Question About Detecting In The 50's, 60's, 70's, & 80's

[MarkCZ]

I made a detecting test swing stick, you know the ones with a target glued to the end of a cut short yard stick. (I actually made a set of them) but this one has two short sticks fixed to the end, one has an iron washer, the other has a copper penny. The two can put swung around to be inline with each other (one over the other).
Now this makes an interesting testing tool, with the discrimination set to well disc out the washer and the targets separated the penny always hits SOLID! but swing the washer over the penny and the two acts as one target, it hit the penny but if you watch the numbers it will be closer to a zinc reading. (and that's with all the detectors I have).

So, metal detectors will hit a good target directly under a bad target but it lowers or raises the numbers.
In my test the washer is pretty much the same size as the penny, not all rusty either, but pull tabs are not rusty either.

If the targets have some spread beside them then detectors with a faster recover speed will help get those, but recover speed doesn't help will targets somewhat stacked on top of each other.

Here in my park and back in the day when the tabs were surface trash most people I guess just "Cherry Picked" it and yes, even doing that they would hit a good number of the easier less hidden copper and silver coins.
That's why its impossible to completely work out an area like a 100 year old park the size of ours, it just has two much stuff, to hide to many things, to many things on the side,
to many huge trees with huge roots,
to many tabs to discourage many hunters.
Now, if you could scarp off 4" of dirt then hunt it, WoW the finds would be amazing I'm sure.

Mark

 

[WV62]

This is for around here anyway,
Along in the mid 80's detecting clubs were the big hit, from spring until fall on good days the people in these clubs swarmed the Parks, Court House lawns, and School Yards like bee's in a field of clover, on those REALLY great days they were like locus swarms!

And to add to that they ALL had their club hunts and Monthly meetings in the parks.
The parks around here have been Hunted heavy!! but most of the hunting was coin hunting, that means that they ignored pretty much everything below copper cents and screw caps.

So, in 1970 the beaver tail tabs were still pretty much surface junk in the park, my brother has been back in the park pretty heavy this year and he's been after gold, which means he is digging ALL the pull tabs, that's how I know the depth of the stuff in the park.
Those 1965-1975 surface tabs are now a nice thick blanket from 3" to 4.5" That dates that depth 1965 to 1975, well the park has been there sense the early 20's. That means as he clears out BAGS and BAGS of tabs he is starting to find more silver, and even an 1889 Indian penny and a 1918 Buffalo nickle and all closer to the 5" depth range, or to say below the Pull & Toss rings.

So, now if I'm hunting in a public place (an older place) I can judge the depth of things by the tabs. Now keep in mind that it is possible to find a 1964 dime dropped in 1968 and it be in the pull tab bed. But a well detailed 1936 coin dropped near 1936 will almost for sure be below the tabs, unless,
The area has been dug up,
Near large tree roots where the roots has raised the soil,
ect..
So, I'm talking about normal circumstances, a coin dropped in 1925 will for sure be below a tabs that was dropped over it in 1965 and my brother is confirming that about every time he hunts the park.
Those coin hunters of old left a Lot Of Nickles and Tabs and in doing that there HAS to be some gold as well, but now unlike then the tabs has to be gone through and now they 4" deep give or take a little.

Mark

Retired park hunting Ron here.

Just to add to what my brother was saying about my park hunting. First I have been hunting the park pretty regular since I retired in 2010 with very little success until this year. Kind what started my little success, I got a Tesoro Tejon and was said to be pretty good on gold. So I picked a section of the and started working at low disc digging all good repeatable signals. I dug more than my share of junk and some clad coins and then I hit the gold ring. So thinking I am on to something I am still trying to complete that same area I started.

I was having some trouble getting a good handle on my F75 so I put the Tejon aside and was working the same area with the small coil with my F75 and was digging everything just the same as the with the Tejon. That's when I started pulling some older coins out that area, but not the silver.

Now for the silver I started working a hill section of the same park that is not as trashy but has plenty. Now the key for me getting the silver out of here is having a detector that does not loose dept with higher disc settings. I have been running it max disc with the 11"DD coil and digging all repeatable signals. Surprise to me I started getting wheat pennies and some silver just about every trip to the park. Now for this area the older coins is running right around 6 to 7". Went back just today and it is very dry and the got several clad coins up to about 5" and only got one wheat penny at 6 1/2", no silver today.

Now for which detectors that do not loose depth with high disc, I don't know, but out of the ones I own and have owned the Fisher 75Ltd, Fisher CZ-3D and the Fisher 1270 do not loose depth at high disc settings.

Ron in WV

 

[Critterhunter]

Are you unmasking many of these older coins that didn't even give an iffy coin signal? Also, are you digging coins that didn't appear to be masked but for some reason didn't give a coin signal...Due to minerals, orientation in the ground, being worn, degraded from sitting in the soil all those years, and so on? I've dug my share of coins that for some odd reason didn't read like a coin, or gave really bad screwcap like signals for one reason or another.

 

[WV62]

Are you unmasking many of these older coins that didn't even give an iffy coin signal? Also, are you digging coins that didn't appear to be masked but for some reason didn't give a coin signal...Due to minerals, orientation in the ground, being worn, degraded from sitting in the soil all those years, and so on? I've dug my share of coins that for some odd reason didn't read like a coin, or gave really bad screw-cap like signals for one reason or another.

Critterhunter, me to,

I am not unmasking anything yet, and so far all I am digging is repeatable coin signals. Now I have dug some of the signals and not all were coins, a lot of screw caps but for the most part they are not as deep and the signal will be a lot stronger. The coins are a little on the mellow or softer side on my F75.

But for the most part I would say what I am doing is cherry picking what the older machines couldn't get and some of the newer ones. Even some of the machines like the good old Fisher 1266x and the 1265x, these were and still are good deep machines. But when you turn up the disc the depth goes down, so for those machines to do what I am doing they would need run a lot lower disc. So again the key is finding a good deep machine that does not loose depth as the disc is turned up.

Now once I kind of get this spot cherry picked I am thinking of going back and see if I can unmask some more of the silver. I can tell that I am not the only person hunting this are but they are not getting a lot I am still finding clad coins. Yesterday I got a signal that was pretty close to the surface so I cut a plug and as I did I could see another half plug in with mine, and there was a dime in mine that the other guy couldn't find. I ended up finding 18 newer coins most were from 3 to 5 inches so they were not new drops, the other hunters are just not getting much. Maybe someday I will run into them see what is going on.

My brothers MarkCZ and Greg was with me when I did a little silver blasting with my 1270. We met at an old house and I was late so they had a head start. I started off with my 1266x and wasn't doning much so I got out the 1270 cranked up the disc and right off I started getting wheat pennies and by the end of the day I had 2 silver dimes. Now it was a total blowout Mark did come up with an indian head penny.

I see you have some pretty nice machines, you may want to check or test and see which ones do and don't loose depth with the higher disc settings.

Ron in WV

 

[Critterhunter]

I don't use any discrimination on machines with VDI or tone alerts. I like my eyes and ears to be what discriminates. The only machines I ever turned up the discrimination on were ones (such as Tesoros) that lacked tone alerts or a VDI so I wouldn't be digging junk. And of course that meant loss of depth and unmasking ability. Some people find those kinds of machines fun, and are happy to just dig anything metal and see what pops up. I don't care for hunting blind like that myself, but to each his own.

 

[targets]

my buddy still uses a Compass 77B from the 70s and compared with my deus on a foreshore with blacksand it does very well on discrim .he was winkling coins from nail clusters better than me .plenty of 77B machines still in use by the thames foreshore hunters even to this day

 

[fowlercharles]

Hi Mudpuppy, I feel that a noob's style and success today will depend mostly on what his/her location /opportunities are,and what they will be happy with to "satisfy" their expectations of the hobby.Monetary gain leads in one direction, Historical interest in another, and so on and it goes.Eventually we all pretty much for whatever need or necessity, settle into our particular "niche"with our detecting. When I started in 69, I had little idea of what was "out there" and my opportunities/locations were pretty much as they are today,except that most of those locations have now been either fenced and gated, or "legislated"off limites in one way or another.So while I could, I gleaned what I could with what technology and little research abilities I had. In time I realized that I would have gleaned more, had I been more knowledgeble and persistant about Research. I spent years walking the backwoods and roads(alone) just looking for"sign" of habitation.My library was limited and those days were pre, internet, I had always been bored stupid with "History", and that did prove to be stupid on my part. No matter what your "niche"becomes, your enjoyment and success will increase with the more effort that is put into your research. I continue to realize(and prove) that the older "stuff"is still "out there", but you have to unlock it's whereabouts. That's not so easy, nor is it always successful once you have done some unlocking research.There are many more actual locked gates now than before. It is all worth it though even if all your digging day produces is some p.o.s. and sunburn. Count it a great day, and an even Greater Day if it was spent with some of your Diggin Buddies! They are the Greatest Treasures I have found ! HH, Charlie

 

[Mike Hillis]

I'm a relative new comer to the addiction er, I mean, hobby, not yet ten years into it and I find reading these posts very interesting and informative. You guys really flesh out my imagination of what it must have been like in the early days.

HH
Mike