So disheartened...maybe it is just me.

[rjeffw]

While I am happy for all those on here who find the cool stuff, it gets old that for some reason I can't. I hunt places where the good stuff should be, but alas, it is not there. I have not found a silver coin in over a year and a half. Not sure if it is just me, maybe I am not so good at this detecting thing, or either I live in a area of the tightest penny pinches in the world.

 

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[Megalodon]

Do you have a MDing club anywhere near you? I also found that on days when I found no silver, it wasn't so bad when I hunted with a partner, being a social creature. Do you have any swimming beaches? I hunt fossils on Chesapeake Bay and sometimes rescue creatures in need of rescue in the course of fossil hunting. Even when I have a bad day hunting, the rescues (mostly horseshoe crabs and turtles) make it seem like a success. And sometimes when hunting in hazardous areas, I define success as just getting back without injuries.

 

[smokeythecat]

It's all about location. Even if someone dug a spot first, you should still be able to pull stuff out because no one gets it all.

In western NC, I would look for contact period American Indian sites and look for the musket balls, trade iron bits, etc. Look for colonial taverns.

Do you travel? Farthest I have ever gone to detect has been 650 miles one way. Seriously. My closest good spot is 14 miles. One is 23 miles. Another good one is 78 miles. Two (in opposite directions) I regularly go to are 150 miles away.

Lots of folks detect. We really have to think out of the box and have to hunt the spots to score.

 

[DiggerKid2003]

While I am happy for all those on here who find the cool stuff, it gets old that for some reason I can't. I hunt places where the good stuff should be, but alas, it is not there. I have not found a silver coin in over a year and a half. Not sure if it is just me, maybe I am not so good at this detecting thing, or either I live in a area of the tightest penny pinches in the world.

I also live an an area that should be packed with relics. Sometimes I can go 5 straight hunts without even a wheat penny. The only thing you can do is research and hunt. You may have 100 hunts before you find that one spot but it will be worth it.

 

[Deep1]

Test your detector.
You detector may not be working right and you don't know it.
My second broke Nox seems to work, it made noises like I thought it should. It would work on an air test, but not on ground test.
It wouldn't pick up a quarter at 4 inches.
It was not ground balancing properly.
Bury a few quarters at various depths, 2, 4 , 6 and 8 inches deep and do a ground test.
If you a not hitting a quarter at 4 to 6 inches, do a factory reset and run in preset and try again, and see if it makes any difference.
When I sent my second broke Nox back for service, they found the GB issue, I was unaware of it and had sent it back for different reasons.
I have a feeling it's the machine having problems and not you.

 

[BLK HOLE]

I know that it can get discouraging at times and even the good ones have slumps. I would double check that my detector is working properly and then I would examine just how i'm swinging the dang thing. I ran across a guy once who was swinging wildly about eight inches off the ground in a big arc, when i first saw him I thought he was fighting off a swarm of yellow jackets. I chatted with him a bit, gave him a few pointers and wished him luck. It took me about a year to find my first silver and then it became of frequent and I have hunted spots the "Should" produce but give up zilch. So stay strong and keep swinging

 

[rjeffw]

I am fairly certain that the Nox is working right, for example I find dimes and quarters at 25 and 30 on the regular, they just aren't of the silver variety. Pennies ring up between 18 and low 20's pretty regular as well. The main place I am hunting is the town square that has been there since the 1800s. I have a feeling that it has not been hunted in a while, because I found a Weblo scarf slide that appears to be from the 70s. It was about 4 to 6 inches down, and had been there a while based on the patina. So I hope that means it has not been hunted much. I have pulled out alot of clad dimes and quarters, but no silver as of yet.

 

[Deep1]

Finding clad does not mean all could be well with your detector.
Target numbers have nothing to do with depth.
Clad will usually be shallower than silver.
If your not getting depth on smaller targets, you will not find silver.
You should test your detector for depth.
On larger targets, as Smokey said:" I could have found it with a pie pan on a stick with a battery."
You should have no problem hitting something like a scarf slide at 10 to 12 inches.

 

[smokeythecat]

After reading all the comments, I would take something silver. Bury it 10" down which is a no brainer "pie pan on a stick" for most modern detectors, even the $400 kind.

Make sure there is some but not a ton of moisture in the ground. (Put a little water on it if your ground is bone dry.) If the machine does not pick it up, first, go through the instruction manual online again. Assuming you are NOT doing anything wrong, call Minelab.

Either the silver is not there, or, there is a possibility something is going on with the machine.

Since I detect mainly old sites, I don't dig many modern (20th century) coins. However, I still get lots of other stuff. When I hit a silver quarter at a foot my machine blows my ears off.

 

[pa-dirt_nc-sand]

It took me 4 months of hunting old local schools before I found my first silver coin. Eventually figured out that these schools were heavily hunted in the past, so I spent time researching other public areas and have had pretty good luck with old parks, but areas that were once active in the park and now for the last 60 - 150 years have been taken over by the woods. Lots of map overlay work to find good sites. Research is key to old sites and silvers, but nothing wrong with a pocketful of clad coins and modern bling.

 

[smokeythecat]

We have had the most success at sites that aren't on a map anywhere. The 17th century house in a field...the washed out and destroyed house from the 18th century on the bay...the overnight Confederate cavalry spot and on and on. If it's an obvious place, someone has probably already hit it.

It is a joy to get on an old site no one knows existed!

 

[slink]

Don't get discouraged it gets in your head and messes with you. We all have good and bad streaks. Another way to do it is aggressively go after clad and use it to buy coins ,silver , gold whatever you seek.

 

[smallfoot]

Do everything you can to assure yourself that the machine is working, but understand that for many many years, metal detecting as a hobby has been growing by leaps and bounds. Millions of em. The machines are getting better and better. But yes, you'll still find stuff no matter how many coils have slid across the surface. It doesn't happen very often that you can just walk up on a cherry picker's paradise and score all kinds of finds. There are always surprises, like catching a property that for some reason, never got tried. If you'll notice the successful hunters have a plan. The plan is to research a likely hunt zone, gain info to know where places likely to gather humans were at the time period and walk your butt off till you find the evidence that you're in the right place. Then, hopefully your relationship with that pie plate on a stick will gather all your knees can stand.

 

[Megalodon]

Don't underestimate the value of plain old dumb luck in a good site. It probably would not help at all to tell you that my very first dug signal with my then new Garrett Master Hunter 7 in 1984 was an 1833 half-dime in EF. After a few years of that heavy detector wearing me out after swinging it all day, and frankly, tiring of carrying out so much silver, I got a Tesoro Golden Sabre Plus. Turned it on and within a half-minute, found a 1610 sixpence of James I. That doesn't help, I know, so I just won't mention it.

 

[Billieg]

Finding clad does not mean all could be well with your detector.
Target numbers have nothing to do with depth.
Clad will usually be shallower than silver.
If your not getting depth on smaller targets, you will not find silver.
You should test your detector for depth.
On larger targets, as Smokey said:" I could have found it with a pie pan on a stick with a battery."
You should have no problem hitting something like a scarf slide at 10 to 12 inches.

I agree. Most times people will only dig good signals or don't wear headphones for the deep weak signals or don't have the machine set up right. I've been out with guys who have been hunting for years and they passed up a lot of good silver which I found for those reasons. One school which was built on the old fair grounds gave up many, many silver coins although it had been hunted a lot (i didn't find one new coin). The signals came up very weak and no numbers on the display but I dug them down to 14" and found them.

 

[smokeythecat]

I was watching a guy yesterday swinging a coil a good 8" off the ground. Go slow, hug the ground with the coil. There could easily be some stuff down deep. Billieg is correct. Do not rely on the VDI, if you hear it, dig it. Found some great stuff that way.

 

[RustyGold]

All of my Silver coins with the exception of one, were found in backyards. The neighborhood is mid-century and all of the families activities over the years, leads to some very interesting finds.
I went to one of my favorite beaches today, that was packed to the parking lot yesterday for Labor Day. I thought I’d find some great targets but it was dismal. That beach must of been pounded the night before as there was only trash, tent stakes and a few coins. I probably missed that golden ring by a step to the left instead of right.
HH and Best of Luck!

 

[A2coins]

Research make a test garden to learn what coins sound like
The Nox is good but many people I know have had needed repairs mine works fine for now Im not a YouTube 1 machine is the best and no other kinda of person that's ignorant gotta have more than one tool in the tool box. Good luck you'll do fine it takes time