What's your hunting like these days?

[Joe Diggerall]

Was wondering how everybody's finds are going these days.
I got an SE Pro in 2009. Was fairly common to get 4 or 5 silvers a month for the first couple years.
I hunt mostly in and around the town I live in (about 9 thousand pop. and not located close to any larger towns).
Then got an etrac and had about the same luck.
Went back to the SE Pro because I didn't care for the tone of the etrac.
Silver count for 2012 is 31 so far.

I don't travel much like some people on the forums do to hunt. What traveling I have done has been a mixed bag of being able to get permission to hunt and permission denied.
More times than not just a waste of gas. Normally when I do get permission it's mighty slim pickens because of the other traveling hunters.

So anyway most places I hunt around town, I've been over quiet a few times.
It's getting to the point a wheat is getting hard to find.

The CTX is just to over priced to justify getting one of them. If you only get 1 or 2 silvers out of a pounded place or none at all, I don't have that many places to hunt to pay for one.

Every once in great while I'll hit a yard that has some good silver in it. Sometimes only a couple inches deep.
I've talked to some of the guys who used to hunt in the 70's and 80's about some of the hot spots the used to hit around town.
One guy told me about a yard he hit and got 13 silver out it so I got permission to hunt it. Was a small yard and he told me the area he found them in. I got a couple indians and four or five wheats but no silver.
Another guy had hit the country club and cleaned up in a big way before he said he got run off ( back in the 80's). So I got permission to hunt that area, got 1 merc and some wheats. The merc was about 7 inches deep and on edge. Them old Whites and Garretts did a pretty good job of picking out the silver.
Anyway point is most places are slim.
One area I hunt floods two or three times a year and has yielded some nice older silver . Because of the flooding I've dug a few as deep as 11 inches. But the pickens once again are getting slim.

I've had a map of all the one room school houses ( over 90 of them) in the county for close to 20 years and hunted all the ones that are huntable. Some I have pounded to death but still go to them.


So I'm interested to see if anybody else is having the same experience? With the hot weather it's next to impossible to get excited about hunting. Waiting for fall to get some more pounding in.

 

[widebody]

[size=large]things are so slim around my town i'm selling my expl.se pro and my whites xlt. just too few places to hunt for the amount of hunters. met 29 so far in my small town. the sports leagues have taken over the parks at the exclusion of the public that paid for the parks. i've only found two silvercoins and that was last year. nothing but clad this year and little of that. so i'm looking for a differant hobby.

HH[/size]

 

[Ed (Upstate NY)]

n/t

 

[JJ]

It's good to keep in mind that detecting is a hobby and not a primary source of income. People have started and quit detecting for decades because there is nothing left to justify their efforts. I have hit plenty of brick walls, lost intrest, etc. But I think the thing that has kept me going and the reason I continue to make finds regularly is because I hunt with others. I regularly look forward to getting away from a vicious work schedule to spend time with good friends who also enjoy the hobby. Two or more heads are better than one. Different views and ideas will lead you to different places and keep the time spent enjoyable. I do travel, like you mentioned, and often from a dollar standpoint, the good finds still wouldn't offset gas, food, and time. But the great time we usually have and people we meet and places we see justify the expenses. Good finds are only a bonus. I have found that you really will get out of this hobby what you put into it. I guess you really need to do some soul searching and figure out exactly what you're in it for. If for monetary profit, then time spent at Mickey D's will probably put you farther ahead in the long run. This forum is living testament that a little effort goes a long way and good finds are still made regularly. Good luck, JJ

 

[dirt doctor]

but not quite as bad widebodies .There are times when I think I'm going to give it up but I'm hooked too deeply .Only ten silver coins so far this year and twenty-one for last year.
In comparison I find more nice jewelry . There's not really that many guys hunting in my immediate area because it's been so hard hit for many years but there are still a few regularly pounding all the wood chips I very seldom see anyone hunting in the dirt anymore . I won't be investing in any more equiptment or upgrading any more that's for sure .

 

[Elton]

Finding I need to branch out farther for unhunted ( BY ME) sites...

The SE Pro allowes for finding many nice coins in areas with iron if you dig some iffy signals..


It is a fact though.........the easy finds in my area of the world are over............ Detecting as a Hobby is great !!

 

[Coilfisher]

I never expect to find any older coins or jewelry in a site I go.
If I do it is a surprise.
Every public area has been pounded to death.
So this is par for the course.
LIke I tell anyone who asks---it is a hobby. I get exercise, fresh air, and the occasional pleasant surprise.
Also, now with the forums a place to discuss your finds, and see the good fortune of others with their own.

 

[Joe Diggerall]

Thanks for the responses guys.

I like finding silver coins for the most part, also indians and the rare find of a large cent in my area.
Was wondering how the hunters who look for older coins felt about they're situation.

It is quiet the thrill to get a decent probable signal and make the dig and find a silver edge staring back at you.

Earlier this year I was hunting in my area that has deep targets, not expecting much, generally hard to get even a good iffy signal.
Out of nowhere I get a silver hit and had a deep feel to it. Start digging and right at 11" there laid a walker half.
The good thing was I thought it was silver and thought it was deep, thats the kind of fun I'm looking for.

 

[Mike Moutray - St.Louis MO]

It's not just the point that it's been way too hot for the past month to hunt, but there isn't anywhere that would produce a few good finds to make the effort worthwhile. Years ago, when the local sites had some good targets in relative abundance, I would brave the 100 degree heat and the rock hard ground because the reward was worth the suffering. Now it's hard to even get a wheatie and that just isn't worth the effort. My detectors are packed away in a closet for the first time in over 20 years waiting for cool weather. Meanwhile, I hide in the air-conditioning and scan the forums for any good finds......

 

[Ed (Upstate NY)]

n/t

 

[Critterhunter]

This was in my response to somebody looking for deeper silver at a pounded site where it might not sink that deep, out of the range of some other machines, but I think it's fitting for this thread...

One word...12x10. Don't know how well it does on your machine but it's done wonders in both more depth and better separation on some machines, mine included. I can tell you my "lowly" model from one manufacturer is getting just as deep and unmasking just as well as my friend's flagship computer model from the same company, comparing many deep or badly masked coins undug in the field as he or I find them.

Also, like he said, some sites just don't let targets to sink much and so are well within the range of most other machines. You've got to go to better soil, or even bad heavy clay soil but with heavy moisture (low fields) that allow coins to sink out of the range of some other machines. In the areas I know coins are limited to say 8" or less, no sense on looking for deep classic clean silver signals. Time to dig the iffy ones on edge or masked. Save the deep/clean stuff for sites where coins could sink deeper than the range of some other machines.

At a site where coins are limited in depth by heavy soil, or a lack of moisture, or a clay sublayer, waste of time to find the clean/deep-ish coin signals. Those are gone for the most part. Dig the iffy one way stuff and such. Save the hours of wandering for deep stuff (say past 8" or so) for sites where coins can seek deeper and be out of the range of other machines or your sloppy hunter. Why wander at those sites for hours looking when you could be digging tons of iffy coin hits? Those sites still were around for me say 7 years ago but those easy somewhat deep coins ( 8" or less ) are gone at most sites these days, as many machines can hit those depths. Might as well dig the iffy/one way ones at those sites.

A good way to judge how deep coins can sink at a site is the depth of round tabs. Up to about 4" or so max and the coins are probably shallow. Round tabs say around 5 or 6" or more and coins can sink deeper, as tabs are lighter than coins in terms of surface area.

These are just rules of thumb though. Some spots a round tab could sink 6" fairly quick, but stops due to a harder (say clay) sublayer. You've got to judge sites on your own, but round tabs are always a good indicator. Another is screw caps. If I'm digging them say 5 or 6" deep then I'm pretty sure old silver could be much deeper, but then again once again a deeper sub layer of clay or rock might stop them even if they sank quick.

There is no rhyme or reason. You must judge the target depths. I've hunted hard clay where coins were super deep, only because the soil held a lot of moisture/water and so got soupy and sunk stuff fast even though it's not in fine soil.

Too many people try to force a round peg into a square hole. Let the site talk to you based on how deep certain targets are. Digging zincs or clads at say 5 or 6" or more? Then good chance the silver might be twice that depth. But digging round tabs at same depth and no deeper? Suspect there might be a denser sub layer of soil. A trick I use for gold rings is to dig those "junk" signals deeper than the deepest of round tabs. Let the site tell you how deep stuff is, and how much deeper silver might be, and if you dig your deepest hole and hit clay or rock, chances are the silver is stopping at that level and not going deeper. If that depth (say south of 8" ) is within the range of most machines, stop wasting time looking for clean classic deep silver readings. Those are long gone. Start digging the iffy or one way coin hits most pass that could be silver masked or on edge. Even the best of machines to handle ground minerals max out at about 8 or perhaps 9". Beyond that it's digging the iffy stuff, and I don't care what machine you are talking about when it comes to some soils.

That's why I say take with a grain of salt depth reports. One machine in one place might easily hit a coin at say 9 or 10" or deeper, but at another site due to ground minerals 7 or 8" is pushing things. For years I owned many machines and the two best of those could only max about 7.5" on a silver dime in my soil. Sooner or later I did own a few machines that would go deeper in my soil, but even with those it's not common to dig a 8 or 9" dime with a solid hit all the time. Deepest coins I have dug with those are an 11" indian and v-nickle in two separate holes, but that was in prime wet ground conditions. At the same site in dry conditions I'm lucky to get a good signal on a wheat at around 8 or 9".

All that said, I'd add to dig the "junk" signals. No matter how advanced some machines are, they still can't tell say gold rings, some old coins, or gold coins from junk. And, plenty of silver that will read like junk or lower due to various reasons (on edge, deep, masked, worn, etc). And, due to the nature of detection fields a machine can only really see one target at once. They "pop" and warp around the first shallow signal they hit. For that reason there are tons of masked deeper silver coins, even way off to the side of shallower junk or iron, that your machine will never see unless it's the only thing in the detection field. No way around that.

 

[Big Boys Hobbies]

But I am out on that! lol

 

[thidbornau]

Slim pickings lately for hubby and i,seems to be really deep and old coins,thanks to the dumb beach cleaning machines.They seem to be on the Beach so early i guess we will have to star at night time.Water hunting is not my thing even though i have the Excalibur 11.

 

[lloyd0161]

I will not give up on this hobby. I finally have two of the best tools for the job, Minelab Explorer SE with 10x12 SEF coil and Garret Pro-Pointer. I should have bought an Explorer years ago. I have been finding older wheats and some silver items in parks and school yards that must have been considered "hunted out" many years ago. My style is to work an area very slowly and thoroughly. Moving at a snails pace with the Explorer has produced many deeper coins in a small area than one would imagine. I still can't figure out how some newer coins get so deep in the ground. I am constantly amazed at how many coins are still left in these areas. Although there are certainly some areas that have been hunted to death for the most part. When detecting, once I have a hint of a good signal, I move around the spot slowly and methodically until I get the most consistent signal ID. The old Minelab wiggle works great with the SE. I also take note of the depth and whether or not there is any nulling and in which direction from the good signal this occurs. Checking with pinpoint, it is easy to pick out a potential coin sized target vs a larger target. Although I have not found much gold, I do dig all the nickel signals or thereabouts. Most items have either been a nickel or pull tab. But who knows eventually I will come up with another gold item. I have recently found my wife a nice 14k ring. I would have to say that where you find pulltabs there are also nickels and the potential for jewelry. Not many people have spent the time to dig a lot of junk.

 

[Joe Diggerall]

-- moved topic --

 

[matthias]

Many Forum members already know where I hunt. I have a spot where the Boro, Water Co., landscapers, etc. dump 'clean fill'. New dumptruck loads of dirt almost every week day. This dirt comes to me from a variety of locations. When the area gets too many piles the Boro front-end loader comes by and literally levels the playing field and the cycle begins again with freshly delivered piles. A large flat lot has been created from decades of this practice. I hit this spot almost daily. More than enough to keep me busy. I haven't dug a plug all summer due to the dry conditions. Tough digging thru compacted dirt and gravel but I've made some good finds this summer. No quantity of good targets to be found but some good quality. When I think I've hunted a section out I switch detectors or coils or programs or strategies. Its endless detecting. This is what works for me this summer. Its only my opinion but I hope it helps someone else to think 'outside the box' and get into some good targets. Pics below are the area loaded with piles and then the area leveled. Good luck everyone, be safe in the heat and Happy Hunting. Matt