Keepers to Clad ratio

[DirtFlipper]

Howdy,

Too hot and dry to hunt this week, so I was just noodling over my finds spreadsheet from last year and this year. I'm coming up on having used the SE for one year now (including that brief 3-month blackout period we call Winter up here), and remain exceedingly impressed with the improvement in overall hobby enjoyment it has brought. I've had enough fun learning the SE so far that I've not been compelled to try the E-Trac just yet (that will wait until I get thoroughly desperate with having hunted out my sites I guess).

One curiosity that I noticed reviewing this year's finds versus last year's was a noticeable shift in the "keepers to clad" ratio. This is partly due to simply an overall increase in the number of "keepers" being found (I count a Wheat or better as being a 'keeper' and 'clad' as being a Memorial cent or any clad coin). But the other factor I noticed is also a decrease in the amount of clad. I atrribute this to having started to ignore shallow hits at sites I'm familiar with, and focusing only on the deeper, iffier signals. I used to recover all shallow coins too (3 inches or less), but they are time consuming, and mostly Zinc cents, and I've gotten spoiled holding out for the deep flutey tones and warbles.

So last year I ended at about 13% keepers to clad (13 keepers out of every 100 coins recovered) during the 8 hunting months, and this year I'm running at nearly 30% for the six months so far (looks like I'll get an extra month in this year, thanks to the nice Spring we had, and assuming November behaves!). I thought it was interesting how the SE had also changed my hunting habits too - finding 'more' stuff while also recovering 'less' while at it.

What's your "keepers to clad" running at?

HH,
DirtFlipper

 

[dewcon4414]

Ive been using the SE since it came out and this year just seems to be a better year with increased finds. Perhaps your finds are based more on your ability to tell the difference between deep and shallow finds. Also, do you keep your settings the same or have you changed your settings? Since i hunted more of the trashy areas of the parks this year i reduced my sensitivity to 7 from 9... it seems to make a difference with EMI and telling the difference from shallow to deep targets. Because our club is having a clad competition im digging more than usual.... but im still picking up more keepers too.

Dew

 

[captn_se]

I don't know my exact ratios, but I have a very large mix of early '60s clad in my pouch at the end of my hunts. Those coins are mixed right in with the later silver coinage, and they are as deep, so I dig them all. I probably have more '59 lincolns than anyone who hunts. Most of the parks I hunt are trashy, and established in the 20's-50's, with an occasional few in the late 1800's.

I dig all quarter signals (actually anything that registers at silver dime and higher), because I don't mind digging quarters, and some of those targets turn out to be nice silver rings. Many of the parks I hunt have lots of gopher activity, so I always check the gopher mounds, and know the possibility of silver/wheats can be at any depth with those creatures tunneling away.

HH,
CAPTN SE
Dan