Metal detecting blues

[spellman]

How do you keep from getting the blues? Havent found anything good in awhile and need to push through my rut.
Love detecting but when its been awhile betwewn good finds its hard to push on. Need some motivation. Gonna go out again today just to keep pushing. Just a matter of time.

 

[Jerry-Wi]

How do you keep from getting the blues? Havent found anything good in awhile and need to push through my rut.
Love detecting but when its been awhile betwewn good finds its hard to push on. Need some motivation. Gonna go out again today just to keep pushing. Just a matter of time.

There is ebb and flow to everything. I think everyone has hit those dry spells between good find. A lot of of it depends on what sort of hunting you do, what areas and what your expectations are.

I would suggest finding a new area or at least one that you have not hit for a few years and see what happens.

I seem to find the most interesting stuff when I slow down and dig a lot more of those iffy signals.

Good Luck

Jerry

 

[WV62]

n/t

 

[BarberBill]

Persistence and new territory always helps me. Hard to stay persistent when things are down, but over the long haul it pays off.
BB

 

[ToddB64]

spellman,

Give us some details and maybe we can help discover why you "havent found anything good in awhile".

(a) What are you hunting for, relics, coins or jewelry ?

(b) How many months or years have you been metal detecting ?

(c) On average, how often do you go MD'ing each week and how many hours per outing ?

(d) What detector(s) do you use (brand, model & coil) ?

(e) What control settings are you using ?

(f) What type areas do you hunt ?

ToddB64

 

[Monte]

1.. Never give up!

2.. Change-up my approach to working a site.

3.. Change the type of sites I hunt.

4.. Seek new sites, and this is achieved by meeting up with others to go detecting who might have a lace to hunt that I haven't. Also, by doing some research to find a new site(s) to hunt.

5.. Againm, Never give up, and remind myself to not be a quitter, and for the bulk of my 48 years of detecting I haven't.

6.. Change the detector I use, or change one or more of the settings I use.

Taking this all in, I will say that most of the time I do NOT use Tone ID when I search due to the types of sites I am hunting, and because I prefer a good quality, single-tone audio. So, if I usually work one particular model with Tone ID 'On', I just turn it off. If I use another model without Tone ID, and I have the option, I turn it 'On.' The main point though is that I change the model I am using for a while, if I feel that I am in a slump and not making many, or any good, finds. Most of the time I keep at least 2 and usually 3 detectors in my rig to travel with me.

Monte

PS: We are now just getting into Fall, and when the weather gets ugly or turns to Winter when it is too cold or too white to get out, I shift into my research mode just to try and find more new and interesting places to hunt when the weather improves.

 

[mudpuppy]

Reading these forums gets me all worked up into a lather!...I tell myself, "I'd a found that had I been there"...theres this other poster, BH Landstar, I never met him, but he sure is setting a high bar I'm attempting to just come close to. Last I checked, he's got over 700 bucks in clad, lots of silvers etc...I also figure shooting clad, or digging junk is just practice for when I find a place thats loaded with lots of old silvers...by dang then I'll be ready to quickly clean it out! So I guess a little friendly competition can keep a guy motivated...even if its just clad stabbing, an art in and of itself..Coil to ground buddy, cant find anything in the house!
Mud

 

[Dan-Pa.]

Lots of good info but do some traveling and scouting as new areas and hunting grounds will certainly help..

Its not the detector its not you but you need some new area to spark your interest as going to the same old places gets old after a while..

Know one avid golfer that will even travel and stay overnight to play a new course...and yes the same goes for some of the local club members who often even travel to another State after doing some research. Doesn't have to be an exotic seashore or the like just a change of scenery to get the juices flowing...

 

[ToddB64]

Nothing got my juices flowing more than Tabdogs posts, then buying a Tesoro Compadre and using it !

Thanks to all for your replies !

ToddB64

 

[spellman]

Thanks everyone for the posts, as for the detectors, i have been using a tesoro vaquero for the last 4 months, i just want to learn what its telling me. I mostly use the 10x12 coil for it, or the 5.75 in trashy areas. I have a teknetics G2 that i havent used since I got the vaquero. And I have a minelab excalibur 2 for water hunting, still have alot to learn on that one still brand new to me. I have been hunting for about 2 years but really hunting alot the last year. I hunt schools and parks and the American river. And the beach twice. I dont make it there as much as I would like. I mainly hunt for coins and jewelry more jewelry so im digging alot of trash foil and up but ive done good on the jewelry in the past. Its been awhile since I've found anything good. it took me 2 years to find my first silver, not to many old sites near me, but the vaquero has found 3 silver dimes at a school within walking distance of my house. I have now been pounding that school hard. I think i just have gold fever right now, its been 6 months since i have found any. Maybe ill go back to the g2 for awhile. I paid for that machine the first month just with gold. Thanks for all the advise and i will be definitely looking for new sites and switch machines for awhile, i just love the vaquero so much, but if switching back and forth helps ill do it. Thanks again for your tips.

 

[ToddB64]

Reading these forums gets me all worked up into a lather!...I tell myself, "I'd a found that had I been there"...theres this other poster, BH Landstar, I never met him, but he sure is setting a high bar I'm attempting to just come close to. Last I checked, he's got over 700 bucks in clad, lots of silvers etc...I also figure shooting clad, or digging junk is just practice for when I find a place thats loaded with lots of old silvers...by dang then I'll be ready to quickly clean it out! So I guess a little friendly competition can keep a guy motivated...even if its just clad stabbing, an art in and of itself..Coil to ground buddy, cant find anything in the house!
Mud

mudpuppy......I would like to read BH Landstar's threads or posts, so I used the findmall Search tool and set it up as follows:

Search Messages: (Left this window blank, as I had no thread titles to go by.) The right hand window: Any Words, Search Authors: BH Landstar, Forums: Bounty Hunter Forum, Options: Show results as messages, then ran search again as threads, The right hand window : All Dates

The Search tool found nothing, so I changed tactics and manually looked for threads started by BH Landstar in the Bounty Hunter forum and went from current page #1 all the way back to June 15, 2011 (1 yr. and 3 months), but didn't see a single thread started by BH Landstar.

Since findmall doesn't offer an alpha Member List that would enable me to go to BH Landstars Profile and pull up a list of previous threads or posts, I didn't know what else to do.

Can you or other members give me any help ?

Thanks !

ToddB64

 

[spellman]

Well did it.went out on a short 2hr hunt with my g2 just to change it up and i broke my gold dry spell. I found a small 14k pendant. 1 gram but its gold none the less. I love my tesoro but i think i needed to put it down for today and it worked. I forgot how sensitive the g2 is to the smallest stuff and i also realized i need to lower the discrimination on the tesoro vaquero cause i tested the pendant i found with where i run my tesoro and it wouldn't even pick it up, it was in the low foil range. I haven't been digging alot of foil with the tesoro but i will be now. Thanks everyone for the tips they helped. After i found the pendant my hunting changed dramatically, i went from lazy hunting to dig it all tweaker style hunting. Came home with a bag full of foil and pull tabs.

 

[ToddB64]

spellman.......WTG ! WOO WOO.......YOU'RE BACK IN THE GROOVE !

ToddB64

 

[mudpuppy]

Now thats the ticket! See, now your inspiring us! Hey Todd, BH_Landstar_ just posted on the 14th in the Etrac forum, you can click on his name there and read all his posts if you want.
Mud

 

[Smudge]

Just for giggles, put that 5.75" coil on your V and go back to a hunted out spot.

Dedicate yourself to a 12' square area and go very slowly.

Seriously overlap your swings.

Make yourself cover 100% of that spot.

Do that, and I'll bet it feels like you are detecting a brand new area.

Most of us go too fast, do not overlap our swings, and therefore miss a lot.

Most of us, including myself, are guilty of this.

 

[ToddB64]

Now thats the ticket! See, now your inspiring us! Hey Todd, BH_Landstar_ just posted on the 14th in the Etrac forum, you can click on his name there and read all his posts if you want.
Mud

Mud...........Thanks ! I'll try that.

ToddB64

 

[KVM2]

What you do,is, turn all the machines off..Take a deep breath and turn the Compadre on...I took it to a spot that I'd been over with my Vaquero, guy who bought the most expensive Whites there was a year back, watching, and that darn Compadre was popping coins like it was minting them in the ground..I was having a ball, the Whites guy, saying "You paid a hundred for that"????...Just for the heck of it, I'm going back to that spot and see what's left..The idea is to enjoy life