Finds from another two hour hunt tonight at the construction site. This time the area had a decent amount of pull style tabs, I found 23 of those. Also found 3 wheat pennies (1919, 1936, 1956), a nickel, two clad dimes, a clad quarter, a mixture of memorial copper and zinc cents, and a clip on ear ring. Mostly of this came from a freshly dug area.
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I do this for fun. I enjoy history, antiques, and the thrill of the hunt; so this is the perfect hobby for me. I keep all of my finds, except for a trash can full of aluminum cans that I cashed in earlier this year with some other metals. In regards to cherry picking or digging everything, that all just comes down to personal preference and for me it highly depends on what type of location that I am hunting. It is becoming increasingly harder to find a site that has not been cherry picked by someone in the past, especially for silver coins. Metal detecting has been a popular hobby for over 40 years and even the earliest detectors could find a good silver target easily so the "low hanging fruit" has been picked to some degree. Silver has not been produced for general circulation for almost 50 years now (excluding US Mint sets and the 40% half dollars).
As for my thoughts on cherry picking a location. If I am hunting some private property where I will only have a limited amount of time, I usually start out by gridding off the area and detecting with my 8-1/2 x 11 DD coil. That way I can cover more ground and go for the good targets, but it also allows me to survey the location and determine what areas are producing the most. I then grid the area again walk in a perpendicular grid pattern from what I previously hunted. For the trashy areas, I usually return to those with my 5x8 DD coil. Time permitting, I then grid the area again with either coil and dig more deep iffy targets. Each time you return over an area that you have gridded off you remove more and more garbage that unmasks deeper targets. Sometimes I will play around with the ground balance some and tweak other settings.
As for a hunting park, I usually hunt the areas that experience the most activity and just do a large grid pattern using the 8-1/2 x 11 DD coil. At parks I usually go after shallow targets, less than 4 inches, as I am using a brass probe to retrieve everything. Some parks are so full of trash that they are simply not worth the trouble unless you do a quick scan with a 5x8 coil to get the good easy targets.
As for the construction site, I have only been using the 5x8 DD coil. The ground is full of iron pieces, everything from crushed pieces of old cast iron pipes to pieces of metal siding and nails. The 5x8 has better target separation that my larger coil. It is also a very rugged terrain and the 5x8 is small, allowing me to better swing over most areas. I dig everything at the construction site as the ground has centuries of history in this particular area. Plus it is very easy to dig here, the ground is already torn up so you can retrieve targets fast and not worry about making a mess. I still push the dirt back into any hole that I dig.
These are just some of my personal ways of hunting. I am always trying and learning new techniques that I read about on TN. This holiday weekend I am going to hit some parks that have frequent concerts (where I have previously found gold). Maybe, just maybe, I can hit that 500:1 ratio goal.
your gold will come though digging the tabs, just try to pick some sports fields with a lot of hand movement and stay away from the bees! Good luck, you will certainly have a big grin on your face when you flip that plug over.
