern. Even perfection in the angles is no guarantee. Many go east and west of a square, then north and south, and finally 45 degrees, from corner to corner. Overlap and detector settings, coil angle and attitude matter from then on.

 

[dahut]

n/t

 

[rmptr]

DMC, If I had located 2 or 3 half dimes on a 10k sq ft dirt lot I'd bring in a paddlewheel scraper and set the top foot aside to screen while I detected the rest!

That would be GREAT finds for the likes of me!

Most areas that small I make adjacent passes through the main area, sighting on a landmark at the opposite end.
If I locate any target, I circle in that area, then continue back on the linear passes.

After the bulk of the area has been covered, I begin to work areas of interest around the perimeter that may not have been checked.

If the area is clear of taller growing vegetables, I always use my CS coil first, for speed.
I may return with a holey 8" coil.
Just don't use my 4" hockey puck very much.
I'd like to try a 5 3/4 disc.

Best
rmptr

 

[TesoroScout]

Depends where and what I am looking for, in a field always overlap........ when you get tired of that start looking for imperfections in the landscape and try those for old dump piles

When I am in areas of forest or boulders I put myself in the shoes of who was in that area in the past and what were they doing when it got hot out!!! they looked for a shady place to sit, that's where I start looking and it works most of the time. I have found the shady side of a large boulder and looked there and usually come up with old tobacco tins or a coin. In the forest I found a giant old Pine Tree Trunk that looked very old and must of been the largest shade tree in that part of the forest back in the day. I said self.... that tree must had lots of shade to camp under so I started to detect around the base of the trunk and BAM a nice loud tone.... about 10 inches down a nice old fixed blade trappers/hunters knife with one side of the wood handle still preserved from the 1920's!

Try to think your "BACK in the DAY"

Hope this helps, Scout