Has the location been hunted before?

[Bum Luck]

Since metal detectors have been around for some time, how can you tell if a property has been hunted before, and can you tell when that happened?

Obviously, my interest is not academic, but to be able to have an idea what's left.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Cry Of The Eagle: History And Legends Of The Cherokee Indians And Their Buried Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[jeff of pa]

Since metal detectors have been around for some time, how can you tell if a property has been hunted before, and can you tell when that happened?

Obviously, my interest is not academic, but to be able to have an idea what's left.

Since metal detectors have been around for some time
you can tell if a property has been hunted before,
and when that happened
By somone telling you it was hunted and they saw or did it.

 

[mlayers]

When you hunt it and you are not finding any targets. There is a good chance that it has been hunted before....Matt

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Regarding thinking you can simply ask the owner "has anyone ever detected here?" or asking persons nearby "have you ever seen anyone detect here?" or heck, even asking local md'rs in that area "has anyone ever hit such & such spot?": Here's a humorous story, to illustrate how answers you might get for this, can actually mean very little:

When I got my first metal detector, as a pimple faced Jr. High kid in the mid 1970s, one of the places I used to detect, was an elementary school yard blt. in the 1920s. On one such day, with my Whites 66TR (circa late '60s/early '70s all-metal TR technology), I saw an elderly man watching me from the porch of his house, across the street. So I walked over, and asked if I could hunt his yard. He said ok, so I went at it. I recall finding a few pennies, and maybe a wheat penny or two.

Years later (probably about 1980 by now), I had the latest greatest new-fangled TR discriminator (Garret Groundhog). Wohooo! I wanted to try it out in places I knew I had thoroughly combed with my older machine, so that I could compare and see how much better this new one was. Remembering that particular yard that I'd hit a few years earlier, I went and knocked on the door. This time, an elderly lady answered the door (apparently the wife of the man who'd let me md there a few years earlier). She said "Go ahead, No one's ever md'd this yard before". I guess the man didn't have any reason to tell his wife years earlier that some little kid had waltzed by on a certain day, or perhaps the lady didn't register it, or ....who knows? (What did I care? ) On that attempt, I got a few more wheaties and perhaps a silver or two from this little postage stamp sized yard.

Years later, 1983 or '84-ish, I had the the greatest new-fangled technology: my first motion discriminator. Wohoo! I figured I'd try it at places where I'd previously worked, to test its ability in placed I figured I'd worked out. So again, I remembered this yard, and again, went and knocked on the door. This time, a middle-aged couple answered the door. They said ..... well, this isn't our house, we're just home-sitting it for my parents, whom we've put in a retirement/convelescent home, but I'm sure they wouldn't mind, so go ahead". As I turned to walk away to hunt, the lady added "and you might do good, since no one's ever detected this before". Doh! You see how people assume, that if something's gone on at a family owned house (your parents house, yours & your wife's house, etc....) that "certainly I would know about it, since they would have told me". On that attempt at the yard, I got only a single deep tax token, and a buffalo. All the shallower signals were gone.

Anyhow, flash forward to the early 2000's, I know had the latest greatest Minelab explorer. Wohooo! Again, thinking of places I could try my new toy, to pit against my older machines ....... you guessed it, I decided to try this tiny little yard .... again! I knock on the door. This time, a young couple answers the door, apparently having bought the house from the previous owners some years earlier. They say "go ahead. No one's ever hunted it before" Doh!

I've seen this phenomenom over and over again in my ~35 yrs. of this. Some newbie, for example, comes into our club meeting totally confused because he just got permission to hunt a "virgin" stage stop he researched out. And yet, he got skunked. And he just can't understand, because "the farmer who let me go to the spot on the back-40 of his ranch, told me no one's ever hunted it before". Doh! I have to chuckle, because I know that it myself and my buddies who, perhaps, worked the snot out of it a decade or two ago. We got on via a guy who had the gate key d/t he had hunting rights, and that was the entrance he had access too.

There are numerous other scenarios of how this type thing happens. These are just micro-examples. And in each case, notice: the persons telling you "it's never been hunted before" will be quite adament about this. :P

 

[jeff of pa]

yea that actually works both ways with
people saying you won't find
anything it's been hunted to death

But yet you'd never know it when
you swing a detector there

 

[Woodland Detectors]

In a nutshell and in simple reading.

Sometimes you can tell..... There is really no way of telling when, except for the year of relics you find.
But here's a newsflash, You can never get it all! NEVER

If you do good research, you'll be able to narrow the age of the property, and what should be beneath your feet.


Cheers

 

[Bum Luck]

Thanks!

Lots of good advice here.

Anyone else?

 

[EagleDown]

Thanks!

Lots of good advice here.

Anyone else?

Yeah, in about 1983, I stopped in a park in the middle of old downtown San Bernardino. I had just got my Garrett ADS11. I had been there probably 30 minutes, when a cop came up.

He asked me if I had found anything yet. I told him, just a couple of pennies. He said, "I'm not surprised, everybody who has a metal detector has hit this park at least once".

At the time, I had just got up to the base of one the trees, and while he was still chuckling, and I had figured I was wasting my time in a "worked out" park, I turned to go and as my coil swung across the roots, I got one of those tones that we all hope for. Buried about 2" deep, was a Mercury dime, in beautiful condition.

The cop said, "Well I'll be doggone, I guess there's still a few coins around".

I've been to a couple of other old parks in S.B. that I was told were hammered to death. I've found there seems to always be an area that didn't look all that great, so others had not touched it.

If I go to an old park I'm not familiar with, I just walk around in areas where there's no tables, benches, and/or obviously newer trees. When I find an area that's really trashy, that's where I dig every signal. Once the trash (or most of it,) is gone, the older coins start showing up.

Eagle

Eagle

 

[RGINN]

I don't worry too much about it being hunted before, because I know my own technique is a little sloppy sometimes and I miss some things. I come back and find them the next time. It seems to be very easy for several folks to miss a good signal in a spot, then one day somebody comes along and hits it just right.

 

[gmanlight]

I don't really care if it was hunted as long as it looks good.
We have a very old historic house in town that we are allowed to
hunt. Its been hit plenty over the years.In the last few years we were
still getting three or four keepers on each hunt.

Different machines , settings , coils, wet ground dry ground
can change everything.

 

[N.J.THer]

No one finds everything...even if it was detected before you should try it again.

I've found large cents, hard times tokens and Spanish silver in a park that I was told got hunted out 20 years ago. Well during the last 20 years someone must have been planting old coins...oldest being from the late 1600s. Although I rarely hunt that park now I know there is still more there.

Good luck
NJ

 

[Dick Stout]

I remember hunting a park in Trenton, New Jersey back in the late 80's, and I knew it had been hunted before....zillions of times I spent about two hours there and found maybe one or two clads. Left knowing I would not go back.

About a year later a friend of mine suggested we hunt it. When I told him my experience at that park he said that was then, now is now. Anyway I went back with him, and had a terrific day. Found quite a few silver coins, wheaties and even couple of IH's. Went back again a few times after that, and continued to bring home some nice finds.

Just mentioning this because it taught me a lesson. Always give a site a chance...things are not always what they seem.

DS
www.StoutStandards.com

 

[fyrffytr1]

I am currently hunting a site that has been hunted for the last twenty years. I have hit it several times in the last year and each time I find something. No spot is ever hunted out!

 

[Old Town]

Most of my best coin find are out of old homes in Key West. Never have I hit one of these old places and felt somebody had been there first. I honestly believe there is no competition in my town except for a young couple I know who also do land sites. (I rarely beach hunt.) Old colonial houses are what I dig. And I always get old wheaties and Indian heads along with silver US and Cuban coins.

OT

 

[Dano Sverige]

If you find no silver foil,ring pulls,screws and nails etc...odds are it's been detected! Old bits of rusty iron and decayed cans are a sign too.Some people just dig and leave them,too lazy to take them away.