Why So Little Apparent Success?

[grumpyolman]

Since this is the Explorer Classroom I need a bunch of teachers. I've been out with my SE 20 times or so for at couple hours each. Tried AM, can't do it, but basically hunt in the smart find with settings most everyone recommends. Sometimes I'll use manual and sometimes auto, and then sometimes I just switch back to factory presets. Yesterday I spent two hours at a school that was built in 1943. In an adjacent activity area, there was an old style backstop used for baseball/softball. It was just vertical wooden posts with very rusty link wiring. I heard lots of signals. Some nice high sounds and some lows plus nulls. I found 4 coins. Two pennies, new ones, were down about 4" and found a dime and a quarter on the surface under the long grass. This school is in a rural community with a small 2-lane highway nearby. I just can't believe the 5 acres or so have been hit so hard that I only found 4 coins. I only got repeatable signals on those four coins. I did hear another one that I got in 3 directions and it was breaking a little. Dug and found a vertical rusty nail. What do you think? Is there just very little there or am I just screwing it up some way. I am about tempted to grab my Fisher and go back through the same area and see if I find something with it. Thanks for your thoughts. Regards...Jim.

 

[dewcon4414]

Things you dont know.... has the soil been disturbed? I'll tell you what i found recently. When i had my THRESHOLD TONE set a 5 i was picking up a LOT of pennies. I turned it up to 10 and my dimes trippled and silver sounded off a little better. I hunt with nails and crown cap disc... thats it. Every area is different as far as auto vs manual sensitivity. I prefer to use manual in trashy areas just so i can adjust it more to my liking. I switch back and forth between normal and DEEP recovery in areas not really trashed up. DEEP gives you a little longer tone but while its doing that you arent getting targets because the processing is sifting thru more data.

 

[Steve(MS)]

I have hunted old schools that were hit hard in the past and found very little. One place comes to mind, an abandoned school, all I found worth anything was a merc. There were cans underground everywhere, making it hard to hunt. I am guessing all that stuff was thrown on the ground after the school closed.
If I were you, I would try the Fisher there and see what happens, if you can take both detectors and hunt a small area with both detectors, mark signals that you get with the first detector and see if the other detector picks up the same signals.

 

[mattockman]

There is also the posibility of fill also....if you are finding modern trash fairly deep say 6" to 12" then it could have fill. As soon as I find a modern soda can at 12" I walk away.....unless of course I just want clad coins.

One way to get to know the detector is dig every signal till you get the big picture. Air test diff. coins and silver and by changing threshold tone....after each round of coins and silver....keep changing it till you hear a diff. between the clad dime,quarter.....and silver.....that should be where you can stop and leave it there......using ferrous sounds will help with the Iron issue, except for the bent rusty ones...they can have a high pitch like dime,quarter,silver.....but you will notice it will only be one way....turn 90 deg. and it will be sounding just iron low grunt. also when you hear sweet high sound...you will notice it will be when you are moving away from target one way....rusty crown caps will get the best of you also....it takes time and alotta digging to understand this...if you give up too soon you will never master the best detector put on the plate.

Good luck......as soon as you can.....hunt an old known site and try all metal in ferrous sounds and try to get use to it....new trashy sites that have tons of pull tabs, twist caps, pull rings, etc...that is much more agrivating than an old site with just iron to here....when you here anything else other than iron dig it....

 

[grumpyolman]

Went back to that school today and hunted it with the Fisher. Guess there's not that much there as I got one hit with the Fisher in the general area I hunted with the SE previously. I wouldn't even say with any degree of confidence that I hit the exact same spot with the SE. Me thinks it's been really pretty well picked over. Wish I had an experienced Explorer user around to see what they might turn up. Regards...Jim

 

[M.L. Hinds]

If this is the first explorer you have had let me just say this!! If you are listening for a big beep!! Most of the deep ones are not gonna sound that way.. What you are listening for is a little spec of a high pitch. It will almost sound like a broken up bad target.. But if you look at the screen it will usually go high right on silver or copper. And you will know right away when its a deep one when you pinpoint cause it will just barely pinpoint (In some cases it will not pinpoint at all) Use as high of senc. as possible and deep on and go really slowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. And I cant stress enough to use headphones!! Just trying to help you out :0)

 

[M.L. Hinds]

n/t

 

[grumpyolman]

Thanks for the advice. Well received by me. I do use "A" headphone. Got a Killer Bee single. Only have one ear that works so it's much more comfortable only have half my head covered. I still am learning. I do go slow. I just haven't understood people's answers about what is the signal to dig. The only time I have recovered any coins is when I hear the target left and right from the first position, turn 90 degrees, and hear the target left and right from position 2. I wonder if I should dig some of the strong signals that I get from only one direction. Did that one time and got a rusty nail. Didn't want to dig a lot more rusty nails so I revert back to knowing I get a signal in both directions. It's getting pretty dry in Washington State and ground hunting in parks and schools will damage the grass. Saw a place I dug last week and the plug had turned brown. I cut the nice rectangle leaving one edge uncut and carefully broke the dug dirt before I put it back in the hole. I refuse to carry a bucket of water to water the plug. (LOL)( Think I'll stop hunting the grass until we get more rain.

 

[Steve(MS)]

Yeah, dry ground is hard to dig too, at least here. It would be better to wait till there is moisture in the ground before you experiment with one angle signals. You can kinda get the hang of which signals to dig after you dig some of those iffy ones and they are site specific, in other words, I usually dig some iffies at a site just to see how the detector is responding and if I am digging nails then I go for a little better signal and/ or reading on the meter. The best way I can explain if you are digging the better iffy signals is if they are bent nails or nails with lumps on them, then you will know those are the signals to go for. Now that applies mainly to the higher conductive coins such as dimes, pennies and quarters. The lower conductive one angle signals are always good to go for because nails generally don't mimic them as much and therefore there is a higher possibility there is a non-ferrous item mixed in, I guess that too is according to whether you are relic hunting or going for some old smaller coins or items.
If there is someone who is really good with the Explorer in your area and you could get up with him, that could help a lot too.