Thank you so much for the tips. My birthday is next month and I am going to treat myself to an AT PRO. I've been getting by with a cheap-0 in the mean time. I've probably got about 10-15 hours under my belt of solid detecting. I'm really new to this. I'm enjoying the time out in the field, but haven't found anything since the first day. But, as I can see, it's not all like YouTube makes it out to be. Thanks so much for all your wisdom and advice!
Well, one thing you haven't found in your short time in this hobby is patience...you need to work on that because it will make a big difference for you.
I also hunt mostly parks and a few schools, have from the start and still do to this day.
I started with a cheap detector too, it couldn't handle my soil well at all, falsing on every swing plus it was not working well in other ways.
It was cross eyed, something was wrong with the coil and it had no pinpoint function...every target that sounded off in the middle of the coil was actually two inches north and two inches to the left of where it should have been.
This was not any kind of tool to learn even the basics of this hobby with but I had no choice so I kept going and adapted the best I could.
It took me several hunts and way more than 15 hours to find my first coins, nothing but junk and trash before that, finally on one hunt in a tot lot I found a few and in the grass surrounding it.
Only 59¢ total but it was a start.
I used that horrible tool for three months and about a hundred hours and by my last hunt I found no jewelry or anything really good at all but I managed to learn to use that thing well enough despite the challenges to find $30 in clad...and it was a start.
I spent my tax refund money to buy a much better detector and I could find clad coins much easier but still no jewelry or older better coins...but it again was a start.
It took a couple of months after buying that much better tool to find my first rings but I finally found two in a school playground, both total junk but it was a start.
Much more time to find my first wheat cent and even longer to find my first silver coin and finally a silver ring...but it was a start.
Gold was an unthinkable find for me but after many, many months since my first day in this hobby I found a tiny 10k ring...and it was a start.
I started on February 12 2010 in this hobby and it has been a few years since then.
I never gave up, I never stopped learning any detector I had in my hands, even purchased a couple more that were both cheaper starter detectors and learned those too.
I also learned about reading sites, how people thought, where they hung out, how they behaved and the the best places for the best chances to find what they dropped.
I also studied target behavior and still do all of that to this day...with me in this hobby the learning, all learning, never ends.
Now it has been 6.5 years since the day I started and in those same parks and school sites you seem to have given up on I learned enough to have found probably close to $2000 in clad, dozens and dozens of silver rings, chains, religious medallions and more.
I have found 35 pieces of gold jewelry since then too, mostly rings and many with diamonds.
I have found old coins and relics that go back to the civil war and so much more I don't even have the time to tell you about it all.
BTW...if I told you how much of all that treasure I found with the two cheapest, simplest detectors I own you probably won't believe it but it was all because I took the time to learn each one...well.
All it took was conviction, a little luck, a lot of stubbornness and some knowledge....knowledge that took way more than 15 hours to gather.
Plus patience.
15 hours is nothing in this hobby, at first we learn at a glacial pace but it does tend to speed up as we put in the effort.
Experience after experience adds up over time and we learn, make less mistakes and get better.
It is a process, a process you are looking to circumvent without taking the time to do it...attitude wise, anyway.
Get your upgraded detector, I am sure it will help but it won't be magic.
After you do spend time learning it take it back to these same parks and schools you are so frustrated hunting now and you will be shocked at what you thought you knew at this point and how little you actually did know and wonder how you managed to miss so much.
After getting some needed knowledge put down that better detector and hit a few of these same sites with your cheap one...you will probably be shocked at what you will able to find.
What you know now you will laugh about as time goes on if you put in the time and effort to learn your craft, if you don't put in that effort you will end up being the type of hunter that will keep buying detectors believing your tools were always the problem and yet still never have the success you think you deserve or you will be chased out of the hobby totally due to your frustration.
15 hours is nothing, the tools we use are important but not as important as learning how to use them and a good attitude trumps all of it.
That and patience.
I hope you get your head on straighter soon, the new detector may help but as I said they are not magic, none of them are.
The magic is in you.
