Old House, No Hits~~Thoughts

[acedigger]

I recently bought a new ACE 250 and I am still trying to figure everything out. I have had it less than a month and have found a Franklin halve, Indian Head, some Wheats and a few tokens. I am starting to think I am getting the hang of it BUT I went out yesterday to an old house that was built in the teens. Figured I could at least find some silver or wheats. I found nothing except for an 85 Jefferson and an axe blade. I need to find out how to determine whats a good hit. It toned off multiple times but the dot kept bouncing around. It would show up dime and go to iron. Everytime I would swing past it, it would show up a definite coin but as soon as I come back for another swing it goes to iron and then a coin again. Every now and then I think it is about to commit suicide because its making so much racket. I am getting frustrated. Is this trash? Is this treasure? It could be that I was expecting to find something and didn't.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Any hints on how to determine if its a coin? I've tried the bench test and even carry a pocket with change just to give me an idea in the field what things sound like.

 

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[schlooppy]

I would say dig these targets to see what they are, that way you will learn what your detector is telling you. It could have been a coin and some iron in the same spot and you were picking up the coin in one direction and the iron the other direction. But you just have to dig and see to learn your detector.

John

 

[Farmercal]

There is probably a lot of trash in the yard with the treasure. I hunt old homesteads and my machine goes off like crazy with every step due to the trash at the site. Sometimes you have to eliminate the trash to find the treasure. Be persistant and as the previous poster said dig the signals and learn what the machine is telling you. In time you just about know what is in the ground before you dig. I say just about because we all get fooled every now and again with this hobby. I have been at this since 1980 and still dig what I KNOW to be trash only to find a ring pop out of the ground.

 

[gold fish]

Dig to make sure, but...

A common practice "back when" was to scatter ashes(from burn piles, and such) on a yard, as fertilizer(so I've heard). And old cinders will definately make a machine go screwy. Also, are you near powerlines ?? Either buried or on poles, they can give you some real headaches.

I have hit a few yards that have had cinders all over them(at 4-5 Inches). I have also hit some "jackpot" looking yards that just never turned up any coins. Try going REALLY slow and see if that makes a difference, keep at it and good luck.

 

[acedigger]

I went pretty slow but maybe I wasn't going slow enough. The ash could be a problem. You never know about old houses. It still has power to it but it is all overhead and I know where the water comes in. I will just have to try it again. I was real suprised not to find anything under the old clothesline that has been there forever. I would get strong hits then they would go away. Or I would dig the hole and lose my signal.

 

[artemis moon]

I've had similar experiences with my ACE. I've hunted a church from the 1840's with another TNer and we both found only trash and some clad. I wonder if at some point there was regrading done and new dirt was put on top of the old stuff making the coins that were there too deep to detect. I think that in the begining, you should dig everything because that will help you learn your machine. Good Luck, and happy hunting!

 

[Murph]

Some areas are just to trashy to hunt IMO. Or other forms of interference can render the machine useless. This can be a lot of things from ground mineralization to electrical interference from power lines etc.

Turn down sensitivity some and see if the detector settles down some. If this does not work switch to coin mode. if this does not work find a different place to hunt.

 

[cuddles17981]

When I first set the coil of the MXT on the ground of my yard,it went NUTS or should I say Iron....... As someone said, dig..frustrating,yes..but it gets better.. that is how I learned the settings of my metal detector. Im not saying you should do this,lol, the hubby and I ripped up the little sidewalk going through the yard and soon realized why the metal detector was reading Iron,or Hot rock.. They used part of the yard for a dump and fire pit. We have a fairly small yard and it took awhile to get thru it..