I'm still kinda new to the hobby, I'd say I'm a light intermediate. But I've watched a lot of videos (depth tests) read several articles, read many threads on here and other sites and just on and on. And it seems to me detectorists get way to hung up on depth.
Now I'm sure there's the perfect civil war era house out there with the perfect manicured yard, perfect soil, very little to no trash, caddy following you around with a umbrella digging your targets. Ok, maybe not that far ? Anywho it's been my experience the bulk of the sites I've had the opportunity to detect are plumb full of trash. You all know the culprits, can slaw, pull tabs, siding and roofing aluminum, and pick up loads of miscellaneous trash.
Depth is not the problem, sorting thru the ocean of junk is ! Am I wrong and just not finding the deep goodies ? Or is the obsession with depth misguided ?
Understanding the deepest signals you can interpret is where depth comes in.
A given sites layers of debris , and where the lowest are affect results of a detectors depth ability. But compounded by the users understanding of the greatest depths signals.
An example is a park near me that has been detected for many decades. Inhabited by non natives since before Civil war era.
The "basement" is a layer of rubble from when the town burned and debris was spread there.
It varies , with an average depth (to where "clean" earth is) of around 10-12 inches.
Coins at the bottom read nothing like coins at the top. And the varied debris has a tremendous range.
Going fast and cherry picking does little for success. Slow and methodical searching and digging iffy signals is about the last hope to score anything old of value.
As well as cleaning an area of surface junk until you can't stand it no longer and then cherry pick till next time...
No silver has been found naked in the years I've hunted there.
One was beyond my detectors range until a dig for a sidewalk was made. Another was with two old iron nails above it. How many detectorists passed that one up due to it being "big iron"? Many.
A seated dime at another long worked site was just past ten inches deep. Granted I have less a detector than a Minelab ect. but how do you do at ten inches?
Iron . Something higher than iron. And a peep of silver was in the coils nose there. In that order.With depth bouncing around and discrimination (set just above lowest foil) arguing with each other. So what do I do? Iron was the dominant telling. Something just higher second , and that tiny peep of silver was acting more wishful than real after repeated wiggles and changing positions.
Nail,nearly dust. Wire about two inches long and bent half moon shaped. Some rusted tiny something.
After that was removed , a clear but faint silver.
How many detectorists passed that up?
And no, I don't want to know what I've passed up.
I do want to hear whats down there though. Another two inches would help sometimes. But not where coin/jewelry history is only a few inches deep...
Can I discriminate pulltabs out and not miss a gold ring? I can miss a gold ring without discriminating , so probably not! But the odds are better if I remove the pulltabs. To find ,that's not a pull tab.
