?How do you prefer to detect?

[Jesse James]

Just curious how others prefer to detect their sites. My father and I search out sites together at least once a week. But we seem to have different techniques. I noticed he prefers to search randomly with no pattern what so ever. I on the other hand, prefer to search in rows, back and forth in smaller areas to thoroughly dig everything assuring that I miss nothing. I can stay at a spot for hours and cover every square foot. He prefers to move on after a half hour of random searching if nothing is found.

 

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[mr helton]

If I'm in virgin ground I'll go in rows. If I'm in an area that myself (or others) have pounded out, I'll wander around.

 

[Smudge]

Jesse, fewer people hunt the way you do, but the ones who do are often much more successful.

There is one guy I know, when he gets to a salt water beach, he hunts the daylights out of one small section for hours.

Most of us see the vast beach and tell ourselves we need to cover as much territory as possible and we end up running all over the place, covering about 5% of the actual area we're looking it.

I am learning the patience of your method and noticing positive results.

 

[cudamark]

A lot will depend on the area. If it's a known, producing site, grid it six ways from Sunday. If you're at the beach and looking for a trough in the wet sand or water, you need to "wander" in a pattern that will discover one. If you're just hunting the dry sand or towel line and there's miles of beach to cover, you're not going to cover it all anyway, so you might as well cover as much ground as possible and not overlap anywhere. If you're at an unknown park, you need to sample here and there at the most likely spots to see if the park is worth working hard. Once you find a hot spot, then grid it.

 

[Normsel]

If I hit a park I look around and hunt the sidewalks 1st then I start doing a grid from the most likely area I suspect people come and go from.

I did that this morning and hit a tot lot then looked around to see where most the people came and went from the park since they had to park on a hill and take steps to go up and down. I did a grid of about 200' x 150' and came out with $7.11 in clad.

I did a small grid on the opposite end of the park maybe 75 x 75 and found like 2 cents

 

[SusanMN]

Water hunting, I usually grid back and forth from shallow water to deep. Land hunting, I am a wanderer, looking for out of the way corners or spots other hunters may have overlooked, or where it appears to be a likely place where people might have stopped to sit, play or picnic. But whether in the water or on land, when I find a target, I check in a circle around it because there might be more. And if I find another good target in the same area, I 'll grid a large section surrounding them.

 

[richbat]

I hunt by doing grids,just can't go to any spot and search randomly,I feel if I do it that way my chances at finding anything good gets slim.It may take me a few trips to cover everything but it sure pays off in the long run.

 

[gerryk]

It depends on the area i am. Normally i will work an area by breaking it down into lines back and forth.

In areas where there is a path or higher traffic area going through it, i will so,etimes detect the path and sides then the rest, breaking it down into lines back and forth.

If i am at a tot lot, go right to the area around the swings then hit the other area. If i hut the rest, i break it down by how much time i have. High traffic areas if i dont have much time, or break it down and do the lines thing.

 

[dirtscratcher]

I go real slow and try to be thorough and my buddy runs around like a chicken with its head cut off. The strange thing we find about the same.

 

[Jeff B]

I try to grid a section and cover it thoroughly. I have to fight the urge to go too fast.

 

[65chevy]

If its a new place I'm that chicken with its head cut off!!! After a few hunts I'll start to grid it.

GOD BLESS.

 

[hunterbill]

With 5" coil I just go from spot to spot spending some time at each. Hard to cover much of a grid with the little coil.

 

[cudamark]

Whether you wander or grid, your sweep speed should be the same.....at least 2 seconds from side to side. The only times a faster sweep speed should be used, is in a competition hunts where all the targets are on the surface, and in pin pointing with some motion machines. Well, ok.....maybe killing a snake!

 

[team sidewinder]

If it is a tot lot with a border to keep the sand/woodchips in the area I start at the outer edges and spiral my way inwards. Tot lots without borders I just hit in and around the playground equipment and walkways to and from the playground.
All other wide open areas I try to grid.