New to Metal Detecting and Quattro

[brightstar4u]

Ricky and I just got the Quattro about 2 months ago and so far it has been a learning experience...the first few times out were disappointing to say the least and then I got the book by Andy Sabisch "Mastering the Quattro" made all the difference in the world...though we aren't the best yet...we are getting better each time we take the quattro out....just this week we were at a state park beach and another man came by with his White MD...told us the beach gets very much hunted over and probably wouldn't find much...one 14K gold wedding band...gold earring with 4 diamond chips...one sterling silver ring and almost 8 dollars in coins..not bad for a well hunted beach..and a small one at that!!! Could have had more but the sand was still frozen in spots...oh yes and a mercury dime and couple of wheat pennies too!!! Like I said we are still learning but it is fun!!! And reading all the reviews and questions here I think is a great help too...thanks for all the posts!!!

 

[brightstar4u]

Just a question or two also....when beach hunting with the quattro is it ok to go into the water, not like scuba diving..but at the water's edge and get the coil in the water...and also...does it detect gold jewelry well? I know it does silver....thanks for your help

 

[backslyder]

Boy, if your still "learning", I'd hate to have you on my beach once you get really experienced. Are you kidding!!!!! You found more in that one day than I've found in 2 years. I'd say your "getting the hang of it", for Pete's sake. I'm so glad to hear reports like you just gave about Andy's book. To me it's the most comprehensive book on the Quatro, maybe the only one, but the absolute Bible for the Quatro. Sounds like you really studied it well, by your finds. Keep in touch on the forum. I for one still love to read the posts, even though it's been slow lately. I like to hear what people are doing and finding with the Quatro. Marc.

 

[brightstar4u]

wow you mean you haven't found that much in 2 yrs? Say where are you looking? Seems so far the Quattro is doing best in the sand...we have hunted soil...and either there isn't much there or we are going way too fast...and I thought the Quattro was pretty good at recovery time....we have been hunting in the coin/jewelry mode mostly but we are planning on trying it on all metal mode once we search all the area in the coin/jewelry mode and see what all we did miss...trust me we have dug up our fair share of pop tabs too...thanks for the encouragement!!!! And that book truely did help alot and we need to read it more too...still don't quite get it all....

 

[backslyder]

How ya doin' brightstar4u? You can put the search coil and the shaft in the water all you want, but whatever you do: DON'T GET THE HOUSING TOO WET, OR LET IT SUBMERGE IN THE WATER.!!!!!!. I've read past posts, and I think I even talked to the Minlab people one time about this. Apparently, the Quatro IS NOT, covered for water damage on the housing. There was a guy a year or so ago, who put together some housing to protect the Explorer from water. It looked amazing and I saw it on this forum, but I never persued it any more. I don't know if he'd make one for you or not, but you might want to look at the "archieves" to try and find it. I've heard that the Quatro has a hard time picking up very thin gold chains, but I'm not sure about that, so you might want to read some of the "archieve" posts, but it'll definitly find any metal as long as it's a reasonable size. I was able to read small nuggets but if it's really tiny, you have to be pretty close to it. Just remember gold can come in at different numeric readings, depending on the type of gold, so be ware of that. I've read gold at 7 and also at 19, depending on the type of gold. Also, as a parting thing on the water damage possibility. Be careful, not to hunt in water, and then sling the detector over your shoulder, BEFORE, the water drains out of the shaft, or it might just drain "DOWN', the shaft right into the detector housing. Marc.

 

[Ratman]

Sounds like your off to a great start with the finds that you made with your Quattro . Now you know why the other detectorist tried to discourage you by saying you probably won't find much cause the area is heavily searched on a regular basis . He or she wanted all the goodies to them selves ! I have found sites and parks just like the spot your talking about and have had others tell me the same thing . With that said , I usually know it's a good spot with lots of activity , which means the area is constantly being replentished with lost coins , jewelry etc . No matter what someone tells you about how productive a site may be . It can pay off if you investigate yourself . You may find certain hot spots in your area that produce even more ! Good luck out there !!!!......

 

[brightstar4u]

Thanks for the tips...we went out again today to another lake/beach area and this time not as good only about ten pennies and a nickel, so I think that area was very well hunted..then we went to a youth camp and the directors told us of some old ruins on the property that we were welcome to go look over...was an old civil war hotel/spring area, but nothing - alot of hits but was mostly from the old tin roofing (the hotel itself had been torn down several yrs ago and the roofing was just left laying on the ground) alot of promising hits but then we could not really dig up anything so we left that area too a tad disappointed....but it was still a good day as we are still learning and please give us all the tips you can....happy hunting to ya'll too...

 

[Golden]

[quote brightstar4u]Thanks for the tips...we went out again today to another lake/beach area and this time not as good only about ten pennies and a nickel, so I think that area was very well hunted..then we went to a youth camp and the directors told us of some old ruins on the property that we were welcome to go look over...was an old civil war hotel/spring area, but nothing - alot of hits but was mostly from the old tin roofing (the hotel itself had been torn down several yrs ago and the roofing was just left laying on the ground) alot of promising hits but then we could not really dig up anything so we left that area too a tad disappointed....but it was still a good day as we are still learning and please give us all the tips you can....happy hunting to ya'll too...[/quote]


Hello Brightstar, if I were you, (or you were me!), I wouldn't give up on the site with the ruins yet. Work out where the front door of a building was, then grid the area and detect toward the building in a zig zag fashion and take your time. I did this with a few old sites, and picked up coins along the way, as if the prior occupants had over time dropped them on their way out the door! What you've got to mentally picture is where would the people have walked around the building. Is there a creek nearby? I've found relics by a creek or stream, obviously someone had bent over for a drink and dropped a few coins. I think you get the idea. People back then were no different to us today, they lost stuff, everywhere. Also, what rubbish you find, stackpile it to a corner so you don't come across it again next time you're out detecting the same site.
Golden
I envy your new site!

 

[backslyder]

Brightstar, there's a good reason, I haven't found that much in 2 years. I hardly go out any more, and right now my detector is in the Pawn Shop. I'll certainly get it back out, I just needed some extra cash, but, I know this "bad boy" will find darn near anything that's under the coil. I always talk about the penny I found at about a foot deep in damp sand at the beach. I've also found a lot of coins at the parks. It seems to work just as good in regular dirt as sand or even black mineralized sand, with salt water combined. I'm ashamed to say all that about not going out that much and the pawn shop thing, but it's true. Marc.

 

[jjwest]

Hey Brightstar, Don't give up on that ruins site. I tried some ruins when I first started metal detecting and was disappointed with only finding trash. I went back a year after acquiring a lot of experience in parks and easy places. Amazing, I was able to find coins, cartridges and other things that I was unable to do previously because of experience.

Take a look at the post I just put under "high density" for backslyder. It is about discrimination and sounds from the school of hard knocks, chatting with others here and the achieves.

 

[brightstar4u]

thanks for that encouragement on the ruins...I guess we just need more time under our belts before hitting a place like that...just that the quattro was making so many hits but all we dug up was the tin from the roof....but the beaches sure are fun..even the driveway has yielded up some coins....

 

[backslyder]

You know, depending on what your looking for, you might want to "notch" out the undesirable metals, maybe even up as far as 30 or so, if your just looking for coper and silver coins and maybe just open up 14-16 or so for nickels. I don't know what your hunting for, but that would certainly minimize the amount of hits you get, unless you have that pesky aluminum, that I have sometimes. We have a beach here in my town, where people throw their aluminum cans in bonfires, and they melt and it's like hitting a mine field of high pitched high number hits. I feel for you, but also, I'd take a second look a that site too, if I were you, and especially look for fence posts, or even hunt near the bases of trees, because that's likely where people might have buried something like coins in a mason jar or metal box in the past if it's that old. I read in one of Charles Garrett's books where he mentions these and any other place, that might be some kind of a marker that people might have used to reference a "loot" or "cash" burial of some kind. Makes sense to me, even though I haven't found one yet, I've read articles and seen pictures where other people have. Marc.

 

[brightstar4u]

thanks Marc that makes sense about the aluminum cans in fires and melting and so many hits near a fire....as for the old pre and post Civil War Hotel...we might go back then since alot of encouragement here and try again and also around the public spring house..there was one house that we didn't visit and I know that probably alot of people visited there as there were like 6 or 7 openings in the huge stone wall in front of the spring...again thanks for all the encouragement and we will probably head out again tomorrow and Saturday and do some local detecting ..

 

[brightstar4u]

Another beautiful day and so off we went to the lake...this lake at one time was "THE PLACE" but it no longer is open to the public but what great finds..alot of trash but in among the trash are quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies....this is also the sight of the high school class ring find...was our first ring we had found...now mind you this place has been reputed to be "hunted out" but today in a little over 3 hours or so...$3.32 and a few pull tabs that we weren't sure if they were nickels or not..but this is one of our favorite places to hunt as it has never disappointed us...happy hunting to you all too..hopefully this coming week we will be heading to the Outer Banks if the weather is ok...oh yes also went and hunted around a couple of older home sites and finally found 2 quarters (1976 and 1988 and and old baseball token that hit at a solid 40) ...till next time...

 

[backslyder]

Wow, what an exciting post! I love to hear about someone taking a Quatro, back to an already "hunted out" site, and still finding stuff. Good news, and that lake sounds interesting. Man that token hit the top of the number scale! I'm not sure if I've even had a 40 before. I've had a couple of 39 readings, that always gets my blood pumping, but it's great to hear your doing well with the Quatro. Keep sending those posts. I love to read em. Marc.

 

[brightstar4u]

yes that 40 number got our hearts pumping too and when we dug it up it was the size of a half dollar and boy I thought we had our first half dollar or silver dollar...but hey we will take that token any day..it does appear to be silver so I am not really sure exactly what it is or the date it might have been...but I am trying to research it some too....we will keep you posted...and like I said we will probably head down to Nags Head for the weekend....

 

[backslyder]

That's still pretty exciting, and I'm surprised at the size of it. I remember the old tokens we used as a kid for the bus used to be about the size of an old mercury dime. Keep us posted and good luck on your "Nags Head" run. Marc.