Pics from first hunt on old homesite today

[ccclontz]

We went today to a 1 acre lot which the house has been destoyed & moved. It was an old brick ranch I am guessing from 1960's. We found in the driveway 3 dimes, one nickel, and old pennies for a grand total of .67. It is only 2.5 miles from my house so it will not cost much to drive over there. We found a heart pendant approx 1.5 inches that says I love you. I thought it was a dog tag at first but now I think its a pendant, not sure if it is gold or not. Also found a vintage Stanley Home Products aluminum coaster from 60's and a bell that I think is brass. Lots of bottle caps. We had the silver umax between 2 & 5 & sometimes on foil or nickel. We found all the money in the gravel driveway. We will be going back to walk all over the back yard and all around the foundation of the former house. We also got permission to go to another lot that they have moved off the house for a shopping center. The man I talked to told me most of the lot has been scrapped the top 2 feet except for one area where there is some concrete piled up, he says it hasnt been disturbed. I have one more place that the house has been burned down. It ws an old frame house, has lots of huge trees around it. I am checking with the owner who owns 13 acres around the former house. He is my daughters neighbor so he probably will let me hunt. Anyhow, we are trying learn how to treasure hunt and know we have alot to learn. I plan to go soon to a city park that used to be a swimming pool in the 1920's called Lake Tonnwandah. They drained it many years ago. I am sure all the metal detector owners in my area have probably checked it but you never know what treasures might be there! My aunt is 95, she owns 40 acres of tobacco fields & barns & an OLD house. I plan to check with her too. She is 100 miles away though.

Does anyone have any tips for us as far as the settings on the silver umax for these old homeplaces?

 

[tvr]

Sounds like you are off to a terrific start!

Run the sensitivity as high as you can and keep it stable (not chirping). Keep the discrimination low, just knock out small nails with the discriminator.

When you find a target, you can thumb the discriminator up gradually as you continue to sweep over a target until the detector just stops seeing the target (or maybe always sees the target). That can give you an idea of what conductivity range the target is. With practice you can get a pretty good idea of what a target might be. Remember to return the discriminator to a low setting before setting out in search of the next target.

If you can find where a clothes line might have been, search that area. Search areas that may have been paths from the house doors to the road, driveway, clothes line area, sheds, garden or other likely path or work and play area. Then spread out. If there were fence lines, hunt those areas.

Thanks for sharing the first hunt pictures!
Cheers,
tvr

 

[ccclontz]

What does that do for me running it on min discrimination? Does that mean it picks up everything & then you turn it up to try to see what kind of metal it is to see where it stops? And the sensitivity high-doesnt that mean how deep it picks up? When would I want it low? I have been keeping it around 2 most of the time so maybe I am missing stuff because of it. Seems like if high ( 10 ) would pick up more I would always leave it there but I'm sure there is a reason for 10 vs 1 ! We are so new at this , some practice is bound to help. This forum is really helping us while we are learning. All of your help is so much appreciated. Cathy

 

[dixiedigger57]

Cathy make you a "TEST GARDEN" in the back yard with known objects, far enough apart to not mask each other, and practice! see where something dicriminates out. you can bury at different depths similiar objects too. you can use a sand box, provided you dont have a cat problem, yuk, and bury objects quickly and on top or near eachother and just test it out.

remember to dig treasure, you gotta dig some trash. Monte says your own eyes are the best discriminators. on a lake, i dig it all! sand is easy and a piece of lead can mask a really good find. i never disc above iron, always right on it. gold is gone tooo easily on disc, so at the lake, jewelery abounds, dig it all. yea a lot of lead sinkers, but remember to remove for good all the junk, so a second trip will be easier.

you will learn the difference in sharp, crisp signals, coins and such, vs long drawn out sounds, iron and such. as well as the 'spit' sounds of small iron.

WHEN IN DOUBT...DIG!

 

[tvr]

What does that do for me running it on min discrimination? Does that mean it picks up everything & then you turn it up to try to see what kind of metal it is to see where it stops?

Basically yes. There is a lot of variation on response to type of metal based on size and to a certain extent shape. You will see pretty consistent stopping points for consistent targets such as coins. If they are deep coins, they may hit the stopping point with a little less discrimination than it the same coin were not deep. Thumbing the discriminator is one technique that can give you more information about the target that the detector has found. There is a lot of variation through out gold targets. Depending on size and shape, they can run anywhere from the iron range to the penny range. One of the guys who posts on the Fisher CZ forum found a huge gold ring that detected in the silver range. Most gold rings are in the foil, nickle, tab range. If you set the discriminator above foil you risk not finding some desirable targets; but you will also dig less trash. Settings are trade-offs.

Seems like if high ( 10 ) would pick up more I would always leave it there but I'm sure there is a reason for 10 vs 1 !

There are some difficult ground conditions or some areas where interference (like underground wires, cell towers or an electric fence) may cause you to turn the sensitivity down so it does not chirp with no target under the coil. Most of the Tesoro's I've used can be run with nearly maximum sensitivity in most places. One example of where that is not true is if you try to hunt over wet salt water beach sand. With the Silver