How do you swing a coil?

Gare

Gold Member
Dec 30, 2012
7,434
14,002
Canton Ohio Area
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
2
Detector(s) used
Presently using Deus 2's & have Minelabs, Nokta's Tesoro's DEus's Have them all . Have WAY to many need to get rid of some
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I see a LOT of people using a detector and think they have to be missing a lot of targets. Example they swing the coil while walking doing the zigzag pattern. Some people swing one way then move. My self when i swing a coil i am not moving my feet. I swing my coil over a spot both ways before i move a half a coil width? then reswing both ways again. The reason i swing both ways is if a target is laying next to trash hitting the trash first may not recover fast enough to find the good target. By swinging both ways the other way hits the target first and you can hear that.. I see a lot of people post great finds of old pounded detecting places . I just wonder why all of a sudden they found them



How do you swing your coil ?
 

Last edited:

Zincoln Miner

Hero Member
Nov 14, 2003
567
360
New York State
Detector(s) used
Minelab Vanquish 340, Tesoro Silver uMax, Compadre, and BH Tracker IV.

Ex: White's Spectrum XLT, Tesoro Cutlass II Umax, and that circa late 70's red handled junk from RadioShack that started it.
I swing my coil like an inverted rainbow because rainbows are so purdy.

:tongue3:
 

Lenrac2

Silver Member
Apr 1, 2021
2,784
6,456
Illinois
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Denise-Nokta Legend/Garrett Apex Nox600
Bob-AT Max/ Nox800
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I'm kinda willy nilly all over the place. Hubby is slow and more focused. He finds better stuff and maybe more. Pretty sure I got him beat on pop tabs though. 🙂
 

OP
OP
Gare

Gare

Gold Member
Dec 30, 2012
7,434
14,002
Canton Ohio Area
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
2
Detector(s) used
Presently using Deus 2's & have Minelabs, Nokta's Tesoro's DEus's Have them all . Have WAY to many need to get rid of some
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
My point in this posting is to show people that people claim a spot pounded but in the pounding they miss a lopt of AREA One rule i use if i think i am going to slow I SLOW DOWN MORE !!!
 

Emil W

Sr. Member
Nov 4, 2021
476
1,087
Central New Jersey
Detector(s) used
Deus 2
Deus
Deus Lite
Garrett Apex
Garrett Pinpointer
BH Discovery 2200
BH Pioneer EX
White's Coinmaster 6000D (have had for decades)
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Gare, I do it the same as you, then if I have time I go back over the same area again from a different angle, sometimes multiple angles if I'm finding interesting targets.
 

flinthunter

Hero Member
Jan 3, 2011
899
1,074
Illinois
Detector(s) used
E-Trac, V3i, DFX
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
My E-Trac has a slow recovery time so I go low and slow, overlap my coil swings, and keep my coil parallel and low to the ground through out the whole swing. I still find a good amount of silver and old coins in places people say is completely hunted out.
 

SusanMN

Silver Member
Jun 1, 2007
4,534
4,098
Minnesota
Detector(s) used
Tiger Shark, Xterra 705, Makro Legend
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I move as I swing and stay as low as I can without scrubbing the ground. But I have to tell the story of the guy whose swing just about had me rolling on the ground.

I was watching him from across the beach when he started detecting and he obviously a newbee, swinging his detector way too fast like a pendulum and carrying a full size shovel. He did this for a few minutes and either got frustrated or his detector was too heavy so he moved on to a unique method I hadn’t seen before. He held his detector at arms’s length, not moving it, and sort of speed walked that way across the beach. Not surprising he didn’t get any hits and left after a few more minutes. Probably got in the car believing his detector was a piece of junk.
 

Reulte

Jr. Member
Jun 26, 2013
69
103
Currently Central Texas
Detector(s) used
Bounty Hunter Tracker IV
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I sashay from the hips...

My understanding is that most detectors are actually motion detectors so you need to swing at least twice to catch it.
 

bowwinkles

Bronze Member
Nov 3, 2012
2,078
2,426
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I had a contract on cleanup after a town giant yard sale (flea market) that was done in a large dirt area under a bunch of hard wood trees. (about two acres). I was going to metal detect the area first then blow and clean up the area last. I mentioned this to a fellow who I thought was a friend and he wished to also detect with me. I gave him the time I was going to go there (very early morning) and for him to come and meet with me and I would lay out the area. That morning was very light traffic so I ended up arriving about 30 minutes early. When I pulled in I could see him in a distance swinging like crazy about touching the ground in the center of the swing but the end of his swing was about a foot off the ground and he was walking very fast trying to cover the area prior to me arriving. He was not aware I had arrived and I just started to cover his path but slow even low swings that were nearly touching the ground. I found a number of great items (one gold ring) before he made his turn and realized he had just been caught. He was trying very hard to cover the area prior to my arrival. That was the last time I ever invited him. So slow comfortable swings nearly touching the ground works for me. He was very amazed that at the amount of finds I had and it coming from the area he had just covered.:)
 

OP
OP
Gare

Gare

Gold Member
Dec 30, 2012
7,434
14,002
Canton Ohio Area
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
2
Detector(s) used
Presently using Deus 2's & have Minelabs, Nokta's Tesoro's DEus's Have them all . Have WAY to many need to get rid of some
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Gare, I do it the same as you, then if I have time I go back over the same area again from a different angle, sometimes multiple angles if I'm finding interesting targets.
good idea Emil
 

SusanMN

Silver Member
Jun 1, 2007
4,534
4,098
Minnesota
Detector(s) used
Tiger Shark, Xterra 705, Makro Legend
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I had a contract on cleanup after a town giant yard sale (flea market) that was done in a large dirt area under a bunch of hard wood trees. (about two acres). I was going to metal detect the area first then blow and clean up the area last. I mentioned this to a fellow who I thought was a friend and he wished to also detect with me. I gave him the time I was going to go there (very early morning) and for him to come and meet with me and I would lay out the area. That morning was very light traffic so I ended up arriving about 30 minutes early. When I pulled in I could see him in a distance swinging like crazy about touching the ground in the center of the swing but the end of his swing was about a foot off the ground and he was walking very fast trying to cover the area prior to me arriving. He was not aware I had arrived and I just started to cover his path but slow even low swings that were nearly touching the ground. I found a number of great items (one gold ring) before he made his turn and realized he had just been caught. He was trying very hard to cover the area prior to my arrival. That was the last time I ever invited him. So slow comfortable swings nearly touching the ground works for me. He was very amazed that at the amount of finds I had and it coming from the area he had just covered.:)
I have had situation with someone I thought was a friend as well. I had found a man’s ring and an engagement ring together in the sand before I had to leave and mentioned to this “friend” that I was going back in a short while to recheck for the woman’s wedding band. Returns fairly quickly and sure enough he is already there hunting for the ring.
 

Zakon Krzyżacki

Hero Member
May 25, 2022
842
2,545
I swing it like you Gary.
Slow and overlapping.
A few degrees can make a detector miss something.
Grid off an area and detect it from every possible angle.
 

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