How do you conquer your frustration

[Just_curious]

Hey everyone. I'm getting the blues with metal detecting. The only thing of any age to it that I have found was a 1954 wheat penny and that was literally in the middle of the woods. I've been detecting a man's property who's house was built in 1830, and only pulled 90's pennies and dimes. I've researched old historic maps, and gone to those old homesteads, and found nothing. I love the hobby, it keeps me intrigued and the time flies by...but I haven't found ANYTHING! There is literally so much history where I live, and yet I can't find anything. I'd settle for a darn 1960 quarter for crying out loud. I just don't understand how you all are finding relics, 1800's coins, jewelry, etc. I feel I have a very good understanding of my detector (Whites XLT)...amd yet, here I am typing this. I have spent hundreds in gas, hours researching, days upon days away from my family chasing those coils finds, and just haven't found any thing that screams "this is what it's all about!" To me. I don't want to give up, and want to stay motivated....but that frustration is hitting me HARD! Any advice you could give to help me make some finds, and also raise my spirits would be great! Like seriously...how do you become good at metal detecting!?

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[Mackaydon]

Do a field test of your machine. 'Salt' the area and the subsurface with coins; see if your machine is working properly.
Maybe join a local MD club and pick up some pointers --and advice.
Don.......

 

[basssmann]

Just_curious,

how long have you been detecting ?
maybe you places have been picked ?? You need to find someone in you area and go with them... then you can tell if your doing something wrong. The more you swing your machine, the more you will find... it takes time.

 

[gunsil]

Well when it comes to detecting I'd rather be lucky than good. I have been at it for over forty years and sometimes I do well and sometimes I don't. In many areas like where I am all the public schools, parks, churches and many historical areas have been hit hard for many years. Many places in the US are like that leaving only permission for unhunted private property for places to find things around here and in other areas all across the country. Don has good advice to bury things and see if your machine is working well. When I first started I was the only person around here and all sites were virgin and I found plenty of good stuff for a couple years even with a beep and dig BFO machine, but now with modern machines I am lucky to find a few coins and relics when I get permission for an older property and it isn't that often. Perseverance is your only choice, at least you are in an area where one can hunt most of the year since we yankees will have our ground frozen and snow covered soon. Good luck out there and with time and luck good things will eventually appear under your coil.

 

[Just_curious]

I have placed items under the surface and practiced with it. That's how I've been able to find modern coins and what not instead of junk and pull tabs. And as far as being up north (I'm originally from michigan) I would much rather be there. At least up there you have public land. There's no such thing as public land in Georgia or alabama. Also, any place that has a legitimate treasure buried, the gov owns the land (drives me crazy). Have any of you found any caches? I've wondered, if somebody 100 years ago buried their change/money/silver/gold inside of an iron pot, what is the detector going to do. Will it scream from the stuff inside, or will it only recognize the iron?

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[SD51]

One tip that I do to find the old coins... let's say you enter a park that is more than old enough to have silver coins and it's a very large park! DO NOT THINK THAT YOU NEED TO COVER AS MUCH GROUND AS POSSIBLE! Pick a small area where you believe is somewhere between where the people parked and where they might have walked to and concentrate there. Take an area of about 20' by 50' and very slowly cover every square foot. I know what you mean about no finding any old coins on the 1800 home sites. I have had my best luck in the front yards of those older homes. The back yards seem to be the area where they threw everything out the back door. Don't worry, you will find some beauties.

 

[Terry Soloman]

First, I think about my second wife. Now that I'm good and angry, I just go out and start detecting and digging. Soon I realize I'm feeling great, and it's almost time for a cool beer, or a hot, buttered rum!

 

[Peyton Manning]

Hey everyone. I'm getting the blues with metal detecting. The only thing of any age to it that I have found was a 1954 wheat penny and that was literally in the middle of the woods. I've been detecting a man's property who's house was built in 1830, and only pulled 90's pennies and dimes. I've researched old historic maps, and gone to those old homesteads, and found nothing. I love the hobby, it keeps me intrigued and the time flies by...but I haven't found ANYTHING! There is literally so much history where I live, and yet I can't find anything. I'd settle for a darn 1960 quarter for crying out loud. I just don't understand how you all are finding relics, 1800's coins, jewelry, etc. I feel I have a very good understanding of my detector (Whites XLT)...amd yet, here I am typing this. I have spent hundreds in gas, hours researching, days upon days away from my family chasing those coils finds, and just haven't found any thing that screams "this is what it's all about!" To me. I don't want to give up, and want to stay motivated....but that frustration is hitting me HARD! Any advice you could give to help me make some finds, and also raise my spirits would be great! Like seriously...how do you become good at metal detecting!?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using TreasureNet.com mobile app

well, first of all, thank you for noticing how good I am
you didn't say how long you have been at it
it takes more time than you may think to pick up on the sounds, but you are finding coins
so it is only a matter of where things were lost and no one knows that
up here in Indiana it is far between the old stuff, the peeps on the east coast get a lot of old coins

just remember this, "never give up never surrender"

 

[Just_curious]

Since about July. Which really isn't long...but I go literally every day for multiple hours. Lunch break at work, detecting, after work, detecting, time between shift, detecting, days off, detecting lol. It's driving my wife nuts. I'm like, "there's nothing that says this can't be a family event! You just choose not to participate." Haha

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[mindcrime1988]

Lots of great advice on here and I feel your pain. It does get frustrating but believe me when I say that we ALL dig lots and lots of trash before we find a good/great relic. Bottom line......you have to be persistent. There have been quite a few occasions where I keep digging pull tabs many times over and then next thing you know out pops a gold ring! Learn your detector and listen to what it is telling you. Yes you're going to dig a lot of metal trash but that's the name of the game, there's no way around it.

Even on the days I do not find any good targets, I just like the exercise and enjoying the great outdoors.

 

[digger460]

Well I'll add my experience on old properties. They used a lot of fill. The only old coin I have found ,was pushed up next to a tree by probably by a bulldozer. I think it's just luck to find an old property that still has even close to the same elevation that it had originally. It's sucks but coins are probably out of your reach. Nothing wrong with relic's. Don't discriminate the iron good luck!

 

[Loco-Digger]

I can empathize with you J_curious. I hope you don't leave the house heading for a site with the thought in your head "am I wasting my time" because guess what, the universal law of attraction will give you what you seek and believe. Go out knowing your going to pull a keeper that day and more than likely you will if you really believe it. I have only found a couple virgin sites from the 1800's in the past 3.5 years. They were not the yards with the larger homes on the main drag in town rather on the side streets. My last few permissions were promising since they were all built in the late 1890-s thru 1900. I had dreams of barbers, Walkers, Indian Heads, Buffalo nickels and maybe a V nickel or a standing liberty. Alas all 3 sites had been hit before. I did eke out a silver rosie form 2 of the sites. The only way I dug the seated quarter from the 3rd site was it was in a real trashy part of the back yard. My 2nd permission I ever hunted was hit 4 to 5 times before according to the owner, My first seated coin came from where the shrubs once stood in front of the house. The shrubs had been pulled out after the last MDer hit the property. I also pulled some keepers from an old school that recently had some shrubs removed. A couple of other sites I pulled silver from where a tree once stood and had since been removed. Just know that people have been detecting since the 70's. I never pulled any silvers from any of the old Parks I saw on the 1874 Atlas's of the surrounding counties. How deep can your whites go on a quarter or a penny? Maybe it's time to get a deeper machine and maybe a few coils. Permission permitting I try to grid the site in at least 2 directions using 2 different coils. I then go back to the trashier areas with my sniper coil or nel sharpshooter to see what I can find. I'd have to say that there are more MDers today that there were 10 years ago. I used to hardly ever see anyone detecting, but I am seeing more and more, especially after the soybeans and corn has been harvested.

Good Luck and just know it's gonna happen.

 

[Loco-Digger]

Since about July. Which really isn't long...but I go literally every day for multiple hours. Lunch break at work, detecting, after work, detecting, time between shift, detecting, days off, detecting lol. It's driving my wife nuts. I'm like, "there's nothing that says this can't be a family event! You just choose not to participate." Haha

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I can see the bug has bitten you bad. Venture off the beaten trail onto the side streets and back roads. Do a little door knocking. The top 3 rules of finding old coins are LOCATION...LOCATION...LOCATION.

 

[TerryC]

Since July! You're still a PUPPY (at it). You need more time on your machine(s) before you can even HINT that you have found nothing. You've got the right equipment, you just need more time out there. Tnet is a good place to start. Read through the forums, check for local clubs. EVERY city has public places to hunt. Talk up metal detecting with everyone. Generate leads to lost things. You'll start getting places to hunt. ╦╦Ç

 

[Xraywolf]

Tough to offer any advice finding old buried coins, really no sure fire system to it.
I personally luck into them with a combination of research and just trying different places. But "hot spots" are few and far in between, just takes persistence and the realization that most obvious places have been hunted before [many times], may not have much if anything left, or are inaccessible due to being private property.

Have had luck with street tearouts/demolitions, can pay to keep your eyes open for stuff like that.
Lots of guys find great stuff in grass street strips, can be kinda awkward if you don't like people gawking at you while you detect.

School playgrounds [woodchip and grass areas] have found lots of jewelry over the years ,, Beaches too, but odds are you won't find anything old there.

 

[Wrecka]

I spent 2 hours beach detecting yesterday , i found 50cents in shrapnel and at least 50 bottle caps, i told myself it was a good day to get exercise..............

 

[HighVDI]

Another idea to think about.

When you pull up to an old property and unpack your gear then hit the ground running you have how many layers of targets before you get down to the goodies? Even once you do then you have to navigate masking from the iron that always seems to be at these spots.

Old coins requires digging deep, sometimes iffy targets. Usually they're very subtle signals.

Try staking off a 10ftx10ft area and go through it with a fine tooth comb digging everything above iron. Grid all ways and even start in the middle and circle out. You may just start popping those oldies out. You might even have to dig out some iron too. Google tom dankowskis silent masking write up. Makes you realize how much we leave behind!

 

[RustyGold]

Just curious,
You've gotten some great advice from some very knowledgable hunters and that will add to your skills in the long run. TNet is an awesome resource in helping one to gain perspective on how it's done successfully.
I have found more silver coins in backyards than in parks because I hit them more. The beach is different and I generally feel like the trash man at the end of the hunt.
What Loco-Digger said was right on. Positive attitude goes a long way to a more productive hunt but still the targets have to be there. I might add that youtube videos can be very helpful as you may already know.
Best of luck to you.

 

[sprailroad]

Over time, I have found that "Positive attitude" as RustyGold pointed out, IS, a very "Real" thing. Many times I've gone out trying "to hard" to find something, or was just not "feeling it". Other days, I was really "focused" somehow, and really enjoying what I was doing, I don't know, like a ZEN? state of mind perhaps?, and having it turn out to be a pretty good day of detecting. Slow down a bit and don't try "to hard", just enjoy it for what it is. Anymore my thoughts are that if the Treasure Gods are going to give me something really GOOD today, they will, if not then not. I will admit though that at times I have a little private conversation with them like, "Would it kill you guys to give me something really good, if for no other reason than just for the effort?" Hang in there my friend, we have ALL had that frustration at times.

 

[diggingthe1]

I got discouraged looking at all the incredible posts when I joined around 2002. I quit looking at tnet after a few posts, and just went solo. I should stayed a member of tnet, I could have learned a lot and shared a lot. 13 years later I joined back. Probably that goes for any supportive forum. Great advice here, don't get discouraged! If your getting out a lot you will find something incredible soon enough. You never know what's around the corner!!!