A Short But Silver-Worthy Hunt

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

Went out for a little bit today to the same house I hit last weekend where I got two '52 silvers...a quarter and a dime.

Today I managed to snag a 1919 Merc. Other than a smoked wheatie and a couple 60's memorials, that was the only worthwhile target. The place has been hunted hard and I believe I'm ready to call "time of death" on it. The few good targets that may be left are drastically outnumbered by trash targets.

 

[Jack(IN)]

Congrats!

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

Thanks. Keep swinging and it WILL come.

Tips:

1) Go to some old places that have some silver!

2) SLOW your swing down...take your time and listen for the deep ones.

Other than that, there's not much to it. I run Fast off, Deep on, Ferrous tones, manual sens at 24 to 28. I run a low threshold but loud enough to hear it and I investigate anything that sounds even remotely good from a few different angles, because deep silver often is hard to lock on to unless you hit it just right.

 

[harry]

hi, could not help to notice that on your smart screen most of the upper left top is blacked out. I find several Indian head cents deep ones over 9 inches in that area. top center more to the left.no pro at the explorer but that is what my friend and i have found after finding a few of them and checking each others signal. nice find have a nice day. harry

 

[Jack(IN)]

I meant to say that silver dime you found was more than I found three years of hunting in Va Beach in the 1908's! My first year with the Explorer I pulled 360 silver coins, just from 86-89 in Va Beach, had the detector set wrong and areas I hunted were not old and those that were I did it all wrong!!

 

[ikon]

hey mike,
what coil do you use the most ?
how long have you been detecting in the ferrous mode? i seem to be having a hard time sticking with that mode and always switch back to the conduct mode. i think my problem is im going through the learning curve with my sovereign GT and when i pick up my explorer my head starts spinning alittle. like a brain or sound overloads lol
stan pa.

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

You are correct in your statement. If you've read any of my posts in the past, I am the first one to recommend hunting in IM -16 most of the time, as I like to listen to it all and then dig what sounds good. I do switch between digital and Smartfind and between discrimination and "wide open" frequently though, in an effort to learn more and more about the machine, what it will do, what it won't do, and how it acts in different situations. In fact, I was hunting in IM -16 when I found that coin. I switched for some extra testing because the ground was full of iron...VERY bad, and trashy to boot... and it was my aim to see if the target would be masked by it in disc mode. It was not.

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

Heh..that's hilarious. Sorry for assuming you'd never found any silver...I thought "Gee, I've seen him around here a lot and assumed he was a seasoned Explorer guy..." Guess I should have read it a little closer. I'm also going to assume that you meant in the 1980's and not the "1908's", or you would have to be somewhere around 100 years old or so.

I guess you can forget the tips!

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

I can certainly understand you having some trouble bouncing between the Explorer and the GT...two very different machines.

I use the stock 10" mostly, but depending on the ground and how clean it is I will use my Excelerator 12.5 when conditions permit. I like them both. Sometimes the stocker is better when there's more trash though.

 

[Jack(IN)]

about 100 pulltabs...and I always enjoy tips, to me or reading to another...just makes me better!!

 

[Eddie in Poulsbo]

Very nice merc Mike. WTG. HH.

Eddie