Chris(SoCenWI)
Well-known member
Hello again.
I mentioned a month or so ago that there was road construction going on in my neighborhood and thought this would be a convenient time to experiment..... Try hunting the length of the project before it is dug up and then again as they start moving dirt.
This has not been an exhaustive scientific test. It has been hard going, lots of junk, power line EMI everywhere, very dry conditions, etc. I've given both sides of the road a going over with disappointing results, the lack of even modern silver and wheaties tells me it been gone over in the past. I think it has been so dry that the usual explorer advantage has been largely negated. I'm having a tough time getting signals beyond four five inches, only can run the sensitivity at about 18 or so.
Today was a little better, been working on the last block and finally hit a patch that behaved as it should, about a dozen wheaties or so. This is what I would have expected the whole length of the project. Usually if you get wheats and newer silver you can assume that there is older down below, but the tough conditions and trash may make them difficult to reach.
They are almost done digging out the drives and sidewalks and I have pretty much hit them all. I watched them remove the side walks and saw that after they slide out the concrete they take another 6-8" of dirt to make room for gravel under the new cement, pretty much means most of the productive dirt ends up in the landfill. Oh well.
I popped out this Walker from in the dirt, not sure it was under the walk or I had just plain missed it before. The upper right hand coin is a barber dime that must have been in a fire. I had to stare at this for quite awhile to identify, first thought it might have been a 1943 penny because the silver color where I ric'd it. Finally made out enough detail to recoginize it as a barber. Nothing seems to help clean it. Other finds are a 1912 boy scout token and a 1917 canadian cent.
They are going to eventually widen the street and take a few more feet on either side of the road. I'll keep at it but I'm as convinced as ever that we leave much more in the ground than we find because of target masking, and in this case with having to run low sensitivity in dry ground probably just plain and simple not getting enough depth.
Construction is fun and frustrating. Because the dirt has been turned never know if that signal is a IH or a zinc, or even to tell a clad quarter from silver.
Chris
I mentioned a month or so ago that there was road construction going on in my neighborhood and thought this would be a convenient time to experiment..... Try hunting the length of the project before it is dug up and then again as they start moving dirt.
This has not been an exhaustive scientific test. It has been hard going, lots of junk, power line EMI everywhere, very dry conditions, etc. I've given both sides of the road a going over with disappointing results, the lack of even modern silver and wheaties tells me it been gone over in the past. I think it has been so dry that the usual explorer advantage has been largely negated. I'm having a tough time getting signals beyond four five inches, only can run the sensitivity at about 18 or so.
Today was a little better, been working on the last block and finally hit a patch that behaved as it should, about a dozen wheaties or so. This is what I would have expected the whole length of the project. Usually if you get wheats and newer silver you can assume that there is older down below, but the tough conditions and trash may make them difficult to reach.
They are almost done digging out the drives and sidewalks and I have pretty much hit them all. I watched them remove the side walks and saw that after they slide out the concrete they take another 6-8" of dirt to make room for gravel under the new cement, pretty much means most of the productive dirt ends up in the landfill. Oh well.
I popped out this Walker from in the dirt, not sure it was under the walk or I had just plain missed it before. The upper right hand coin is a barber dime that must have been in a fire. I had to stare at this for quite awhile to identify, first thought it might have been a 1943 penny because the silver color where I ric'd it. Finally made out enough detail to recoginize it as a barber. Nothing seems to help clean it. Other finds are a 1912 boy scout token and a 1917 canadian cent.
They are going to eventually widen the street and take a few more feet on either side of the road. I'll keep at it but I'm as convinced as ever that we leave much more in the ground than we find because of target masking, and in this case with having to run low sensitivity in dry ground probably just plain and simple not getting enough depth.
Construction is fun and frustrating. Because the dirt has been turned never know if that signal is a IH or a zinc, or even to tell a clad quarter from silver.
Chris