gg, Welcome to Tent and thank you for your service to this country! Metal detecting comes in many varieties and starting in ones backyard is one of the typical ones as well as the safest as you can do whatever your want, dig holes, trench, etc.
Manners are required in other yards like putting a good sized hunk of cloth down on the grass to turn the plug over on IF you are doing plugs. Leaving a permissions yard/grass looking untouched is important as they will appreciate the care you've taken of their property!
When I started detecting I used an 8" long by 1/8" round "T" handled brass probe (hand made) which required me to become accurate with my pin pointing. At the very end of doing the pinpointing I would hold a pointed stick over the 'detecting' center portion of the coil, move the coil over and poke the stick into the ground. Then I would get out my brass probe and carefully poke it into the ground to find the target. I Did Not have a pinpointer back then and yes it took a while to learn this method but the method allowed me to use a finger and the probe to bring the target out of the ground without make much of a disturbance in the grass. A little pushing the lump in the grass down, a quick rub and the spot was gone.
Of course this method did not allow me to get very deep into the ground but it kept me going for a few years. One time my detector indicated I might have a gold target, the ground I was detecting had a lot of pea gravel under the grass making probing really tough. After about an hour I was able to retrieve a Gold Tooth Crown and I still have it. The first gold ring was where the cement sidewalk had been pulled up in front of the chamber of Commerce in Downtown Redwood City, California. That ring got me over being shy about being seen out in public detecting! Another thing to do is to knock on doors and ask for permission to detect a home owners yard, at times I would offer to mow the yard. Silver coins are found on some private property hunts as Stuiff has been lost from the day pants pockets and Stuff for people were invented.
Detecting can be relaxing, kids can be fun as they will ask all sorts of questions and if they are on top of their game they might even ask you for your Junk targets. OnceI had three young ones follow me around around their yard, two brothers and a sister. The little girl received the .45 ACP ball nose round with rifling marks on it (the boys were crestfallen) and the youngest boy received the pocket knife. I had him take it to his father to ask if he could keep it. The father said yes And that he would help the boy with getting the knife de-rusted and back to working order. Good times!.........63bkpkr
Michigan
