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Observations after years of detecting
- Thread starter Daugela
- Start date
I use a Safari as my main detector even though I have the money to buy the best or most expensive.There is not not one thing wrong with the AT's very good detector for the money and a much better detector for gold.I started hunting in Mid-70's and remember complaining about how bad hunting was getting when you could not at least get 2 dollars in silver.I got to relive the 70's this year found a girl scout camp that was closed down in 1950"s pulled over 30 dollars in silver nothing old what a blast the deepest coin was 6 inches.
M_d_in_guy
New member
Three years ago when I bought a Discovery 1100 I was really pumped getting into dectecting. That new energy was short lived, a combination of rookie status and a sort of dig everything machine. The first three times out it was 1 penny and loads of tabs and tops. I shelved it for almost a year thinking this is not for me. Blew off the dust the next year and tried again with very similar results. It was tough to discern what too and what not too dig. I sold a lot and had some money coming in a couple of months so started to research a new one. The ATG seemed to fit the bill. 2 summers now on it and having logged more then 3000 hours on it and I am still learning it, I get on average 15 days a month detecting. Mudpuppy is right when he stated in a thread about digging a 1000 tabs and a 1000 pennies. Mind you my best finds so far are the penny range with small silver coins and old coppers, I never refuse to dig a penny tone! To date probably 40 bucks plus in pennies dug. After all there was a Canadian penny that sold for over 300,000, so why not dig the pennies eh, lol.
I have played with the settings over and over and still come back to disc1, iron 28 or 30, full sens and good audible threshold, and 4 points down on the auto gb, maybe I'm missing something here on the settings but the tone id works great with these settings. A friend of mine has an excaliber and he asked me to swing over a target, I agreed yeah it needs to be dug. It was about 11 inches and was a 1859 canada large cent. It showed up in high 70 to low 80 on the ATG.
Overall with still being a bit of rookie status I find its the mating of the user and the machine, that will determine ones success in detecting. Cheers ev1.
Jon
I have played with the settings over and over and still come back to disc1, iron 28 or 30, full sens and good audible threshold, and 4 points down on the auto gb, maybe I'm missing something here on the settings but the tone id works great with these settings. A friend of mine has an excaliber and he asked me to swing over a target, I agreed yeah it needs to be dug. It was about 11 inches and was a 1859 canada large cent. It showed up in high 70 to low 80 on the ATG.
Overall with still being a bit of rookie status I find its the mating of the user and the machine, that will determine ones success in detecting. Cheers ev1.
Jon
Fun thread! 
Thats a hell of a park you got there Southwind! Looks like you got the right gear for that location and hit it often enough that you have it figured out.
Now that we all are proficient with our chosen gear, what else have you observed?
One thing I see is that humans are like any other animal when it comes to structure or travel patterns...Structure holds fish and animals, if you put one lone haybale out in a field, every fox or coyote going past will come on over to it..or if you sink a christmas tree in a lake, fish will hold to that structure...Humans seem to also be drawn to structure too, one lone log out on a beach, a lone tree out in a field, or a pavilion in a park, people go to the structure and hold there for a spell...people also take the path of least resistance traveling through the woods, crossing a river, or cutting through a neighborhood, jumping a fence, (at the corners) or when they get out of school and head to the nearest swimming hole or convenience store..a fellow can google earth a town and sort of figure out where the heavy travel patterns are or may have been in the past solely based upon the topography, streams, schools, parks etc....yes, I find myself looking at every spot like a trapper would, and the detector tells us if we read the signs right. The satellite view is a good tool to help us find those drop zones and plan a hunt to a town we have never been to..
Mud
Thats a hell of a park you got there Southwind! Looks like you got the right gear for that location and hit it often enough that you have it figured out.Now that we all are proficient with our chosen gear, what else have you observed?
One thing I see is that humans are like any other animal when it comes to structure or travel patterns...Structure holds fish and animals, if you put one lone haybale out in a field, every fox or coyote going past will come on over to it..or if you sink a christmas tree in a lake, fish will hold to that structure...Humans seem to also be drawn to structure too, one lone log out on a beach, a lone tree out in a field, or a pavilion in a park, people go to the structure and hold there for a spell...people also take the path of least resistance traveling through the woods, crossing a river, or cutting through a neighborhood, jumping a fence, (at the corners) or when they get out of school and head to the nearest swimming hole or convenience store..a fellow can google earth a town and sort of figure out where the heavy travel patterns are or may have been in the past solely based upon the topography, streams, schools, parks etc....yes, I find myself looking at every spot like a trapper would, and the detector tells us if we read the signs right. The satellite view is a good tool to help us find those drop zones and plan a hunt to a town we have never been to..
Mud
William-NM
New member
I agree, Mud. Learning to "read" the land and identify the patterns of human activity is a fun challenge, both at the site and by using some of the cool information tools that we have at our disposal nowdays . I use my tablet a lot for that - in addition to Google Earth, I use a program called 'Backwoods Navigator' which I like a lot because you can switch between numerous map sources, both imagery (USGS, USTopo Aerial, OpenAerial, etc.) and Topos (Accuterra, CalTopo, USTopo, ARCGIS, etc.) and layer them. Your marked waypoints show up across all of them, so it can be an interesting way to research a site.
When I head for the university library, the tab comes with and I mark potential sites in the program and take notes in a little free program called 'NoteSync' that automatically synchronizes them between the tablet, Google Docs, and my Home computer (in both directions). Different maps have different historical features marked (like some of the old trails in this area). Just another fun part of the hobby, and a great way to spend a wintery day, especially if you enjoy local history.
When I head for the university library, the tab comes with and I mark potential sites in the program and take notes in a little free program called 'NoteSync' that automatically synchronizes them between the tablet, Google Docs, and my Home computer (in both directions). Different maps have different historical features marked (like some of the old trails in this area). Just another fun part of the hobby, and a great way to spend a wintery day, especially if you enjoy local history.
Leslie(nova scotia)
Well-known member
n/t
Low-Boy/LCPM
Active member
The main thing with any detector is that it tells you something is in the ground. It sees iron and a good target. So no mater how fancy a detector is if it doesn't see what is in the ground and you pass over it then what use is it. I had the whites V3 and to be honest nice design nice way to program it but it always acted up and was hard to tame. I like the G2 and the At Gold
Yup. The first thing to do is learn to listen to your detector, read the screen, change directions, and dig. I'm adding a pair of branch snippers to my toolset, roots, branches and thorns are a pain in the.... 
Besides the recent Roman coin I plucked from the ground, my favourite field (over 50 coins found so far, not digging the iron targets) has yet to yield any further coin finds. I've hit the same field, with the Ace 250 in all-mode, going up and down, diagonally, wet and dry weather, and have only found nails, bent nails, pieces of tin cans and corona caps. I was still hoping on finding some iron or steel coins, but no luck so far. There is one good signal I started to dig, but ran out of time and energy after digging 50 centimetres into the rock solid ground... Next time, I'll bring some re-enforcements (better tools). There must be something good down there... I hope...
Besides the recent Roman coin I plucked from the ground, my favourite field (over 50 coins found so far, not digging the iron targets) has yet to yield any further coin finds. I've hit the same field, with the Ace 250 in all-mode, going up and down, diagonally, wet and dry weather, and have only found nails, bent nails, pieces of tin cans and corona caps. I was still hoping on finding some iron or steel coins, but no luck so far. There is one good signal I started to dig, but ran out of time and energy after digging 50 centimetres into the rock solid ground... Next time, I'll bring some re-enforcements (better tools). There must be something good down there... I hope...