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Success with a Metal Detector 101.....

A

Anonymous

Guest
Regardless of your specialty, coins, relic, jewelry hunting, etc, your sought after target signal can be either isolated, camouflaged, partially masked, or 100% masked by iron or minerals or both.
Your level of knowledge of detecting in general, familiarity with your detector, patience, and determination, determines which types of these signals you go after most of the time. So which type of detectorist are you:
Cherry Picker Pete- only digs
 
I believe you have touched on an area that effects all of us. Nicely worded and thanks for taking the time to put this together. One can tell you have been at it for some time but more importantly one that has learned from your years of detecting.
So I and others make these choices everytime we go out. I for one will not spend my time at an old trashy home site digging every bit of trash to "unmask" that possible lost coin. I may fail in your eye sight but I do not see the value in doing so. Time is also important to me and I want to make sure that at the end of my day I have something to show for it rather than a bad back and a car full of rusty car parts.
Toddy is also as diligent as you in digging most signals but he is also in an area that produces 2,000 year old silver coins. Quite a different set of rewards for his labors.
I agree with you that many detectorist may not have the time or energy but would not necessarily intermix that with their knowledge. Some, as I, make this consious decision from the knowledge that I do have, the memory of digging that old site and reviewing the days finds afterward.
So I would prefer to state that it is a "decision" that is made knowing we may choose to walk away from that "rare find" rather than spending four hours in digging 99% trash.
I appreciated your post very much, and as always with post on this forum, have learned from it. I am hoping that I can re-think some of the older sites I come across this year and use some of your recommendations.
HH
Johnny B
 
I hunt mostly in parks and schoolyards. I really hate digging chewed-up beer and pop cans, and I bet most everybody else does, too. It's very easy to fall into the habit of 'cherry-picking'. What's the sense of spending a small fortune on a machine that will tell you not only IF you have a coin, but WHAT denomination that coin is, if you're going to dig every time it says beep?
On the other hand, I can't count the times I've dug something in the 40's or 50's, expecting some junk, only to find one or more nickles laying next to a penny, dime or quarter. Also, the few bits of jewelry I have got were between 10 and 20 VDI, and smack dab in the middle of a truckload of rubbish. I kept digging it until I came away with something.
I have reached a comprimise. Every hunt I begin with my small coil, go into a junky area [picnic table or unter a tree] and spend the first hour sifting through it. I keep a sketch of the area in attempt to not cover the same ground right away. After 1 hour of that I'm ready to get the big coil and cover some ground. I still dig some 10 to 20's out in the open, but leave some for next time.
 
Spent some time this winter trying to decipher it all. Ran all of my wifes rings over the coil and writing down all of the corresponding VDI's. They go from 6 to in the 50's ( yes and even some in the pull-tab range).... Guess you just have to dig !
 
I have often read and when you have the time, the less disc you use and the more beeps you dig , the more goodies you find. And yes it can get fustrating as all he!! digging 3-4 hours only to have a pocket full of rusted crap. Give the site a break for a bit , go hit a school or something a little less trashy and a lot easier looking. Then when your feeling a little better about the 5,6,8 or 10 dollars you found at that school/park go back out and beat the heck outta that iron infested nail pile again for as long as you can take it. Most of these sites I have found normally won't produce a lot but what you do get will normally be worth the while.
Ray
 
yeah, those are the kind of days that make you proud to be a digger.
speaking of old rusted crap, i cannot believe the number of old rusted vehicles in the woods in va..
just ran across another one a couple of months ago, still has the license plate on it, a 1954.
i sometimes look at them and wonder, how in the hell did this vehicle get here, lol.
 
I know what ya mean Dale. I found a couple huge pistons and connecting rods up on a mountain side and alot of big bolts. Guess someone took a skidder or other big piece of equipemnt apart years ago. Funny thing is it is not any old roads anywhere near the pile of old parts. Who knows what it may have looked like 100-200 yrs. ago.
Ray
 
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