lordmarcovan
New member
...or should I say, "a word to the NOT so wise", if you're anything like I was until Sunday's outing.
Yes, I know I am dumb sometimes, but silly me, I took the "Size A at two inches" (or at one inch) seriously for too long. I knew I should've taken that with a grain of salt, but lazy digger that I am, I bypassed those Size A's, not wanting to spend my time chasing BBs and tiny balls of foil through the grassroots, especially since my probe is still in the shop for fixin'.
In order to maximize my returns in the limited time I have on an outing, I often go for the "sure thing" and bypass anything likely to be trash or modern. I go after deeper coins and often leave the modern ones (and no doubt many goodies) in the ground, if the signals seem too loud or too big or too shallow. It loses me some finds, I fully realize, but it does save me some time, and I usually go home with a few older coins and relatively little in the way of trash. In other words, I usually stick to the Size B (coin-sized) targets that have a little depth to them.
I am a selective digger and a meter watcher. My relic hunting buddies would laugh at me, with good reason. But they go out to rural sites where you can dig everything. Not so on some of my urban coinshooting spots.
Anyway, back to the Size A thing. As I mentioned, I have been bypassing these signals for the most part, to save myself aggravation.
However, in Sunday's outing, I dug a few, to satisfy my curiosity.
The first "Size A at two inches" target was a 1948-D Wheat cent at four inches. (That's Size B, four inches).
The next "Size A at two inches" was a Mercury dime at five to six inches. (Again, both bigger and deeper than indicated: Size B, and more than two inches).
Word to the wise, if you are trusting your meter too much. I know you probably ARE wise, so word to the not-so wise, like me. I learned a lesson yesterday. A lesson I really should have already known. Take those meter readings with a healthy grain of salt- they're nice to have, and useful information, to be sure, but really the machine is just making an "educated guess", and depending on your angle of attack and how your coil sits on the ground, etc, the meter readings can vary widely.
I should have known, from my experience more than a decade ago, when I received a shallow "pulltab" reading at surface/one inch on my old GTA-500. I dug and sure enough, I found what at first looked like the tongue of an old pulltab from barely a half an inch deep, in the grassroots.
When I got it out of the plug, though, it was obviously NOT a pulltab.
Watch your meters if you like, but don't forget to "read between the lines", and remember that the meter is not infallible, folks! This is why some relic hunters I know use machines without them. They claim a meter is like a crutch, and that it makes you too lazy. There is some truth to what they say, but I like having a meter for coinshooting, nonetheless. I just need to learn to interpret its quirks a little bit better. Obviously, the ear is as important a tool as the eyes. I've had to learn the different sounds in addition to interpreting the meter. I envy some of the oldtimers who can interpret by sound alone- that is a valuable skill I never completely developed, being a meter watcher.
Yes, I know I am dumb sometimes, but silly me, I took the "Size A at two inches" (or at one inch) seriously for too long. I knew I should've taken that with a grain of salt, but lazy digger that I am, I bypassed those Size A's, not wanting to spend my time chasing BBs and tiny balls of foil through the grassroots, especially since my probe is still in the shop for fixin'.
In order to maximize my returns in the limited time I have on an outing, I often go for the "sure thing" and bypass anything likely to be trash or modern. I go after deeper coins and often leave the modern ones (and no doubt many goodies) in the ground, if the signals seem too loud or too big or too shallow. It loses me some finds, I fully realize, but it does save me some time, and I usually go home with a few older coins and relatively little in the way of trash. In other words, I usually stick to the Size B (coin-sized) targets that have a little depth to them.
I am a selective digger and a meter watcher. My relic hunting buddies would laugh at me, with good reason. But they go out to rural sites where you can dig everything. Not so on some of my urban coinshooting spots.
Anyway, back to the Size A thing. As I mentioned, I have been bypassing these signals for the most part, to save myself aggravation.
However, in Sunday's outing, I dug a few, to satisfy my curiosity.
The first "Size A at two inches" target was a 1948-D Wheat cent at four inches. (That's Size B, four inches).
The next "Size A at two inches" was a Mercury dime at five to six inches. (Again, both bigger and deeper than indicated: Size B, and more than two inches).
Word to the wise, if you are trusting your meter too much. I know you probably ARE wise, so word to the not-so wise, like me. I learned a lesson yesterday. A lesson I really should have already known. Take those meter readings with a healthy grain of salt- they're nice to have, and useful information, to be sure, but really the machine is just making an "educated guess", and depending on your angle of attack and how your coil sits on the ground, etc, the meter readings can vary widely.
I should have known, from my experience more than a decade ago, when I received a shallow "pulltab" reading at surface/one inch on my old GTA-500. I dug and sure enough, I found what at first looked like the tongue of an old pulltab from barely a half an inch deep, in the grassroots.
When I got it out of the plug, though, it was obviously NOT a pulltab.
Watch your meters if you like, but don't forget to "read between the lines", and remember that the meter is not infallible, folks! This is why some relic hunters I know use machines without them. They claim a meter is like a crutch, and that it makes you too lazy. There is some truth to what they say, but I like having a meter for coinshooting, nonetheless. I just need to learn to interpret its quirks a little bit better. Obviously, the ear is as important a tool as the eyes. I've had to learn the different sounds in addition to interpreting the meter. I envy some of the oldtimers who can interpret by sound alone- that is a valuable skill I never completely developed, being a meter watcher.
