Living in house from the early 1900s. Need advice

[medelman]

Living in house from the early 1900's. Need advice

Hi guys. I've been reading this forum on and off for some time now. I bought my minelab explorer II detector almost a year ago and truthfully have not used my detector as much as I have hoped. Alot of things have been going on, including me going back to school(I'm 29) and moving to St Paul, MN from Milwaukee to be closer to my girlfriend and the college. The house I'm renting from is my girlfriend's mothers second property and I'm staying there while she is in the process of renovating/restoring it. The house is from sometime in the 1900's and am having a hard time finding much of anything. Even new stuff. I have a feeling it is because of my inexperience with my detector and all the settings on it. I've read online "guides" on how to change settings and what not and I have a feeling I'm just not "getting it" I've found things in the past with it, and I know how to pinpoint, I just am having a hard time picking out the targets among alot of noise. Trash next to other objects, etc. I don't believe the property has ever been hunted and it appears that the house may have not had a bathroom orginally? meaning possibly an outhouse. The floor the of the basement is muddy and looks like it has some sort gravel/cement mixture but nothing solid. It's dark down there and I haven't really attemped to dig down there. I guess I get all kinds of wild ideas reading stories on here. I'm not expecting to find anything of significant value, but maybe something old. The house was previously owned by an old lady that had been there for at least 40 years with her late husband. The owner prior to her was also there for a long time. When cleaning the house, we have found a few various things in the closets. A homemade metal ring, a postcard and also an old hand written letter. In the back yard is a huge tree and there are the poles from an old clothes line. Anyways.. I am really rambling. Can anyone give me some sound advice. Are the tapes on how to use the minelab exporler worth investing in? I would appreciate any help from others out there that were once new to using a detector.. I hope it will click at some point.

Thanks

Matt

 

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[rvbvetter]

Re: Living in house from the early 1900's. Need advice

May need a little more info here. How are you setting your EXP, or what.settings are you using? There's EXP II owners here, including myself, that'll be glad to help. But it will help to know what your doing. Also you might check a post I left in Tech Talk forum here, in the thread Minelab vs whites vs fisher authored by Coinshot.. Try the settings i described in there and see if that helps any. HH

 

[Treasure Seeker]

Re: Living in house from the early 1900's. Need advice

I'm not a minelab user... So I don't have any specific advice...

I am, however, about an hour and a half from Milwaukee. I'd love to help you detected it with my GTI-2500... I'm pretty much a newbie too... But I've been digging up stuff in my backyard..

TS

 

[ZumbroKid]

Re: Living in house from the early 1900's. Need advice

I think your best investment to learning the detector you have is joining one of the two Minnesota clubs. There is one in Rochester and one up closer to you. You would be most welcome to come to the Rochester club. Hope to meet you sometime.

 

[Ocean7]

Re: Living in house from the early 1900's. Need advice

use Iron Mask @ -10 , manual sens=22 or as high as possible without falsing, conduct, gain=08, Adnavced mode "ON" with DEEP & FAST "ON". Listen for flutey tone - that's always a dig signal.
By flutey, I mean a higher pitch sound that changes tone...
Find an area with no signals. throw a dime on ground. Run coil over coin about 6" off ground. What does it sound like? try a quarter, a nickel, a penny. Now a nail, pulltab, foil, junk.

When dealing with any new detector, some suggest digging every target for the 1st 40-50 hours of use to get a good feel for sounds and target meter id's. When you know what a nail sounds like, or a shotgun shell, or pulltab, or a coin - you have a distinct advantage over the guy who has no idea. Sounds like work? It is if you want to master your detector.

have someone bury a couple coins in a area free of trash. tell them no deeper than 4-6" and with coin laying flat in ground. Can you find them, pinpoint them correctly, and retrieve them from ground?

There are many sites that cover your detector and how to setup. Here's one that's very good.
http://www.mikesweather.metsite.com/detectin/html/research.html
select tips and tricks button...

If you still have no idea what's up with settings - find local who uses EX II machine that will show you in person how to setup. This is where a knowledgeable dealer comes in real handy, but if you buy mail order from 'Fast eddie's best prices on earth' company - don't expect to much help in that dept. yeah ya save money but you don't save hours of frustration due to lack of hands-on knowledge. This holds esp. true for newbees and usage of extremely complex machines. IMO.

Anyways, you should have some silver coins, wheaties, and perhaps even Indian head pennies laying there on that property. But understand that the older the property - the more trash will most likely be laying in ground. This makes finding good stuff most difficult. Sometimes you must remove layers of trash to find the keepers just below all this junk. Do you have that kind of time and patience?

I'd advise anyone new to hobby to start in an area with as little trash as possible. this avoids much confusion and frustration. You can polish your skills and dig coins where it's easy to find them. then when you know your machine - branch out to tougher spots. many houses with properties over 100 years old are among the most challenging. But they can be the most rewarding! Nails, coal ashes, iron parts, pulltans, crown caps - you name it can be all over the place. And hiding among all this rubble are coins that any detectorist would love to pull from the ground.

If you're hell bent on tackling an old property first - grid off an area and stick to that spot. If it's full of signals every 6 inches - can you find a cleaner area ? Start small and take maybe a 15ft X 15ft plot. Cover every square inch of that plot, and slowly... Nothing? Ok now try another plot. Got a hunch - follow it. Along walkways, gardens, tree swings, backyards where kids frequently play - use some logic in your hunt. Helter skelter doesn't cut it.

Eventually you'll hear the unmistakable tone of a coin. It'll repeat both ways when you swing coil back and forth. You've found something worth digging up! Now memorize that sound, and when you hear it along with bang from a nail - you'll have found one of the best features of EX II. Getting audio signal (flutey tone) telling you that something good is sitting right next to trash. But you have to listen and you have to learn. No one can teach you this - you must learn thru doing in the field. Experience - that's the name of this game.

Good luck! HH!