My F4 and I are "Clad Kings" Any suggestions?

[Boston Metal]

I am new to MD'ing and the F4. I got it in late May and have about 30 hours with it. I am very impressed with it and I regulary find clad. Indeed, except for the beach at all the parks and old schools I've been to I find clad everywhere, usually not more than two or three minutes between targets. I've tried it in all metal discrimination, discrimination, and notch. I get so tired of digging pennies and trash that I usually end up using max discriminatiom. I have played with all metal no discrimination to get deeper, but I quickl grew tired of digging trash, it rings everywhere! I have found dimes and pennies as deep as 6 inches so far.

The problem I am having is that its all clad, with one wheat back penny and an inexpensive toe ring beiing the only non trash non clad items found thus far.

Any suggestions on moving my learning curve along so that I found more interesting items? Do I just need more time, or is it that I need better places to dig, and/or because I need to dig more trash?

Looking forwar to some insight from the veterans around here!

Frank

 

[BH_Landstar_]

The F4 is a clad killer, it will find coins all day long, it's also a silver sniffer, it will find silver with ease.

I've had my F4 just over 4 months now. Take it slow and easy, don't run it at max setting for the power, 3 or 4 bars is fine.

This is what I have found with my F4 so far....

2 Silver dimes (1947, 1964) <<-- two schools
1 Silver quarter (1960) <<-- My back yard
1 Seated quarter (1877) <<-- Old high school grounds ...... built late 1800's
1 Silver Half Dollar (1964) <<-- Baseball field built in the early 1960's.
1 Walking Liberty Half Dollar (1942) <<-- High school built 1980's .... was a farm at one time.
28 Silver rings (925 / Sterling) <<-- most of these are from ball fields / school fields, high / middle schools.
1 Gold ring (14k) <<-- Edge of a parking lot to a school field.
and .... $722.45 in clad coins (07/23/10) All from the above places and some parks.

 

[Boston Metal]

I appreciate the tips and have a couple of questions: What settings seem to work best for you relative to discrimination?

Are you digging everything, or just what you believe are not trash?

Do you use a hand pinpointer? I ask because sometimes I think I spend too much time sifting dirt by hand and I wonder if a hand pinpointer saves a ton of time.

 

[gmanlight]

Hi Frank i am about 30 miles north of you.Finding a virgin park up here can be tough.
A lot of parks are really trashy also .If you are comfortable with you digging techniques
Family or friends with older homes are great places for silver.
But you might want to wait till fall as the grass is really dieing off around here.

The Garret pro pointer is great if in your budget but any pointer will be a time saver.

 

[BH_Landstar_]

I don't use a pinpointer, only the metal detector that I have to pinpoint as it does the job, don't see the need for an extra tool in my hand.

I just have the 2 iron ranges out, everything else gets detected and dug, trash too.

I use a blunt crosshead screwdriver to probe the dry soil / grass to find the target and pop it out unless it's over 5 inches deep. Takes time to learn to do it and keep the grass as you found it. Also stops the grass from going yellow like when you dig a plug.

 

[Wolfdog]

Just keep doing what you are doing, sounds like you are having some good luck. This metal detecting is a learn as you go thing and the more you do the more you learn.

 

[bthom]

I use the F4 too, really you just need to learn...for example... Our old 2c and old pennys come up the same vdi.. I dont want the 2c so use the pinpoint to give and indication of size..but when I learned this trick I went from finding 20 or so 2c's to only one or two.

 

[chuck ky]

most older places have been hunted to death with top of the line machines. to get silver would take a deeper machine or a place thats never been hunted. yours should find some silver but would be harder that say with an f-75.

 

[gmanlight]

BH to have a hand probe is your choice .A guy i hunt with had over 25 years of hunting when
we started hunting together a few year ago.
He never had a PP till he tried my Garret , he has one now.

 

[jim tn]

I've been at it 38 years and never had a PP. There are times when one would certainly come in handy, but don't like carrying anything more then my digger. I'm not in any big hurry when afield, anyway. As far as silver, it will come. First and foremost, one has to hunt sites that have the potiential for silver. Unless one is really into research and willing to knock on doors to gain permission, most of our hunting spots will already have seen countless coils over them. Ultimately, it is necessary to slow down and listen carefully for the deep targets or those nestled close to trash. Good luck, that next coin could be a silver. HH jim tn

 

[Boston Metal]

Thanks to everyone for the words of encouragement. I went out last night for 90 minutes trying a new spot and lo and behold I nabbed a Buffalo and two wheat backs. Couldn't get a date on the Buffalo yet, the wheatbacks are from the forties. found all three whitin a few feet of each other at the base of a large tree in park. Its amazing what 1 Buffalo nickel will do to make me want to keep on digging!

 

[planetaryjunkman]

You can`t fault the machine for finding coins and non ferrous metal objects, its only doing its job.Turning up the disc to get rid of any non ferrous items is madness, you`ll null out rings and lots of other wanted items.

Over here in the UK its ring pulls and silver paper, l guess the same for you guys, in parks.The only way you`re going to avoid it is searching less used areas.

Obs we`re lucky over here, l started off on parks and got excited about finding my first Victorian 6 penny, cap badges etc.Then we moved on to field adjacent to old villages and started finding ancient stuff, which you guys unfortunately don`t have.

It sounds like you`re doing everything right, but the location sounds like the problem, junk is unavoidable in parks, playing fields, school yards etc.

With the best machine in the world, if the finds are not there to start with it can`t find them!

Just keep doing what you`re doing, law of averages something will turn up good soon, the more hours you put in the more the odds shorten on finding the goodies.

30 hours is very little experience indeed, it took me 25 years to find my first gold coin, don`t try and run before you can walk and it`ll come good

Your poor detector can`t pick and choose what it finds for you, it can only find whats there!

 

[jim tn]

The Buffalo and wheats are a good start towards silver. Where those coins can be found, there is silver around as well. HH jim tn

 

[Elton]

OLd Homes, Old football fields, Old parks..but you still have to expect to hit the clad coins too. No way around it really.. do some research and pick your older spots for a better chance at the Silver..dig some iffy targets at depth only....once you hit some silver and see how it reads and "feels' to your machine you will do better.. Silver isn't every where any more my friend it's been picked and the ones left are masked or on edge.. It's still out there but harder to find..

 

[jmaryt]

been at it for over 30 years,and i echo jim's sentiments exactly!..still "tons" of stuff
buried in the trash!..no one gets it all!..

(h.h!)
j.t.

 

[jmaryt]

keep fightin' the stuff is still there,and it's amazing what just one good find will do for moral!
you are on your way now!

(h.h!)
j.t.

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

n/t

 

[marcomo]

Hey, Frank, keep the faith!

I'm no grizzled veteran, but I started in the spring of 2008 and It took me about 30 frustrating hours to find my first obsolete coin, a wheat penny.

I'm up to 98 silver coins now and many other obsolete coins and interesting finds.

What you have to remember is, when you start, you see all these public places and you say "that looks like a good place to detect."

But if you said it, tons of other people with detectors did too. Most of them had more experience than you and many no doubt had better detectors. And that's no knock on the F4 which does a fine job.

Elton is very knowledgeable and makes good points as always, but his dates are off. It's been 46 years since silver was minted and it was very quickly hoarded out of circulation after that. I was a young child at the time, but an educated guess based on my memory tells me that it was 1966 when clad overtook silver.

Keep in mind too that more houses were built in this country from 1946-1960 than any other 15 year period in our history. Those postwar yards are good spots for silver, wheat and jewelry. Most are virgin sites and overlooked by most hunters who are looking for older spots.

And, Frank, I know it's hard sometimes, but try to resist the temptation to cherry pick only the high conductors. A lot of good stuff lays in both the nickel and zinc range.

 

[Elton]

n/t

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

n/t