How to hunt historic yet real trashy areas....

[Gary in Pennsylvania]

OK - I'm not a Charter Member so I cannot search.....

But I've got a location that dates back to the 1840's. It is a T-Shaped intersection (it was then and it is now) for horse...then stagecoach....the autos. The 'corners' has gone through its phases of hotels, general stores, taverns etc.... with a busy rail station directly across the street.

Lots of open space still remains today. Very loooong history at this spot.....but the road is pretty busy these days.

I expect a HECK of a lot of trash (Cans, pull tabs, foil, etc...) from more modern activity......but plenty of goodies from yesteryear. Ground is currently a mix of hard pack dirt and still soft, grassed areas (but I have pics of the same spot from the 1910's & teens). For this spot - I prefer to shoot coins.

I'll hunt it using an MXT with a 10" EXCELRATOR DD COIL.


How would YOU hunt this? Or rather....WOULD you hunt it? If I tighten the discrimination to help weed out trash......I'll also end up discriminating out some goodies, eh?


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[extractor]

Sounds like to much trash to hunt > BUT I would hunt in, prospecting mode, gain around +2, duel controll in hyperstat .This way ya might get lucky and score some precious metals

 

[silverswede]

I'd tighten up that discrimination even to skip pulltabs and go for it. You'll miss a lot more goodies if you don't hunt it. Also you'll be in the public eye there and it's a lot cooler to be putting coins in your pocket rather than junk in a sack. You'll still be getting down to 6 or more inches on good stuf. Ya go for it Gary.

 

[The-Bone]

Gary, if the site is as promising as it sounds there is absolutely no doubt in my mind...i would lay down another $100 and get a smaller coil to help in weeding out the junk.....you'll be pleasantly surprised as to what you find in between signals

 

[truckinbutch]

Go all metal and clean it a square yard at a time . You won't have to wonder what you missed that way . Instant gratification doesn't hold many long term rewards .

 

[Goodyguy]

Go all metal and clean it a square yard at a time . You won't have to wonder what you missed that way . Instant gratification doesn't hold many long term rewards .

Dig it all
My kinda guy !

 

[mlhudson]

dig every thing, clean it out = all metal mode

 

[rjw4law]

Get the smallest coil you can find and go very slow, dig everything and the rewards are what everyone else gave up on.....very tedious but sometimes extremely productive, sometimes these historic, trashy areas are in the parts of town, where you keep one eye on the ground and the other eye behind you...be careful

 

[Swartzie]

Hi Gary. I have a similar situation. A place with lots of history and lots of trash. My place was a saw mill in the 1820's and later a small hydro-power station in the early 1900's. To top that off, a side cut canal from the Ohio-Erie entered in no more than 50 yards away. So there has to be some goodies in there. Problem is the place was a hang out for partiers in the 70's and 80's. So there's lots of trash. I guess it's a good thing that I'm finding lots of trash. That kinda tells me that no body has hunted the area. I have only worked the area for about 4 hours getting used to my new machine (Ace 250) in trashy areas. Boy, I never knew so much stuff was in the ground. It seems everywhere I have gone there is stuff all over. Especially iron. Anyway. Since I am interested in relics as well as coins and such I believe my method will be to dig everything. I may also invest in a handheld pinpointer to speed up my recovery time and perhaps a small sniper coil sometime later.

Good Luck!

 

[luvsdux]

I'd use the smallest coil I could, hunt slow, use little or no discrimination and, if necessary, clean out a yard of two at a tme. The spot sounds like a very good bet for some truly old coins. Good Luck.

Bill

 

[miamidave]

Ive got an old garrett tid but no notch or custom heres what Ive been doing in spots like that but it takes a couple of days
#1mark a spot 20ft x 20 ft then set my disc at penny/dime and start in southwest corner moving south to north
then drop to zink penny and start in northeast corner going north to south
then Im back in southwest corner I drop to pulltab and move west to east.(get the picture?)
by the time I am at nickel deep silver is popping up (usually) you just got to get all the trash and clad out of the way.
hope this helps
David

 

[Gary in Pennsylvania]

Or you could just coinshoot it, crank up the discrimination, use a small coil, and find a bunch of wheaties and maybe a silver dime.

Yeah - That's sorta the plan....

With an MXT & DD coil, can't I adjust the discrimination just enough to weed out pull-tabs.....that may still allow for nickels, quarters, dimes, etc.... eh