My first time ever detecting. :wave:

[Canine]

I got the At Pro Wednesday and went out Thursday. After ground balancing, I swung it for about three seconds right off the front steps and pulled out my first find: A clad penny. That isn't much, but it was cool. I'm going to keep it.

Then I went across the street to the high school. I found several coins and a bunch of junk. Tons and tons of it. Some good success there, but found it hard to figure out what to dig and what not to dig. If I were to dig it all, it would be easier to plow it and sift it.

Then I went to the park next door that has been hunted a lot by various people and found a few more clad coins. Had two good VDI at around 85, but both of those turned out to be old, galvanized pipe.

Dug up 56 cents worth of money in 15 coins in 90 minutes. (No pictures, sorry.) It might not seem like much, but it seems like a good start for a completely green md'r.

The best thing, though, isn't what I found; it's what I didn't find. Despite having been hunted quite a bit, I saw no sign of anyone having dug up a find. There might be some damage somewhere as I didn't walk through the whole park, but it looked great as far as I could see.

 

[itsaawgood]

Congrats on the new detector. I find it easy to hunt in Standard mode and when I get a good repeatable bell tone and somewhat steady numbers, then I switch to Pro mode and rescan the target and listen very carefully to the tone. A solid high tone is usually a good target...a low high low or scratchy high scratchy tone is almost always junk.

 

[wayupnorth66]

Great to hear that you found some stuff your first time out!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[metalhead]

Nice hunt!Looks like you're off to a good start! Happy Hunting!

 

[Bearharold]

Congrats your off to a good start . Just keep hunting and you will soon learn what the tones are telling you and it only gets better as you practice . Good job




Harold

 

[Big Boys Hobbies]

Good report. More good times ahead for you!

 

[quarterhorse]

Canine

Good choice on the "Pro"

I predominantly clad coin shoot, and most of my targets will be under 5 inches. Most of my targets can be pin pointed exactly with the Garrett ProPointer, and retrieved with a 6 inch screwdriver . Those that are deeper than 4-5 inches and are out of reach of the ProPointer I have modified my technique to pinpoint the coin by pulling the coil back towards me until the beeping stops and the coin will be directly in front of the coil. I then make an incision into the ground pulling the sides back and inserting the ProPointer for precise pinpointing by de-tuning it. It's then only a simple matter of "popping the coin" and pressing the sides back to close the "incision". Done right even you won't know where you dug, and everybody stays happy.

If you don't have a Garrett ProPointer, I strongly suggest you get one, its the best thing since sliced bread.

If your hunting old/silver coins you might want to modify futher so as not to damage Miss Liberty.

Here's two video's that basically explain what I am trying to say.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58e1XNIoKDE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FDUUuau7OA&feature=related


HH
QH

 

[John-Edmonton]

The ability to figure out which targets are more probable to be coins vs. junk takes time. We were all in your shoes at one time. Your good finds to junk ratio will change for the better as you get more practice. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

 

[Canine]

Quarterhorse, I did get the pro pointer. What a great investment! Major time saver.

I did notice that cutting a plug for every dig was more work than necessary. I started doing what you did in a vague way in an effort to figure out a kinder, easier way to extract those finds. Thanks for the vids! That saved me some time trying to figure it out on my own. Now I can spend more time learning the ATP.