Need some ideas on strategy...

[kybowhunter]

Here in my local town we have a fairgrounds that pre-dates the civil-war - there's another guy who has detected this site for over 20 years and has dug hundreds of old coins out of there - the only thing i've managed to find is some recent clad and oldest being a wheatie - I know there has to be some older silver still hiding in the ground there somewhere.

The area is trashy and I've been hunting with the 5 -25 setting - any ideas on how I can better detect this site to dig out a few silvers?

 

[Ray(Ca)]

Hi

I'm assuming your using the stock 8 in coil on your C$. If you are then you may want to try using the smaller 5.5 coil to get around the trash a little better. You may want to slow down a bit too and dig a few more of the deeper iffy signals just to get a feel on this place. With the smaller coil you may be able to run higher threshold and sens. Just my 2cts worth.

Ray(Ca)

 

[Mike Hillis]

Ground balance will have a major affect on the deeper targets.

1. Don't use Track if you are looking for really deep coins. It has been my experience that using the Track feature will kill the really deep stuff that isn't coming through the threshold very strongly. Don't get me wrong, Track works fine for most applications but not if you are specifically looking for deep coins.

2. Find a place where you can ground balance at a higher setting than what you plan to hunt with. Its hard but I've found it to work much better this way than trying to set the GB by puting it on Track and sweeping around for a few minutes and trusting that to set your balance if you are looking for deeper targets. Track sweeping works ok for average depth in trash but not if you are trying to get beyond it. Try to ground balance at 2-3 sesnsitivity settings higher than what you are planing to hunt with.

3. Confirm you GB. Man, that makes a difference. I've only recently been doing this with the CS and that alone made a difference in my depth reach. That and turning Tracking off.

4. In trash you can lower your sensitivity and boost your threshold and get better target seperation. 525 is a good place to start but you will be suprised at a what a 315 or a 200 will do in trash.

5. Turn Averaging on to give a more stable number and sweep slower.

Remember that guys been hunting the site 20 years. I bet the easy stuff is long gone and the rest is going to be masked or deep.

Good luck.

 

[Tony (NC)]

This is not technical in nature but something that has proven itself over and over for me. I have found in places like this it is good to hunt the "less obvious" places. I would go around the perimeter of the place and into the corners. Sometimes we just naturally or even subconsciously "migrate" to the center of a field, or we tend to stop at natural "boundries". For instance if the site has adjacent woods, most people will stop at the edge and not go in the woods. If there is a fence, the tendency is not to cross it. By hunting the less obvious places you may be pleasantly suprised. Be sure to clean out those corners, good luck and keep us posted on the progress.

 

[Jackpine Savage]

Thoughts to the contrary with what has already been posted! Now don't throw rocks at me you guys!

Hitting the fringe areas is a very good idea. Those edges Tony mentioned many times hold missed goodies!

OK, here's my "contrary" thought to conventional wisdom on finding deeper older silver in modern trash with the C$. Crank it UP! run at least 810, notch foil and sweep at a comfortable moderate pace. Investigate every single tab/zinc tone by resweeping to see if it can be made to climb at least into IH range, if it does..DIGIT! You will get all the aluminum screwcaps but you will get coins too.

HH
Tom

 

[kybowhunter]

Hey guys - I appreciate all the ideas - and since this place is only a couple of miles from home I'll test out all the ideas and try to see which one works best for this place.

thx again!

 

[Jackpine Savage]

Detect on a line diagonal to the boundaries of the area. It is a tendency for some to walk and detect parallel to a fence line, sidewalk, building or other boundary of a confined space. By hunting diagonally across an area you may pick up som coins that have been masked from other directions.

Tom