Cos said:
I live in Wisconsin and have been metal detecting for 38 years and am mostly a coin hunter. I have used virtually every brand of detector on the market, and many that are long gone. I am a bit of a chicken about asking for permission to hunt on private property so I end up hunting mainly town, city, school and county parks. In the past 5-6 years I have witnessed my annual count of older silver coins decline to less than 10 per year even though I hunt almost every day.
I've been detecting now 47 years, I have owned and/or evaluated almost every popular coin and relic hunting detector, and most gold nugget oriented detectors. I do ask permission to access private property, but especially hunt urban sites like you. The silver coin count has been dwindling for far more than the past 5-6 years, at least everywhere I hunt. It was strong and steady during the latter '60s and through the '70s, then declined by the mid-'80s, along with a steady increase of more modern coins being added as well as newer higher-conductive junk.
My silver coin count is still doing 'OK' when I get out-of-town and work old ghost towns, logging and mining camps/towns, stage stops, railroad stops, old recreation sites that have been out-of-use for several decades now. Much of the access to those sites comes from doing research during the blahs of winter, of which I am sure you get an ample amount in Wisconsin.
Cos said:
Last year I had the opportunity to purchase a Minelab Safari as I always wanted to try one of the 28 frequency (FBS) units. Lo and behold, my yearly silver count increased to over 50 silver coins. I was ecstatic!
I started working with some of the FBS models back in 2001 and have owned at least 5 of the various Explorer models, and have used the Safari a dealer has in recent months. I never had the opportunity to work a site where any of the Explorers (XS, II and SE Pro) really helped me get more old silver coins. Most of the time I have relied on various White's models, until February of 2010 when I started using a Teknetics T2, then march of 2010 when I added a Teknetics Omega to my personal detector arsenal.
Since you have owned a number if different makes and models i would bet that with one or two that you liked, after you got them and started hunting with them more, in many sites your finds (or silver count) increased from what you had been working with. I have seen this happen with a number of people who had used some different make/model detector and then 'graduated' to a Minelab FBS model. I use the term 'graduated' because in
their mind, that's what they felt they were doing.
Maybe the FBS Safari did do a better job at finding silver coins and/or other high-conductive coins. Perhaps it was due to the sites you hunted? The time spent using the Safari? Maybe the 11" DD coil was larger or worked better at the locations you worked? It's also possible that the FBS target ID response seemed to suit you well.
What is "missing" so far in information is the overall coin tally compared to before the Safari. Have you found as many coins? How was your 5
