Georgia NewBee

[born2md]

Hello y'all, I'm new to this great hobby and love it but I have a problem. I get a lot of hits and I try to dig them all up but it seems when I get down about 6 to 8 in. I hit rocks and it gets to hard to dig.(I'm 63) It seems like on about have of my hits I never get to the item. I end up filling the hole back up and moving on. Do any of you have this problem and if so how do you handle it.

 

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[Woodsie]

Hi and welcome to the forum. I'm 68 and have been doing this for 19 years...Maybe I can help. What Detector are you using..and what type of "hits" are you getting. Does your detector have a meter or lcd reading? Give us some info and we will all try to help...Best Wishes and Happy Hunting

Woodsie in Northeastern Pa.

 

[born2md]

I'm using a Tesoro Cutlas. My hits seem to be pretty strong in the all metals setting and about 40% as strong with the discriminating switch on. I have been searching in the all metal setting.

 

[Woodsie]

Hi ...Searching in the all metal mode is not a good idea....I would use the discrimination until you get used to the machine. Set the discrimination so that you just pick up pennies, dimes, quarter and halves. I still own a Tosero and it's a good machine. Set the discrimination just above where you cant hit a pull tab. Do a bench test first to make sure that its just hitting pennies etc, but not the pull tab...hope this helps...Best Wishes


Tom

 

[papa]

Howie - Do, Born2md.Welcome aboard. I have a different MD,but I'm sure you will get lots of help here. Get her straighten out and show us your finds.

 

[RON (PA)]

Welcome aboard Born2MD. Glad to have you with us. Woodsie gave you the same advice that I would. Good luck and show us your finds.

 

[Woodsie]

Hi Born2 ...If the info I gave you doesn't make sense...let me know. Remember there are no stupid questions here...Don't be afraid to ask...You may get stupid answers but I doubt it. I'm really trying to help you.

Tom

 

[born2md]

Hi Tom, Thank you for the help. I hunt in all metals and when I get a hit I switch to discriminating, if I still get a hit I dig. My big problem is I hunt CW relics and it seems that almost everything is more then 8" down and around here at about 6"to 8" the ground gets very rocky so rocky I can hardly dig it. There must be some trick to working this kind of land and I sure would appreciate yours or anyones tips.

 

[Woodsie]

Ah Ha....Now that's good info. I myself do not hunt CW relics...The Battles never got this far north...There are many people on this site who can help you...Try South Carolina Teacher....Look for one of his posts and send him a personal message....

Tom

 

[SouthCarolinaTeacher]

Hey Born2MD,

I hunt CW relics over in Tennessee on the weekends and let me tell you, you are right about the ground being rocky. Fortunately, I've never really run into the problem where the ground is SO rocky where I can't maneuver the rock out of the way.

I have, in fact, gotten a 'false' reading from rocks before. If the rock is large enough and full of different minerals, your detector will give you a false reading. Some rocks do have alloys which is a mineral that will give you that reading.

Are the rocks quartz? If so, you may be sitting on a gold mine, literally, depending on what part of Georgia you live in.

But let's assume that it's not gold in the ground. All of the relics that I have retrieved to date(which is a pretty good handful) I've never had a huge rock prevent me from finding a relic. Let's think about it for a second. The Civil War was about 150 years ago. Since then, the rocks may have moved 2-3 centimeters since then. So they were there while the war was going on. Unless a soldier lifted up a rock and placed a few buttons underneath it, I'm not quite sure if there is going to be anything underneath them.

Don't get me wrong though. If you're getting a hit, then you're getting a hit. There are 3 possible solutions to getting the rock moved.

1. Pick axe.
2. Bull Dozer.
3. Dynamite.

Also, do you have a pinpointer? This is a MUST for relic hunting. Over the weekend, my pinpointer fell out of my pocket. I quit detecting for 45 minutes, because it's VERY time consuming to find SMALL percussion caps just by a 9.5 inch coil that you can't fit into the hole.

Anytime you need some help, just ask!
Ian

 

[treasurenut]

I am metal detecting in GA to up north around lawrenceville, here is what is happening. The minerals in the ground are getting you the many hits. What you need to do is the following.

Go to a play ground area, where there is wood cips or sand. Put some coins in the ground a see the hit you get from that with your discremination on. This is the hits your are looking for. Now I don't know the machine that your are using but put the discremination so you can hear the hit down to 6-8 " if that is how much you want to dig.

If the discrimination is a dial set it so it only pick's up good stuff, coin, rings etc. and will avoid nails trash etc.

Now take that setting a go out on regular ground a see if you still get the minerals from the GA ground, hopefully it should be gone.

Will love to help if you need it and are closed.

Treasurenut

 

[born2md]

Y'all are great, you have solved my problem, I've been reading the rocks. No wonder the few times I tried to dig through the rocks I never found anything, just more rocks. I have one last dumb question, how do I know where to set the sensitivity level?? I only have two knobs on my detector sensitivity & discriminate, I know now how to set the discriminate but what about the sensitivity??

Thank Y'all Again, David

 

[SouthCarolinaTeacher]

I had a White's Classic II SL that had only 2 knobs, just as yours does; DISC and SENS.

Once you have the Discriminator set where you want it, you'll want the Sensitivity up as high as it will go to get that extra depth and so it will hone in on the smaller targets. When I say "Set it up as high as it will go." I mean, set it up so that the machine doesn't become unstable and beep while being still. You want to push the envelope on it, but don't over push it. Set it up right on the edge.

Also, on the discriminator, you'll want to make sure you have it low enough to accept the brass being that most buttons and buckles were made out of brass.

I hope you get it set up to your liking and may the relics start popping out of the ground!
Ian

 

[Kansasippi]

I spent many years walkin' and swingin' coil all over Ga and if you are in N Ga you are in mineralized soil and too much sensitivity will make your machine unstable and any use of discrimination will take away depth. In fact back in the day of manual ground balance I feel like I was retuning every ten steps sometimes. The gold belt that runs through Ga runs on a line from I-20 and Al. state line to Rabun Co and N C state line and if you are north of that line you almost can't get off the mineralized soil. One of the first gold rushes was in Ga and I am fortunate enough to have found one nugget with my 18000.

 

[ringding]

I live south of Atlanta where the soil is the hard red clay. I find almost everything within 4 inches of the surface. In the summer it is like concrete unless it rains and I don't try to dig deeper than that.