Im new and need some tips

[rustydigger]

So i recently began detecting in nj i have been hitting alot of beaches from long branch to cliffwood beach. I know my MD isnt the top of the line or even close it s a bounty hunter IV. My question is am i doing something wrong? All i get is change, lead, can tabs, and stuff that looks like silver ore. Ive been reading all these sucess stories, and i get squat. I need some tips on better areas or should i give up till I can afford a better detector?

 

[bigalathenstn]

You just gotta keep at it.Everybody that detects finds their share of trash and change.Look at the dates on the coins you find pre 1964 us contained 90% silver,or thats what I have been told.Good luck and keep at it.
Allen

 

[bigtim1973]

So i recently began detecting in nj i have been hitting alot of beaches from long branch to cliffwood beach. I know my MD isnt the top of the line or even close it s a bounty hunter IV. My question is am i doing something wrong? All i get is change, lead, can tabs, and stuff that looks like silver ore. Ive been reading all these sucess stories, and i get squat. I need some tips on better areas or should i give up till I can afford a better detector?

Well according to what you have mentioned on what you have found, it sounds like you are doing great!!!! Remember those other guys with success stories have dug as much or more pull tabs and other junk before they find a good keeper. Keep it up and be patient. One thing you are doing though is learning how to use a metal detector. You might want to do some research on beach detecting and see the types of machines that are available. Usually a PI or multi frequency machine is best for detecting on the beach. It all depends on how much you want to invest, Tim

 

[Blind Squirrel]

Welcome to tnet I am new to this as well (apr) and what the main thing I have learned is that you have to go where people gather. The more people the more loses. And as far as what you've been finding, it seems that you are doing ok. Just be patient and learn your machine.

 

[sniffer]

I think my find ratio is about 500 pull tabs to a silver ring, and around 10,000 to a gold ring
if you want to find the good stuff, you have to be willing to dig the trash too

 

[Dan Hughes]

pre 1964 us contained 90% silver,or thats what I have been told.
Allen

Pre-1965. 1964 dimes/quarters/halves are silver.

---Dan Hughes, http://treasuremanual.com

 

[cntrydncr1]

Be patient. My first year I found only 1 gold ring. I hunted dry sand with my ACE 250 for 2 years and found mostly clad. READ all you can on beach hunting. The best finds are in the wet sand and in the water so if you upgrade make sure you can do well in these areas. be persistent and good luck

 

[RJGMC]

Rusty,

Welcome to the family! If you are digging the items you mentioned, coins and jewelry are just ahead. This is another reason that we all preach to the newbies to pickup what ever you dig up. That way you will only did it once. All of the aluminum pull tabs and screw tops go in a bucket at home. The scrap man will buy those just like aluminum cans. It sounds like you are doing fine. As time goes on, you will start to notice the little differences in the sounds of the targets.

Stay with it! You are doing great!

Bob

 

[Smudge]

You are not doing anything wrong. You have a decent machine for the dry sand. Just stick with it. You are doing the right thing in digging most of your hits. Don't stop doing that. Like you've heard above, the pull tab to ring ratio is really high, and thats no joke.

It's a lot of fun seeing all the great beach finds people post here, but what you don't hear is how much garbage they had dig before they got that great find.

 

[wtmichael]

When I first started detecting, I didn't find anything but junk and clad for awhile. To make sure it was just bad luck, I made sure my detector would pick up gold and silver by taking a couple rings in plastic with me to the beach and burying them and then making sure my detector would beep when I went over them. I did this at the start of each hunt until I actually found a 'wild' ring. Now I am pretty confident in the settings I use on the detector and that it will beep if I walk over anything thats a good keeper.

 

[rustydigger]

This is great thanks alot guys, i guess ill keep pushing on and digging junk lol. Im in KY right now any one know if the creek beds around here would produce any gold or civil war stuff? Im near the lexington area and i tried the perryville battlefield but MDs are not allowed. I also tried my parents plantation house and dug up a 2006 penny about 8 inches down..... very wierd.

 

[Dave P]

Re: I'm new and need some tips

Keep on working your metal detector. Some of us have been in this for years and still don't know the detector yet ( Me Ha ha) But we still find good things. You wait till you find you first good thing, you will then get the " ADDICTED TO METAL DETECTING BUG". You'll know it when it happens. The more you use it the more you learn it. You don't use it, you loose it. Dave P

 

[Dan Hughes]

i tried the perryville battlefield but MDs are not allowed.

Detecting isn't allowed in any battlefield! But there are thousands of forgotten sites of small battles, usually in farmers' fields, and these are legal to hunt (with permission).

Hit your library and find books about Civil War skirmishes.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

those little molten globules that you describe as looking like "silver ore", are probably molten aluminum can nuggets. They come from people throwing aluminum cans into beach bon fires. The cans melt into little nuggets fragments, and get strewn about the beach with sand movement

The best bet for having better luck on the beach, is not to roam for random losses like that. Oh sure, eventually you'll find a gold ring or something like that. But ..... with the exception of some super upscale ritzy beaches, you're usually going to be confined to clad, lots of tabs, caps, and junk. The ratio per gold ring in random dry sand hunting, at most beaches, is poor at most beaches.

So the way to up your odds, is to wait for storm erosion to erode out sand. Then mother nature does all the work for you. She groups all the targets on the wet sand at predictable zones, and removes all the light stuff (kiss tabs, foil, can nuggets, etc... goodbye). Not sure if you're BH is good on wet mineralized salt sand though. Some machines don't work well in the wet salt.

 

[Smudge]

All reports are that the BH goes nuts on wet sand. Almost to the point of being useless. With BH, he'll need to stick to dry sand.

 

[Cool Hand Fluke]

Find a metal detector club in your area and join it! make friends with the more experienced members and try and go out hunting with them. Keep a note book and write down any construction sites, old abandoned houses, etc. you may pass by. Hit up all your family members and friends that live in old houses and hunt the front and back yards. (I found my first silver coins doing this).