What Would You Experts Do?

[catherine1]

Just started MD again. I have been MD at a 1813 home, and have not found a lot of old coins with around 20 hrs. of searching. I am using a White 5900 Di Pro with a Deepscan 950 disc. The oldest coin finds are a 1944 quarter and a 1902 Indian Head both found around 4 inches. I am missing about one hundred years of coins mathematically. Should I clean out the yard of trash signals and then go back and then search the weak signals. Or do I need to get a better detector?

 

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[swund1703]

What machine are you using with what settings?

 

[swund1703]

Never mind. I read the rest of your post. I would look I to your settings and see if you can find some way to distinguish tones between iron and everything else. Being 1800s just dig everything else. It could be cool.

 

[catherine1]

I use the White machine as posted. The settings are 7 Disc. GEB 8. And everything else on P.

 

[catherine1]

Thanks for the help 1703. Was hoping it wasn't the detector. However when you find tabs at 3 inches it makes you wonder. I did find a 1939 dog tag that my girlfriend considers my best find! Go figure. LOL. I think its all about the tones like you said. With the settings I have about eliminated all the iron/nails.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

reply

Just started MD again. I have been MD at a 1813 home, and have not found a lot of old coins with around 20 hrs. of searching. I am using a White 5900 Di Pro with a Deepscan 950 disc. The oldest coin finds are a 1944 quarter and a 1902 Indian Head both found around 4 inches. I am missing about one hundred years of coins mathematically. Should I clean out the yard of trash signals and then go back and then search the weak signals. Or do I need to get a better detector?

I am guessing that you are asking about the possible need for a "better detector", because you surmise that older coins might be deeper, right? D/t the tendancy for older coins to be deeper (particularly in un-disturbed turf, where depth does seem to be correlated for age).

But based on your info. here, I do not think a deeper seeking detector is going to crack this mystery. The reason is: When you say "4 inches", was the depth on those 2 older coins, that is "telling". Because the Whites 5900 (assuming you are using it correctly) , is already easily capable of doing 7 .... or even 8" on a coin. So that tells me that needing to go deeper than "4 inches", is ALREADY a capability at your finger tips (assuming you are using it correctly).

There is no auto track on that 5900, so it's very important that you balance it to a spot where there's no metal. Even if it means walking across the street to an empty field (where no structures ever stood), and THEN coming back into your yard. (Because ground minerals are not likely to chance just crossing the street). The Whites Eagle was another such machine which .... although it had auto-track, tracked VERY poorly (IMHO). So I would find that my depth would/could vary, just by re-ground-balancing every now and then, to make sure I was dialed in (and hadn't un-knowingly balanced to a small metal object, which the machine now thinks is part of the ground mineral matrix), or drifted d/t minerals change as I go to another end of a park closer to water, etc....

Are you getting junk items deeper than 4"? or is 4" where all items have "stopped".

Is the yard very junky?

Just because a yard is super old, and/or "never been hunted", doesn't mean it'll necesarrily be good hunting. I used to hunt a LOT of yards. I'd literally start at one end of the block of a row of old homes, and go house to house knocking on doors for permission. And one thing I noticed, is that even though every single house on the block might date to the 1920s (for instance), that results could vary MUCH between yards. One yard might be a bunch of clad, and a single wheatie. Another yard might be 7 or 10 oldies, with only a single clad. One yard junky, the next yard not, etc...

So it all depends on the demographics the persons @ the houses in the different eras. Did they have kids? How did they use their yards? For trash burn pits and working on cars pulled up on to the grass (littering the yard with chrome and wire scrap, auto-doo-hickeys, etc...

Example: There's a country yard near me, where it's known that an 1860s/70s stage stop stood. It was very colorful with lots of history and traffic. So you would THINK that it's a no-brainer that coins would be there, right? But unfortunately, the residents that were in the modern home that sits nearby there now, kept chickens in the yard and goat pens and such, all during the 1950s and '60s. And to feed them, they'd often time just take all the kitchen scraps out into the yard, so the chickens can pick at it. That included a lot of kitchen litter type stuff that got thrown out with that (foil, etc...). Also, since it was a country yard, they apparently used burn barrels. Then every once in awhile, just spread the ashes about to get rid of them. All that burnt metal debri is now all over. To find any stage era coins at all, we had to flat shovel out areas down to 8" deep, then turn on our detectors, to detect.

So what I'm trying to say is, yards vary. It might just be that your particular yard, despite the age, just isn't a productive one. Without being there to see what you're doing, what signals your chasing, how you've set the machine, etc.... it's hard to say. I just know that the 5900 can go deeper than 4"

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Someone might come on and make the observation that the disc. setting of "7", will mean that you might miss some low conductors. That allows tabs to still come in, yet, knocks out foil. Naturally this means you'll miss a small gold ring (and perhaps nickels too?), but ..... again ... you can still exceed 4" in depth on a coin, so I don't think this is solely the reason you're not getting older coins, is "too much disc.".

 

[catherine1]

Thanks for the info Tom. You are right about the different areas producing more. I have been searching a church across the street and have been finding a lot more coins. One thing I want to point out is that I have not found one single nickle. The nickle and tabs are so close on the scale that I rarely dig. But I also rarely see nickle finds posted. Thanks for the help.

 

[finderskeepers]

Just started MD again. I have been MD at a 1813 home, and have not found a lot of old coins with around 20 hrs. of searching. I am using a White 5900 Di Pro with a Deepscan 950 disc. The oldest coin finds are a 1944 quarter and a 1902 Indian Head both found around 4 inches. I am missing about one hundred years of coins mathematically. Should I clean out the yard of trash signals and then go back and then search the weak signals. Or do I need to get a better detector?

I'm not an expert on anything, but I'll add my 2¢. The vast majority of people were farmers throughout the 19th century and did not carry money on their person as we now do. Wages, for those who found jobs, were in the order of $1- $3 or $4 week. So even those pennies that we may not spend more than a few seconds looking for when dropped, were much more likely given a LOT more attention when dropped. So, your missing coins may not exist at all or be found infrequently.

I know nothing about the abilities of your machine, but I think the strategy of clearing the trash is a good starting point. The trash might also give additional clues about the site. Re-evaluate after gridding and checking/verifying a few "weak" signals.

Are you connecting with the site and having fun or is more just wanna get through it and move on?

 

[catherine1]

Funny how you replied about the nickles when i was thinking the same thing. I did dig a nickle signal at the church today, and found a small silver pendant. I have basically been trying to hone my MD skills for a old school about a block away. Trying to find some gold. Would like to have the detector tell me when to dig in that area also. LOL

 

[catherine1]

Thanks Finderskeepers!! My mother told me the same thing. She said that if they lost a penny.....they would search untill they found it! Seems like the people today are not worried about loosing some change. If you know what I mean. Modern common clad finds.

 

[scotty544]

Knowing your machine is the key, but if you are going to stick with the hobby I would definitely look to upgrade. with the soil conditions four inches may be max for your detector in that particular yard. Lots of used detectors out there also if you look on ebay and even on this website and others like it.

 

[gleaner1]

By the restriction of the post offered to experts only, I reply. Please don't be disappointed by my reply as I reply as an expert this being my twentieth year as a rabid tectorist. A lot of the guys have thirty or forty years. You aint doin nothing wrong and you wont find squat. I have a question for you, what do you mean by "and have not found a lot of old coins with around 20 hrs".?? You won't, but only very very rarely, if you find a cache or a spill. And what exactly do you mean by old? Hang in there my friend. You need to put 2000 hours behind your tecter to find maybe a half a handful of some oldies, and it wont be "a lot" of them. Post back with your finds after 1000 hours of hard tecting, after you see the light. I bet you could post some oldies then.

 

[catherine1]

Thanks for all the feedback/help guys. I was more concerned about the settings on my detector which is over 20 years old. And I know the new technology could be better. But I am having fun which is all that matters. I will post my finds when I get some more time under my belt. Here is a pic of the best so far. I found a 1939 dog tag also. Plus around 4 dollars in clad.

 

[RobRieman]

Your doing fine. Yards with handfuls of silver are few and far between. I usually find one in a yard around my neck of the woods and it may be on the second or third visit. Many people only post there best finds here and you don't get to see the 100 hunts in between where they found a pile of junk or a few clad. Grab a buddy with a newer model detector and follow him around and see how your detector stacks up by comparing signals on the same target. You may be surprised or you may actually decide you need an upgrade. Either way have fun!

 

[catherine1]

I hope my ex is not watching my MD posts. The government has her thinking I am rich!! She will want all the gold/diamonds I am finding.. LOL

 

[christo000]

From what has been said in ur post & the advice given I think ur on the right track ur dedicating a good amount of time on 1 spot not alot of people will good job the only thing id say is u have found items so u know there is stuff there id do what u had said & clear the layer of trash u never know what could b hidden,or even a good target masked by trash. Even good targets can come in not so good pending on how deep they are to. Some pulltab,pop caps,foil could also b not what they are coming in as. Uhave a good spot & great advice from alot of good metal detectorists here use that & what u know & it'll soon pay off

 

[swund1703]

Also agreeing with chisto. U may want to clear the trash first. And if really trashy u could try to find another detecting buddy to help. And just see how a couple different machines read on the same target. Sometimes I will have a detecting buddy see what his machine says on a target and half the time time we agree its diggable and the other half one of us says its trash and the other says dig. Needless to say i still dig every decent tone i hear but some time if i loose a tone or really leaning towards no digging another damn foil ball he will scan the hole and ill pull a penny. Neat to compare 2 machines or more on the same buried targets.

 

[swund1703]

Sorry for my damn spelling issues. Type to fast on the cell phone and some words just don't quite make it properly. Lol

 

[scotty544]

Sorry for my damn spelling issues. Type to fast on the cell phone and some words just don't quite make it properly. Lol

Try downloading SwiftKey 3 for your phone. It is great for website postings and text messages