Hunting around aluminum bleachers?

[tjarrett]

Most of you know I'm just starting out and still learning. I'm only hunting parks and such, we have a lot of soccer fields about a mile from my house. Bleachers seems like a good place to hunt but man they cause the ol headphones to play music.. lol

What's a good way to combat this, turn the sensitivity down and hope for the best?

 

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[Terry Soloman]

You'll have to experiment with your sensitivity and discrimination. Best machine I ever used around aluminum bleachers was the Tesoro Cibola.

 

[Phantasman]

Tin foil cap. lol.....

Is there a tower close by? Radio signals come in on the coil, which is an antenna. The 11" DD is a good sized antenna for sloppy RF that scatters over the radio spectrum. It's a rare event that usually has a tower close by, or if it sounds like HAM reception, someone can be 1/2 mile away and using a directional beam (or even an illegal power linear) shooting towards your direction. Is it only under that bleacher? Around it?

An 8" or smaller coil could eliminate it. It may be an anomaly in that one area. Does it occur on the speaker? Headphone wires are "unshielded" and can act as antenna's as well. See if a different set helps.

 

[tjarrett]

Yeah ill experiment next time I go up there.. Lol I didn't mean real music, just different tones everywhere. I can see what you're talking about thought, never thought of it like that

 

[galenrog]

Depending on your detector, dialing out the bleachers will be impossible or close to it. Best, in my opinion, is to get the smallest possible coil for your detector. You will lose a lot of depth with 4 and 6 inch coils in comparison to the 10 and 12 inch coils, but you will have fewer problems from proximity with the bleacher frames.

 

[Loco-Digger]

Your corrective action of reducing the sensitivity should work. I have a hard time using the stock DD coil around fences and bleachers. My 5 in coil works better around metal objects.

 

[Garrett424]

Bleachers are good spots to hunt but you really have to fool around with your machine to see how close you can get.

On the upside, parks and especially sports fields are great places to score jewelry. I've been really lucky around soccer fields and ball fields.
The soccer field sidelines are great places to hunt and the same goes for ball fields around the baselines, pitchers mounds and the the surrounding areas and even the outfield.
Look for spots where the grass is mashed down, where there is trash above ground and anywhere you might think groups of people congregate. Where there are/were people, things are often dropped. All you need to do is to locate the spots.

I have one field that's been particularly good to me. I have literally spent days and days hunting every square inch of it slowly and carefully. Some treasures popped up in spots you never would have dreamed of. It's amazing sometimes. Basically, anything can turn up anywhere at any time (or not of course).

I would say just get out there and start swinging and digging. I wouldn't worry too much about getting right up to the bleachers. In some spots in my area they move the bleachers around from time to time. When they do, I go and hunt the spots where the bleachers WERE. I got a huge 10k ring last summer doing just that. Yeah, there's usually lots of trash as well but where there is trash there is sometimes treasure.

Just use your imagination and REALLY LISTEN to your gut/intuition. You'll be amazed how much that will help you in this hobby. And of course as I always say, the more you dig the luckier you'll get.

So welcome to T'Net and to this fantastic hobby; Good Luck and Happy Hunting....

 

[tjarrett]

Thanks for the words Garrett. I've been hitting these soccer fields during the week when I'm off work. There's 11 fields I think and they stay pretty full on the weekends and late afternoons so it should pretty much stay a good spot to go.

I seen where they had moved some of the bleachers so I will probably just hit those spots when they come open. I only have the 11" coil for now.

Again thanks for the advice and happy digging

 

[Garrett424]

Thanks for the words Garrett. I've been hitting these soccer fields during the week when I'm off work. There's 11 fields I think and they stay pretty full on the weekends and late afternoons so it should pretty much stay a good spot to go.

I seen where they had moved some of the bleachers so I will probably just hit those spots when they come open. I only have the 11" coil for now.

Again thanks for the advice and happy digging

Don't mention it.

I'm still using my stock 8" concentric coil. I've never even hunted with an 11" but if all goes according to plan I should be by spring. Plus, location is often more important than coil size.

If you have 11 regularly used fields you have lots and lots of hunts ahead of you for a long time. I've almost "cleaned out" one of my best fields but it took me over a year of pretty regular visits, sometimes every evening for a week or more plus weekends. I still think there's treasure to be had there but I've reached the point where the signals are really getting few and far between. I've removed SO much trash it's just unbelievable.

It's been a great spot. I've pulled five gold rings and a gold necklace, at least half a a dozen silver rings, two silver medals, two silver coins, two war nickels, one Indian Head Cent, a bunch of junk jewelry and keys. There were also about a gazillion pull tabs, pieces of can slaw, nuts and bolts, nails, bullets, shell caps and shell casings and other random junk.

That's just one field that's maybe 2 1/2 acres. If you have 11 good sized fields you could theoretically hunt them for years to come. Plus if they're in current use they'll be "replenished" on an ongoing basis. Sometimes when you stay away for a while and let the rain and other weather work on the field, more things begin to appear as well. The ground truly is fluid and is always changing. It's really amazing sometimes. I've hit spots that I KNOW I've "thoroughly" hunted before and then turned up some pretty cool stuff. That's happened quite a few times for me.


The most important thing (IMHO) is to just ENJOY the hunt. The anticipation is half the fun for me. You just never know what's gonna' turn up next. And like anything else in life, you have good days and some not so good days. You just gotta' roll with it and take the good with the bad. It's a journey.
Plus, I really love the fact that this hobby actually PAYS as you go along.

Good luck out there.......

 

[smokeythecat]

As suggested before, do you have a smaller coil? And detune somewhat.