Basketball court advice

[DigToChina]

Hi all,

I'm a big believer in learning from others successes and mistakes. Why make a mistake when someone else has made it for me [emoji6]. I've recently had some good success at two Basketball courts. Now all I did was the perimeter of the courts to my swing length (so ~5 ft?). I figure most players will put their stuff down right at court side. Am I missing out by not doing another perimeter out to 10?

Any other tips?

 

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[Loco-Digger]

I concur with Skippy.

 

[DigToChina]

As usual, some really great points to consider Skippy.

Mine are fairly wide open parks. Court 1 has a Skateboard park beside it that I intend on doing the perimeter of but with the change in weather almost upon us, I decided to switch to Court 2 (Bball players have reason to remove bling, skaters not as much). Court 1 has a treed area beside it which I did because they are actually hills and my thinking was that people would naturally put their stuff up the hill where it tends to be dryer. The finds didn't quite pan out that way. Court 2 is part of a larger Baseball park. I'll do around the trees on either corner and based on what you were saying, I'll expand my reach toward the Baseball diamond.

One thing I noticed the last time the kids were there playing ball was that park and the grass. Based on Google Maps, that park was changed sometime between 2009 and 2015 (almost sure closer to 2015 based on the sod conditions). I wonder if they scooped out the sand/chips (removing anything good) or just sodded over it?





DigToChina

 

[digger27]

Finding, hunting and doing these things right is my thing.
The older and trashier the better.
If you think you scoured these things once and did it right, think again...masking is your biggest enemy these things, and not just the trash itself.
The only kind of site that literally digging it all can be the most successful method, even if it takes you several visits to do it a little at a time , several hunts, several hours and a ton of work.

Just one direction won't do it, back , forth, up, down, diagonally from more than one way, every direction you can think of several times and when you think you got every square inch covered do it again cause you didn't.

The perimeters are the most popular areas for players to make piles of their clothes and jewelry, the corner areas for sure for some reason but great jewelry can be anywhere.
Behind the goals should be hunted well, sometimes players lose rings going up for layups.
If you don't use a sensitive detector that can pick up micro jewelry well use a pinpointer on your hands and knees and search all around the area where the court ends and the grass begins...many gold and silver earring studs come loose with all that jumping around and roll or are kicked over to the edge of these things.

Out from that court 3', 5', 10'....closest to the court is obvious but do it all for a few reasons.
When they are done playing players pick up their stuff but can forget their jewelry is in that pile so they can drop it on any path in any area as they leave.
Trails that head to parking lots are important, any paths on the way to sidewalks too, don't assume just the area next to the court is the only place to hunt because good stuff could have been lost anywhere.
Trash can mask better jewelry of course, but there could be many coins around these things and they can do it too.
Got a shallow zinc signal and decide not to dig it, that might be a mistake because there could be a tiny gold ring left by a girlfriend of one of the players under that zincoln that could come in as foil.
I have found large men's rings, smaller woman's rings, chains both small and large in both silver and gold, crosses, medallions and more.
This is what I call beach hunting on land because of the higher percentage chances you have to find jewelry compared to most other sites.

Not all are great, not all hold anything but a few coins and a lot if trash but you never know and you have to try.
It can be daunting, as I said do it a little at a time till you get sick of it and leave...go do something else more fun but always plan on returning.
There could be a lot and they do tend to reload like tot lots.

Some of my better finds from around a few of these below.
I cherry pick on my first visit and sometimes find great things but most of the stuff in that pic were found on the second, third, fourth attempt or more.

Never give up, never surrender!
Fortune always favors the bold.

 

[mr helton]

Lots of great info in here thanks guys!

 

[CoilToTheSoil]

Finding, hunting and doing these things right is my thing.
The older and trashier the better.
If you think you scoured these things once and did it right, think again...masking is your biggest enemy these things, and not just the trash itself.
The only kind of site that literally digging it all can be the most successful method, even if it takes you several visits to do it a little at a time , several hunts, several hours and a ton of work.

Just one direction won't do it, back , forth, up, down, diagonally from more than one way, every direction you can think of several times and when you think you got every square inch covered do it again cause you didn't.

The perimeters are the most popular areas for players to make piles of their clothes and jewelry, the corner areas for sure for some reason but great jewelry can be anywhere.
Behind the goals should be hunted well, sometimes players lose rings going up for layups.
If you don't use a sensitive detector that can pick up micro jewelry well use a pinpointer on your hands and knees and search all around the area where the court ends and the grass begins...many gold and silver earring studs come loose with all that jumping around and roll or are kicked over to the edge of these things.

Out from that court 3', 5', 10'....closest to the court is obvious but do it all for a few reasons.
When they are done playing players pick up their stuff but can forget their jewelry is in that pile so they can drop it on any path in any area as they leave.
Trails that head to parking lots are important, any paths on the way to sidewalks too, don't assume just the area next to the court is the only place to hunt because good stuff could have been lost anywhere.
Trash can mask better jewelry of course, but there could be many coins around these things and they can do it too.
Got a shallow zinc signal and decide not to dig it, that might be a mistake because there could be a tiny gold ring left by a girlfriend of one of the players under that zincoln that could come in as foil.
I have found large men's rings, smaller woman's rings, chains both small and large in both silver and gold, crosses, medallions and more.
This is what I call beach hunting on land because of the higher percentage chances you have to find jewelry compared to most other sites.

Not all are great, not all hold anything but a few coins and a lot if trash but you never know and you have to try.
It can be daunting, as I said do it a little at a time till you get sick of it and leave...go do something else more fun but always plan on returning.
There could be a lot and they do tend to reload like tot lots.

Some of my better finds from around a few of these below.
I cherry pick on my first visit and sometimes find great things but most of the stuff in that pic were found on the second, third, fourth attempt or more.

Never give up, never surrender!
Fortune always favors the bold.

Great post and tips digger27!!!

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[WhiteTornado]

digger27, that is one of the best posts I've read here in quite a while. Thanks for taking the time to post all those tips