Finding only nickels - am I doing something wrong?

[ruccello]

Hi everyone, I have only been detecting for the last few months, and mostly relic hunting. What little coin shooting I've done has produced mostly nickels and pennies. The last 5 days of coin shooting, I've found 4 nickels - ONLY nickels (besides trash of course). Granted three of them are good finds - 1867 shield nickel, 1936 buffalo, and 1943 Jefferson. My question is, why am I only finding nickels, why no silver (although the 1943 nickel is silver), but technically no large silver, or quantity. Could the sites I'm hunting be detected out (I'm guessing that that is improbable), am I doing something wrong, is my detector not going deep enough (I set the sensitivity to the max)?

Details: I have a Fisher 1236X2, I find iron objects, including nails at 10", and deeper for larger targets. I don't discriminate in most cases (only extremely trashy areas) so my discrimination is usually set on 0 to 1. The four nickels that I found were 2 - 4" deep. I've found pennies at about the same depth (one 1919). Are the silver coins deeper in these areas? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

Richard

 

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[Sandman]

Coins of like size and weight would sink to the same depth many times, but silver being more conductive could have been cherry picked by someone only interested in the the higher loud coins. You have a good detector there in the Fisher 1236X2, I would guess that there just weren't any silver coins there.

 

[ramjet2187]

I don't think you're doing anything wrong. You just haven't put your coil over any silver coins....... . If you're digging nickels, you're doing something RIGHT. If you weren't digging them, you'd be missing out on any gold rings or coins...........

 

[jeff of pa]

Most detector users who don't have much of a Clue
Turn their disc way up & Cherry Pick the copper & Silver.

by doing this they leave behind nickels and the older early indians.
and possably some deep old dimes.

your getting Nickels because of this.

One of two things are happening.

you havn't swung over the others or

you need to slow down & listen closer.

I too doubt they are all out of rang if there.

Trust me when I say Slow Down.
I don't care how slow you are going
or think you are going.
Try it; Slow Down !
& shorten your Sweeps

Happy Hunting & Good Luck !

Jeff

P.S.
Very slow Short sweeps got this

 

[Slingshot]

I agree with Jeff of PA, you are hunting behind people who have had their discriminators turned too high. With the older nickles you have found, I would go into all metal mode, and spend time digging all signals, and really slowing, slowing, slowing down. Oh and don't forget to slow down! I'll bet you will locate some nice old coins scattered in with the trash that is now masking their present hiding spots.

 

[someotherdude]

Masking would be my guess. You say it is an extremely trashy site. You might be suffering the effects of masking, this is where a piece of trash is picked up by your detector rather than the good coin sitting nearby. When the trash is bigger your detector might say this is trash and you skip digging it even though just below or to the side is the silver coin your looking for. Or your detector may be set to discriminate out this type of trash and thus will null or give no signal that anything is there. My suggestion is to try clearing a very small area of all trash and then going very slow like Jeff said, over lap by no more than 2 inches on each swing.

 

[ruccello]

Hey, thanks everyone for the great advice. One question, when you say slow down, do you mean slow my swing speed down, or slow myself down, or both? I guess I have a lot of trash to dig! I thought this was supposed to be fun!

Richard

 

[jeff of pa]

Hey, thanks everyone for the great advice. One question, when you say slow down, do you mean slow my swing speed down, or slow myself down, or both? I guess I have a lot of trash to dig! I thought this was supposed to be fun!

Richard

both

of course If digging more deep targets isn't fun
by all means don't take our advice & Enjoy
what you do find.

 

[ruccello]

I was just kidding on the fun part, but the swing speed question I was serious - do I slow the swing speed down, or my speed or both?

Richard

 

[thompy]

if you are getting nickles, you will find the gold, keep it up, i agree, its been cherry picked already

 

[jeff of pa]

as I said slow down Both you and your swings.

and try and shorten your strokes
It will help cut down on Masking.

when you get a choppy signal
try circling the signal and try
to get a solid signal from another angle.
I have fun doing this. Most of the time they turn out a waste of time
but Once in awhile AAAAAAAAH !

 

[Ricardo_NY1]

Sounds to me like you're doing fine...........the issue is that the place was cherry picked and probably by someone who wasn't too interested in getting nickels. When they say slow down, it means a few things..........1) Overlap very carefully. Instead of moving a 1/2 or entire coil length ahead, try a forward movement of only a few inches 2) Do slow your swing speed, but not so much as to affect detectability. Unless you work with some sort of no motion machine, you do need sufficient speed in the swing to detect.......and 3) Shorten the length of your swing to something that just goes beyond the width of your stance.....maybe even shorter.

 

[ruccello]

You guys are great, thanks for all the help. I can't wait to get back to it this weekend. Here's another question: If these sites have been cherrypicked, would another machine be able to discriminate out the iron nails and find the silver below? There are thousands of iron nails (I've dug hundreds) and I haven't found a coin next to one yet - and I always double check my holes and my plugs. I would think with all of the nails in the ground, that there must be silver under there that someone didn't bother with, unless they were able to find it under the nails (if there is a machine out there that can do that) or maybe a smaller coil to get around the nails. Any thoughts?

Richard

 

[someotherdude]

A smaller coil might help to get around some of the nails but you'll also lose depth with a smaller coil. Find a spot that has allot of hits or signals and keep it small. Then dig up everything you can find, next clear all the soil off the top to a depth of say two inches. Then retry detecting. It sounds like allot of work, but the payoff can be substantial. Of course not all locations lend themselves to this method IE; someones lawn, county park etc... In that casen you'll have to keep diggin up those nails, but not all will be nails. BTW yes you can descriminate out the nails. Here's whatcha do. get one of those nail and set it on the ground in front of you, now make sure your sens nob is turned all the way down so you get a signal as you slowly swing your coil over the nail. Next turn up the sens nob slowly until you just barely audible scratchy signal. Now whenever you here that sound you'll know what it is. But just so you know that still won't help if the Iron nails are masking your silver finds. Fraid the only real answer is to dig them outta the way. Lastly judging by the age of the coins your already finding it is highly unlikely that site has been cleaned out or cherry picked. All detectors work the same so if the silver is being masked for you it will also for anyone else. Although there are some MDs that are supposed to be able to detect right through masking trash I doubt they would still have gotten everything.

 

[radarwill]

Trust me when I say Slow Down.
I don't care how slow you are going
or think you are going.
Try it; Slow Down !
& shorten your Sweeps

Jeff,
I've learned to take your advice seriously and know you know that Minelab.
Being a fellow Sovereign user and in Engineering for a living, "Slow Down"
is just too vague for me.
If you were hunting the cleanest loam in ideal conditions how many seconds,
if you were looking for the deep goodies, would it take you to complete say a 4' arc?
I know a lot of factors play into the equation, but say everything was ideal.

Thanks

 

[homefires]

Nope! Your doing good if your pulling Nickels. Just keep it up and a few are going to be those small gold rings you walked over before you figured out how to do this!

 

[al-nm]

Jeff hit it on the head. go slow. you always have other days to detect where you left off. digging those iffy signals sometimes pays off. A lot i see hunting wonder also why they dont find much. I set and watch them a few nine times out of ten the answers right there in front of them. They will be swinging the coil to fast and also to far off the ground.

 

[jeff of pa]

You guys are great, thanks for all the help. I can't wait to get back to it this weekend. Here's another question: If these sites have been cherrypicked, would another machine be able to discriminate out the iron nails and find the silver below? There are thousands of iron nails (I've dug hundreds) and I haven't found a coin next to one yet - and I always double check my holes and my plugs. I would think with all of the nails in the ground, that there must be silver under there that someone didn't bother with, unless they were able to find it under the nails (if there is a machine out there that can do that) or maybe a smaller coil to get around the nails. Any thoughts?

Richard

Yes

I am certain a sovereign in Iron Mask would pick up coins between the nails.
it will also give false signals of the edge of some of the nails. that is why I always
say slow down & when you get a signal "Circle your Prey"
and still try to dig everything. just in case.
I know your using a Fisher but these actions should still apply.

yes a smaller coil may help

So will a DD Coil of any size
so you can make shorter strokes.
with a concentric coil your strokes may have to be wider then your coil.
with a DD you can make 2 Inch strokes.

Do they make DD's For Fishers ?

 

[jeff of pa]

Trust me when I say Slow Down.
I don't care how slow you are going
or think you are going.
Try it; Slow Down !
& shorten your Sweeps

Jeff,
I've learned to take your advice seriously and know you know that Minelab.
Being a fellow Sovereign user and in Engineering for a living, "Slow Down"
is just too vague for me.
If you were hunting the cleanest loam in ideal conditions how many seconds,
if you were looking for the deep goodies, would it take you to complete say a 4' arc?
I know a lot of factors play into the equation, but say everything was ideal.

Thanks

Idealy 4 Seconds would be too fast.

It is very hard to do this.
If you see me detecting
especially when I start out
you would think I should take my own Advice.

I may make 4' swings. when I forget myself. and
have Fresh Energy.
but try to not make bigger then 2 foot swings with my WOT
1 Foot swings with my 10.5"

best would be only swing as wide as your coil if your coil is a DD,
and as slow as your mind will allow. you can't go too slow with a DD coil
this won't work with a concentric coil. I don't Think.

But I know my Machine. as soon as I hear any slight Change
in tone, blip, null, etc. I immediately stop, step back & slow to
maybe 4" per 1 second swings all over that area till I find the cause.
sometimes I find something else I missed all together
swinging faster. and when I find a target that is
very weak and maybe deep I do the "Wiggle" (I don't think the wiggle applies to
any other detector but the Sovereign with a DD Coil)


once I'm detecting for awhile the weight helps slow me
and I will spend 10 - 15 minutes in a 4' by 4' area
with short 4 Inch Strokes from as many angels as I can

This applys to both Trashy & Cleaned out sites.

 

[flyinguy]

wah,wah,wah! you are doing great! if nickels are coming up, most every thing good will. you are the clean-up man. stay with it.