I know I am not very patient, but am I expecting too much? I just got back from my sixth outing and still nothing to speak of. I feel the places I am hunting (city park, old gathering hall, 2 old houses, dry creek and open fields) should be producing more than the $1.86 in modern coins I have found. Take the park I just returned from, I dug about 15 to 20 holes in about two hours. That's all I felt comfortable digging. I felt like I was tearing the place up. Even though I was very careful and filled all my holes. I know it will vary greatly, but how many holes should I expect to dig in an hour? I don't know if that's a lot or too few. I read everything I can find and watch all the videos I can find, but it's not working out for me so far. I know I have only just started, but I feel like I have been to my best spots already. Am I being to impatient?
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Getting frustrated. What to expect?
- Thread starter MilesofTx
- Start date
Yes, you are being impatient. I have been in the hobby for little over two years and the same thing was happening to me. Eventually you will get better at target identification and won't have to dig as many holes. People that have been in the Hobby twenty years still dig tons of junk. If you dig a nice plug and use a towel for the loose dirt, after it rains it's hard to tell there was a hole. Parks are hard because of the trash and are hunted often. But I guarantee there is still plenty to be found at your park. No place is ever hunted out.
Mike Hillis
Well-known member
sorry, not laughing at you, but at myself. We all went through this when we started out. Got to crawl before you walk and walk before you run, right?
So try this for a while.
Set the unit in DIsc mode, d4 (4 tone mode), Gain on 80, Theshold on -9, and Max out your Discrimination. Only recover repeatable high tones. All you'll be hunting is silver and copper and clad dimes/quarters/ etc. Just get use to doing that for awhile. Your treasure to trash ratio will immediately improve. Then when you are comfortable with both the digging and high tone targets, notch in the Nickel range and hunt that way for awhile until you learn that range of targets. Then as you feel comfortable, add in another segment, like the zinc segment. It has has a different tone and you'll be looking at a completely new range of targets.
It wont take long to learn whats good and whats bad, your recovery method will improve and you'll grow more comfortable with the unit. Then you can raise the threshold setting up to 0 and spend time on the deeper and smaller targets.
Most of all, don't be afraid to limit your audio input with the disc and/or notch settings. Keep the audio feed to your ears understandable. When the trash gets too heavy, raise your disc or notch it out so that you can still hunt the good stuff.
Maybe a few guys will post a picture of their trash next time out so you won't feel so bad about your trash ratio. As a gold jewelry hunting I dig quite a bit of alum trash. Foil and tabs, canslaw, and ring pull tails.
LilloEsquilo
New member
Yes.
First, it sounds like you may have your sensitivity cranked too high as from what I can tell you are experiencing falsing, which is inconsistent and non-repeatable signals that you are digging (it sounds like you are digging lots of holes and not finding anything in them?) You can turn the sensitivity down, assuming there isn't a lot of EMI (power lines and the like) around which could cause that. It could also be caused by a defective unit, if these other issues aren't causing it.
Also it does take time to learn this. Assuming you try the suggestions above and now you aren't getting all this falsing and just dig the repeatable signals, there is SOMETHING in the ground. Take the time to dig them and learn what your machine is telling you, even when it says Pulltab and the like. Sometimes you'll be surprised what that "pulltab" ends up being. Just make sure you fix the falsing if it's doing that, then dig the repeaters. A good pinpointer will help you too if you don't have one. Just go with it and dig all of them, and see what it says, then you can try playing with the settings of your machine (one at a time since you are just starting out) and see what that does. Eventually you'll learn what to ignore and even be able to predict with some accuracy what is in the ground before you dig, believe it or not. But that won't happen in the first hour with most machines, or even the first 10 hours as a new hobbyist.
First, it sounds like you may have your sensitivity cranked too high as from what I can tell you are experiencing falsing, which is inconsistent and non-repeatable signals that you are digging (it sounds like you are digging lots of holes and not finding anything in them?) You can turn the sensitivity down, assuming there isn't a lot of EMI (power lines and the like) around which could cause that. It could also be caused by a defective unit, if these other issues aren't causing it.
Also it does take time to learn this. Assuming you try the suggestions above and now you aren't getting all this falsing and just dig the repeatable signals, there is SOMETHING in the ground. Take the time to dig them and learn what your machine is telling you, even when it says Pulltab and the like. Sometimes you'll be surprised what that "pulltab" ends up being. Just make sure you fix the falsing if it's doing that, then dig the repeaters. A good pinpointer will help you too if you don't have one. Just go with it and dig all of them, and see what it says, then you can try playing with the settings of your machine (one at a time since you are just starting out) and see what that does. Eventually you'll learn what to ignore and even be able to predict with some accuracy what is in the ground before you dig, believe it or not. But that won't happen in the first hour with most machines, or even the first 10 hours as a new hobbyist.
boxofchocolates
New member
Miles....first of all I think you should take a deep breath and relax,to me this is a fun stress free hobby I enjoy very much.......You could be swinging a metal detector for years and years to come....You will find something in one of those holes you won't believe soon......The hunt is part of the fun...when I go to the beach detecting and I see miles and miles of beach ahead I just keep a steady enjoyable pace,its all fun.....good luck hunting God Bless......Dan
PS We all dig our share of trash ....you can depend on that.......where there is trash there is treasure also
PS We all dig our share of trash ....you can depend on that.......where there is trash there is treasure also
Hey Miles,
Everyone of us has had these feelings. Amazingly, even after years we have those days when we wonder why on earth we are still treasure hunting.
It is hard to overcome those feelings of disappointment when that "great site" doesn't produce. My killer, is finely getting my nerve up to ask permission and then being told "No". My hunting is therapy. I enjoy the quiet time and the chance of finding great things. I enjoy the stuff I find and usually have hope for the next hunt. Some won't admit it, but we all have feelings of walking away once in a while.
It will get better, you will start to relax and have more fun. I like digging the trash if I have already told myself it is trash. I still dig it, I just tell myself I knew it was trash before I dug it. Take care, have fun, and give it time.
HH, Don
I am tempted to steal one of those great quotes and customize it just a bit. "A day treasure hunting is better than any day at work."
Everyone of us has had these feelings. Amazingly, even after years we have those days when we wonder why on earth we are still treasure hunting.
It is hard to overcome those feelings of disappointment when that "great site" doesn't produce. My killer, is finely getting my nerve up to ask permission and then being told "No". My hunting is therapy. I enjoy the quiet time and the chance of finding great things. I enjoy the stuff I find and usually have hope for the next hunt. Some won't admit it, but we all have feelings of walking away once in a while.
It will get better, you will start to relax and have more fun. I like digging the trash if I have already told myself it is trash. I still dig it, I just tell myself I knew it was trash before I dug it. Take care, have fun, and give it time.
HH, Don
I am tempted to steal one of those great quotes and customize it just a bit. "A day treasure hunting is better than any day at work."
Sorry Miles! You need to get a hunting buddy. Oh wait, I am your hunting buddy now and am responsible for talking you into getting into this hobby. Patience! All these guys are right. You're not gonna find anything if you aren't digging holes. I have been doing this for 30 years and dig a lot of trash only because I don't want to miss anything. The F5 will help you get rid of a lot of the junk you could be digging with a starter unit, I'm sure anybody that has been doing this long enough will tell you that you got into it when the machines are really advanced. Can't wait to hunt with you and I'll see you at the fire house.
These four hunts varied from around and hour to around 3 hours. Various school yards and parks. Various levels of good stuff and trash. One hunt at a school yard produced a silver pin and a 10k bent up ring. Others produced no jewelry. If you aren't digging foil and tabs you probably won't dig gold. You can choose to just dig good sounding, good ID's on coins; but you can miss a lot of the better, partially masked, deeper, older and non-standard coin targets that way. For example, Indian head pennies ID nearer to zinc pennies than they do copper ones. At some school areas, I can dig pouches full of aluminum can slaw looking for that odd ring, chain or pendant, that frequently never turns up.
It takes patience and a desire to hunt for the sake of hunting. The good treasures are a plus when they come.
Cheers,
tvr
It takes patience and a desire to hunt for the sake of hunting. The good treasures are a plus when they come.
Cheers,
tvr
If you stick with it, Miles, it gets better. Whether you stick with it or not is up to you.
I hunted approximately 30 hours before I dug my first obsolete coin, a wheat penny.
Now a hunt without any obsolete coins is unusual for me.
It's not a lot, but here's a little advice based mostly on what I've learned from others here and a little on what I've figured out myself:
While it may be true that no area is ever hunted out, many areas that have been hit hard by our kind have been seriously depleted. Remember that if an obvious public site looks good to you, it's also looked good to every other dirt fisher for the last 40+ years. That means that most good stuff that's left is either going to be deep, masked or both.
Practice pinpointing! The F5 with the standard 5X10 coil is a spot on pinpointing machine. Tape coins a few inches apart on the back of a piece of thin cardboard that you can't see through. Put the cardboard over a metal-free area. Swing your detector at various heights over the cardboard and pinpoint. When you think you're directly over the coin poke through the cardboard with a knife or something sharp and try to hit it.
Make sure the blade of your digger is sharp and cut a three sided "flap" plug when you retrieve leaving the grass and roots connected on one side. That way if you do it correctly and the ground isn't too dry, the grass won't die although you will sometimes get temporary brown spots depending on the moisture level in the ground. Don't detect a manicured lawn or anywhere with growth you care about during the dog days of summer or any time the ground is exceptionally dry. Any extra dirt you remove put on something that you can easily dump back in the hole. Some use a towel or cloth. I use a frisbee. When I put any dirt back in the hole and push the flap plug back down, I give the plug a few quick hard jabs around the cut area to seal it well before I stand up and stomp it with my foot. Unless I get stupid and sloppy, you can't tell where I dug when I'm done.
Wear gloves, a nail or piece of glass through your finger definitely takes away from the enjoyment! Another excellent more advanced retrieval method on coins that aren't too deep is called coin popping. Being excellent at pinpointing is very important when you use that method. Use a good pinpointer like the Garrett Pro-Pointer so you don't have to keep swinging your detector over the hole and don't get confused as to whether the target is in the flap plug or still in the hole. It's not the only good pinpointer, but it's become the most popular with successful dirt fishers.
Detecting in a remote area where no one cares, or better yet in your own yard, is the best way to learn and perfect your retrieval technique when you're starting out.
You'll often hear people say you have to dig a lot of trash to find treasure. That's true, because almost all gold hits in the trash range. But when you're first starting out (or any time you're lazy) there's nothing wrong turning up your discrimination and cherry picking the silver, clad and copper like Mike Hillis said. This hobby is supposed to be fun, and if you dig 100 straight pull tabs the fun level definitely goes down...
I often quote Bill Revis (AKA Uncle Willy who moderates the Garrett forum) who says the biggest mistake by far that he sees newbies make is turning the sensitivity too high. With the F5 that means the gain and threshold.
Good luck to you!
I hunted approximately 30 hours before I dug my first obsolete coin, a wheat penny.
Now a hunt without any obsolete coins is unusual for me.
It's not a lot, but here's a little advice based mostly on what I've learned from others here and a little on what I've figured out myself:
While it may be true that no area is ever hunted out, many areas that have been hit hard by our kind have been seriously depleted. Remember that if an obvious public site looks good to you, it's also looked good to every other dirt fisher for the last 40+ years. That means that most good stuff that's left is either going to be deep, masked or both.
Practice pinpointing! The F5 with the standard 5X10 coil is a spot on pinpointing machine. Tape coins a few inches apart on the back of a piece of thin cardboard that you can't see through. Put the cardboard over a metal-free area. Swing your detector at various heights over the cardboard and pinpoint. When you think you're directly over the coin poke through the cardboard with a knife or something sharp and try to hit it.
Make sure the blade of your digger is sharp and cut a three sided "flap" plug when you retrieve leaving the grass and roots connected on one side. That way if you do it correctly and the ground isn't too dry, the grass won't die although you will sometimes get temporary brown spots depending on the moisture level in the ground. Don't detect a manicured lawn or anywhere with growth you care about during the dog days of summer or any time the ground is exceptionally dry. Any extra dirt you remove put on something that you can easily dump back in the hole. Some use a towel or cloth. I use a frisbee. When I put any dirt back in the hole and push the flap plug back down, I give the plug a few quick hard jabs around the cut area to seal it well before I stand up and stomp it with my foot. Unless I get stupid and sloppy, you can't tell where I dug when I'm done.
Wear gloves, a nail or piece of glass through your finger definitely takes away from the enjoyment! Another excellent more advanced retrieval method on coins that aren't too deep is called coin popping. Being excellent at pinpointing is very important when you use that method. Use a good pinpointer like the Garrett Pro-Pointer so you don't have to keep swinging your detector over the hole and don't get confused as to whether the target is in the flap plug or still in the hole. It's not the only good pinpointer, but it's become the most popular with successful dirt fishers.
Detecting in a remote area where no one cares, or better yet in your own yard, is the best way to learn and perfect your retrieval technique when you're starting out.
You'll often hear people say you have to dig a lot of trash to find treasure. That's true, because almost all gold hits in the trash range. But when you're first starting out (or any time you're lazy) there's nothing wrong turning up your discrimination and cherry picking the silver, clad and copper like Mike Hillis said. This hobby is supposed to be fun, and if you dig 100 straight pull tabs the fun level definitely goes down...
I often quote Bill Revis (AKA Uncle Willy who moderates the Garrett forum) who says the biggest mistake by far that he sees newbies make is turning the sensitivity too high. With the F5 that means the gain and threshold.
Good luck to you!