Hi all, Joe from MI just wondering if I could get some advice from some vetrans out there on hunting mainly grass,old found in woods,and house on 11 acres, the house dates back to 1835,used to be an inn next to a RR ghost town,people also used to tent in the yard,the foundation used to be a bunk house suppos (built in 1900) pretty big trees growing in the center but the inside of the foundation is totally loaded with trashy metal fecing,(etc)the lawn is loaded also underneath the grass,my quattro goes crazy almost constantly,I have been finding square nails(which reg high read on my md in all metal mode and bits of rust pieces,it's hard to tell which ones to dig there are so many,every hole I dig has at least one piece of thick broken glass,melted looking fragments and also dont know if it's natural or not,but black pieces of like a shale,not in every hole but a few,I have found a couple of rusty items that I have not id'd yet but it seems like I'm never going to find an old coin?I have hunted the site about 3 diff days,about 3-4 hours each day.I do understand to correctly hunt this site I could sec areas off little by little,and it should prob take a freaken year to comp hunt it.Any info would be greatly app.I am pretty new to the hobby and by the way I sift everything I dig out.?Is that ness? THANKS, JOE
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RE:TRASHY HISTORIC YARD/WOODS. H E L P !!!!!
- Thread starter DUCTMAN
- Start date
Golden
Member
Hello Joe. Some sites are just like that, full of trash and enough to send you and your detector bonkers. While reading your post, I remembered a WW2 plane crash site that I detected a couple of years ago. the crash occured in 1938, and the ground was strewn all over with melted pieces of aluminium and other metal rubbish. There were bits of air line hoses, fuel lines, nuts and bolts, and the ground was infested with melted bits of metal from the surface down to about 12 inches in depth. The site was also located on a fairly steep hill side, so balancing yourself and detecting properly was a bit fustrating to say the least.
Getting back to your site, it sounds like some of the typicaly trashy sites I've also had the pleasure of detecting! First of all, what are you running in? What is your sensitivity set to? Are you in trash mode? Are you using a smaller coil, like the 7.5 inch coil for the Quattro? I've found, if you hunt with some form of discriminationin really trashy ground, don't be mistaken, you will still get a transfer of signals from one target to another. You also may get falsing if the ground is mineralised or iron infested from building materials that have rusted in the ground over the years, or even a nulling over targets, as in ground like this, the Quattro is slower to re-set between targets as there's so much in close proximity to each other. I'm trying to visualise the type of ground your in, from what you've said, so please bear with me.
Pick a piece of ground that isn't so concentrated with rubbish, and change to All Metal Mode. This will help prevent all the falsing, and you won't get nulling over targets. The trick here is to firstly slow down your sweep speed greatly, just using slow deliberate movements, little sweeps. I would remove the first layer, say an inch or two in about a 4 by 4 foot square bit of ground, and just concentrate on that piece of ground for now. As you sweep over the ground, throw a relic down that you've already found, and listen to the signal. You'll find that with a very slow sweep speed, and listening for the signal, it will jump out at you differently from other signals. Do this as you go with a variety of relics, like any old coins you found, and bury a few of them just an inch or two, and sweep again, locating the targets. Your mind will then begin to determine the type of signals that wanting to listen for. Each site may present different types of relics, so try to use a few relics from this particular site, as the relics will have been changed in composition somewhat, and give signals that are conducive to that site, in the type of ground they were originally buried in. With a bit of practice, you start to pick up on what I mean about the signals you are listening for.
If you just concentrate on one small area, it won't seem so mind boggling. As you work the area, taking off a thin layer at a time, the ground becomes less infested, and you should be able to pick up a variety of targets as you go. But with the ground that you removed, there could be keepers in that too. So if you're willing to see it through, and determined to locate All targets, then you would go through that soil, by picking out what rubbish you can see with your hands, and then swiping the coil over that. Always mark the area you work in, however small it is, with perhaps wooden pegs or twigs, so you know what you've covered. You can get it down pat to the point you aren't hearing any targets at all, in the area you were working on.
I have a site which I'd been working on for months using this method. Like yours, the ground was full of rubbish like roofing nails which give a great signal, and the signal is almost identical to a silver shilling! By working small areas of the ground, taking layers off the top as I go, I retreived many relics this way. It's been well over a year now, and still, I will find something I missed. Another thing you can do is, put all the rubbish into a bucket and take it away with you when you leave. That way, you're not picking up the same rubbish you threw down somewhere. Be as organised and neat as possible. This might seem like a lot of work, and it can be. But if you're determined to hunt properly, these are just some of the tricks that will see you through.
To be honest Joe, I kind of envy your old site. You country is so much older than mind, and you might be surprised that some of the artifacts you find will pre-date 1835!
All the best with it. Golden
Getting back to your site, it sounds like some of the typicaly trashy sites I've also had the pleasure of detecting! First of all, what are you running in? What is your sensitivity set to? Are you in trash mode? Are you using a smaller coil, like the 7.5 inch coil for the Quattro? I've found, if you hunt with some form of discriminationin really trashy ground, don't be mistaken, you will still get a transfer of signals from one target to another. You also may get falsing if the ground is mineralised or iron infested from building materials that have rusted in the ground over the years, or even a nulling over targets, as in ground like this, the Quattro is slower to re-set between targets as there's so much in close proximity to each other. I'm trying to visualise the type of ground your in, from what you've said, so please bear with me.
Pick a piece of ground that isn't so concentrated with rubbish, and change to All Metal Mode. This will help prevent all the falsing, and you won't get nulling over targets. The trick here is to firstly slow down your sweep speed greatly, just using slow deliberate movements, little sweeps. I would remove the first layer, say an inch or two in about a 4 by 4 foot square bit of ground, and just concentrate on that piece of ground for now. As you sweep over the ground, throw a relic down that you've already found, and listen to the signal. You'll find that with a very slow sweep speed, and listening for the signal, it will jump out at you differently from other signals. Do this as you go with a variety of relics, like any old coins you found, and bury a few of them just an inch or two, and sweep again, locating the targets. Your mind will then begin to determine the type of signals that wanting to listen for. Each site may present different types of relics, so try to use a few relics from this particular site, as the relics will have been changed in composition somewhat, and give signals that are conducive to that site, in the type of ground they were originally buried in. With a bit of practice, you start to pick up on what I mean about the signals you are listening for.
If you just concentrate on one small area, it won't seem so mind boggling. As you work the area, taking off a thin layer at a time, the ground becomes less infested, and you should be able to pick up a variety of targets as you go. But with the ground that you removed, there could be keepers in that too. So if you're willing to see it through, and determined to locate All targets, then you would go through that soil, by picking out what rubbish you can see with your hands, and then swiping the coil over that. Always mark the area you work in, however small it is, with perhaps wooden pegs or twigs, so you know what you've covered. You can get it down pat to the point you aren't hearing any targets at all, in the area you were working on.
I have a site which I'd been working on for months using this method. Like yours, the ground was full of rubbish like roofing nails which give a great signal, and the signal is almost identical to a silver shilling! By working small areas of the ground, taking layers off the top as I go, I retreived many relics this way. It's been well over a year now, and still, I will find something I missed. Another thing you can do is, put all the rubbish into a bucket and take it away with you when you leave. That way, you're not picking up the same rubbish you threw down somewhere. Be as organised and neat as possible. This might seem like a lot of work, and it can be. But if you're determined to hunt properly, these are just some of the tricks that will see you through.
To be honest Joe, I kind of envy your old site. You country is so much older than mind, and you might be surprised that some of the artifacts you find will pre-date 1835!
All the best with it. Golden
Hi golden, I do always hunt in all metal, and use no discrimination, I figure I can hear and see the numbers why take a chance of missing somthing, as far as a 4 by 4 area that would cover everything but it would take 5 years to hunt that site, I think I'm to anxious to find somthing I have covered the site numerous times, I did take the time before I left yesterday to cut alot of the brush away in one side of an old foundation, then today I raked it and picked out the visible garbage, did find a couple of cool old bottles, to this day I have not found 1 old coin and have put in about 15-20 hours in, I do sift every scoop I shovel that may be a wast of time? the owner by just digging around a cistern found 3 old pennies and one was an indian head 1902, I am very frustrated with this site, I only was digging targets that hit a 35-38 too but I keep finding weird junk, I dont know why I keep going back. Do you really find old coins by your sectioning method? you must cover very little ground in one hunt. Thank you for your reply, JOE
Golden
Member
Hello Joe, by working the ground in very trashy areas, using the method I do, is probably as efficient as you can get. I tend to be particular when relic hunting, and I can easily stay all day working on a piece of ground that I believe contains relics. But yep, you have to put in the hard mile, so to speak, if you really want all the treasure the ground has to offer. It does take me a while to hunt on certain sites, and some of my sites I've ben working on for over a year. Is it possible to post a few photos of the site you're talking about? It might give us some idea on where it might be productive to start with. It's a bit difficult to advise you without having actually seen the site. But a few tricks I've learned when looking for relics is: work the ground downhill from where the homestead sat, as many relics would have washed down from there over the years, and buried into a hillside, and may not be very deep at all, say up to 12 inches, as the ground always shifts. The concentration of rubbish won't be as bad, and the locating of targets therefore, much easier to find. Also, try detecting around very old trees away from the site, as often rubbish was thrown at the base of a tree, which has now grown over a potential privy, long drop, etc! There may be scattered relics around the tree. Children that climbed and hung upside down from these trees will have dropped coins or other relics from their pockets. Even maybe lost a few metal buttons from their clothing.
The idea of working a potential site bit by bit, so it doesn't firstly become mind boggling, secondly so it's gridded properly, thirdly, you don't miss too many relics this way. I've posted a few pictures of one of my favorite detecting sites that I've been going back to over the years. It's smack in the middle of dense bushland. It's a gold mining site, that used to contain a few miner's cottages scattered around. These cottages have long gone, but there are a refuse of rusted metals strewn all over, and it the ground. Yet I've found some very interesting relics here, including a few old bottles, both broken and intact.
Golden
The idea of working a potential site bit by bit, so it doesn't firstly become mind boggling, secondly so it's gridded properly, thirdly, you don't miss too many relics this way. I've posted a few pictures of one of my favorite detecting sites that I've been going back to over the years. It's smack in the middle of dense bushland. It's a gold mining site, that used to contain a few miner's cottages scattered around. These cottages have long gone, but there are a refuse of rusted metals strewn all over, and it the ground. Yet I've found some very interesting relics here, including a few old bottles, both broken and intact.
Golden
Thanks for your input Golden, I will try to take some pics of the site. Was out there today the homeowner found another penny 1863 indian head and he has no DETECTOR!!!!! he keeps digging around and old cistern, I was able to borrow the coin to see and hear what my detector read on it, a 34 that will help in my hunting, I put another 4 hours in the site NOTHING!!!!, every single spot I dug had bits of brick, broken glass and rusty metal fragments, and this is their yard, I'm not giving up or should I?????.Again thanks golden!. JOE
Golden
Member
Hello Joe. After reading your post, I burst out laughing. Nothing worse than having all the right equipment, and somebody just plucks out a relic or coin with their fingers! Not very encouraging to say the least! But no, I definitely wouldn't give up on the site. The fact the guy found an 1863 coin tells me there's more to be found. Trust your instinct, and keep working on it. Stuff is definitely there, buried, however deep I don't know, but it's there. Have a really good look at those photos above that I posted. Would you say it's easy ground to work in. I can tell you it's not. That's the kind of stuff I'm used to detecting in. The ground is very hard, compact, and then you have all the foliage on top. On top of that, there's a huge amount of rusty metal rubbish hidden through the ground. But working it patch by patch, clearing off the layers of dirt certainly helps. I've camped in places like this, just to stay put and work on an area for a couple of days. And the worse time to detect is after a rain, because the leeches come out. A real pain when they get under your clothing! I've lost count how many I've pulled off me!
Looking forward to your photos Joe.
Golden
Looking forward to your photos Joe.
Golden
beachguy777
New member
Ductman, are you using any discrimination at all or are you going in all metal? I'd say, unless your going for relics or square nails, try setting the discrim to notch out the iron or maybe go in the coin mode if that's what your looking for. Just pay attention to the numbers your getting and if your looking for gold, you might as well look at anything from 7 or 8 on up to 38 or 39. I'd kill to be able to hunt that site your talking about so just be patient, and maybe grid it out if you have to. Sounds like a killer site to detect, but if your having that much trash, discriminate some of it out of the detector. Marc.
beachguy777
New member
Holy Mackerel, Ductman, you've got me panting about that site. I can hear your frustration, but if the owner is finding stuff around the cistern without a metal detector, for God's sake take the Quatro to that spot and start looking. It almost sounds like your having one of those insane hunting episodes, where nothing makes sense, but I'd try and stay with it if you can and listen to what Golden is telling you about thinking where people might have lost stuff. The trees are a good spot and maybe a drive way where people might have got out of their cars and dropped something. Just use the old noggin and keep hunting, and make sure you keep ground balancing your detector, and keep the sensitivity in a workable mode. Make sure all your settings make sense. Let us know what happens. This is an exciting spot you've got. Marc.
beachguy777
New member
I forgot about those darn leaches. Boy, I should never complain again about hunting a site, as long as I don't have leaches. I guess it's all relative to something. Marc.
Golden
Member
Yep. Leeches. They're black, long like a worm, and suck the blood from you once they latch on. They look for a heat source, and as soon as they detect it, hop on. Leeeches also come in vibrant colours bright blue and green. But these ones usually stay hidden in logs, the dirt in the side of a cliff, etc. But the black ones suck your blood untill they are full and bloated, then drop off. The other way to get them off if your can't pull them off, is to sprinkle some salt onto them, that is if you have any salt with you at the time! Me and leeches go way back, kind of use to them now. but I'll never get use to the sight of Alpine Wolf spiders rolling out of the dirt onto my shoes when digging for old bottles!
Golden
Golden
John (Australia)
Member
Joe you haven't made mention of what sensitivity setting you are using. Don't be put off by the thought of loosing depth with lower settings, experiment a bit and go low, 6 still gives good depth and I even run as low as 3 in some of the parks I detect in.
John
John
backslyder
New member
Ductman, I know it's probably too late to even respond on your post here, but I re-read most of the responses, and boy can I ever feel for you. Bro--- I know what you mean when you ask the question: Is it still worth it? But,,,,from what you described, it sure sounds like maybe you ought to stay with this site, especially when the owner picks up an old coin without even using a detector. I know that would sure "tick me off", but I'd consider listening to Golden on her grid method and such. I know it's major work, but it sounds like this might be a hidden treasure trove. Just my opinion here, but I know Golden is a monster, driven detectorist, and she won't take no for an answer unless it really looks like a no. I'm curios as heck to know if you've stayed with this "bad boy site", and if you've gotten any more luck with it. Marc Trainor.