Hey guys, forum troll seeking some advice. So i found this great site about six or eight weeks ago and it rekindled the old treasure hunting flame in me. When i was a kid of about 12 or 13 i scrounged up the old paper route money walked over to the old coin shop and bought a used detector. The thing was quite a piece, but i did manage to find some silver down at the old church and have a great time. Eventually the thing just puttered out and i left the hobby. Anyways, after stumbling upon this site, i got the spark back. I found myself wanting to detect but not having a detector... The girlfriend wasn't exactly condoning a major purchase for a hobby she was skeptical of so i found myself in a predicament. After racking the brain for about a week i said to myself "wait a minute, my uncle has one of everything" so i gave him a shout and sure enough, he had bought a detector for my aunt for christmas a couple years ago and said i could borrow it. Next night i went and scooped it up.
Ok, so i pickup the Whites prism III and start going nuts. Of course my first couple times out i'm getting use to the detector and the settings and digging and learning the basics again. Over the course of the next weeks i hit three parks locally, one state park with no what i would refer to as "real" success. Not ready to give up i bring the detector on a trip up to northern pa and hit an old fairground, and an old homestead on saturday and sunday respectively, again coming up with nothing.
With an estimated 40+ hours of detecting diversified terrains, and coming up with nothing more than a pile of clad, couple things that look like big metal washers, and some clumps of metal that i speculate to be clumps of sauder, or possibly discharged bullets i find myself wondering... Do i just have higher expectations then are reasonable? Am i not operating the machine correctly? Am i passing potential targets because i cant get a steady enough sound from the machine? Is the machine not going deep enough for older targets? I'm thinking i should give this detector back to my uncle in the next week or so so that it can return to the back of the closet that it came from. (probably not to see the light of day again until some yard sale in the distant future)
I have a good time detecting, but i have a good time doing a lot of outdoor activities. So i'm not sure what to do at this point, and i'm seeking some advice i suppose. Anyone think perhaps its the detector? or the way i have it set? or is it typical to search so many different locations with many hours invested and come up empty? If speculation is that it could be the machine, perhaps someone could point me in the right direction in the form of a good quality lower cost machine, and let me just say that i would probably seek out a "steal" on a good used machine if i do decide to purchase. Things like weight and age of the md wouldn't matter. I've always had a nack for finding value in purchases, but i am admittedly well out of my realm with detectors. But honestly if its not beyond the norm to have 70 or 80 hours between even slightly interesting finds i may perhaps abandon the hobby again until well, who knows. I really love the treasure aspect of the hobby and i'm just not sure what to do.
I'f anyone has made it this far through this little book i do appreciate it, I'll end with a Thanks for reading !!! and the way i typically have the machine setup.
Machine typically set to ignore foil and nails, with sensitivity at 4 or 5 notches, although at one park the pull tabs are so severe i have to ignore foil, nails, nickels and tabs.
Anyways, thanks again for any advice
Nit (Danny)
Lancaster
Ok, so i pickup the Whites prism III and start going nuts. Of course my first couple times out i'm getting use to the detector and the settings and digging and learning the basics again. Over the course of the next weeks i hit three parks locally, one state park with no what i would refer to as "real" success. Not ready to give up i bring the detector on a trip up to northern pa and hit an old fairground, and an old homestead on saturday and sunday respectively, again coming up with nothing.
With an estimated 40+ hours of detecting diversified terrains, and coming up with nothing more than a pile of clad, couple things that look like big metal washers, and some clumps of metal that i speculate to be clumps of sauder, or possibly discharged bullets i find myself wondering... Do i just have higher expectations then are reasonable? Am i not operating the machine correctly? Am i passing potential targets because i cant get a steady enough sound from the machine? Is the machine not going deep enough for older targets? I'm thinking i should give this detector back to my uncle in the next week or so so that it can return to the back of the closet that it came from. (probably not to see the light of day again until some yard sale in the distant future)
I have a good time detecting, but i have a good time doing a lot of outdoor activities. So i'm not sure what to do at this point, and i'm seeking some advice i suppose. Anyone think perhaps its the detector? or the way i have it set? or is it typical to search so many different locations with many hours invested and come up empty? If speculation is that it could be the machine, perhaps someone could point me in the right direction in the form of a good quality lower cost machine, and let me just say that i would probably seek out a "steal" on a good used machine if i do decide to purchase. Things like weight and age of the md wouldn't matter. I've always had a nack for finding value in purchases, but i am admittedly well out of my realm with detectors. But honestly if its not beyond the norm to have 70 or 80 hours between even slightly interesting finds i may perhaps abandon the hobby again until well, who knows. I really love the treasure aspect of the hobby and i'm just not sure what to do.
I'f anyone has made it this far through this little book i do appreciate it, I'll end with a Thanks for reading !!! and the way i typically have the machine setup.
Machine typically set to ignore foil and nails, with sensitivity at 4 or 5 notches, although at one park the pull tabs are so severe i have to ignore foil, nails, nickels and tabs.
Anyways, thanks again for any advice
Nit (Danny)
Lancaster
