Do you dig the iron off of old sites? I know we are leaving targets in the ground that are masked by the iron. The video explains my views on the topic.

I like your video, makes me think twice about walking off of a good site. Thanks Calabash.

I find digging iron to be tedious so I do so in bits. When I'm bored with digging iron (targets I'm sure aren't good) I start cherry picking. But that's only on those permissions where I hunt over and over again. I do tend to dig a lot of questionable targets though - since I mostly hunt where there is a lot of iron (bits and pieces usually) dating from relatively modern to 300 years in age. If I get a good signal (sound) - even if it is just one way - and there's a bit of iron mixed in, I dig the target. I've found lots of good targets with bits and pieces of old iron in the same hole.

I do look for square nails (etc..) when I'm on a site that I'm not accustomed to. For me, it helps locate the areas that likely hold the most promise of finding good targets.

150 acres? No way I'd dig iron on purpose - unless it was in a limited area that I believed held a lot of potential for good targets.

Did I mention I hate square nails? But, I learned if I tweak my settings a certain way I dont get the high 93-94 signals, rather I get the lower iron grunts. If there is a higher number flash by its probably worth digging percentage wise.

Agree with all you say, in my case with fewer great sites available, the iron often is the reward , and as it thins out, a few more non ferrous goodies will be revealed. My iron artifact displays are fantastic and I love preserving them. I would like to be better at discriminating small vs large iron- irregular vs regular shaped iron, forged vs modern iron. Do you (CB) have any recommendations on best programs to do that with the Deus II? Really appreciate all your videos- and your cut to the chase style.

My sentiments exactly, sifters are for Indian artifacts. Iron is where it's at as far as civilization is concerned. Pop a few nails or bits looking for a new site and get on with it!
HH Jeff

BREAKING NEWS!!

Calabash Digger agrees with me!

Yes, in your video you stated you are not fond of digging iron trash, so you could say Monte is like you. But I don't think you started detecting in March of '65. Nor switch to very avid Relic Hunting sites 85% of my detecting time, or more, starting in July of '83, so it's fair to say CB is like Monte .... at least when in comes to dealing with Iron junk on a regular basis.

Now, isn't that something to say you are like me!!!

I started hunting ghost towns and other iron contaminated sites back in May of '69,
but mainly worked them just occasionally due to the type of detectors we had in the ground environment. Things changed in July 83 when we got some good detectors to start hunting those old sites, and that's when I switched to 85% of more of my hunttime working them. Most of them were old RR townsites, long void of people or structures. But the iron and other trash remained.

Like you, spending a lot of dedicated hunt time to recover ferrous debris wasn't fun or make use of my allowable hunt tkme. I concentrated on going after non-ferrous targets such as coins, trade tokens, buttons, insignia. Cartridges and spent cases, and bullets, etc., etc.

My all-time favorite town, that I named 'Twin Flats' was highly productive producing 30-35 Seated Liberty coins for every 1 Barber coin. I found hundreds of coins to fill 4 binders with 2X2 carded coins and still had a small pile to clean and card.

Flying Eagle and Large Cents, 2 Cent and 3 Cent pieces, Capped Bust Half-Dime. A lot of CW era bullets and cartridges and uniform insignia,and buttons from plain to fancy to military.

Most of those old sites in Nevada, Oregon and Utah have now been worked heavily but there are still a lot of masked targets remainkng. Therefore I hunt them the old fashioned way and ignore a lot of iron, OR ... I grid an area to clean it out and remove iron debris.

Monte