Getting discouraged

[oddgrrl99]

I'm a newbie with a Garrett Ace 250 & a pro pointer. Been out about 6 times now, twice to an 1890's farmhouse. Have not found anything but nails. So many nails I want to scream! How long did it take on average for ya'all to start finding the good stuff? I can be patient & persistent but am I just really unlucky too!?!?

 

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[Sandman]

You have to remember that that old farm house might not have had anyone that lost anything, or someone else has hunted it. Still they wouldn't have found it all. All those nails might be masking deeper targets too. Square nails are a nice find.
Good Luck,
Sandman

 

[I C THE LITE]

Hang in there. See if you can find a club in your area and hook up with someone to give you a hand. The house you are detecting at could have been detected many times before. Start out at a relatives or friends house that you know has not been detected. Everyday gets easier.

 

[mick56]

I have hunted a lot of old farmhouses, found no coins at most of them. I do enjoy hunting them, but they are usually not full of old coins.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

If you're being besieged by "nails", then you're doing something wrong . Because that machine has the ability to reject iron . I'm assuming we're talking iron nails here , right ? (as opposed to aluminum roofing nails or some other conductive type nails ).

Your disc. mode on that unit will pass up nails if you're doing it right .

 

[rainyday101]

Like Tom said, your detector can discriminate or ignore those nails. Read your manual and use one of those old nails to set up your discrimination settings. Also if you are new start out at an easier sight like a park and get confidence up by picking off some easy clad. Your first hunts at that farm house are gonna be tough for someone new who is not experienced with their detector. Hang in there!

 

[Eddie Current]

Try hunting some of the play grounds and places people congregate. Some coin finds will spark your interest.

 

[Peyton Manning]

First of all, your spelling and grammar are impeccable for a Kentuckian.

Second, be patient.

 

[luvsdux]

I've found relatively few coins around old houses. Concentrate on areas where there is or has been heavy human traffic. Tot lots are always good for some modern clad and misc. what all.
luvsdux

 

[Tnmountains]

Sometimes the old country home places do not have much in coins because they did not have much to loose. They would barter lots of times for goods. Try blanking out the iron and going for higher reading targets. Lots of old history in your state. Good luck!

 

[parkgt]

Back in the day most farmers out in the country did not go to town daily; sometimes only weekly. So they did not need to carry change around in their pockets daily since they weren't going to need it.

I go days at a time with no change in my pockets.

 

[oddgrrl99]

Thank you for the encouragement! Rainyday has good advice, I will try that & Jeff Gordon, I will take that as a compliment- a good education can be had anywhere if you want it

 

[Dave Rishar]

Rusty nails can be tricky, especially when bent. They can fool high end machines and experienced users.

To go along with what others have already said, subsistance farmers didn't have much money to lose and little reason to carry it routinely; when they did carry money, they probably looked for it when they lost it. I've had great success with relics on old homesteads like that, but I don't recall ever finding any money at all.

Also note that those nails can mask other targets. If you have plenty of time and a long term permission - and you really want to know what's there - it might be worthwhile to set a day or two aside simply to clean up all the nails. Then hit it again. There may not be anything else there, but you won't know for sure until the nails are all gone. It's good practice for cutting plugs and pinpointing if nothing else.

 

[BryanM362]

If you're being besieged by "nails", then you're doing something wrong . Because that machine has the ability to reject iron . I'm assuming we're talking iron nails here , right ? (as opposed to aluminum roofing nails or some other conductive type nails ).

Your disc. mode on that unit will pass up nails if you're doing it right .

True, and to take that thought a step further, you have to spend lots of time to learn your machine. Now that you are familiar with it, re-read the instruction manual. It will make more sense to you now. SPend time in a park and just dig clad, the coin signals will be similar to silver coins. Try different sites, as mentioned above, too. Could just be on a bad site.

The nature of this hobby is, you are going to dig lots of junk to find the good stuff! You must be patient, and persistent, the good stuff will come!

 

[Tom_in_CA]

.... SPend time in a park and just dig clad ....

So true. Because all-too-often, someone new to the hobby rushes off to the oldest best looking park in town. Afterall they don't want to find *new* coins (who does? haha). Thus of course anyone picking up a machine thinks of the ghost towns, oldest parks, obvious ruins, etc.... Right? But go figure: the obvious parks have been hard hammered by others. So rather than going to junky parks, or hard-to-work relicky type sites, first, the best tactic is to pick a place prolific with clad. Even if it means going to modern parks, yards from the 1960s, etc.... JUST to get a plethora signals to choose from. And THEN progress to the stingy older spots, once you have the sounds down pat.

 

[MissIron.Maiden]

Does anyone besides me not think " the good stuff" is limited to coins? People were poor. How many times have you lost a $20 bill? Not too often, because it's valuable . People wouldn't carelessly drop coins like we do today, it'd be a much bigger loss back then.
I have to say if your discouraged after 6 times out , this may not be the hobby for you. No offense meant. I have the same equipment as you and have put in Probably 500 hours in 2 years with it... I'm still tweaking and learning.
I've found some nice things, but I have found buckets of Scrap metal and trash. I have found nothing of great value , but that's not my goal.
You need to almost have an archeologist gene in you to really enjoy the hobby. It's a lot more looking n seeking than actually finding that never before seen dinosaur discovery . You need to enjoy the hunt, tbe outdoors, accept that more times than not your going to come home with rusty stuff , matchbox cars, and some modern coins. And rejoice on the days you find something you find really special . And it does not have to have money value to be a treasure!
Also nearly anything you find is not going to be pristine. Your going to find things alittle beat up n distorted .. There are almost always The same object in someone's grandfather's drawer that is in pristine condition and will make the value of yours quite unimpressed . The treasure is that you saved it from the earth .. Had you not found it, it would have been lost to the elements .

 

[CoilyGirl]

I know its easy to get discouraged as I am chasing the elusive silver. I had to laugh because I have found pockets full of nails too lately and two huge brass gas heater nozzles within two weeks of each other in hunted out areas. It's all about perspective for me too,sometimes just the ordinary objects make metal detecting so much fun and its neat researching even the most mundane objects.

 

[T.C.]

Keep yourself a brass bucket and a scrap bucket at home. The brass especially, is like money in your pocket!!

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Sometimes the old country home places do not have much in coins because they did not have much to loose. They would barter lots of times for goods. Try blanking out the iron and going for higher reading targets. Lots of old history in your state. Good luck!

To give you a perfect example of this, my ancestors were the original settlers of my farm. When my mother was little in the 1930's she would visit her grandmother for the Summer. Mom said she lost a nickel one time, and her grandmother searched for that nickel for two weeks and finally found it - money was that important back then. The family bartered. My grandmother traded eggs for coffee.

I've been searching the site of the 3rd house on the property - built in 1803 - for over 30 years, and still hit it here and there. I have never found a coin there.

But, I'll make a few passes at it again this season, maybe I missed a very faint signal.

 

[BryanM362]

Does anyone besides me not think " the good stuff" is limited to coins? People were poor. How many times have you lost a $20 bill? Not too often, because it's valuable . People wouldn't carelessly drop coins like we do today, it'd be a much bigger loss back then.

Good point Holly, not every just wants to find coins. Me personally, that's what I like to find (I like that I can get an exact date). I know you, and others, really like the relics. To each their own!