why am i only digging shallow coins?

[davidg]

i went to an old school yesterday, that was built in 1922.
i was hoping for some silver, but all i got were a few modern coins-1970's ,80's,90's. the deepest were only 2 inches. now, if those coins were there, then where were the old ones?? metal detecting wasent THAT popular in the early 70's, so i doubt that this school has ever been detected. but still no silver.
im using an xterra 50 and even in AM, no deepies.

 

[Larry--IndianaHVAC]

You didn't say whether that was your first time there or not? I've been detecting for over 30 years and ran into two guys detecting in all those years. Just two years ago, a fellow see's my name on the forum and ask what part of Indiana I live in and he lives only 15 miles from me. He introduces me to 3 other guys he hunts with and these guys have been hunting for 30 years too on a regular basis and we've never run in to each other! So, its sure possible someone has already beat that old school to death over the pass few years or a guy with an Explorer was just there before you

 

[steven77]

I had the same exact problem and posted the same question as yours here in the forum and the answer for me was Sensitivity.

I wasn't setting the sensitivity high enough. Set it to maximum and if it is a little jumpy or erratic, back it off a little till it settles down.

Worked for me! I am now finding coins at 9+ inches.

Take care,

Steven

 

[BarnacleBill]

You don't mention your experience level, so let's assume you're a blank sheet.

Possibilties:
1. The soil is fill and has been filled, or refilled more than once, so the old coins are gone, out of reach, kaput, backhoe depth.
2. You don't know how to use a metal detector.
3. You don't know how to use this(current)detector.
4. The soil is terrible.
5. You don't know how to GB.
6. Your sensitivity is set too low.
7. You use terrible coil technique, pendulum, too fast.
8. Monte WAS there in the 70's!

BarnacleBill

 

[davidg]

i was running my sens. at 15. that should of been high enough.
i am new to this detector, but geez, two inches is the max?
my swing is low and slow, im better at GBing now..i dont know.

 

[Digger]

Lets see...... school yard...... built in 1922...... only coins only modern coins 2-inches or less..... HHMmmmmm?



and you thought that there weren't many of us around in the 70's.

Sorry you have been disillusioned, but there is a lot of us old timers still hunting! And, chances are, we are still finding those old coins. Odds are that some of us even hunted that school you hunted, several times, 30 years ago. (you don't always get it all in the first few trips)
If you are serious about detecting for old coins, you are going to have to put more thought and research into it than going to a school yard. Sure, you may stumble across a spot now and then that hasn't been hunted very much. And you may make an occassional good find. We all do. But my advice to you is to make a coin garden (if you haven't already) and learn to use the X-50. Dig everything for awhile until you learn what that detector is telling you. Hit your yard and then hunt your neighbors yards. Spend some time reading old newspapers in your local library or museum. Study the history of your area and find out what people did for recreation 100 years ago. They sure didn't spend all their time at school. And those that did, didn't carry as many coins as they had in their pocket when they went to the fair grounds, picnic grounds, chautauquas, rodeos, ballgames, amusement parks........ You can own the best detector made and learn what makes it burp. But if you aren't willing to do the research to find those old sites, you will end up hunting school yards, digging modern coins at 2-inch depths and wondering what is going on. I hope you are willing to do your research. It will pay off BIG TIME. HH Randy

 

[wpaxt]

David,

Good responses to your post & I'll add one more. Here in Los Angeles there are few older areas worth hunting that haven't had landscaping done multiple times over the years. Usually it involves adding fill dirt, unfortunately. I know of one school near me in particular that was built in the early 1930's. I have hunted it numerous times and have NEVER found anything but clad. Then I came to find out that it had the fill dirt problem that I just mentioned.

Due to the nature of concentric coils I believe that there is always something that is missed (the mindset of the every optimistic treasure hunter, no doubt!). But as been mentioned by the other posters, for the environment doesn't cooperate there isn't much to do but find one that does.

My guess is that your machine is fine. You can always set up a test garden to be sure, or you can get someone to hunt with you with another machine & see if are only finding shallow targets as well. If they hit a deep target, have them move off & take a swing at it yourself to see if you get a hit.

You've got a really top notch machine, Steve. Be patient, find a good spot to hunt & you will find the good stuff.

Bill (S. CA)

 

[Rick(ND)]

The first one that comes to mind is if it is a school yard chance are it has been gone over 100s of times, maybe you never seen anyone, but I will bet it has been hit many many times and the easy coins found. Now the persons that have hit this and the finds were getting far a few have left this area and what you are getting is the coins that have been lost in the last few year. We see this a lot up here in ND, but some of these still hold some good coins. These are ones that are not in your normal areas that everyone will hunt as one of our locals found out when he worked the road ditch in front to the school and found many good coins. Another one was a drainage ditch in front of a well worked school and got a silver dollar and several IH pennies and barber dimes. Many people never thought about some of these areas.
Another possibility is being you are new to the detector it will take time to get the depth some do, some of the signals will not be like those within 2 inches.

If you have a older house then check your yard, if you don't have a yard maybe someone you know does that has not been hits time after time again.

Good luck and keep us posted as how you do at some other sites.

 

[JBM]

I have had coins out at up to 16" it depends on where soil wise that you are detecting.

You can the exception as My friend uses the Quattro and his wife the X50 and they have tseted them together.

On the rare occasion the Quattro will latch on to a coin thats just to deep for the the X50.

Having stated that fact,as most coins are in the top 12" what the hell at least she misses little andcan keep up with him without getting tired using the X50.Jerry.

 

[Art (NWOH)]

I have often seen posts about "no depth".... "finding only shallow clads".

Nobody ever says how strong the coins are hitting.

If they are blowing your ears off, then you know that they are nowhere near the limit of detection depth.

I told one guy once to pick his coil up to see just how far he could lift it without losing contact with the coin. Obviously if you can lift the coil several inches, then the coin was nowhere near the limit. Deeper coins could certainly be detected in this case. Either they are not there, or are just too deep.

HH

 

[Dan-Pa.]

There are no deep ones where you are hunting, you are not setting Sens. as high as you should, not properly ground balancing and last but not least it could be defective...Spring is slow coming here in Pa. but in a recent warmup dug a wheatie and buffalo nickle at about 8 inches and my test garden lets me know it will go deeper than that..
I must mention I used in all metal and high Discrimination in my test garden and didn't seem to affect the depth..

 

[BOB VALDEZ]

Boy, how pathetic, all this.

"You went to a school"
"You were hoping"
"You were hoping for silver"
"You were hoping for SOME silver"
and patati & patata...

1. how long have you been metal detecting ?
2. how long have you been using that X-Terra ?
3. how long have you been really HUNTING in that school ?
4. how many coins did you find in that school ?
5. how were your results on other hunts ?

In my opinion, the problem, is very simple. You don't like hard work, you just want results. And you want them NOW, of course. "SOME silver" ! If that doesn't happen it MUST be the detector ; what

 

[Dan-Pa.]

Jumping to lots of conclusions my friend....certainly hard work involved and a learning process and I could make more at Mickey D's flipping hamburgs but for the last 15 years chased a coil and loved every minute of it,,,sometimes the pouch was full and sometimes not to be...all part of the hobby....

 

[adam in cal]

first off,I aint hear to say negitve things about you or your hunting pratices.Silver can be and is very elusive and it never just jumps out. I dont know how long you have been detecting or if this is your first detector.There was a time when I felt the same thing, it was a different detector but everyone else was seemed to be pulling silver except me ...I hunted what I felt were ""good silver'' spots,but still no silver.Finding silver does take "work'' as was mentioned.While I aint real well versed with the exterra I can say if you have a detecor that is capable of finding silver you will have to work at it.Silver coins are gonna be (in most cases) the deepest coins in the park,so you will have be working at a slowere pace and listening for alot fainter signals...deep coins will not sound the same as shallow coins,so if you are expecting to hear the same sound as a shallow coin with the only difference being the depth indicator saying its a deep one then you wont find silver ...You will need to put in major time at that site and clear out some shallow stuff untill you consistantly cant get into the strata of the earlier losses,(silver and wheats) if you start consistantly pulling the sixties stuff you are getting close ....keep at it....It took me quite a while before I found a silver but by the time i did I had learned Alot..stay with it and you will be rewarded,but its a touch unrealistic to ""expect silver"".To be honest when I really feel I should find silver I never do,you'll need to be paitent and relaxed then you will go out and one day just get into the ''zone'' and you be finding silver,also you have to remember although a place seems like it hasnt been hunted,It probally was ....Silver reached 50.00 an ounce in the eighties and people were hunting with metal detectors everywhere..If it was a true ""virgin site''the the cfoins you were finding at that depth would of at the very least produced a wheatie or two...... Stay with it bro and dont get discouraged....Too Many people out there have a detector just sitting in the closet because they didnt find old coins right out the gate ...........take care