General search techniques for new area

[Herb Jones]

nothing worse than leaving a site with ground unsearched knowing you may never get a chance to come back again...


discerning how a site was previously used is hard to do sometimes, buildings are gone or constructed, hedge rows grow, etc so when i go to a new site for the first time i start with whatever coil i have that has the largest footprint.

I set the detector on its higher discrimination setting and about a 50% sensitivity (i drop a wheat penny or silver dime and set the detector so it just hits that and above)

the idea is to look for quick easy targets initially and see if you find any old keeps real easy

so i walk a quick loop or two around the perimeter

then kind of work a loose grid pattern. (it can have a some space between the rows)

I dont dig anything, instead i drop poker chips, ( they are non conductive and i use the different colors)

one color for great signals another for not so great signals, ... maybes

after i finish with a quick scan i dig a couple of the best targets...

if you find anything with that level of discrimination, you can be assured the site has never been hunted or hunted very little. i figure almost anyone with any detector would have pulled the easy stuff, so if you find easy stuff you may be on virgin ground.

if i get a good easy dig then i focus on the poker chips first, and work the area accordingly.

this give me a good idea of drop concentration, and lets me focus on the best areas to hunt first


If i dont find any good finds after the initial sweep i figure the site has either been worked previously, and make adjustments for deeper coins, maybe...

and when i leave at least i have a good idea of the layout and be kinda sure i hit the most concentrated areas..


i have moved positions and hit targets late in the day and tried hunting at night.. we have all been there


anyway this is how i teach the newbies to do it, and it seems to work.

do you guys have any pointers your like to share?


Like OLD roads are always very windy and crossed the creeks at fords, so when you see a windy road on a map its an old road usually, and when you go to the creek crossings there will usually be new bridges but just up or down stream you can usually see the old ford where the road originally crossed before the bridge was built. just stand on the bridge and look either way, you will see the shallow hard bottom ford.. they aimed for that crossing when building that road initially before they had bridges. walk down to that ford and you will see the old road bed cutting down through the banks


thats a great place to search for drops/relics, mule shoes etc.. was a great place to loose something heavy if you were a foot soldier on the march.

also if you walk a direct path from an old church to the closest stream they would have baptized folks there,,, search those areas

and around old rural mailboxes from when people used to leave change for postage

stuff like this do any of you have any wisdom you have discovered that you'd like to share

 

[BennyV]

Great post!

 

[Gare]

Great posting Erb I also would like to welcome you to this great forum