Where would YOU start detecting?

[DiggityDiggity]

Received permission to detect on an acquaintance's land. I attached a professionally-made map to give you the lay out. The house and two barns are foundations now. The property is wooded. There's no sign of any driveways left. Just trees, brush, and no creeks. The light gray rectangles are long deteriorated rock walls/fencing. I started attacking it last week but I'm a little overwhelmed with the iron signals and been getting no good finds at all.

From this wonderfully descriptive and masterfully crafted map and description, do you have any advice or insight on the best plan of attack?

 

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[BC1969]

Many caches have been found along those old rock walls, big iron hit, I'd dig em all. also look for the oldest trees dig everything around them, heck even scan the trunk of the tree. or look for old stumps of big trees..any boulders or large rocks, search around those to. since you didn't mention the age of habitation there that's all I can think of for now. since you know where the foundations are search that and inside the foundation area, I've found buried jars that way from places that had dirt floors.

BC

 

[DiggityDiggity]

Thanks for your wealth of advice! The house is early to mid 1800s so I feel it has some potential.

 

[DFX DAVE in M.D.]

Try starting at one corner and keep working your way until you get the whole area covered in time. You will hit junky spots and spots with nothing, but by process of elimination, you might find hot spots that you can devote extra time on by working them hard. Sometimes it seems like the best finds are away from the buildings, that is always the first place you want to try, then you find enough nails and copper roof flashing to drive you nuts.

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

Me pesronally, I would just wander around a see what targets you get a specific places..and kinda of keep track on WHAT you find..I have had alot of luck just wandering big areas
Good Luck! keep u posted.
If its gets overwhelming, just send me a plane ticket and I will help you out

 

[MissIron.Maiden]

This sounds so similar to me and my experiences . It gets so overwhelming .. I start on the outskirts where the signals are less and work my way in. Another thing I like to do is set it to coins and do a good once over and Only dig the very strong solid coin signals. Even tben a lot is aluminum n foil.. Not sure how to avoid that!
I like the iron relics , so once I get bored of trying to find coins , then I work on the high end deep signals that bounce back to iron.


This is tbe kind of hunting I like to do .. But I really need a better machine and to find a mentor . Feels like I'm doing everything all willy billy sometimes. Best of luck!!

 

[DiggityDiggity]

Hit it up for a couple hours today. Found 10 horse shoes, plenty of square head nails. I then found a coin. I was super excited. Didn't clean it until I got home, only to find it's toasted as hell. It's smaller than a dime right now, so I'm guessing it was an Indian head at some point in time. I'll post a pic of it in a few min.

DFX: Good advice. Most of my luck at standing homes have been away from the house a bit, toward driveways or in the yards. I'll try this approach next time.

Diggin: If I find a jar of gold, I'll buy your ticket! I do the wandering tactic for most of my hunts. I must be A.D.D. or something. Gridding and me don't mix. lol

MissIron: I've been doing the exact same thing lol. My 350 can only give me so many clues, so I discrim to nickel and higher and dig hard nickel, hard pull, and hard penny on up. This 350 is weird though. I've pulled up a couple large cents before that ring up no where near the penny signal. wth? I need to upgrade to the AT PRO but unfortunately my money is tied up in buying a house. So sad. What kind of detector do you use?

 

[Frankn]

This would be my plan. The most logical place would be behind the house. It can't be seen from the road, but can be seen from the bedroom which is usually in the back. To eliminate the junk and go for the cache target, I would use my 2 Box detector first and if no results, go for coins with my XLT.
I can't see anyone caching it across the road, but there may be coin drops there. Jest my thoughts. PS: I would check in the house foundation.
Frank

 

[BigWaveDave]

Unless I am seeing things, it appears as though you have dug a silver 3 cent piece from the 1850's-60's...May I also compliment your mad skills as an artist?

 

[MissIron.Maiden]

So frustrating to dig up something good n have it so worn you can't tell wth it is. I'm using an Ace 250 . Sometimes I think it's just a trash detector .. So very little things give off good solid signals. So frustrating, when you love detecting hand forged iron... I really need to get a more discriminating machine and find a mentor . I been at this for about 3 years and have found some really cool things... But I've put in a **** ton of hours. Usually about every 3rd time I go out detecting I swear it's the last time . I get so irritated .. Lol

 

[DiggityDiggity]

Bigwavedave: I wish it was a III cent silver. This coin is like, deteriorated to crap. Does silver corrode this badly? Were the III cent silvers this tiny? Guess I need to hit the googlemobile!! And thanks for the compliment. The map took about 3 months to finish, after hiring a crew of 10 skilled laborers to speed up the process. I'll be eBaying the original .jpg tonight at a modest $49.95 with free shipping of course.

MissIron: My 350 is basically the same as yours with very minor differences (I think just the coil? which isn't much of an improvement). I have found some gold, a couple large cents, an indian head, many wheaties, some silver rings as well. It is actually a good machine but it's like a child. You have to baby it, and have to read it's reactions to gauge what's on it's mind. Don't let frustration get the best of you. If it were easy to find stuff, everyone would do it. I've been in the same boat many times, wanting to sell my machine due to exhausting unfruitful hunts. But we always come back, don't we! Take some of your good finds and use your detector to read it from all angles. Note the signals it gives. Note the differentiations. Use that knowledge to better your hunt next time. If you've been detecting for 3 years like you say, I know you won't quit. If you'd like a better machine, try out an AT PRO. It's numeric differentiation might help exponentially with your finds and its only a couple hundred more than the 350. Get out there while the weather's nice! Cheers and good luck!

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

Very Cool find! Clean that sucker up and let is know what it is.

 

[MuckyBottles]

Received permission to detect on an acquaintance's land. I attached a professionally-made map to give you the lay out. The house and two barns are foundations now. The property is wooded. There's no sign of any driveways left. Just trees, brush, and no creeks. The light gray rectangles are long deteriorated rock walls/fencing. I started attacking it last week but I'm a little overwhelmed with the iron signals and been getting no good finds at all.

From this wonderfully descriptive and masterfully crafted map and description, do you have any advice or insight on the best plan of attack?

View attachment 1057928

I would work the transition points between the barns, well and house and work your way out..

 

[MrMikeJackie]

Imagine yourself living there at that time. Then think where you would have hung your clothes to dry. Then check the direct route between the house and well. Then try to figure out where the crapper would've been. GL!

 

[Higgy]

Man, I cant tell what the heck that darned coin is. Bigwavedave must have xray vision!

Is it even silver? Pewter? Zinc?

MissIron.maiden - I hear you about the "great signals" thing - digging them only to find they are crap. I been hunting a 1817 stagecoach stop, and digging a ton of horseshoe-nails. They all ring up like nickles or better on my ATP. One of these days maybe one of them will actually be a Buff or better!

 

[MissIron.Maiden]

I think the worst part is that something really great might give off a Ping , but the crap from 200 plus years around it ( nail bits , aluminum, foil, ect.) set it off on an unreadable barrage of signals. I've learned , if you can help it, only detect after a good rain. It makes the signals much more clear . Plus you find things that you missed numerous times on dry days( good stuff too. Like my WW1 medallion. Went over that spot with a fine tooth comb on dry days. First wet day, Boom, it went off like crazy.)
It'd take done of the challenge out if it, but wouldn't it be nice to have a little visual into the ground when you get those signals that are detecting 5 things at once. Do they make a machine with a little screen like that? Lol. I know for crime scenes they do !

 

[DiggityDiggity]

Higgy: Unfortunately, its just so deteriorated I won't be able to tell 100%. I just gave it another wash and there's a tiny bit of the original face in the middle of one side of the coin. Other than that, the rest is corroded. Its definitely not silver or pewter. It is not magnetic, so it rules out iron. I'm guessing zinc or copper?

MissIron: Yeah, those signals suck. I reduce my sensitivity a bit, and move my detector in smaller and smaller swings to try and pinpoint the high signals. If it's still not coming through and its an old site (1700s - late 1800s), I dig no matter what. They do make those ground imaging machines but they are 10's of thousands of dollars for a decent one. I'd love to see a pic of your WWI medallion!

 

[MissIron.Maiden]

Don't get to excited , I said medallion cause I couldn't think of the right word... Lol. I meant rossette.



Before n after

 

[MuckyBottles]

Believe me when I tell you this, when I hunted a family members 50 acres of virgin land that dates back to the early 1700's, it not as easy as one may think. .remember you have to get through the prior two centuries of crap before you hit the good stuff.

 

[Mach1Pilot]

Find the water source, and either start there or work toward it from the house.