New, low detectors success rate

[Lowbatts]

Several of you new guys have noted a high degree of success with low-end detectors in a few of the threads and I inferred some ponderance on the value of high-end detectors, let me respond. NO FLAMING!

Firstly, it may be your first detector or just a low-end replcement and you are a new, enthusiastic MD'er. Cool! I started off with a low end BH and had a riot but almost immediatley wanted to play the big hand and get a high end machine. I was having a riot with my machine but I was using it to it's advantages as I do with all the MD's I use. when I got my first high end machine, a CZ-5 almost as soon as they came out. I was astounded by the change in detecting habits I could accomodate. Didn't use a mid-tier machine for a few years more.

But my detecting habits did change and I found myself looking for the harder to get targets. Let me flashback a bit to the BH, I was using it in the park and an old-timer using a then high-end machine told me he had been working that park for over 20 years. His wife sat and read or knitted on nice days while he detected. Another nearby park and the old timer there told me he had been working it for 25 years. They had great finds and often overlooked the surface finds or shallow digs. Those were for me. I found some nice jewelry and quite a few near-surface old coins as well. I also developed routines for the playground areas they no longer checked as they had cleaned them out once or twice a year. I found the rate of replenishment was far greater and attacked detecting a bit more aggressively. That got me that new CZ-5! Then the CZ-7, the CZ-20 and then to the mid-tier, a well-used 1235X.

I have adopted bad habits along the way. Mostly a "purist" perspective that I must dig the deepest target to "win" or the odlest target before I consider myself successful. But I have been fortunate over the last few years to run into new detectorists to hunt with that always amaze me with new perspectives and cause me to re-learn those things that make this a great hobby! Just remember, when those finds slow down, that does not mean they have gone away and you have to lock yourself into a new detecting mode or style to gain satisfaction. If you like doing this, you most likely will want to get a deeper-seeking machine and better discrimination but as long as you remember to get back to those places that got you going and keep that enthusiasm you'll enjoy this hobby for years to come as so many of use have.

Someday it will become so-so when you don't have to dig a target to know what it is and leave whatever you're not looking for in the gorund, but hopefully that's a long way off! Have fun and happy hunting!

 

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[Smitty in Atlanta GA]

I'm in it for fun. Digging anything over 4 inches is work and I leave it for those that are more desperate or energetic than I.

Smitty

 

[bakergeol]

Hi Lowbatts

Certainly you don't need a high end detector to have fun nor to find old coinage. Believe me I have found more incredible shallow finds (less than 6") with my old BFO than I have with any new and deeper VLF I have ever used. Swinging your coil over a virgin site under old coins is far more important than anything else.

However, there is a natural evolution for many coin shooters here. Sooner or later a lot of people are going to tire of surface, common coinage. I see it in the treads all the time. Newer BH users are always asking were the older coins are. They are tired of digging clad. It is not a money issue- odds are the value of three IHs is the same as 3 zinc cents(3 cents). It is just the thrill of finding older coinage. Nothing like the rush of finding your first Spanish silver reale piece. So it is natural for many of the older detectorists to specialize in older coinage and just ignore recent coin drops. Many regard recent coins as a nuisance. To see what high end users are finding trip over to some of the other detector forums. Pop in on a Explorer,Tesoro. Fisher or theTroy Shadow fourm and you will see bust coinage, seated coinage,? old copper, and silver reale pieces. These coins are not common but they are out there. It of course helps to live in the east which just has an older history.

To be honest finding a seated coin when I hunted virgin sites with my BFO 40 years ago was quite a? rare day . On occasion I would get lucky and find some real stable soil with seated coins near the surface. However, in most sites I knew there were there but my BFO was just depth limited(less than 6") and they were beyond the range of detectors at the time(Would love to go back to Ohio and swing a new VLF over some of those sites). So yes in a lot of areas DEPTH IS IMPORTANT.? To find coinage today which has been in the ground 150 years in most cases requires?? extreme depth which is why they sell? high end machines in the first place. That combined with the ability to detect good targets among trash is the key for deep older coinage. For those who specialize in old coinage only- the high end is the only choice.

Again it is not a money issue. Just do what you enjoy doing. If you are happy removing recent coinage or jewelry drops you do not need to advance to the high end. In addition, the major manufacturers are starting to make real quality machines at the low to mid range area. Just look at the Garrett Ace 250 or the Tesoro Cibola.

If you have been in this hobby as long as I have- you will find it is natural for you to take new paths and directions to keep your interested. I rarely coin-shoot anymore- Been there- Done that. I am currently involved with gold hunting. Would also like to start? looking for meteorites. I think that would be fun. Yes I keep evolving.

Keep swinging
George

 

[treasurekidd]

I too am a newbie to MDing, having been back into it for only since Thanksgiving weekend. I am using a BH Pioneer 101, and although I am shortly going to upgrade to a Garrett ACE250, I don't expect a big difference in between the two machines. I hunt with the BH mostly in Tone mode, with the Disc set at about 9 oclock. I find that the audio tones the machine gives off are almost 100% accurate, with pennies, dimes, quarters and silver giving off a sharp high tone, and gold and aluminum giving a sharp low tone, and I dig all of those signals. Iron tends to give broken signals of mixed high and low tones, and those are the targets I ignore, unless the target seems really big. As for depth, while I don't actually measure the hole depth, I am finding that coins will register down as far as 8"-10", and bigger targets even deeper. Overall, I am very happy with the results of this machine, considering I got it used on eBay for $40.00, even though my schedule and the weather have not allowed me to use it as much as I would like. The only improvement I expect from the Garrett are the time saved in locating the target by using the target ID, depth indicator, and pinpoint features. When the Garrett arrives, the Pioneer 101 will NOT be retired, but will be used by my daughter and a friend who has an interest in MDing. While my results are not even close to Onionheads, now that I know what the machine is telling me, I may just give him a race for his money this spring and summer!

 

[lab rat]

Its great to hear your perspectives on these issues! I've been hunting for years, and prefer the beach for 2 reasons: 1) it is easier digging, and 2) you don't have to worry about filling in your holes!

I've had fellow hunters tell me that they have dug more gold rings in parks than they have ever found on the beach. I can see how that would be true as I get tired of digging up pull tabs in parks. A lot of work for trash, so I tend to discriminate out the goodies in that range. I'll dig tabs on the beach all day on the chance that one of them will be a gold ring, just because the effort is minimal compared to parks, but then there is more competition on the beaches for the same reason.

The catch of course is I haven't found anything older than 100 years old in coins. But then I'm satisfied with the jewelry I do get. The bottom line is nothing really valuable is ever found without some effort along the way, no matter where you go. So you pick your battle and get your reward. It is an Easter egg hunt, not a way to get rich, and the fun is never knowing what you're going to dig up next!

 

[downindixie]

I have been detecting since the late 60's,then I could detect all day long no matter how many times I had to get down on my knees to do it.Today I have COPD a breathing problem that makes it hard for me detect more than two hours with several breaks.So it is important to me that when I do get down on my knees the retrieval should be worth the effort.I ignore the close surface signals.It is also important to me how much weight I am swinging.I've been using a white's 6000di series 2 that I purchased in 1984 that I converted to a hipmount,not much weight to swing there,but alas it stopped working the other day.I cleaned the contact pins in it and took it out the next day.I found one coin and it went out on me again.So I'm looking for a new detector and believe that the fisher line offers what I am looking for in a lite weight detector with suffienct depth.Since I am disabled I will probably try to find one on ebay(I hope).Although my income is very limited, finding all those new coins on the surface doesn't appeal to me as much as the older coins and artifacts.