Study on FIND RATE, not Lost Rate

[WaterWalker]

Although IF the Loss Rate (See KinTN's posting) in specific areas were known our chances of finding targets could be increased IF we choose the location with a higher Loss Rate; information that might just have too many variables to be calculated by 99.99% of us. Lets call in the Scorpion team for advice here.

What I do is to calculate my Find Rate with the use of a spreadsheet. Two snippings are shown here. I have been tracking this data for some 15 years. I have not put the data from all years into one table...something I may work on later.

I started with only keeping track of my hours detecting so I knew when to recharge the batteries. Then I added locations I went to, miles driven, days detected, and only the number of gold and silver rings found. I later added the number of days per month, chains, platinum rings and the day's number in the year and the number of days left in the year.

If anyone would like a copy of my spreadsheet, PM me with your e-mail address and I will send you a blank file (.xls templet) for your use. It is simple to use and only takes about a minute after each hunt to fill in. The items I fill in manually are: Date, Location, number of rings found by metal, hours detecting by detector used and miles driven. I also add when a detector's batteries were charged after I have charged them. All these fields are not shown in the snippings. All the colored fields and Month Total fields shown are calculated from the info I input. The exceptions are platinum rings, and chain found, diamonds, ring returned, and gifts if received must also be entered manually.

 

[mudpuppy]

I wish the Find rate was linear or at least forecastably structured to hours spent, effort expended, or ground covered....seems a guy hits it all at once in a few week span with lots of dead air in between!
Mud

 

[WaterWalker]

n/t

 

[WaterWalker]

FYI - some of my averages over 14 years that I have kept records:

Detecting days per year: 107
Detecting hours per year: 359
Detecting hours per ring: 3
Miles drive per year: 10,204 - does not count miles others have drive me to a hunt.
Rings found per year: 98
Diamonds found per year: 48 (multiple diamonds on some rings)

I average 3 hours in the water per detecting day. Some mid-winter hunts last only an hour or less while some summer hunts last 7 or 8 hours.

The MOST:
days detected in one year: 151
miles driven in one year: 19,610
hours in a year: 465
rings in a year: 141
diamonds in a year: 111

AND I know others that are more excessive compulsive detectorists than I am. I'm just tired thinking about it...
Blue sky, 55 degrees (air temp) 42 (water temp) and I am off for another hunt...I have to keep may averages going in the right direction.

 

[mudpuppy]

How many grams of gold does your average year bring in? Silver? you biggest year. etc?
Your miles walked per year I bet are astounding...one July I kept track of that...I figured 100 miles walking barefoot while detecting the beaches just in July..then I gave up keeping track 'cause the finds made it too depressing to think about!

Seems some fellows consistently get on it....what is intriguing are the dirt gold hunters that do it consistently...there is a pattern to success if a guy reads enough posts/books/advice and applies those lessons.....I know early Spring and early Fall on into November are good to me...Summer not so much, Winter either...
Mud

 

[WaterWalker]

Now you have me thinking...I need more calculations.
I have not kept track of grams, though one necklace of 10K weighed in at 3/4 of a POUND. It was too heavy to wear.
Best ring year: 2002 followed by 2000 and 2001
Best diamond year:2010
How many miles in the water???? Do pedometers work underwater? Too many miles and waders for sure.
Number of waders, that I can remember: 8 average of 700 hours of use per pair.

It will take too much time to figure out BEST and WORST time of the year to detect "in the water" I will not even think about separating salt from fresh water. I'll post when I get the results. No more time or I will miss today's tide.

Being a WaterWalker, I can not speak for the dirt diggers and their great finds.

It did take me 30 years to find my first AND second silver dollars - two in one year.
Best single coin from the water (salt): 8 reals

 

[mudpuppy]

Yeah, you get out and get into it today! Great stuff to think about here WW..
Mud

 

[Dancer]

I am such a infant at water hunting. But not so in the mud. Let me ask your opinion on this. Do you have a number of beaches that are your regular haunts? And what about your guess-a-ment of the age of rings your finding now. In the mud, I'm finding few (fresh) rings. Vast majority been lost for awhile. What I find in dry sand, when I do, is usually fairly fresh. So how about say your favorite water's. Once you've hunted them out, do they seem to come back with changing conditions. I gotta tell ya about mud hunting. I went almost a whole summer without gold. After hunting a tot lot, went over to sit at a picnic table for a break. Just before I sat down, spotted a woman's diamond ring laying under it in plain sight. No id, no one around. 14K. Go figure.

 

[WaterWalker]

Back in '92 I started water hunting, the same two fresh water areas EVERY weekend, 90% of the time finding gold.
Fond memories, but today I might find one a year. In my second year doing the same two lakes, I spread out -FAST! Now I have over 600 beaches in my GPS withing a 200 mile radius. Most fresh water is "hunted out" meaning that it is no longer usual to find a good target that has been there more than a month or so, or at least since the last detectorist has been there. An "OLD" find is very rare, even with the deeper seeing detectors of today over those of 30 years ago.

Now the salt water is still a mystery to me. I have no explanation of how I found a 300+ year old coin, a turn of the century wedding band, or how I found a 1911 class ring, five rings in 30 minutes or better yet 4 rings in a minute (I never moved my feet, except to push on the scoop) in the waters of public beaches after years of detectorists hunting the areas.

As for favorite beach it is the one I am at. There are so many that have a special meaning to me whether it be the detectorist(s) I was with, the acts of nature, the flute player in a genie dress, the seal on the beach watching me, the emergency troops "coming to my rescue", being stopped for shell fishing, the tears when returning a ring, or a very memorable find. Detecting is fabulous in the fact that you never know what you might find on any given day. It might be just a conversation with an interesting person on the beach, a great find, or nothing at all (I try to forget those days).

BUT, then it is hard to remember each of the 5,400 hours of water detecting or the 143,000 miles I have traveled to go detecting...I do have a picture of more than 500 of the beaches I have detected, 150+ photos of items returned to their owner, a notebook full of "Thank You" notes...Saving all of them for when I can no longer go detecting. A time that I pray never happens.

 

[KinTN]

>150 Returns. wow.
i'm at 4.