sgoss66
Well-known member
Hey BBQMAN RANDY -- I owe you one for giving me the "curb strip/sidewalk strip" idea in the old parts of towns!
I went back to an old elementary school this morning -- in an old part of the downtown area. As I said, I have been hitting the "curb strips" per Randy's advice; I decided on this spot because with school curb strips, I can still put off having to get "brave" and knock on any doors for permission! Anyway, this school has a long stretch of sidewalk/curb strips, and once school is out for the summer, the school yard is also an option.
Anyway, I started two evenings ago -- did a two-hour hunt in the curb strip along the rear of the building. Found a few late 50s/early 60s memorials and an Oklahoma 1 mil tax token, so I felt there was indeed some potential. Yesterday morning, hunted an hour and a half, and tried some more of that curb strip, and managed only clad -- a few more 60s-era pennies, but no silver or wheats.
This morning, I moved toward the side of the school -- I had an hour and a half to hunt. Started in a grassy island, and a very small corner of a side yard portion of the school. Spent about 45 minutes, and dug only junk and clad. On one target, I went down 4-5" and hit a layer of gravel -- which told me fill dirt had been brought in to that spot and spread on top of the gravel.
So, I tried a slightly different approach; for the last 45 minutes of the hunt I decided to hunt the sidewalk strip in front of the school, (instead of behind it, where I started two evenings ago). I could see exposed tree roots from some old trees lining the street, and so I felt better that there was no fill/dirt work in this area. I quickly discovered that there is a buried electric line along the street, which was giving my machine some fits, so I moved closer to the sidewalk and away from the road and adjacent buried line, and then the machine calmed down. I was going real slow, and near the first elm tree, I got a bouncy but decent-sounding signal. Even the "good" nubers were a bit low (generally 05 26-ish) -- but it was deep enough, and the numbers just high enough, that I doubted it was a zinc, so I dug. From 5" or so, I pulled out a '37 D wheatie. So -- I was glad I made the "dig" decision on a "non-textbook" hit, and was encouraged by the age of the coin. So, I decided to hit the immediate surrounding area harder and even slower, and maybe 15 minutes later, within 10 feet of where I hit the wheat, I hit a very nice, warbly-sounding target that WAS textbook. It was 03 29-ish digitally, and very steady. I knew with the CO nearly all 29s, instead of mostly 28s, I was probably dealing with a dime, not a penny -- and since the 29 was so persistent, I was encouraged that it should be silver (which the warble tone also indicated!) However, it was quite a bit less than half, on the depth meter -- so I was concerned it would be too shallow to be silver. I decided it was probably a slightly high-reading/good-sounding clad dime. As I cracked open the plug, though, I was rewarded with the sight of a nice silver disc!
That was especially nice to see, as I was on a bit of a silver drought -- hadn't hit a silver in a couple of weeks. This one turned out to be a '51 Roosevelt dime, and was about 4" deep.
Now I REALLY slowed down, and kind of wandered around in circles in this small area...moving slowly out and away from where I hit the Rosie. About 5 or 6 feet away, I got a nice-sounding tone, but the numbers were only right when I hit it with my right-to-left sweep (occasional 02 29 and 03 29 hits); on the return sweep, the ferrous numbers were way too high (into the teens, though the CO numbers stayed 29-ish). Plus, it was even a little MORE shallow on the depth meter. This was a tough decision, as the digital reading was iffy, it was a pretty shallow target, and I knew I had time to dig only one more target and I didn't want to waste it! In the end, the warbly sound finally convinced me to dig. I pinpointed, and in pinpoint mode, the machine suggested that I was possibly dealing with two targets (or else maybe catching the target with the outer edge of the coil -- I do NOT like how hot the Pro Coil is on the circumference -- that characteristing of this coil sometimes gives me fits, trying to ID and pinpoint, when dealing with shallow targets!) Anyway, I dug the pinpointed signal farther right -- beneath where I was getting the better numbers. I pulled the plug and scanned -- and it was in the plug -- and it sounded REAL nice, now. The classic, sweet warble! But, running the Pro-Pointer over the bottom of the plug, nothing. Uh-oh. This thing was going to be REALLY shallow. Hmm...I broke off the bottom layer of the plug, and finally the Pro-Pointer heard it. So, I cracked off another big chunk from the bottom of the plug, and I was SHOCKED
to see the back side of a Barber dime, only 3" from the top of the plug! It turned out to be a 1904. This is my first Barber dime ever! Great way to end the hunt! 
In retro, the wheat and the 2 silvers were not far apart at all -- all within a large dining room table-sized area. The SE Pro really sniffed them out this morning, and I have a WHOLE BUNCH of area left at this school to cover. I may have finally found a place that has not been hammered in the past, so hopes are high that I will find some more keepers through the summer in this spot.
Thanks for reading!
Oh -- hey Bryce, SORRY! I'm obviously still using the digital screen! I do switch over the matrix screen more and more to check how my located targets behave, but I'm finding the smartscreen to be the HARDEST of your suggestions for me to adopt! I will let you know though that today (and the past few hunts), the rest of my settings were yours -- threshold 10, gain 10, variability 10, IM 22, semi-auto 26. VERY nice...I'm seeing some logic to these settings. I had an iffy target today, and switched out of semi-auto and into manual sens. -- and got lots more very high tones -- iron falsing. While the switch to manual DID help me identify that target as iron, I saw just what you said -- semi-auto 26 gave me less falsing on that target (and likely others that I was unaware of), whereas manual increased the falsing. I'm learning -- THANKS Bryce!
Steve
I went back to an old elementary school this morning -- in an old part of the downtown area. As I said, I have been hitting the "curb strips" per Randy's advice; I decided on this spot because with school curb strips, I can still put off having to get "brave" and knock on any doors for permission! Anyway, this school has a long stretch of sidewalk/curb strips, and once school is out for the summer, the school yard is also an option.
Anyway, I started two evenings ago -- did a two-hour hunt in the curb strip along the rear of the building. Found a few late 50s/early 60s memorials and an Oklahoma 1 mil tax token, so I felt there was indeed some potential. Yesterday morning, hunted an hour and a half, and tried some more of that curb strip, and managed only clad -- a few more 60s-era pennies, but no silver or wheats.
This morning, I moved toward the side of the school -- I had an hour and a half to hunt. Started in a grassy island, and a very small corner of a side yard portion of the school. Spent about 45 minutes, and dug only junk and clad. On one target, I went down 4-5" and hit a layer of gravel -- which told me fill dirt had been brought in to that spot and spread on top of the gravel.
So, I tried a slightly different approach; for the last 45 minutes of the hunt I decided to hunt the sidewalk strip in front of the school, (instead of behind it, where I started two evenings ago). I could see exposed tree roots from some old trees lining the street, and so I felt better that there was no fill/dirt work in this area. I quickly discovered that there is a buried electric line along the street, which was giving my machine some fits, so I moved closer to the sidewalk and away from the road and adjacent buried line, and then the machine calmed down. I was going real slow, and near the first elm tree, I got a bouncy but decent-sounding signal. Even the "good" nubers were a bit low (generally 05 26-ish) -- but it was deep enough, and the numbers just high enough, that I doubted it was a zinc, so I dug. From 5" or so, I pulled out a '37 D wheatie. So -- I was glad I made the "dig" decision on a "non-textbook" hit, and was encouraged by the age of the coin. So, I decided to hit the immediate surrounding area harder and even slower, and maybe 15 minutes later, within 10 feet of where I hit the wheat, I hit a very nice, warbly-sounding target that WAS textbook. It was 03 29-ish digitally, and very steady. I knew with the CO nearly all 29s, instead of mostly 28s, I was probably dealing with a dime, not a penny -- and since the 29 was so persistent, I was encouraged that it should be silver (which the warble tone also indicated!) However, it was quite a bit less than half, on the depth meter -- so I was concerned it would be too shallow to be silver. I decided it was probably a slightly high-reading/good-sounding clad dime. As I cracked open the plug, though, I was rewarded with the sight of a nice silver disc!
That was especially nice to see, as I was on a bit of a silver drought -- hadn't hit a silver in a couple of weeks. This one turned out to be a '51 Roosevelt dime, and was about 4" deep. Now I REALLY slowed down, and kind of wandered around in circles in this small area...moving slowly out and away from where I hit the Rosie. About 5 or 6 feet away, I got a nice-sounding tone, but the numbers were only right when I hit it with my right-to-left sweep (occasional 02 29 and 03 29 hits); on the return sweep, the ferrous numbers were way too high (into the teens, though the CO numbers stayed 29-ish). Plus, it was even a little MORE shallow on the depth meter. This was a tough decision, as the digital reading was iffy, it was a pretty shallow target, and I knew I had time to dig only one more target and I didn't want to waste it! In the end, the warbly sound finally convinced me to dig. I pinpointed, and in pinpoint mode, the machine suggested that I was possibly dealing with two targets (or else maybe catching the target with the outer edge of the coil -- I do NOT like how hot the Pro Coil is on the circumference -- that characteristing of this coil sometimes gives me fits, trying to ID and pinpoint, when dealing with shallow targets!) Anyway, I dug the pinpointed signal farther right -- beneath where I was getting the better numbers. I pulled the plug and scanned -- and it was in the plug -- and it sounded REAL nice, now. The classic, sweet warble! But, running the Pro-Pointer over the bottom of the plug, nothing. Uh-oh. This thing was going to be REALLY shallow. Hmm...I broke off the bottom layer of the plug, and finally the Pro-Pointer heard it. So, I cracked off another big chunk from the bottom of the plug, and I was SHOCKED
to see the back side of a Barber dime, only 3" from the top of the plug! It turned out to be a 1904. This is my first Barber dime ever! Great way to end the hunt! In retro, the wheat and the 2 silvers were not far apart at all -- all within a large dining room table-sized area. The SE Pro really sniffed them out this morning, and I have a WHOLE BUNCH of area left at this school to cover. I may have finally found a place that has not been hammered in the past, so hopes are high that I will find some more keepers through the summer in this spot.
Thanks for reading!
Oh -- hey Bryce, SORRY! I'm obviously still using the digital screen!
I do switch over the matrix screen more and more to check how my located targets behave, but I'm finding the smartscreen to be the HARDEST of your suggestions for me to adopt! I will let you know though that today (and the past few hunts), the rest of my settings were yours -- threshold 10, gain 10, variability 10, IM 22, semi-auto 26. VERY nice...I'm seeing some logic to these settings. I had an iffy target today, and switched out of semi-auto and into manual sens. -- and got lots more very high tones -- iron falsing. While the switch to manual DID help me identify that target as iron, I saw just what you said -- semi-auto 26 gave me less falsing on that target (and likely others that I was unaware of), whereas manual increased the falsing. I'm learning -- THANKS Bryce!Steve
