This may be good!

[Ted S]

First of all I would like to wish everyone a safe and happy 4Th of July! Due to health problems I have only been out twice this year as I tire easily. But I am starting to get better and should be able to go out for an hour or two at a time. During the past couple of weeks our small town has been replacing sidewalks. It would have been nice to hunt the areas but they were pouring concrete as fast as they could! One thing I did notice that they were hauling excess dirt away. I talked with a city employee to get permission to hunt the dirt piles and he said go for it! I have over 30 years of research that I have done and my notes show that this dirt was removed from in front of an old opera house,a hotel,and a train station. So I plan on taking out the SE for a while. I am thinking of taking a garden rake to move dirt after I hunt it. The piles are not huge and they do have the concrete separated from the dirt. Any other tips on hunting this? Thanks!! Ted

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

I've done that before. I haven't found any local construction going on this year but previously have hunted many. I've followed the trucks and found where they where dumping the dirt and detected the piles. The biggest problem with piles is that you can only detect the top few inches, perhaps they will be smoothed out later.

Many of my oldest coins have come from construction sites.

Chris

 

[MNCoinhunter]

Some of my best finds have come from dirt that was hauled and dumped elsewhere .. Have fun !

 

[Ted S]

Well...I am back and found nothing! Then I spent some time in a small park with the same results. I did change sensitivity from 22 auto to 24 manual with no excess noise. Did do the ground cancel every time I made a change. Got some exercise I really needed too. The settings I have in it are Bryce's from the Andy S. book. so in conclusion there are no coins where I was or my SE is a Junker!! It may be time to try out the old and trusty Eagle Spectrum!

 

[Syd BC]

Ted, don't give up on the SE it's not a junker. I've hunted these piles of loose dirt and have found that for some reason it's difficult to get more than a few inches of depth in piles of loose dirt. The problem is compounded if the dirt contains any metal trash. You have to use a rake or shovel to spread the dirt on the ground before scanning it. It's more work but it could pay off with a ring or nice coin. Some years ago our club, while working with the police, spread out a very large pile of dirt using a farm tractor. We kept the depth to about 6 - 8 inches and over the period of a day we searched for a gun. At the end of the day, no gun was found but we did find a lot of coins. The best find of the day was a small cache of coins in a copper kettle. You just never know what might show up. Good luck...Syd

 

[Ted S]

Thanks for the encouragement! I will keep plugging away! Maybe it is just a dry spell. Can't wait till fall so I can go back to hunting farm fields!