Church yard hunting in 2008

[TrpnBils]

Okay so I know nothing is ever "completely hunted out" but is it still feasible to expect to find anything old in church yards now that they've been hunted for 30+ years? I live on the outskirts of a large city in PA and although it has a lot of history, it also has a lot of people and I've seen quite a few other detectorists out there. Mostly though, I've seen people after concerts and other events just looking for jewelry and pocket change. I'm interested in finding older coins, as I've only ever found a handful of wheats and nothing else besides junk and clad.

I'm just trying to narrow down my searches to older areas, but I'm sure some of the areas like churches, schools, and parks (places where any detectorist that reseraches even a little would know where to look).

Another question: When getting permission to hunt sites like this (or even private homes), what would you all say your ratio of permission/non-permission is? I've only asked a few times and have had probably a 50/50 mix of "sure, go ahead" and "go away".

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Treasure of Victoria Peak - Grab it through Amazon!

[Tom_in_CA]

You may find church lawns ......... especially the mouthwatering super old ones ..... in areas with lots of hunters .... have been hit hard. Ie.: every bit as worked as you would expect at old schools and parks. No obvious spot goes un-checked, unless there just isn't any hardcore hunters in your area. Not that that doesn't mean there might still be some deepies to eak out though.

I will also add that if the person giving you permission at the church says: "no one's ever detected it before", they probably just don't know. Ie.: someone else gave the go-ahead, or it was hit before the current fellow's time, or quite frankly some persons might consider church lawns to be sort of quasi-public, in the sense that anyone is welcome to go to church, (until permission to pass is revoked. )

 

[bakergeol]

Okay so I know nothing is ever "completely hunted out" but is it still feasible to expect to find anything old in church yards now that they've been hunted for 30+ years? I live on the outskirts of a large city in PA and although it has a lot of history, it also has a lot of people and I've seen quite a few other detectorists out there. Mostly though, I've seen people after concerts and other events just looking for jewelry and pocket change. I'm interested in finding older coins, as I've only ever found a handful of wheats and nothing else besides junk and clad.

I'm just trying to narrow down my searches to older areas, but I'm sure some of the areas like churches, schools, and parks (places where any detectorist that reseraches even a little would know where to look).

Another question: When getting permission to hunt sites like this (or even private homes), what would you all say your ratio of permission/non-permission is? I've only asked a few times and have had probably a 50/50 mix of "sure, go ahead" and "go away".

Tom is correct. I hunted old PA churches 40 years ago and they were incredible for old coins. I have to rank PA and VA as the best for old spanish silver even with the old BFOs. I hunted literally hundreds of these old churches before people caught on.

What you need to do now is think differently. BFOs depths were shallow compared to today's detectors but their operators dug everything. The later hundreds of VLF users who have detected these sites had deeper depth but used iron discrimination. You need to remove all the iron and see what iron discrimination has masked. You might try removing all iron in the front of the church near the steps as this was always the #1 spot for coins. It will be quite a chore and you need to be very carefull with the grass.

Good Luck
George