AAARRRGGGHHH, about to wrap my detecter around a tree!

[Gunny71]

Well, maybe not, But I am getting frustrated. I have not been able to pull in any old coins. I know, Location, Location, Location....
I feel like I am starting to get my machine down, I find clad, and trash everywhere.

Case in point, Friday I got permission to hunt The old Jail in my hometown, built in 1881.

http://www.texasescapes.com/Jails/LaGrange-Texas-Fayette-County-Jail.htm
So this morning I Hunted it about 3 hrs, I found Nothing but a few clad pennys. Just do not know what I am doing wrong. I can find Iron, copper, and brass at least 10" down, but I have yet to get anything older than a 1919 wheat ANYWHERE. There were several areas around the jail that were LOADED with small Iron, so digging it all was not really possible.
I have tried slowing way down, still nada as far as old coins are concerned...Just don't know what I am doing wrong.

I am using a Garrett GTAX 550, any help or insight would be appreciated, but I don't know what else to do. I enjoy this hobby so far, but I am starting to get frustrated, and would hate to give it up.

 

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[Da Sand Crab]

I guesstimate finding about 50 to 60 pcs. junk (maybe more) per good find. It's the nature of the hobby. It's being in the right place with the proper equipment. If you're finding other metals at that depth, you are'nt missing anything, there's just nothing there. Often old sites have been re-soiled and reseeded so the original ground is either gone or covered under a few feet of new soil.

Hang in there, who knows what that next signal will be...

 

[wayne_etc]

What Ringman said.

If there's alot of junk the goodies are likely masked. Do you have a smaller coil you could use?

w

 

[Gunny71]

Do not have a smaller coil yet, all I have at the moment is the 7”x 10” that came with it.
Guess I need to practice what I preach, always tellin my son to have some patience.

 

[spartacus53]

I have to agree with the others here, you're not doing anything wrong and you are finding coins. It seems that you now have a site that should produce a few old coins so take your time hunting. Once you've already cleared out a good portion of that site, go back and hunt that area again and see what signals you do get. I have only found one old silver and that is fine by me. I am out, getting exercise, meeting new people and just enjoying the day.

 

[Monty]

I recognize that old jail house. I toured it one time when I was down that way visiting TexanConnection. I think it's the same one. Is there an old one room holding cell across the street? Anyway, sometimes you just have to dig out all the junk and clad first. Or you might just concentrate on the deeper targets. Your machine is plenty good. Monty

 

[Gunny71]

Thanks for the replies, just need to keep at it I guess.
Monty, there is a private residence across the street, but there is a small cell outside the main building, to your left when walking up to the front doors, but inside the fence, the Calaboose
I found the old cistern today, shame its filled in. Could be dug out tho...hmm
Lots of Iron around where the hanging platform was, which was against the back wall near the cistern. Its not visible on this 1885 map, but is on the 1896 map.

​

 

[TORRERO]

Well, maybe not, But I am getting frustrated. I have not been able to pull in any old coins. I know, Location, Location, Location....
I feel like I am starting to get my machine down, I find clad, and trash everywhere.

Case in point, Friday I got permission to hunt The old Jail in my hometown, built in 1881.

http://www.texasescapes.com/Jails/LaGrange-Texas-Fayette-County-Jail.htm
So this morning I Hunted it about 3 hrs, I found Nothing but a few clad pennys. Just do not know what I am doing wrong. I can find Iron, copper, and brass at least 10" down, but I have yet to get anything older than a 1919 wheat ANYWHERE. There were several areas around the jail that were LOADED with small Iron, so digging it all was not really possible.
I have tried slowing way down, still nada as far as old coins are concerned...Just don't know what I am doing wrong.

I am using a Garrett GTAX 550, any help or insight would be appreciated, but I don't know what else to do. I enjoy this hobby so far, but I am starting to get frustrated, and would hate to give it up.

In this day and age, almost everywhere that can be hunted has been hunted.
I always expect to find nothing old, unless I'm pleasantly surprised by accident and I have accumilated
a substantial amount of Silver in the last 20 years..
You would think of course that SOMETHING Old would be left, but that really is not the case
most of the time...
My partner and I traveled 2 hours last Sunday to an old school I had seen in a small town in SC
It is no longer in use as can be plainly seen by the busted windows and poor shape of the building...
This had to have been built in the early 1900's 1920s ? at least
Big gothic structure, Me and my partner both have good machines and have found a lot in the past,
but after 2 hours of combing the front yard under big oak tree's all we had to show
was 1 Wheat cent and a small smattering of clad... (when I say this I mean, no Quarters, 2-3 dimes and 1-2 nichels and maybe 10 pennies between both of us.
I use a DFX, and he uses an XLT...
There just is not that much left in the open public places anymore...
Good luck though..
And if I was a betting man, I would say your best shot of finding Silver...
Its in your neighbors yard or some abandoned house you see that is boarded up and empty..
They have been about 50/50 as for producers for us..
Richard

 

[Sandman]

Your detector can reach the proper depth where most coins are buried. Trouble is silver is highly conductive and about any detector can respond to it. Coins on edge can produce a weaker signal that the detector can report as junk or a coin can be masked by iron too. Make sure you over lap the sweeps by at least 50% as the field down there is only about 2" round.

good luck.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Ringman, I don't think your "50 to 60 pieces of junk for each goodie" fits a turfed location like the park-like setting in the photo. I know of old parks where .... when I pass all shallow signals, and only hone in on good coin-like signals, I can dig mostly old coins, w/o much junk. The junk dug would be coin-like things (old keys, copper doohickeys, etc...).

Gunny, your best bet is to hook up with someone in your area who routinely comes in with old coins. Not just a sand-box hunter or someone who talks big, but someone who actually finds silver in the turf, demolition sites, etc.... See if he'll let you tag along with him, so you can see what type sites he hunts (for all you know, that jail has been hunted to a frazzle- for instance), what type signals he's listening for, what type signals he says he'd pass, etc... Even if it's just going to be practice in 1940's type front yards (just for silver and wheaties), so that you get the sounds and tones down.

 

[ivan salis]

a sweet spot like thats seen a detector or two long ago count on it --while it looks and historically seems like a great spot , most likely its a been a "pounded" to death spot in the past -- I mean who wouldn't hammer a spot like that very hard if they could?-- and sadly silver tends to pick up easily -- being its highly conductive -- so cherry pickers of the past have most likely left little thats not heavily masked by iron ( a whole lotta work gettung to them)-- a spot like that had to have "good" finds -- but the easy "good" stuff most likely has been "stripped out" of a spot like that long ago.

this is where hunting little known --seldom if at all hunted spots come into play * ( first to be found it had to be lost --then it has to have not been found already by others-)-and thats where a bit of research , knowing your local history and learning how to politely ask land owners for permission comes into play .

 

[Woodland Detectors]

LISTEN. Breathe. If you want to find the good stuff quite simply, Are you listening? It's not rocket science friend. You MUST look where Other folks normally don't want to look....That's it.. simple. It's Treasure Hunting. The bad part about being a dealer is selling machines to folks who think they are going to get rich., They buy a "metal detector" and think they are getting a "magic wand" No such thing! Treasure is where you find it... I've been doing this a while and I'll be honest. I haven't set the world on fire as far as any "way significant finds". I pluck away at it. Learn a ton of history(My treasure) and find a little bit of gas money. I still have my day job. lol Do you see that bush located to the left of your photo?? Crawl up under it. Then detect. I'll bet you find something there. Or, the edge of the sidewalk. That's where I find my stuff. Hit your faint tones in the roots of trees. But, Don't throw the machine! lol I used to golf quite a bit and I worked at a private club in Florida. The ones with bad technique would throw their 300 dollar Big Bertha drivers in the drink! I would retrieve them later and if the guy didn't come claim it later (with a big tip) I would keep it....lol I accumulated a few of them and made good money sometimes. It's technique my friend not the machine!!!!!! Good luck

 

[TORRERO]

So this morning I Hunted it about 3 hrs, I found Nothing but a few clad pennys. Just do not know what I am doing wrong. I can find Iron, copper, and brass at least 10" down, but I have yet to get anything older than a 1919 wheat ANYWHERE. There were several areas around the jail that were LOADED with small Iron, so digging it all was not really possible.
I have tried slowing way down, still nada as far as old coins are concerned...Just don't know what I am doing wrong.

I am using a Garrett GTAX 550, any help or insight would be appreciated, but I don't know what else to do. I enjoy this hobby so far, but I am starting to get frustrated, and would hate to give it up.

Although you may never find anything good here,
There are few suggestions that you might try in a place like this.
Although I do not have a GTAX 550 nor do I have a Garrett at this time, in the past I have found them
to be not as good as other brands. This is just my opinion and some friends of mine.
That said, it may be good enough for what your doing, so you might try this...
How CLEAN is the site ? by that I mean if you have your machine in all metal, or better
in descrim, but open to all non ferrous targets and you are to walk across that nice grass, how many targets / noise do you get ?
If not much, that's good then you check every low reading signal for depth, (if your machine has a meter) If it reads 3-4 inches, then dig all those signals, leaving anything but the coin signals that read
surface, by watching your meter.
If your lucky you will find a "pulltab" signal that suddenly changes after you dig 3 inches....
Now its reading coin...
Dig 10 - 20 signals like this and you will find bullet casings and scrap, but you might also find
a button, or Buffalo nickel,
Also run it in "all Metal" and try to determine the size of Iron objects, sometimes in all metal you
can discern if an iron object is small (nail size) or large (Horseshoe size)
Dig all the large Iron pieces, in places like this because you may be very surprised at what pops
out made of Iron, and what pops out made of good metal beside the iron....
Try this for a few hours and if you still get nothing...
ABANDON ALL HOPE !!!
AND WRAP THAT BABY AROUND THE NEAREST TREE.. !!!
(just kidding)

 

[rayredditch]

You have two choices, either dig all that trash out, or save up and get a snipe (Eliptical) coil, to get in between that trash. But sooner or later you´ll have to dig some of that trash anyway.

 

[Gunny71]

Thanks, Lots of good info here. My machine does have a depth meter, which seems pretty accurate, and most times in pinpoint mode I can get a really Good Idea how large the target is. Ill hit it again this evening (under the bushes fer sure this time).
I am starting to think that a sniper coil may be the way to go. In the trashy area around the cistern and behind the building, I was getting as many as 30 small iron targets in a 4'X4' area, all of them I dug turned out to be square nails.

 

[rayredditch]

It the UK, this is where the XP GoldMaxx/GoldMaxx Power, and just lately all be it to a lesser degree the T2 and F75, are the tools of choice, especially with an eliptical coil, to get in amongst those nails and find the good stuff.
Unfortunately most other machines just don´t have the recovery speed to cut it in really dense trash, as you´ll see if you look at the Norfolk Wolf video´s on YouTube.

 

[osros]

Thanks, Lots of good info here. My machine does have a depth meter, which seems pretty accurate, and most times in pinpoint mode I can get a really Good Idea how large the target is. Ill hit it again this evening (under the bushes fer sure this time).
I am starting to think that a sniper coil may be the way to go. In the trashy area around the cistern and behind the building, I was getting as many as 30 small iron targets in a 4'X4' area, all of them I dug turned out to be square nails.

I feel your pain brother. I am in the same boat no silver yet. I got a couple old areas to MD but the trash is fantastic!! I can swing and never hear the hum because its rejecting so much iron and trash. I do recommend the sniper coil thought it does help, you will notice the difference. It looks like a good site but look for others as well make that your old standby hunt it some then move on to something else come back again, mix it up! keeps you from getting frustrated at one site.

If you want to get serious get some sticks and string and make a visible grid square, go slow and stay within the grid once done move up another square. Some may laugh but I found it to help me from wandering and reminds me to check it all. And looks like to others your doing some serious detecting work. Or your crazy depends who you ask

 

[rayredditch]

Just a quick thought, what sensitivity are you running your Garrett on ?? I´ve found Garretts to respond better when run at about 3/4 sensitivity as opposed to full blast. They tend by full blast to pick up more iron and scrap (Target masking), while with a little less they give you a chance to get in between (True of some other machines too).

 

[Trackerman]

Its kinda weird but sometimes yull hit a old place and get little. Then you hit a local park and find goodies. Its the nature of the hobby. Just go out and have fun and expect some bad days as well as some good ones.

 

[Woodland Detectors]

Its kinda weird but sometimes yull hit a old place and get little. Then you hit a local park and find goodies. Its the nature of the hobby. Just go out and have fun and expect some bad days as well as some good ones.

And then you go back to the old spot and start finding "goodies" Asking yourself " how in the heck did I miss this stuff last time?"

Just saying "It's all in the way you hold your mouth"