Late 1800s park and Nothing to show..what gives? Advice please?

[Larsmed]

Late 1800's park and Nothing to show..what gives? Advice please?

Hello my fellow hunters,

I have recently been to an interesting site in jacksonville , fl. This is a park with an old winery, servants quarters, and a plantation style house...All dated by the signs in the park to about late 1800s...I spent almost 2 hours combing thru, going right beside, behind and around this old house and winery...I found 2 relics, of which i have no clue what they are..and 3 modern pennies..post 1964..

I am atleast expecting to find some pre to mid 1900's coins... I am using a garret ace 150 in coins mode, nearly max sens..

What do you you think is the problem here?

Maybe the machine is not up to task, the place has been hunted out or
I did not spend enought time there?

I greatly appreciate any helpful advice from you guys who have done the research and found something of value..

Larry

 

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[Rifleman]

Re: Late 1800's park and Nothing to show..what gives? Advice please?

It could be that the area has been hit really hard. Try looking for areas not directly around the house, but where people may have been. The sides of the driveway, anyplace there may have been an old building. Any paths that you may find. The 150 is not going to give you as much depth as a more expensive machine and has fixed ground balance. If the area has been hit hard, the finds closer to the surface have most likely been found already. Just go back, go slow and criss cross the areas you are searching. Try to look where other people may not have hunted as hard. It just might produce some results. Talk to any old timers near by. Someone may be able to tell you about the property as it was years ago and give you some direction to a spot that might hold some nice items that has not been hunted too much. Good luck.

Good hunting, John K

 

[Sandman]

Re: Late 1800's park and Nothing to show..what gives? Advice please?

Larry, the place could be hunted out of the easy stuff near the surface. You may need to hunt deeper with a different machine that can ground balance and also handle a larger coil for punching deeper. The larger coil will also cover more ground per sweep which you must keep level too.

In the mean time, overlap your sweeps by at least 50% as the field down there at max depth is only about 2" inches round. You are relying on chance to have the detector sound off on a older coin. Also you should back off the sens. some as more is not always better. Turn down the disc. too so you can hear the pull tabs and nickles.

Have fun and good luck,
Sandman

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Re: Late 1800's park and Nothing to show..what gives? Advice please?

Sandman and Rifleman are right: It's probably been stripped of its 4-star signals over the last 20 to 30 yrs. I can think of parks in my city/county, with VERY colorful history, that used to give up easy silver 20+ yrs. ago. But NOW, even experts struggle to eak a few more out of them So yeah, a beginner, (especially one with an ACE 250, which isn't exactly ... uh ... a "powerhouse"), is going to probably get only recently lost clad.

Your best bet is to find virgin sites. Even if that means knocking on doors of older homes. Because the days of easy pickens from the obvious old parks, is pretty much gone. Some geographical exceptions occur, as certain parts of the USA had/have less pressure than others.

 

[Larsmed]

Re: Late 1800's park and Nothing to show..what gives? Advice please?

Thanks

I appreciate all of you guys advice. I have only been doing this for a year now and its getting easier to know when to use my sens or disc on my machine...Also, it good to know that its not my machine, but the locations i choose..

As for the machine side, I want to get a silver u max soon anyways..my ace 150 in a test garden only goes about 5 inches on almost any coin unles it is a large cent.. I have a feeling the bigger fish are deepr in the ground

Larry

 

[Shortstack]

Re: Late 1800's park and Nothing to show..what gives? Advice please?

The responses you've already gotten are all spot on right. Here are a couple more ideas to consider.
If an established facility is turned into a public park, there is a very good chance that some dozer work was done on the property. Cut and fill landscaping can screw-up a good MDing site. Also, the buildings may have been moved to "better" locations for park designs.

Have you hunted the "ugly" areas? You know, those spots that would be real tough to work. Like bushes and trees with real low down branches that you'll have to crawl under to detect. Also, are there any real small spots of lawn that everyone else walks over while getting to the "good" places? I've seen 3 rings pulled from a triangle shaped piece of lawn that was about 16 feet on each side. Simply do some rethinking on that park and good luck.