I could sure use some help,

[born2hunt]

I have gone over the front yard of the place where I grew up several times and have found only a 1967 quarter and a few pennies. Today I found a kids bracelet but it only looks to be about 10 years or so old. This place was built in the late 1800's and I just can't imagine that nothing was dropped in the yard and lost back in the day. The little bit of clad I found was pretty deep, 5 or 6". I'm guessing it's because the ground there is very loose and fertile. I get little blips and dings throughout the yard but pass most of it off as junk, which there is also alot of. Is it possible that any worthy finds have sunk deep enough to be out of MD's reach? Or perhaps I'm not listening properly for deeper signals.

If I could pull one old coin or even a decent relic out of that place before it gets sold, I would be a happy camper.

Without trying a different coil (this unit is a loaner) is there anything I can do to improve my chances? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Steve in PA

 

[Uncle Willy]

Be nice to know what kind of detector you are using.We ain't mind readers.

Bill

 

[born2hunt]

Gtax 750 w/ stock coil

Also this place has never been gone over before, at least not in my lifetime.

 

[lazyaussie]

i don't know the gtax 750 but i"d say run in all metal & turn the sensitivity up as high as you can get it without to many false signals next if you can mow the grass as low as you can get it then slowly grid the whole place with the coil scrubbing the ground. i"d dig all the signals that come in above iron the small scratchy ones. hope this helps you find some oldies.
lazyaussie

 

[Square Nail]

Hi Born2hunt, as lazyaussie stated, zero disc or relic mode, use as much sensitivity as you can without chatter. Don't watch the GTA display except to pinpoint or depth read. Convince yourself to dig all repeatable hits, even if they are only one way. Trigger the pinpoint mode across the dings, and blips you described. If you get a somewhat strong pinpoint audio, dig! USE HEADPHONES, carry a spare set of batteries. Scan your chosen area from different angles ie North to South, then East to West NW to SE etc. Test for best sweep speed slow, then medium across a in ground target, note what speed gets a good response, then use that speed for your area search. Overlap your coil swings 50% or more. Most of all enjoy your outing!

 

[John-Edmonton]

Well, if the owners never had kids, or never had fun & games on the property, or were very poor, or it was landscaped previously, there won't be many finds. I too have hunted old building sites with poor finds, yet the house next door gave up lots. That's what makes this hobby so interesting. You just never know.......

 

[kickback]

I had a similar experience.I lived in a 100 year old plus farm house.It was the headquarters of a dairy at one time,flour mill another time.I hunted it with 3 different brand detctors.I found 4 copper pennies and a clad dime.One of the other owners was a bit excentric as was rumored to have buried money in jars in the backyard.I hunted in all metal and dug everything.I found a pickup truck full of rusty iron and zinc canning jar lids.No caches,no old coins.
The opposite end of this was hunting my fathers yard in town.It is a small house built in 1953.It has a postage stamp sized yard.I've found at least 11 old U.S silver coins and a bunch of wheaties in the yard.I've found 1 Canadian silver quarter,2 Canadian silver dimes and some Canadian pennies from 1938 to 1952.The deepest old coin has been a whopping 3" deep.
My theory about some of the old farm houses and old schools around here not having old coins at them is soil deposited from wind erosion.The schools and my old farm house are surrounded by fields.We get lots of topsoil moving in the wind.If you look at some of the fences you can see the soil has filled in up to the 2nd strand of wire on the fence.The few coins that are there are too deep to reach without scraping off some dirt.Just my experience and thoughts.Bill

 

[John 'n' W.Va]

The stuff is there. If you found deep clad, that means the good stuff is deeper. I had a place like that. Get a MD'er that can reach it. I did.

 

[Uncle Willy]

One thing to remember - in the old days people didn't have any money to lose and they carried their coins in a coin purse or something similar. Coins were far to valuable to be frivolous with. People don't take that into consideration when hunting old property.

Bill

 

[Uncle Willy]

That's a good tector with decent depth so if any coins are there you should find a few. You have no all metal but do have zero discrimination so you might try that mode and run the sensitivity as high as you can and still keep the tector stable.. Scan slow and cover every bit of ground you can.

Bill

 

[billKY]

It's quite possible you will have to remove the junk in order to see better/deeper targets. There is a phenomenon called masking that the GTAX750 does not have the capacity to override (in my opinion). There was a posting on one of the forums where someone picked a specific area and scanned it with multiple detectors (not a large area) pulling everything detected even the iron. They found some fairly significant number of items grouped by discrimination, and no discrimination. Then they took a shovel and screen and sifted the same area, they actually found hundreds more metallic items that were not found using all the detectors in any mode. I wish I had kept a copy of the article, all the above is from my somewhat limited memory. I remember being really impressed with what was NOT found using detectors but was still in the ground within reach of them all. The problem appears to be a combination of masking and the fact that the actual detection area is smaller the deeper you go, until you reach the limit of that detector.

Also why a the expression "never hunted out" has become a fact.

If anyone can find the article and post the URL, I'd really like to get a paper copy printed this time.

 

[born2hunt]

Well Thank you all for the insights and advice. I'll be sure to post when I make a significant find there.

Steve in PA

 

[apinballer]

I too have had this happen. I detected at the farm I grew up on - well over a 100 years old - several times. I know for sure no one detected on this site; well at least since the 50's! I thought for sure there would be loads of coins and etc ... after hitting it for days, one or two clad. This was several years ago, and I asked here in this forum why I wasn't finding the good stuff (I was using a ace 250), and some people said it might not be there ... a year later, I bought a Minelab and tried again (thinking the good stuff was too deep for the ace ..) and still nothing. Now I believe them - nothing is there ... and I remember growing up there and I NEVER had any money in my pockets while I played or worked. My Father never carried any money either while working. So, it is not too hard to imagine that before my family was there, that who lived there had no extra coins to be carrying around while they worked or played. I recently detected a friends house that was built in the 50's and found several silver coins and many wheats ... now I figure older doesn't mean more likely to find the good stuff.