Target Garden

[RedRockNv]

We moved to a 1 acre space. Lots of bare land behind where I am planning a vegie garden. I am planning a target garden. I have plenty of clad and some silver dimes, quarters, 50 cent pieces, silver dollars, couple rings and a couple nuggets. Before I go and over think this I thought I would ask advise from cooler heads. From the experienced target garden people what would you plant at what depths. I don't want to over do it either. I was going to plant the target garden in the back but now I am thinking the idiot dog might dig them up so I am planning it in a clear wooded area next to the house presently covered with snow and ice. The ground is a kind of decomposed granite. I will be using my MXT Pro W/6x10 DD. Suggestions is what I am looking for.
Some questions should I plant like a row each of clad like 1 of pennies 1" 2" 3" and so on. Then another row of nickles at similar depths and so on or am I over thinking this. To much cabin fever talking. I am in Carson City Nv.

 

[Monte]

I was just loading my crew cab area with detectors, gear and material for a seminar I am doing in Portland, Oregon on Saturday. I have some appointments and am headed out before dawn, and after a nice dry day I was greeted by ice on my rig and a rain/freezing rain mix coming down. It's been pretty cold anyway and like many of us during these wintry times, cabin fever sets in quickly, so I came in, got dry and jumped back on the computer. Cabin fever ... it sure can cause withdrawals and stir our thinking around a lot.

It seems like winter season tends to bring out questions about 'test gardens' and the 'how-to' and 'where to' plant sample targets. If you want my very honest and well thought opinions on the subject ... forget it!

We moved to a 1 acre space. Lots of bare land behind where I am planning a vegie garden.

Living on a hunk of land where you can have a garden, for edibles, is a good thing and planting that type of garden can b a very good thing. I tip my Chevy cap to you. [size=small](Now there's one bias. )[/size]

I am planning a target garden. I have plenty of clad and some silver dimes, quarters, 50 cent pieces, silver dollars, couple rings and a couple nuggets.

I used to hunt sites that produced silver halves with regularity, and I could hit on 1 or 2 big old silver dollars a month, but the 'average' Coin Hunting sites seldom surrender such finds today. Oh, I still find them, but that's when I hunt older-use sites that haven't been hit quit as frequent as urban settings. So, if you are including those types of targets, and anticipate hunting older locations with better early coin potential, I think you need to include other often-fund coins that could be out there.

Coins such as Large cents [size=small](I have found them in both Oregon and Utah)[/size], and an assortment of Indian Head 1

 

[diggerdick]

Great post Monte. I have learned to just swing low and slow and keep the coil flat to the ground.

 

[RedRockNv]

Monte's post was great and I am afraid I wholeheartedly agree.

 

[Square Nail]

Hi RedRockNV, I will provide a different view. While real world detecting in parks, mining areas, old ghost towns etc is where we want to go I will say that having a test garden at home is worth the effort. You can use your test garden to compare metal detector or headphone models, to troubleshoot issues with detectors, and spend time learning the language that your detector is telling you (good sounds vs raspy). You can evaluate swing speed recovery, target masking aspects,discrimination level variences etc,

First off you want to sanitize the area by detecting the area five ways from Sunday. Having your own property you will probably do this anyway. You have an area that NO ONE can boot you from while doing your testing. You can focus on your detector without worry of outsiders interupting you. If it is fairly clean keep going until you can scan no iron or other metals in the area. Set out some definite reference points so that you can measure out from them to your targets years later. You will want some shallow targets and some that provide a challenge. I would go with 3, 5, 7, and 9 inches.

The deepest should be quarter. You want a sampling of different conductivity target as well. A few pull tabs (crumpled to provide the trashy signal sound), nickles, dimes, and quarters. If you can get black sand from nearby panning areas, mix in some black sand for a hole or two. If you come across hot rocks keep a couple of specimens of both types.

Just keep in mind that you garden needs to season for a few years before the deeper targets may show off reliably. Try to keep the targets one detector length away from each other unless your doing a masking test target.
You can do the masking by using a surface target with a 3' target of known position/location.

Go for it, having a test garden is worth it. you will still have all those other areas to go to as well.