Critterhunter
New member
I know of one guy who often complains that the silver is pretty much gone at pounded out public places. In the past he's questioned whether he should just get out of the hobby, or perhaps buy a water unit and just hunt for freshly dropped gold rings on the beach. I feel this mindset has caused him not to go out hunting as much as he used to, and also why he's constantly buying and trying different machines to see if somehow some new advancement in technology is going to make his sites come alive again.
On the other hand, I try to take the optimistic approach. My motto is no site is ever hunted out. Not unless you've dug every single signal above iron at the location, and even then there could still be deeper targets or ones masked badly by iron that using a larger or smaller coil could reveal. Not only that, but just the share method of hunting a site this seems to have absolutely no targets left by hunting at odd angles to nearby landmarks can unmask coins and other targets that simply won't reveal themselves unless you hit that one odd angle over them that allows you to see them through the iron. Most people hunt parallel or at a 90 degree angle to things like sidewalks, buildings, or wood lines. It's just human nature to do that, so whenever I think of it I try to zig zag at odd angles to these objects, because I can gurantee you that there is a good chance that nobody has hunted them that way.
Then there are other factors that can reveal coins or other good finds that people just plain didn't see. How many times have you heard of a new guy with even a cheap detector finding silver or some other good find at sites you've long since given up on? He's making those finds because he's digging signals that your "experience" has told you aren't worth digging. Those real junky coin signals that you are sure are going to be rusty bottle caps, or that nice gold ring that everybody passed as being can slaw or obviously just another pulltab.
It can even boil down to the coil on his machine hitting targets a little "different" than even your more expensive detector, as different coils have very different and unique eddy current patterns like fingerprints that interact with say a coin at an odd angle or one masked in junk differently that another coil will.
Then there's all those old coins that read lower on the scale than silver, such as 3 cent pieces, certain indian heads that read in the pull tab range, gold coins, or even silver coins that weren't even masked or all that deep but for some odd reason they read lower on the conductivity scale. Even the soil conditions on any given day can make targets appear different due to being dry or wet soil.
Then there are guys who are even using the exact same machine but swing it differently, or have it set up differently...With different amounts of discrimination for instance. Or, still yet, just how high or low they have their sensitivity set. Of course maxing out sensitivity can give you that little extra depth to find the deep coins, but running your sensitivity low can also have it's perks. With the coil running less "hot" you might see a coin between iron better because with higher sensitivity you might be picking up too much of the surrounding iron that is say deeper but right next to the coin. Or, I have found that there are some soils (especially when they are very dry) where a high but stable sensitivity setting doesn't give as good of target signals than a much lower one at depth, due to the "glare" of the ground signal, which many refer to as the "fog in the headlights" thing where it's like turning on your high beams during a fog and actually seeing less than with them on low.
Then there are other factors that come into play as to just what some people consider "hunted out". Some say this because they just can't find any deep but easy silver coin signals anymore. Others don't consider the place hunted out unless they've dug all the one way junky coin signals, or ones so deep that it just "hints" a bit of a silver tone as you sweep over it. Still others don't consider a place hunted out until they've dug every signal above iron, or at least every signal above iron that is deeper than say 5" to avoid all the old round pull tabs that have only sunk that far so far over the years. By digging all the signals that are older and thus deeper than round tabs you in effect are "time traveling" back in time before they were invented, and that should increase your odds of one of those "tab" signals turning out to be a gold ring, a gold coin, a certain type of indian head, v or shield nickles, or some other great old find that just plain and simple reads lower on the scale.
As my "go to" spots continue to "dry up" in terms of those "easy" deep coin singles I am changing my strategy at these sites. I no longer am going to spend three hours wandering around looking for that classic deep clean coin signal, but rather I feel I could have been using that 3 hours to dig all targets deeper than the modern junk, or those one way coin signals that null the rest of the way around them, or those scratchy coin signals that everybody else thinks is a bottlecap or some other junk. About the only shallow coin signals I dig these days are ones that are surrounded by trash, as I think there is a chance that it could be an old coin that everybody else missed due to the junk surrounding it.
As the one way coin signals and the iffy ones dry up, I'll continue to hunt these spots by digging any signal above iron that is deeper than round pull tabs, as that marks the "modern age" in terms of a lot of different modern trash being above them (shallower) in the soil. Who knows how many gold rings you might find, or old tokens, or that still elusive gold coin you've been begging for.
So don't sit around and complain about all the sites being hunted out, even if you have a less expensive detector compared to your competition at those sites. Instead, do the things those guys won't do. Something as simple as working very slow and not getting in a hurry can even make a difference. Everybody seems in a hurry to "get over there" when detecting. The most important thing should be the ground right now in front of you. Take your time to slowly crawl over that and overlap your sweeps alot as even that can make all the difference, and most guys won't even do that.
Until you arrive at a site and don't find a single signal above iron, and a larger coil or a smaller one isn't finding more signals either, then that place is never really "hunted out". It's your mindset that you need to change, not your hunting sites.
On the other hand, I try to take the optimistic approach. My motto is no site is ever hunted out. Not unless you've dug every single signal above iron at the location, and even then there could still be deeper targets or ones masked badly by iron that using a larger or smaller coil could reveal. Not only that, but just the share method of hunting a site this seems to have absolutely no targets left by hunting at odd angles to nearby landmarks can unmask coins and other targets that simply won't reveal themselves unless you hit that one odd angle over them that allows you to see them through the iron. Most people hunt parallel or at a 90 degree angle to things like sidewalks, buildings, or wood lines. It's just human nature to do that, so whenever I think of it I try to zig zag at odd angles to these objects, because I can gurantee you that there is a good chance that nobody has hunted them that way.
Then there are other factors that can reveal coins or other good finds that people just plain didn't see. How many times have you heard of a new guy with even a cheap detector finding silver or some other good find at sites you've long since given up on? He's making those finds because he's digging signals that your "experience" has told you aren't worth digging. Those real junky coin signals that you are sure are going to be rusty bottle caps, or that nice gold ring that everybody passed as being can slaw or obviously just another pulltab.
It can even boil down to the coil on his machine hitting targets a little "different" than even your more expensive detector, as different coils have very different and unique eddy current patterns like fingerprints that interact with say a coin at an odd angle or one masked in junk differently that another coil will.
Then there's all those old coins that read lower on the scale than silver, such as 3 cent pieces, certain indian heads that read in the pull tab range, gold coins, or even silver coins that weren't even masked or all that deep but for some odd reason they read lower on the conductivity scale. Even the soil conditions on any given day can make targets appear different due to being dry or wet soil.
Then there are guys who are even using the exact same machine but swing it differently, or have it set up differently...With different amounts of discrimination for instance. Or, still yet, just how high or low they have their sensitivity set. Of course maxing out sensitivity can give you that little extra depth to find the deep coins, but running your sensitivity low can also have it's perks. With the coil running less "hot" you might see a coin between iron better because with higher sensitivity you might be picking up too much of the surrounding iron that is say deeper but right next to the coin. Or, I have found that there are some soils (especially when they are very dry) where a high but stable sensitivity setting doesn't give as good of target signals than a much lower one at depth, due to the "glare" of the ground signal, which many refer to as the "fog in the headlights" thing where it's like turning on your high beams during a fog and actually seeing less than with them on low.
Then there are other factors that come into play as to just what some people consider "hunted out". Some say this because they just can't find any deep but easy silver coin signals anymore. Others don't consider the place hunted out unless they've dug all the one way junky coin signals, or ones so deep that it just "hints" a bit of a silver tone as you sweep over it. Still others don't consider a place hunted out until they've dug every signal above iron, or at least every signal above iron that is deeper than say 5" to avoid all the old round pull tabs that have only sunk that far so far over the years. By digging all the signals that are older and thus deeper than round tabs you in effect are "time traveling" back in time before they were invented, and that should increase your odds of one of those "tab" signals turning out to be a gold ring, a gold coin, a certain type of indian head, v or shield nickles, or some other great old find that just plain and simple reads lower on the scale.
As my "go to" spots continue to "dry up" in terms of those "easy" deep coin singles I am changing my strategy at these sites. I no longer am going to spend three hours wandering around looking for that classic deep clean coin signal, but rather I feel I could have been using that 3 hours to dig all targets deeper than the modern junk, or those one way coin signals that null the rest of the way around them, or those scratchy coin signals that everybody else thinks is a bottlecap or some other junk. About the only shallow coin signals I dig these days are ones that are surrounded by trash, as I think there is a chance that it could be an old coin that everybody else missed due to the junk surrounding it.
As the one way coin signals and the iffy ones dry up, I'll continue to hunt these spots by digging any signal above iron that is deeper than round pull tabs, as that marks the "modern age" in terms of a lot of different modern trash being above them (shallower) in the soil. Who knows how many gold rings you might find, or old tokens, or that still elusive gold coin you've been begging for.
So don't sit around and complain about all the sites being hunted out, even if you have a less expensive detector compared to your competition at those sites. Instead, do the things those guys won't do. Something as simple as working very slow and not getting in a hurry can even make a difference. Everybody seems in a hurry to "get over there" when detecting. The most important thing should be the ground right now in front of you. Take your time to slowly crawl over that and overlap your sweeps alot as even that can make all the difference, and most guys won't even do that.
Until you arrive at a site and don't find a single signal above iron, and a larger coil or a smaller one isn't finding more signals either, then that place is never really "hunted out". It's your mindset that you need to change, not your hunting sites.
