Friday, one of my hunting buddies called and we decided to 'get out of Dodge' and do some detecting. Didn't really want to drive a long way, so I suggested a site that another friend and I hit last year. At that time, I found a standing lib qtr and a few Mercs, along with a handful of wheats. My buddy found a silver dime and wheats too. Now this site is just a very small area off to one side of a road in a larger park. Its perhaps 40 yards long by 10 yards wide and is on a slant that borders a bluff. Not a good place for picnics or really any other activity. Last year, I know the soil was very moist and I thought at the time, that's a good thing...we'll get the deeper signals. After gridding it out and even trading places, we felt we pretty much worked it out after several hours.
This year, the soil was dry as dust under the grass...real powder. We started hunting and I really had no expectation of finding much of anything. There were lots of bottle cap signals though. Anyway, I get a good signal and up comes a silver Rosey from 5". Then my friend found one at the same depth. We worked very slow and after about two hours, we both had a handful of wheats, with me finding a '34 silver qtr and two silver dimes. My friend, (who is very lucky AND skillful found four silver dimes (three in one hole) and two standing lib qtrs, one with a date. Between the two of us that was 6 silver dimes and three silver quarters (plus wheats) from that small "worked out" site.
The signals were faint and mixed in with the trash, of course, but we ferreted them out somehow.
So my question is, could the moist soil of last year have enhanced the TRASH signals, especially bottle caps, so that the masking effect was extended? I tend to think that was the case. I've always dreaded digging in dry soil, but in this case, I believe it worked to our advantage by not amplifying the 'masking effect' of the iron trash, thus making it easier to get those in-between signals.
Anyone else notice this? I might have to revise my opinion about hunting in dry soil!
Knipper
This year, the soil was dry as dust under the grass...real powder. We started hunting and I really had no expectation of finding much of anything. There were lots of bottle cap signals though. Anyway, I get a good signal and up comes a silver Rosey from 5". Then my friend found one at the same depth. We worked very slow and after about two hours, we both had a handful of wheats, with me finding a '34 silver qtr and two silver dimes. My friend, (who is very lucky AND skillful found four silver dimes (three in one hole) and two standing lib qtrs, one with a date. Between the two of us that was 6 silver dimes and three silver quarters (plus wheats) from that small "worked out" site.
The signals were faint and mixed in with the trash, of course, but we ferreted them out somehow.
So my question is, could the moist soil of last year have enhanced the TRASH signals, especially bottle caps, so that the masking effect was extended? I tend to think that was the case. I've always dreaded digging in dry soil, but in this case, I believe it worked to our advantage by not amplifying the 'masking effect' of the iron trash, thus making it easier to get those in-between signals.
Anyone else notice this? I might have to revise my opinion about hunting in dry soil!
Knipper
