Hitting old city swimmimg pool

[RobSFRD]

Checking an old municipal swimmimg pool tomorrow, lot of grassy areas where people sunbathed, been fenced off since closing, don't believe anyone has been there yet.

 

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[The Governor]

Check to see (ask) if there have been any rinse stations too. Believe it or not, people would have their fresh clothing close to these rinse stations and drop them right on the ground as they headed out. What I mean by rinse stations are like the areas close to the ocean you can use to get all the salt and other gunk off yourself before heading inland. Some areas had them, many didn't.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Just wondering why you think no ones hit it yet? Unless there are no hobbyists in your area (or unless it's new enough that others didn't like it d/t lack of potential for oldies), then .... odds are .... it's been hit.

I hear this in my area often, from someone(s) who get into detecting. They go out to a school or park or whatever, and think "I don't think anyone's ever hit this". And their rationale is simply that .... they've never seen anyone. For example: one time I was working a yard of a home across the street from an elementary school blt. in the 1920s. The homeowner had let me try their yard. As we were chatting, she asked me: Have you considered trying the school yard (pointing her finger to across the street). She said "I've lived here 25 yrs, and never seen anyone try there". Funny thing was, is I knew for a fact that the school had been pounded to smithereens since the advents of detectors in the 1960s

 

[jeff of pa]

Fence around it , Hopefully they always turned people down
Talk to a municipal employee. ask for permission & good luck !
these places always produce. even if you ain't the first.

Start in the corners , any place Blankets get layed, Blankets = Jewelry laying on them
and forgotten about last second when the blankets are grabbed,
& flung or stepped on & kicked.

check as close to the fence as you can., inside & out. Fences = jewelry from blankets being flung and being stopped or flying through. Fence posts = spots to lay that favorite ring, till the end of the day. & hopefully forgotten.

do not let foil & Can tabs in the Ground (foil = thin High grade 18 k gold & diamond rings ;
Tabs = 10 K & 14 K class rings etc. ) trees = kids being bad trying to climb, swing from... , etc.

 

[RobSFRD]

Another fireman and me searched it today, don't think it was hit, going again. Thanks for advice.

 

[mrwilburino]

There's an easy way to tell if an old area like that has been detected before: If it has not been detected you will find plenty of silver. No doubt about it. If you find little or no silver then it has been detected; probably many times.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Mr- wilburino is right : abundance of clad doesn't mean it hasn't been hit . Hardcore hunters of yesteryear and today will oftentime pass shallow clad and go only for the deepies . And then add a decade of recent clad drops, & you could have a hard-hit area ..... yet with lots of clad . I can think of parks where I could rack up 100 easy clad, yet slim chances of finding silver there nowadays.

 

[RobSFRD]

Mr- wilburino is right : abundance of clad doesn't mean it hasn't been hit . Hardcore hunters of yesteryear and today will oftentime pass shallow clad and go only for the deepies . And then add a decade of recent clad drops, & you could have a hard-hit area ..... yet with lots of clad . I can think of parks where Icould rack up 100 easy clad, yet slim chances of finding silver there nowadays.

So what about clad 4-6 inches, is there silver? How could someone not dig 4-6 inch, would silver be deeper? Are these hardcore hunters finding silver deeper than that? Just trying to figure out, because I found clad pretty deep.

 

[Jason in Enid]

Clad can get deep fast if the ground is watered and fertilized often. How old is this pool? Are you sure it's old enough to have silver? Don't forget the fact that metal detecting has been around as a hobby since 1950s. It started to be come really popular in the 1960s. Are SURE someone in the 60s or 70s or 80s hasn't pounded that site?

 

[RobSFRD]

I think it dates back to the early 60's. it was used until recently, still a fence around it, I got access through my job. We did find one good piece of jewelry and hunted about 1/50th of the area. Tons of clad from 60-70's in a few hours. No silver coins yet, but I don't know how someone could have picked out all the silver and bypassed all the clad. Alot of the silver rings up in same zone as clad.

 

[Jason in Enid]

If it wasn't opened until the early 60s you will probably not find very much in the way of silver coins. The good news is that if it hasn't been hunted you should pull a TON of clad and probably a good amount of gold and silver jewelry too.

 

[RobSFRD]

Clad is there in droves, hope we find some more jewelry. I am hoping that people who went there in the 60's and 70's were still carrying change from the 50's and early 60's. I was just confused how someone said there can be tons of clad but the silver coins were picked through by seasoned detectorist. I don't see how that would be possible. The silver ring we found rings and registers like a clad dime.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

I think it dates back to the early 60's. it was used until recently, still a fence around it, I got access through my job. We did find one good piece of jewelry and hunted about 1/50th of the area. Tons of clad from 60-70's in a few hours. No silver coins yet, but I don't know how someone could have picked out all the silver and bypassed all the clad. Alot of the silver rings up in same zone as clad.

Ah, early 1960s origination date, eh? Then forget what I said about yester-year hunters anyhow. Because odds are, you're right: The silver that would possibly be there from the meager few years of circulation (1961, 62, 63, etc...), you're right: probably not much depth difference (albeit another added inch only), when compared to the 1965, 66, etc... pennies and dimes. Not likely this was hit hard for its silver (even if assuming your area had hobbyists 10, 20, and 30 years ago). Reason is, back when pickens were easy, and sites were abundant (the "silver rush" years of the late 1970s to 1980s), most of us poo-pooed something as "new" as the "early 1960s". So, sure, you might find early '60s loss silver (a roosie, a washington, a war nickel, woohoo). But hardly the place I'd fiddle with if silver were my goal (d/t I don't like to wade through that much clad).

But Jason's got a good point: since it's distinctly for swimming, you can bet the jewelry ratio is going to be higher there. If people lounged out the grass sun-bathing, near/by the pool, then your jewelry ratios would go up. Because of the human nature factor of people taking off their jewelry for "safe-keeping", before they swim. They do silly things like hide it in their shoe, or under their beach blanket, etc.. And then ... you guess it, it gets flipped over, lost, etc... Also their lathering up with slippery suntan lotion, coming out of cool waters which just shrank their fingers, etc... All recipes for upping jewelry losses.

So, if the foil and tabs ratio isn't that bad, you might consider chasing those low conductor. But if I'm wrong, and the tabs and foil ratio is punishingly bad, then .... I'd probably stick to sandy beaches for my jewelry, rather than trying to dig 1000 holes in turf for each gold ring.

So you've got a mixed bag there, that only you can decide, based on your ratios, patience, etc... Perhaps holes isn't an issue, since, as you say, the place is abandoned (so not an issue to ruffle up massive amounts of soil, etc..., eh?)

 

[RobSFRD]

Tom, great points. It got to the point today where clad was everywhere u swung. I have an AT pro and it got to the point where I started to think "should I just dig signals in the 50's range" which is gold, then my buddy found a silver ring with two diamonds which looks and sounds like a clad dime on the AT. So I dug everything. Surprisingly, we found virtually no trash.