Newbies need help in a very junky area.

[Dirt Fishing in Va]

We would like to tap the combined experience here for some tips and techniques on hunting a very junky area. My wife and I are new to this hobby ( couple of months) but both of us have hunted a long while back. We are using Whites M-6 machines. We have permission to hunt on a 200 year old farm here in central Va. So far, we have been there twice and both time cam away frustrated because of the tremendous amount of junk. When I say tremendous I mean TREMOUNDOUS!! A lot of areas near the house, we can make one swing, and get 6 or 7 targets. Most of them read iron and many are broken signals. More than once we have dug up a target, ( piece of galvanized tin) sweep the hole to check and find another target, ( piece of aluminum). This is the case for most of the areas we have tried. To complicate matters, there is a hunt club building next to the house. There is quite a bit of junk, rusted flat iron, bolts, washers, old pieced of tools ect, laying on the surface. I am sure there is some things worth digging, but the junk factor here is really bad. We found 45 cents in clad ( 3 coins) in an area where the hunters seem to sit and eat ( mostly potted meat, vienna sausage, and sardines). They also seen to want to pave the place with cans! I went inside one of the pastures ( this is a large farm) where I saw a mound of soil. I thought this would be a better opportunity. First target was a soda can, then a beer can. The using the old eye detector saw a lot of junk just sticking out of the mound. Hopefully you get the idea of what we are facing. Now the questions!?

Is this a common thing?
Is this some place we should just forget?
Are the any good practices to help get around some of this junk.
I know experience will help, but this seems overwhelming to us.
Thanks for any tips

Billy and Karen
Dirt Fishers in Central Va[/size][/size]

[hollowpointred]

old house sites can be notoriously trashy. try getting a small sniper coil for your detector (4" or so). with a small coil you will lose some depth but will be able to get between the trash better. hunt slowly and really try to isolate each target.

[Dharmacy]

Everything hollowpointred said..........hey that rhymes

And one other technique that you could try if your feeling energetic, is to try to rake all the surface junk off before you hunt. This greatly reduces the amount of time to clear the ground to get the deeper, older signals. I have done this when the land owners didnt' object to the raking with good results. Usually if the ground has not been disturbed too much, the newer junk will be right at, or on the surface. I use one of those rakes with the short tines for the best results.

Good luck,

D.

[Sandman]

These places can be a real pain in the back. The smaller coil works wonderes as does the raking or removing some surface trash. Turning up the discrimination is not the answer as it will mask out the good target. You can also turn down the sensitivity. Most think they get max depth with the sensitivity turned up as far as it will go and this is only good in zero mineralized ground.

You can try the All Metal mode and id the iron on the screen, but the aluminium you'll have to dig unless you can map out the size of the object. Plan to make a day and go slow.

HH,
Sandman

[Michigan Badger]

That trash is your best friend at that site. You say there's a hunt club next door? Now I know there must be lots of GOOD stuff buried there. One of my hottest hunting sites downstate is where clubs meet. I love em; they dig the pulltabs for me.

99% of the people who own detectors don't know what they're doing. Don't sweat any club.

If your site is old and you're finding old tin, there's good stuff there to find.

Suggestions:

1) For starters, hunt just off the edge of the heavy trashy area. Look out from the house area for a little hill or slop...hunt it.

2) Hunt the lot across the street if you can.

3) Now come back to the house site and use a small search coil 5-6 inch. Set the discrimination high enough to blank out small nails only. Work very slowly and dig all solid and broken signals.

Almost all my best sites are just as you described. I've dug pieces of tin and in the process dug old coins.

A dirt sifter would also be a possibility. Sometimes I use a hardare cloth (screen) sifter and dig those super trashy spots right up. You'd be amazed what you can find doing this.

The bottom line is I'd have to actually see your site to know how to handle it.

Best to you and when you dig that colonial coin be sure to post a picture.

Badger

[joe]

These places can be a real pain in the back. The smaller coil works wonderes as does the raking or removing some surface trash. Turning up the discrimination is not the answer as it will mask out the good target. You can also turn down the sensitivity. Most think they get max depth with the sensitivity turned up as far as it will go and this is only good in zero mineralized ground.

You can try the All Metal mode and id the iron on the screen, but the aluminium you'll have to dig unless you can map out the size of the object. Plan to make a day and go slow.

HH,
Sandman

if using 2 boxes detector like tf900 can the unit be adjusted to find only big size metal and not to detect the smaller one?thank you

[gmu4me]

Hi. Whereabouts in Central Va are u? I am in Culpeper.. The property I hunt is also very trashy.. I am usually a cherry picker.. I dig only the good readings.. that equates to digging a lot of tin, pull tabs, copper wire, aluminum cans, vienna sausage cans, etc.. BUT...it also equates to about 100+ bullets, about 10 eagle buttons, a Confederate tongue buckle, Union Sword belt plate, 1816 Large Cent, 1863 IH penny, and a 1845 Seated Liberty Dime..

My friend who digs everything just found an unexploded Reed artillery shell in the same field where I hunt..

Hunt around the house.. lots of coins to be found around old houses.. also hunt around the base of any old trees too.. Objects in pockets tend to fall out when sitting and leaning against a tree.

And like others have said.. a small coil is essential for locating the good stuff in trashy areas.

Good luck and HH...

[Skrimpy]

My friend who digs everything just found an unexploded Reed artillery shell in the same field where I hunt..

I'll try again. I posted and it didn't post....Yowsa! I would have left that Arty shell where it was and called the bomb squad. Your buddy's lucky he's still got his arms. If he wants to keep it, he should have it disarmed.

[TheSleeper]

This may help a little.

Go to a roofing supply store, they have a yard nail magnet they come in different widths with wheels attached and a long handle, made to roll around a completed job site to pickup any dropped nails. It might be worth a try.

[ranger ricky]

I have posted this exact question, one thing I learned was for every home place the roof for sure was replaced lots of trash, so there is a drip edge for this waste, when getting to this house the first thing I would do is try and figure out where they got out of the buggy at or the car, and spend a my prime time swinging this spot or spots.

study the area a little bit, imagine how they moved about, imagine where they hauled the trash to where he worked on equipment, well you get the idea, at least a person might spend more productive time near a drive, my second is & maybe the one i have the best luck is at some time these old places were used as lovers lane pull ins, perhaps in the rush of the moment an item may have been dropped?

MY final negative thought is country people were not as careless about losing there change as city folk, but the postive side is they didnt trust or have banks close by,
and mason jars weren't always used for green beans!