best places to hunt

xxxbockxxx · Jun 10, 2009

i just received my detector less than 2 weeks ago. i have been trying to learn my machine in my back yard. two days ago i went to a local park and found one penny. there was another guy detecting as well. he had 20 plus years of experience and had found 15 coins or so. i'm still on the learning curve not to mention he has a minelab that is $1100-$1200 more than mine. another gentleman stopped and talked to me. he to has detector and felt that the park area has pretty much been dug up. i am currently looking to find coins/jewelry. i was wondering if i could get some ideas for hunting grounds? what is your best or favorite place to hunt.

BamaBill · Jun 10, 2009

If you're looking for old coins, you'll need to do some research and find out where people gathered, back in the day. You need to find out where fairs, church picnics, and other types of gatherings took place. The best ones will be a spot that was used year after year at the same spot. If modern jewelry and coinage is your thing, find out where the church tot lots are and give them a try. Also, old school playgrounds are good. Main thing is to look for gathering spots, like a park where people sat on blankets to watch the fireworks every year. Good luck!

treasuredog · Jun 10, 2009

If there are any woods,in your park,hunt in there. People picnicked,hunted,etc. I always hunt the woods! Good Luck :icon_thumright:

treasurehound · Jun 10, 2009

I find it hard to believe that parks are ever hunted out. People are always going there and losing coins and jewelry. Granted you may not find any older coins but you never know. You have a very good machine to start out with. Do a lot of research in your area and you will be suprised what you can find that has had very little hunting done. Go to the library and see if you can find old pictures or maps of the area. Where was the fairgrounds, the old swimming hole, house no longer there (or still there) and so on. A lot of the fun in this hobby is researching places to go. Find another hunter to help you out. We are all here to help new adventurists. Good luck and we hope to see your posts on here.

Tom_in_CA · Jun 10, 2009

If you're content with new coins, then "no park is hunted out". But if you're angling for old deeper park coins, and you're competing with pro's in your area, then the odds are, you might be looking at a park where you're going to have a hard time, as a newbie, to follow in their tracks and get "gimmees" that they missed. I can think of parks in my area, for instance, that we used to ..... back in the 1970s and into the early '80s, be able to get several silver and 7 or 10 wheaties, any day we wanted. Then it got down to 1 silver and a few wheats by the '90s. Now you've got to be a real pro. to get any more silver (unless someone does a park scrape const. job or something

So pity the newbie who comes along and wonders "where's the silver?"

Your best bet, if you're angling for old coins in a geographic zone with good competition, is to find areas they haven't hit. Yards of old homes is a good start, if you can start up casual conversation with folk out on their front porches :hello:

Especially 1940s/50s homes, since they're old enough to have silver, but have probably never been hunted before (pro's tend to seek out the older yards/sites). Once you get the knack for the deepies, then you can take those tones/sounds to worked out parks and have a better chance at finding those same patterns hiding amongst junk, deeper, etc...

And as for jewelry, you can certainly lower your disc, and dig foil and tabs in junky parks, looking for that evasive gold low conductor jewelry. Or, you can simply pick areas with better odds at jewelry to begin with: swimming beaches. Beaches have better jewelry ratios d/t the nature of people frolicking around in cool waters (where fingers shrink), or taking jewelry off for "safe keeping", and putting slippery suntan lotion on, etc.....

mlayers · Jun 10, 2009

To get to know your machine work the tot lots very easy digging and usually a lot of coins. So welcome to Thnet and hope to see you posting your finds soon....Matt

shane41 · Jun 10, 2009

I have a Ace 250 also. They are great machines. I hit the city parks a lot and find lots of coins . Just this week I went to a park that had a Memorial Day fair. One of the guys there cutting the grass told me, that they had a few coin hunters checking out the park already. Well my Ace 250 found over 120 coins that the others must of miss plus a nice silver ring that fits my wives little finger. So do not get discoraged if some one tells you the place is all hunted out. They never are. In fact I am going back one day soon to check it out again. I am sure I even missed some. Good luck, you have a very good coin hunting machine that will find you many coins.
It takes some time to get to know your machine , but when you do you will be surprised the coins you will find.
Also I use the 4.5 viper coil on my Ace 250, it works great in the parks and tot lots. Shane

xxxbockxxx · Jun 11, 2009

thanks to everyone for the good luck. i appreciate the advice that everyone gave. i will give myself a few more practice runs in my back yard although i think i am picking it up fairly easy. i found a penny and nickle near my deck. i guess i should try to dig out all of the trash in my yard because my house is an older one built in 1896 or so. maybe i can find some silver here. again, thanks to everyone.

shane41 · Jun 11, 2009

xxxbockxxx said:
thanks to everyone for the good luck. i appreciate the advice that everyone gave. i will give myself a few more practice runs in my back yard although i think i am picking it up fairly easy. i found a penny and nickle near my deck. i guess i should try to dig out all of the trash in my yard because my house is an older one built in 1896 or so. maybe i can find some silver here. again, thanks to everyone.

By chance do you know were Lincoln, Illinois is,,, My son works for the National Weather Service out of Lincoln, Illinois. Good Luck coin hunting.. Shane

xxxbockxxx · Jun 11, 2009

[/quote] By chance do you know were Lincoln, Illinois is,,, My son works for the National Weather Service out of Lincoln, Illinois. Good Luck coin hunting.. Shane
[/quote]

yes, i do. in highschool i worked for asgrow seed co and they had a test plot near there. we would work the fields once or twice a summer. i am probably an hour and a half away from lincoln.

i found a pair of keys that look like they belong to a fire proof safe today....maybe it's burried in the back yard somewhere. hehe

shane41 · Jun 11, 2009

By chance do you know were Lincoln, Illinois is,,, My son works for the National Weather Service out of Lincoln, Illinois. Good Luck coin hunting.. Shane
[/quote]

yes, i do. in highschool i worked for asgrow seed co and they had a test plot near there. we would work the fields once or twice a summer. i am probably an hour and a half away from lincoln.

i found a pair of keys that look like they belong to a fire proof safe today....maybe it's burried in the back yard somewhere. hehe
[/quote] Hey go for it.. LOL you never know whats buried in the ground. Just a few weeks ago I found a nice gold necklace and pendent that was on a hill that is used in winter for sled riding Here is a pic of it. The wife was very happy with that find.. Shane

TerryC · Jun 11, 2009

There are alot of good suggestions above. The key phrase is, "where people gather". 99.9 percent of all coins were "lost" to the place you find them. The other .1 percent would be classified as caches... pronounced cashes. One of my favorite areas is the strip between the back door and the place the car (truck) is parked. Daddy pulled the keys out of his trousers and sometimes change came out with them. I owned a home in the 90's in NC. I searched the area that was about 50 foot long by about 7, or 8, and found more than 4.00 dollars before tapping out! That was, of course, over several months of spare-time looking. God, if I done it all the same day, I would have had to get a construction permit! The point is, where people gather. You can look all over the outfield and find 50 cents... or in front of the concession stand and find 2 dollars. Got the picture? Another spot ... the EPA requires many places to "scrap away" the old soil at new construction sites. You will notice the place because there will be a mound of dirt nearby. You are now 4 to 7 inches CLOSER to the silver... Thank-you, EPA. TTC