Its hard to find virgin spots

[joshuajbelanger]

I live in downtown Tampa, and I've done plenty of research, but it seems every time my friend and I go metal detecting, we encounter others' holes and completely hunted out land. Now I know a site is never completely hunted out, but in 10 hours we should find more than 2 wheaties..it's getting ridiculous.. Sure, there is the occasional relic or small silver, but we need something more. We are considering knocking on old bungalow style doors, just for a chance to find something worth keeping. Any ideas?

 

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[FloridaHunter]

Lakes lakes lakes. Florida has had lower than normal rainfall for several years. I know here in North Florida there are tons of lakebeds, streams, and rivers that are dry or partially dry. It is A LOT of work digging though the mud, but those old swimming holes still hold lots of goodies.

Let me repeat it can be a lot of work, but can be very rewarding.

 

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[Phanntom]

It isn't easy to find virgin spots today but I believe I found about 5 or 6 today, quite by accident for the most part. I'm currently in the SC low country. While driving to an artestian spring something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. I was sure it was a baseball diamond backstop. On the return trip, I turned up a grassy drive that went along the 3rd base fence. It was in fact an old diamond. I took the 1st 15 minutes evaluating what I'd found. What I was able to determine was that the home run fence is way to deep for little, pony or even highschool leagues, it's more in line with pro distances. Everything suggests Abner Doubleday could've played on this field it's so old. I was likely built when in the 30's or 40's when city leagues were popular. It appears the entire field has sunk over the years about 2 feet from the surrounding ground. I concluded this by the fact that the fence poles along 1st and 3rd, are completely exposed on the diamond side. It's unlikely they built it that way. Also, the baselines appear to have sunk about 4 inches below the surrounding playing surface. I hauled out the detector and took a few minutes to swing it testing various areas. LOTS of trash, but did find a 1956D Wheatie and 1977D penny, so I know the field was at least used "for something" that late. The backstop was erected before galvanized materials. It had a significant concession stand that seems to have served as an equipment room also. What I did find and didn't find suggests to me that it's virgin. First...you'd never see it from the road with leaves on the trees, it's well hidden. What I didn't find was any evidence at all of previous holes and plenty of trash. I've decided I'll take my 6000 there with the small coil to try and beat the trash.

After driving a bit futher I came across what appears to have been an old plantation home all broken down. There's a convenience store nearby so I stopped to see if they knew who owned the property. They said the county had taken it for taxes about 20 yrs before after the owner passed away. She said the county stops by usually every July or August and cuts the overgrown grass to prevent fires but that's about it. It's the type of place that the owners would've likely possessed gold, not just copper. I located 4 more of these, but hunting them will be very difficult as they are all overgrown with kudzu, high grass and almost anything else organic.

My problem now is, that between the old stage road and these places I've actually found too many places to hunt, and that doesn't include several ball fields that I located on Google Earth that appear to be old and off the beaten path. Those I haven't actually visited yet, I'll do that tomorrow so I won't assume those are virgin. Even non-virgin fields can be productive if they haven't been hunted in 10 or 20 yrs....the technology has progressed so much it's almost like virgin hunting.

Sometimes it's better to take a slow observation drive through rural areas leaving the detector home, or at least in the trunk.

 

[bill from lachine]

Joshua,

Here's my take for what it's worth....been detecting mostly picked over sites ....urban green spaces for about 20 years now....most of the picked over sites still hold some keepers if you have the patience to grid them off, go slow and do the overlaps....it'll also hone your skills for when you find a truly virgin sites on one of your road trips.

Regards + HH

Bill

 

[joshuajbelanger]

Yeah, that's kinda what I've been doing. And I have been finding some keepers, such as an 1883 silver vikki, a Spanish-American war button, some nice antique padlocks, but it's sooooo few and far in between, I hate it that the majority of days I come home empty handed. Partly because of my cibola, I don't have the patience to learn the tones like a pro, etrac is on order...but I'm thinking I should have went with the 3030 now, there is always goods to be had in the water. Oh well