Had my x-terra 70 for two summers now(live close to Canadian border, so limited season). I have probably went out a total of 20 times hunting old farm homesteads. In that time I have found 29 wheat pennies, 2 Indian head pennies, 1 1940's Jefferson nickle and one buffalo nickle. Hunted about ten sites and found 0 silver. I have been lurking on here for some time and gained alot of info from the likes of digger, goes4ever, and mark in se ia. I noise cancel, manual ground balance and have threshold barely audible. Have been using 3 khz coil primarily, but have tried the 5 x 10 and small 18.75 coil to no avail. Have tried multi-tones and all metal, but seem to prefer goes4ever settings of pattern 1 and 3 tone. What in blazes could I be doing wrong. Seems odd that in this amount of sites and period of time I wouldn't have least found a little silver? Any ideas greatly appreciated!!
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severe silver drought
- Thread starter north1
- Start date
metaldigger
New member
More than likely theirs nothing wrong with what your doing or the detector. It could be just the area you hunt. They may have none period. Or you may just not digging enough signals. Do you not did all signals? I do most of the time unless I'm 100% it's junik because of the area I'm hunting. I still dig 80-90% of all Targets detected. How about next time you go out, if you have a camera and an SD card video a hunt for us.
North1
I think the odds are not totally in your favor, it sounds like you just need to dig more targets. If the old homes sites you are hunting go back to early 1900's, you are probably in the right spot. I have been reading this forum for about a year now and have learned a lot. One bit of advice I picked up on from Goes4ever, is to swing a little slower and intensify your coverage area...... He's right, it works! Just keep hunting and stay tuned in to this forum and you will find silver. Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!!!!!!!
I think the odds are not totally in your favor, it sounds like you just need to dig more targets. If the old homes sites you are hunting go back to early 1900's, you are probably in the right spot. I have been reading this forum for about a year now and have learned a lot. One bit of advice I picked up on from Goes4ever, is to swing a little slower and intensify your coverage area...... He's right, it works! Just keep hunting and stay tuned in to this forum and you will find silver. Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!!!!!!!
Mark in S.E. IA
New member
About the only thing that I can say to do is to keep your coil as close to the ground as you can, Don't swing your coil any faster then a 3-4 sec swing speed and make sure that you over lap your swings. I know that if your in a farm field that it is hard to do these 3 things, but try to do the best that you can. Keep at it, the silver well come.
Pyledriver
Active member
I agree with what's been said regarding whether there may be something there to find in the first place! However, there may yet be a silver coin lurking in that yard so you're gonna have to do some work and plan your attack before the next time you swing your detector. If you first figure out where the highest probability is for silver to be (under old clothesline, near a sidewalk, by the porch, between house and outhouse, etc), then plan how you will best saturate the target area (grid with mason line or marking paint), overlap swings and crisscross the whole area, you'll know if you come up empty at least you checked well enough to eliminate the potential! I have an old site that I've been detecting for almost a year. The site has been hit pretty hard by other detectorists and is VERY trashy to boot. Last time I hunted it I spent about 40 minutes clearing the fallen porch timbers from one side of the house, then used a garden rake to get all the junk on top moved out of there. It sure seemed like WORK! After all that...I found NADA! LOL! But I knew the method was good, there just wasn't anything to be found. I have two more porches to clear yet on the other sides of the house, also need to figure out where the outhouse was, and where the barn was. Nobody knows where those structures were so I'm flying blind. You may already know most of these tips! It sounds to me like your equipment is set up well to find a load of silver, it's just not where you're poking your coil I think!
I agree with Mark, swinging SLOW and LOW is the key, you have the RIGHT equipment, your using the RIGHT settings.
Overlap your swings, slow way down, investigate EVERY signal, especially deep iffy signals, a lot of them are the best stuff. You cannot rely solely on the numbers on the screen, try to get used to hunting in multi tone or at least 4 tone. I trust sounds more than numbers. When you get a target signal, turn 45 degrees sweep over it again, turn another 45-90 degrees sweep over it again. That will help you a lot in determining good from junk targets. BUT remember real deep targets, MAY ONLY HIT GOOD IN ONE DIRECTION.
Earlier this summer I had a barber quarter and v-nickel in same hole and it was every bit of 9" deep and it only hit good in one direction, I ALMOST ignored it and walked only, but it sounded so sweet in that one direction I took a chance and was rewarded well for my effort.
If your hunting old homesites, finding wheats, indians, old nickels, then there is silver there. You have just not dug it yet. But don't get discouraged either. I hunted a lot of farms this year that did not produce much, some had 1 or 2 silver dimes and that was it. VERY rare for old farms to be loaded with coins. Every now and then I will get a good farm, and that is what keeps me motivated to keep detecting them.
You may think your swinging slow but in reality you may not be, try to actually count one thousand one, one thousand two....etc.....you'll be shocked how slow that is. Detecting takes a lot of patience. Good luck, keep us posted how you do.
Overlap your swings, slow way down, investigate EVERY signal, especially deep iffy signals, a lot of them are the best stuff. You cannot rely solely on the numbers on the screen, try to get used to hunting in multi tone or at least 4 tone. I trust sounds more than numbers. When you get a target signal, turn 45 degrees sweep over it again, turn another 45-90 degrees sweep over it again. That will help you a lot in determining good from junk targets. BUT remember real deep targets, MAY ONLY HIT GOOD IN ONE DIRECTION.
Earlier this summer I had a barber quarter and v-nickel in same hole and it was every bit of 9" deep and it only hit good in one direction, I ALMOST ignored it and walked only, but it sounded so sweet in that one direction I took a chance and was rewarded well for my effort.
If your hunting old homesites, finding wheats, indians, old nickels, then there is silver there. You have just not dug it yet. But don't get discouraged either. I hunted a lot of farms this year that did not produce much, some had 1 or 2 silver dimes and that was it. VERY rare for old farms to be loaded with coins. Every now and then I will get a good farm, and that is what keeps me motivated to keep detecting them.
You may think your swinging slow but in reality you may not be, try to actually count one thousand one, one thousand two....etc.....you'll be shocked how slow that is. Detecting takes a lot of patience. Good luck, keep us posted how you do.
Thanks so much everyone for your advice and encouragement. I want to go out soooo bad and try again, but alas we have 10 inches of snow on the ground and probably won't get out again til march or April. Sweep speed is something I've tried to address as goes4ever mentioned it in posts in the past. Allot of the farmsteads I hunt are open fields and only way to know it is there is to look for the telltale signs of building materials, broken glass, etc. Have found silver in some of these areas in the past with a Garrett freedom 3 and Garrett grand master hunter cx3 so I know it has to be there and the machine I have chosen is more than capable of finding it. I just want to hear the sweet sound of silver rather than the lesser sweet sound of copper. I have researched a few more farms to hunt for next year and will try local school(only tried once with x-terra last year and was skunked). All farmsteads and school were established in the late 1800's. Oh yeah, I dig all signals repeatable in all directions and probably every 5th signal which is repeatable in one direction. Never found anything noteworthy that was repeatable in only one direction, but do it just to satisfy myself I'm not leaving anything behind. Thanks again to all, and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May the coming year shower you with significant finds, good health and a wealth of family and friends!!!
oh I misunderstood you, I thought you were hunting farms that were still standing! I did not realize you were hunting fields.....wow I find very, very little silver in fields I hunt. I bet I found less that 10 silvers in fields out of my 110 silver found this year. I mostly hunt old homes that are still standing, at least 90% of the time I hunt. I did find quite a bit of silver at an old 1916 school this year that was "supposedly hunted out"
have u tried getting permission at old homes?
have u tried getting permission at old homes?
I live in a very rural area, nearest neighbor is 1 mile away. There are very few residences that are occupied and a mountain of them that are either vacant or completely gone. Old farmsteads that still have buildings which are few and far between are overgrown and difficult to hunt. I farm so my time is very limited and am unable to clear areas myself just to hunt them. There are a few ghost towns in the area and I forgot to mention I have hunted one of them twice but was skunked. It has been hunted extensively by detectorists since the late 70's and finds are very, very sparse. Have tried using the small 6" 18.75 coil here to try to pull out something masked by trash(which is very, very abundant here) but have been skunked so far. Not giving up, will keep trying with the wealth of info I learn on this site every time I visit.
Using that 6" coil, run in all-metal, I use 4 tone.
It is important to look for 1 angle repeating non-ferrous signals in very iron trashy areas,
that is if they repeat when you sweep back over them.
There should be some goodies left, even though it has been hunted.
A lot of us wish we had access to ghost towns.
HH
It is important to look for 1 angle repeating non-ferrous signals in very iron trashy areas,
that is if they repeat when you sweep back over them.
There should be some goodies left, even though it has been hunted.
A lot of us wish we had access to ghost towns.
HH
Can I suggest you do some research and find out if any community churches had picnics and where they took place. Old fairgrounds are another good one (helps to talk to any older neighbors that have lived there all their lives to get info not in any books) and if there is a railroad anywhere nearby, I would find out if any old Post Offices were located nearby and hunt that. What you need is a little more concentration of people in an area, with activities that are more likely to dump coinage on the ground. I live in a fairly rural area and I can tell you that we find a lot of relics (i.e., spoons, harmonica reeds, melted lead bits, clock parts, etc.) but very few coins. Silver coins were more valuable than copper and if people lost silver around the farm they more likely to stop and find it and frankly they didn't usually carry money when out in the field, but did when they went to church or the store. However, for areas that had a lot of people at one time, if a coin got lost they didn't usually know about it or even if they did, all the people being around usually prevented any kind of real look. I think that you're finding coinage of any kind indicates that if its there you would be finding it. PM me if you need help with your research.
Sincerely,
Bill in Rural Alabama
Sincerely,
Bill in Rural Alabama
Yes, there is a picnic grove that I hunted in the past with my Garrett's when it was still used as a softball diamond. It has been abandoned for about 20 years and is overgrown and turned into a teenage party spot (bonfire pits everywhere with aluminum beer cans everywhere, and I mean everywhere. I tried hunting it last with my Garrett's but it was a waste of time and is now overgrown. I have done some pretty extensive research and have places in mind, but not much time to check everything out in a season. Farming when the weather is right is a priority and basically work 12+ hour days 7 days a week most the the growing season. As I get older (41 now) my yearning for more detecting time has grown. My children are older now, and I plan on making more time for a hobby I love. Actually hunted much more in college in the late eighties, and actually help support myself with clad some of the time, but supporting a family has won out after college graduation. I have built a collection of old maps and atlas' of my area, so have developed a pretty good idea where things used to be. That's the problem, 90% of it is now farmed over. Persistence and the time to hunt researched sites is probably the biggest key to find silver, but wanted to be sure I wasn't overlooking something. Thanks again to all, and by all means if you have any other advice chime in. This has been a very informative post. I knew it would be with the caliber and knowledge of the people who frequent this site. Thanks Again!!!