jc -
Location and knowing your detector.
I took a road trip this weekend, 6 hr drive there and back. Solo this time. I had a particular house in mind to hunt and was granted permission to do so when I arrived and knocked on the door. Permission was granted and I found out the house was built in 1904, and I found out it had been hunted before. I don't concern myself too much when I find out a house has been hunted before, there are so many levels of skill, patience, disciplined coverage as well as the capability of the detector used. Unfortunately, after the first few hours, I determined the lawn has been redone somewhere in the past as I was recovering zincolns and clad in the 3-6" mark all across the front yard. And there were very few 'other' targets you expect to find around a house that has been lived in for 112 years.
The owners also had another home 2 doors down they gave me permission to hunt. It was built a year later, in 1905, and nobody was living in it. After a quick look, it was obvious the unoccupied home wasn't getting watered on a regular basis and I talked to the home owners about my concerns of dead plugs if I found any deeper targets. They said to go ahead, I would only be killing weeds. They didn't believe that house had ever been hunted. I carefully covered the smaller front lawn as well as the back yard. Hardly a target. Not even garbage. This is very unusual at a house this old that hasn't been hunted. There should be junk from everyday living; keys, washers, bolts, nails, aluminum foil, toys, etc. Again, a few newer coins in the surface to 6" mark. Another lawn replaced. So, from the standpoint of finding old coins and tokens, pretty much a bust.
My big success of the day was having a couple 6 year olds helping me 'treasure hunt' while their mothers watched from the porch. They were so excited, it was priceless. Being a softie like I am, I gave up all my zincolns and almost all my clad trying to keep things even between the two. I have to admit it was fun and gave me a smile on the long drive back home.
If I have a suggestion or two for you, it would be to see if you can spend some time with an experienced detectorist and see how they go about hunting. I don't know if there is a local club in your area, but being able to associate with a couple veteran hunters would help speed up the experience process.
Second, if you haven't already done so, do some experimenting with your detector in your own yard and learn how your detector sounds over deeper targets. Many newer detectorists expect a plain-as-day target response from a target that is on the fringe of detection depth. The two responses do not sound the same. Nor do they show up the same on the target ID display. The goal is to learn how to use your detector as a exploratory tool and know how it responds over different types of targets at different depths.
Best of luck out there finding that first silver coin.
Rich (Utah)
