Indicators while Detecting

[meMiner]

I was thinking about another post and some of my recent trips and decided to start a new thread about something that interests me. It occurs to me that I always try to figure out if a spot has recently been detected. I was wondering what indicators other use (other than looking out into the water and saying - hey, there's somebody else).

A few things I consider:
- pull tabs are nice to find because everybody needs to dig those if they also want gold. The exception is pull tabs that are right on top of the sand. This is typically either very recent or worse, a discard from somebody that doesn't pocket his junk.
- in the water, you can sometimes feel a dig hole because the dirt is softer than the surrounding sand. Sometimes, you can get a signal in that "hole" because they stopped digging before retrieving or got one item and did not recheck the hole.
- I like finding single keys. For some reason, when I start getting individual keys, I am in a place were people were careless, might not have been detected recently and very often nearby will be the gold rings. ie. a few pull tabs here, a little ways over are bottle tops and light coins, then maybe silver and right next to that is the line where gold rings have accumulated. Or maybe the keys get lost pretty close to where rings are dropped. I don't know, but too often has been key and then ring for there not to be some explanation....A bunch of keys on a ring has not been a good indicator for me.
- If the majority of the targets turn out to be nails, I know the spot has been detected by somebody who was very through, but avoided the iron double beeps. I dig them anyway, unless I am tired or in a hurry. Someday (hasn't happened yet), I will find that wonderful goodie that they bypassed because they got the iron double beep.
- If I find a spot that has no shallow coins, but lots of other stuff, then I have one of my favorite kind of hot spots. They worked it with discrimination and left the really nice deeper stuff to me, while cleaning out those other targets.
- In salt water, sometimes really corroded bottle caps is a good sign. It means some old stuff is still around. All new bottle caps (only), is not such a good thing.

I am sure there are more, but dinner is calling. I look forward to reading what others also have to say.

 

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[metalhealth]

I like finding old style pull tabs. The duckbills and square tabs tell me the area likely hasnt been searched.

 

[BigWaveDave]

I hunt almost exclusively old homes, and look forward to pulling wheats, when I do, I know it will be a good hunt.

 

[bigscoop]

These days I always go detecting feeling certain that the place has been hunted before, probably even been hunted to death. But I never let it get into my head. In my mind, and in the big picture of things, a lot of good finds present such tiny targets.

 

[AugustMoose87]

Nice topic, glad to hear some of my thoughts being validated. The park I've been working has had a TON of targets of all types (aluminum, iron, modern coins, brass and fishing weights). I would say 40-50% of my targets have been pull tabs, cans, or aluminum. That and finding a number of older coins (70's and 80's) as well as the old school pull tabs had made me think I may be working virgin ground. Now I just need to start finding some jewelry

One thought I have had no one else has mentioned is highly corroded clad pennies. I know that might not be as good of a sign as the old pull tabs, but since it takes a while for them to get good and corroded, it at least tells me it has been a few years since anyone detected.

 

[lookindown]

When water hunting the number of coins found is usually related to the amount of jewelry found. Black coins mean some sand has moved or no one has detected there in a while or not very thoroughly. So, lots of coins, especially black ones, get my hopes up.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

When water hunting the number of coins found is usually related to the amount of jewelry found. Black coins mean some sand has moved or no one has detected there in a while or not very thoroughly. So, lots of coins, especially black ones, get my hopes up.

Black or green coins always a good sign, as are the old style pull tabs.

I dig no iron so iron there could also mean it was hunted with an Excalibur or Sov GT, or now also a Nokta Fors CoRe since it also can ignore iron...

 

[lookindown]

Black or green coins always a good sign, as are the old style pull tabs.

I dig no iron so iron there could also mean it was hunted with an Excalibur or Sov GT, or now also a Nokta Fors CoRe since it also can ignore iron...

On the East coast Ive found quite a few green and red coins after storms. Over on the West coast where I do most of my hunting I hardly ever see green and red coins. They get black and then start to crust over but I seldom see them turn red or green on the West side.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

On the East coast Ive found quite a few green and red coins after storms. Over on the West coast where I do most of my hunting I hardly ever see green and red coins. They get black and then start to crust over but I seldom see them turn red or green on the West side.

We get them on the east coast.

 

[RustyGold]

Funny, old pull tabs and older clad get my hopes up!
Happened today!

 

[meMiner]

Great responses! Another thought, when I find coins and bottle tops that are really crusted with black, I find going a little bit deeper (out into the ocean) to be the trick. My guess is when they deteriorate, the iron is taken out and they get much lighter. A small move makes all the difference.

 

[Higgy]

Thank you for starting this thread, Placergold. For me, its kind of like being a fly on the wall where a bunch of veteran beach hunters are sitting around the woodstove and trading thoughts. Salt beaches are 1.5 hours away for me, so beach hunting is not easily accessible. I guess I'm saying that I want to hunt saltwater beaches, and eventually I will. When I do, I will surely be successful because of threads like this. Thanks to all of you for your good advice!

 

[meMiner]

Higgy. Thanks for the kind words. I have to fly to get to the ocean. I was an airline employee when I was younger, so the cost to get away was not a problem, but lack of vacation was. Now, the limiting factor is the cost of travel, plus I bring along my wife and daughter. I have found gold on in the dry and in fresh water, but nothing has been better than some of the fine sand, salt water beaches (at about neck deep). I am jealous of the folks who can do this year round. The nice thing about this forum is the friendly and knowledgeable people.

When I first started out detecting, I had a huge learning curve - wondering what I was doing wrong or how best to be effective.

I still remember one trip, where I had no idea how good things were and failed to take full advantage. The sand was normally within one foot of the top of a concrete pier. On this trip, it was down about 7 feet. I was getting so many signals in the water, that I only focused on the ones that were repeatable and might be gold. No matter what I tried, I was getting a coin or silver ring in the scoop almost every time I dug, trying to find the "gold" target. It was a three day trip and I bet I only detected about 3-4 hours in total, collecting a half dozen rings. I was so new to detecting that I did not realize this was not normal. In fact, when I got back home, I had a tech replace the 10 inch coil with a smaller coil, so I could better isolate and pinpoint the targets. I went back to that spot at least a dozen more times over the years and the sand was always back up to the top of the pier and targets far fewer. I always got something nice there, but what I wouldn't give to have another window of opportunity like that!