Critterhunter
New member
Been kicking this around in my head for some reason for the last few days and thought I'd write out a little segment on it. For some stupid reason the phrase "It Only Takes An Inch" has come to mind here and there for the last few days. Since I'm out of meds at the moment, 
I thought I'd just run with it and hack out a few thoughts on the subject...
First, I'm sure many of us have seen other hunters who swing with the coil way off the ground. Even if they aren't very bad at that, they often are still hunting with the coil just a bit higher than they probably should for best depth. Now, I'm not one to scrub the ground as I feel it ends up costing you depth via falsing and noise caused by the coil being bumped or slid around on it. On the other hand, I try to hunt with the coil just kissing the top of the grass as that's my general rule of thumb for easy swinging, less fatigue, and less falsing caused by coil chatter. Just like riding sensitivity too high making the machine unstable, if you are causing the machine to false or chirp here and there by scrubbing the ground it could very easily cost you depth and not give you more. But, by the same token, I don't want to get too high. And, even though some people do a good job of keeping the coil right near the ground, often even these people will lift the coil at both ends of the sweep. I don't try to cover a wide patch of ground like that with a wide sweep unless sometimes when I'm beach hunting and gridding out a large area. Instead, I only worry about the ground right in front of my feet, and rarely sweep my coil any wider than my two feet for best coil control and coverage. It's also less fatigue as you can keep your back straight and not be reaching from one side to the other trying to cover a larger area.
Also, on machines where you set a fixed ground balance, it's important to ground balance at the height you plan to sweep while hunting. Kissing the ground with the coil when you aren't hunting that close I feel throws off the ground balance of the machine somewhat, or at least I think it has the potential to do that.
Anyway, back to the other aspect of the topic that's been kicking around in my head for a few days. You ever hunt a hard hit park and happen on a nice clean coin signal only a few inches deep or so, and out pops a nice old silver? Ever wonder just why nobody ever dug that coin long ago, as it wasn't masked and was shallow enough that most machines on the market could have easily have seen it? Well, I'm sure a few of those are due to various things. Such as the coin being on edge at one time or deeper, but that the frozen ground moved it flat or brought it closer to the surface. Or, there could have been a piece of iron masking that coin that finally degraded and washed away in the soil to reveal it.
But, there is one other possibility and probably the more likely reason why that coin has never been found before. That being that nobody simply ever passed their coil over it. Think about it. It only takes your coil missing that coin by an inch and you never even heard it. Or, you might have even nicked it with the side of the coil, but your machine gave a bad response that sounded like trash simply because it didn't get a good look at it. This is even more true for coins at depth, because often a deeper coin will not give a good response until you pass over it with the very center of the coil.
And further into this point...Next time you are at one of your favorite hunting sites and feel there is no "easy" silver left to be found there, take a good long look around the place. Chances are the site is rather large, but even at a smaller one do you know what kind of meticulous person it would take to cover every square inch of that soil there? Most hunters, even the best of them who make great finds every day, don't cover the ground in such a detailed way as to insure not missing spots. Even if they do grid, unless you are using stakes and strings to mark off areas it's very easy to wander out of your row. In fact, even using string and markers to grid a box at a time, it's still rather easy to not cover the ground properly with each sweep insuring you didn't leave a gap between your last sweep and this one. And, even if you make a good effort to not leave gaps between sweeps...Are you overlapping your sweeps enough to insure that the center of the coil is covering most of that ground on each pass? While it's more important with a concentric to overlap your sweeps, it's still true for a DD coil, in particular for deeper targets. The center of the coil will get you the best depth, and also the best response on a target that might otherwise only null or sound like junk if the center of the coil hadn't seen it. Also, these coins don't even have to be all that deep for that to happen. They could be masked or on edge, and only will sing "coin" when you've got the coil in just the right spot sweeping over them.
So, no matter how capable you think your machine is or isn't, chances are nobody has hunted that "dead" site with as much intention as you could...If you just go in there with the right mindset and will power to take your time. Don't be worried about what is "over there" 20 yards away. The most important ground is the one right in front of your feet. Don't even worry about what's two feet to your side. Just worry about the ground right in front of your toes. Cover that well first, and then move on. Overlap your sweeps, not even by just half, but try to crawl forward only inches at a time. That alone can make all the difference. Remember, you are trying to find a coin roughly half an inch in surface area among acres of "inches" spread all over the place. Give that some serious thought, and then next time your hunting you might resist the urge to "get over there", and take the time to see what potential finds might only be one inch away.
The next time you happen along what you think is going to turn out to be a silver or some other old coin. Take a moment to sweep around that spot in a sloppy way without trying to get right over it on purpose. I bet you'll notice that you don't even hear that coin on most of those "drunken" sweeps in the general area. And, if you do hear it, I'll bet good money it doesn't sound like anything but trash until you've "just by chance" swept right over it with the center of the coil. Even still, even if you do happen to sweep right over it, depending on it's depth or being masked, I bet some of these coins won't even give you a coin signal until you've centered and wiggled right over them to isolate the signal from the surrounding ground or any nearby trash. For that reason too, when hunting "in inches", don't use assume with a good solid center sweep over something that by the sound it's just trash. Especially if it sounds deep, or maybe mixed in trash but "hinting" to a high tone, make sure you center and wiggle right over it before deciding it is indeed just another piece of junk.
For the deeper hits I always check them out by getting right over them and wiggling, and often only then will that "trash" tone rise and become a "coin" high tone. I must admit I don't usually take this kind of time with shallower "trash". With the deep signals I don't care what kind of tone it gives at first, but with the shallower stuff I'll only investigate further if I hear a hint of a high tone mixed in with the lows. Perhaps I should take more time to wiggle through and around the shallow junk even if I don't at first hear a hint of coin mixed in there, as a coin can easily not give that high tone unless you are in the perfect spot to see it mixed in the trash. But, on the other hand, if you are hunting "in inches", you don't have to worry about that so much with the shallower stuff, as your slow advancement in inches with the coil will more than likely fish that initial high tone hint out for you to investigate further. As said though, on the deeper "trash" hits, I always center right over them and see just what kind of signal I can dirt fish out of it.
As a side note that pertains to this topic, just changing the angle at which you grid a site can make all the difference. Often masked coins or ones on edge might only produce a good enough signal to dig from one particular angle of sweep. It's human nature to parallel or (though less common) to hunt at a 90 degree angle to some landmark, such as a sidewalk, a wood line, a street, or a building. Human nature dictates most people will hunt in one of those two directions to those landmarks. So, instead of working it parallel, or even instead of working the spot the less frequent (but still common) 90 degree relation to that object, why not grid the area at a diagonal direction to it? That alone can make the difference and reveal badly masked coins or ones badly on edge that simply will only null or give a real junky signal from any other direction. Many of the coins we've found this year have been so badly masked that they were a complete null for two different machines from any direction but one tiny tight spot and angle. Had we not hit those coins from that rarity of an odd hunting angle many of them we would not have even heard, or at least only got a "trash" signal from.
I thought I'd just run with it and hack out a few thoughts on the subject...First, I'm sure many of us have seen other hunters who swing with the coil way off the ground. Even if they aren't very bad at that, they often are still hunting with the coil just a bit higher than they probably should for best depth. Now, I'm not one to scrub the ground as I feel it ends up costing you depth via falsing and noise caused by the coil being bumped or slid around on it. On the other hand, I try to hunt with the coil just kissing the top of the grass as that's my general rule of thumb for easy swinging, less fatigue, and less falsing caused by coil chatter. Just like riding sensitivity too high making the machine unstable, if you are causing the machine to false or chirp here and there by scrubbing the ground it could very easily cost you depth and not give you more. But, by the same token, I don't want to get too high. And, even though some people do a good job of keeping the coil right near the ground, often even these people will lift the coil at both ends of the sweep. I don't try to cover a wide patch of ground like that with a wide sweep unless sometimes when I'm beach hunting and gridding out a large area. Instead, I only worry about the ground right in front of my feet, and rarely sweep my coil any wider than my two feet for best coil control and coverage. It's also less fatigue as you can keep your back straight and not be reaching from one side to the other trying to cover a larger area.
Also, on machines where you set a fixed ground balance, it's important to ground balance at the height you plan to sweep while hunting. Kissing the ground with the coil when you aren't hunting that close I feel throws off the ground balance of the machine somewhat, or at least I think it has the potential to do that.
Anyway, back to the other aspect of the topic that's been kicking around in my head for a few days. You ever hunt a hard hit park and happen on a nice clean coin signal only a few inches deep or so, and out pops a nice old silver? Ever wonder just why nobody ever dug that coin long ago, as it wasn't masked and was shallow enough that most machines on the market could have easily have seen it? Well, I'm sure a few of those are due to various things. Such as the coin being on edge at one time or deeper, but that the frozen ground moved it flat or brought it closer to the surface. Or, there could have been a piece of iron masking that coin that finally degraded and washed away in the soil to reveal it.
But, there is one other possibility and probably the more likely reason why that coin has never been found before. That being that nobody simply ever passed their coil over it. Think about it. It only takes your coil missing that coin by an inch and you never even heard it. Or, you might have even nicked it with the side of the coil, but your machine gave a bad response that sounded like trash simply because it didn't get a good look at it. This is even more true for coins at depth, because often a deeper coin will not give a good response until you pass over it with the very center of the coil.
And further into this point...Next time you are at one of your favorite hunting sites and feel there is no "easy" silver left to be found there, take a good long look around the place. Chances are the site is rather large, but even at a smaller one do you know what kind of meticulous person it would take to cover every square inch of that soil there? Most hunters, even the best of them who make great finds every day, don't cover the ground in such a detailed way as to insure not missing spots. Even if they do grid, unless you are using stakes and strings to mark off areas it's very easy to wander out of your row. In fact, even using string and markers to grid a box at a time, it's still rather easy to not cover the ground properly with each sweep insuring you didn't leave a gap between your last sweep and this one. And, even if you make a good effort to not leave gaps between sweeps...Are you overlapping your sweeps enough to insure that the center of the coil is covering most of that ground on each pass? While it's more important with a concentric to overlap your sweeps, it's still true for a DD coil, in particular for deeper targets. The center of the coil will get you the best depth, and also the best response on a target that might otherwise only null or sound like junk if the center of the coil hadn't seen it. Also, these coins don't even have to be all that deep for that to happen. They could be masked or on edge, and only will sing "coin" when you've got the coil in just the right spot sweeping over them.
So, no matter how capable you think your machine is or isn't, chances are nobody has hunted that "dead" site with as much intention as you could...If you just go in there with the right mindset and will power to take your time. Don't be worried about what is "over there" 20 yards away. The most important ground is the one right in front of your feet. Don't even worry about what's two feet to your side. Just worry about the ground right in front of your toes. Cover that well first, and then move on. Overlap your sweeps, not even by just half, but try to crawl forward only inches at a time. That alone can make all the difference. Remember, you are trying to find a coin roughly half an inch in surface area among acres of "inches" spread all over the place. Give that some serious thought, and then next time your hunting you might resist the urge to "get over there", and take the time to see what potential finds might only be one inch away.
The next time you happen along what you think is going to turn out to be a silver or some other old coin. Take a moment to sweep around that spot in a sloppy way without trying to get right over it on purpose. I bet you'll notice that you don't even hear that coin on most of those "drunken" sweeps in the general area. And, if you do hear it, I'll bet good money it doesn't sound like anything but trash until you've "just by chance" swept right over it with the center of the coil. Even still, even if you do happen to sweep right over it, depending on it's depth or being masked, I bet some of these coins won't even give you a coin signal until you've centered and wiggled right over them to isolate the signal from the surrounding ground or any nearby trash. For that reason too, when hunting "in inches", don't use assume with a good solid center sweep over something that by the sound it's just trash. Especially if it sounds deep, or maybe mixed in trash but "hinting" to a high tone, make sure you center and wiggle right over it before deciding it is indeed just another piece of junk.
For the deeper hits I always check them out by getting right over them and wiggling, and often only then will that "trash" tone rise and become a "coin" high tone. I must admit I don't usually take this kind of time with shallower "trash". With the deep signals I don't care what kind of tone it gives at first, but with the shallower stuff I'll only investigate further if I hear a hint of a high tone mixed in with the lows. Perhaps I should take more time to wiggle through and around the shallow junk even if I don't at first hear a hint of coin mixed in there, as a coin can easily not give that high tone unless you are in the perfect spot to see it mixed in the trash. But, on the other hand, if you are hunting "in inches", you don't have to worry about that so much with the shallower stuff, as your slow advancement in inches with the coil will more than likely fish that initial high tone hint out for you to investigate further. As said though, on the deeper "trash" hits, I always center right over them and see just what kind of signal I can dirt fish out of it.
As a side note that pertains to this topic, just changing the angle at which you grid a site can make all the difference. Often masked coins or ones on edge might only produce a good enough signal to dig from one particular angle of sweep. It's human nature to parallel or (though less common) to hunt at a 90 degree angle to some landmark, such as a sidewalk, a wood line, a street, or a building. Human nature dictates most people will hunt in one of those two directions to those landmarks. So, instead of working it parallel, or even instead of working the spot the less frequent (but still common) 90 degree relation to that object, why not grid the area at a diagonal direction to it? That alone can make the difference and reveal badly masked coins or ones badly on edge that simply will only null or give a real junky signal from any other direction. Many of the coins we've found this year have been so badly masked that they were a complete null for two different machines from any direction but one tiny tight spot and angle. Had we not hit those coins from that rarity of an odd hunting angle many of them we would not have even heard, or at least only got a "trash" signal from.