New to Metal Detecting. Getting frustrated. Plz help :(

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

It was a beach erosion hunt, not a land hunt.

For land hunting, all the people who come on here and say "don't get discouraged, keep going back and digging junk till your arms fall off "....... I think is bad advice. Well, it depends on the site, of course. But fails to take into account that some sites are simply Lame, while others have better potential. So I think the better advice for someone who is "discouraged" and who is a "newbie" is not: "Go dig junk till your arms fall of", but rather: "Find better sites that aren't so punishing".

Well I dont know his Sites...Of course you dont want to be digging Every signal in BS park somewhere...Im Sorry, I should have been more clear about it...The Areas I was referring to, are places that are FOR SURE going to produce gold or Silver...Such as a Swimming Pool area Or an Area that you know has older coins.

But you are Correct...Research is about 70% of the work. It took me 9 months before i relalized i was digging in the Wrong areas, and once i found a good spot, I was on a roll.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Well I dont know his Sites...Of course you dont want to be digging Every signal in BS park somewhere...Im Sorry, I should have been more clear about it...The Areas I was referring to, are places that are FOR SURE going to produce gold or Silver...Such as a Swimming Pool area Or an Area that you know has older coins.

But you are Correct...Research is about 70% of the work. It took me 9 months before i relalized i was digging in the Wrong areas, and once i found a good spot, I was on a roll.

What? Are you saying the correct advise was not to go back to those junk-laden lame areas, lower the disc, and dig-junk-till-your-arms fall off? (lest you "miss a gold ring") ? ? Say it isn't so! Just kidding

 

[Rockhunter1620]

Hi there,
I am new to MDing. I have a Garrett ACE 350 and a Garret Propointer. I recently took a trip to an old road that had many old house foundations. The houses ranged from late 1700's to about 1850. Spent two days detecting (after about 10 to 15 hours of training/prepping the week before). It was sooo frustrating. The amount of trash was just incredible. Every swoop of the detector, it would go off the charts! I set my sensitivity to mid range. Still crazy. Set it to low. Still crazy. After digging about 100+ holes, all I found was trash, even in high silver signal (no bouncing) ranges.

Some other notes:
I spent most of my time inside the foundations themselves and within a 10 ft proximity of the perimeter of the foundation. Most trash was iron, even at mid to high level signals (no bouncing). The soil itself seemed pure, with hardly any iron distortions (used my propointer to test uncountable handfuls of soil).

Have you guys experienced this same frustration? Do you have any tips on how to "sift" through these wacky bouncing signals? I know I can find relics at this location. But the signals are so overwhelming. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers all! Drewski

Hey DD,
you have several or multiple house foundations that date late 18th.-early 19th. centuries? You could literally have years of MDing there, but 1780-1850, there was no "driveways" back then,
they had "hitchin posts" and stables fer the horses, and maybe a barn to keep the horse buggy in. Go back away from the building foundations and look fer old barn foundation remnants. When folks built a house back
then, they tried to make sure there was a crick or stream near-by (a place to wash clothes), and dug a well fer drinkin water. Valuables were lost down by the stream while washin clothes. I'd find the old horse/buggy barn and hunt b'tween there and the old clothes washin crick prolly 50 or more feet from the main building foundations. I think there'll be a lot less trash and the same time, better chances of findin ancient valuables
and relics. If'n this helps.

RH

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

What? Are you saying the correct advise was not to go back to those junk-laden lame areas, lower the disc, and dig-junk-till-your-arms fall off? (lest you "miss a gold ring") ? ? Say it isn't so! Just kidding

Hahaha...Well, I do remember when I first started detecting...and everyone said "Dig all Signals"...So i went to a park that had BBQ pits and benches...and thought after about 5 mintues of swinging with 100 freakin signals..that this ISNT how im going to hunt...I could just sit there and dig up the whole damn park..lol

But you were right...if the area makes since..then dig all the signals you can....Of course when I find a place to detect...I usally go thru waves..


First I go thru and hit all the coin signals...10c/25/50c/1.00....but no penny....and after i do that i can pretty much tell what im going to find....but the place im hunting now has prooduce 10+ gold items withing a 5000sqft area....so in that area...I dig everything....Hell my first gold was bouncing from a Zinc penny to a quarter...got it out of the hole...and it read as pulltab..have no idea why it was given me crazy signals.

 

[DiggityDiggity]

Wow guys thanks so much for the great advice. This is truly an amazing site with amazing people. I just wanted to tell you all I hit my first beach yesterday and found a 10K white gold class ring from 1978. There was an initial inside the ring so I called the school for more info and tracked her down on facebook. Still waiting for a reply. I guess I could have kept it and not said anything but I think giving it back and hearing the story about it is worth more than the $$$. Cheers!

 

[DiggityDiggity]

Hey DD,
you have several or multiple house foundations that date late 18th.-early 19th. centuries? You could literally have years of MDing there, but 1780-1850, there was no "driveways" back then,
they had "hitchin posts" and stables fer the horses, and maybe a barn to keep the horse buggy in. Go back away from the building foundations and look fer old barn foundation remnants. When folks built a house back
then, they tried to make sure there was a crick or stream near-by (a place to wash clothes), and dug a well fer drinkin water. Valuables were lost down by the stream while washin clothes. I'd find the old horse/buggy barn and hunt b'tween there and the old clothes washin crick prolly 50 or more feet from the main building foundations. I think there'll be a lot less trash and the same time, better chances of findin ancient valuables
and relics. If'n this helps.

RH

Wow man, you blew my mind. We're you stalking me when I detected there last time? hahaha The foundation I've been focusing on has a well still intact next to it, a small crick about 50 feet away, and a barn foundation across the small crick. LOL You hit the nail on the head. I'm going to the site again this weekend. I'll focus on the creek bed area this time and let you know what I find!

 

[DiggityDiggity]

and if its old dirt road - as old as you say -- hit it too
Ive done well hitting the dirt roads to spots like this - guys rush to the holes themselves
never thinking to hit the roads - people road on horse back - stuff came out of their pockets
you got a road that gets snow or mud - someone back then dropped a coin - it was gone

Hi Casper! Good idea! Question for you: The old roads are on top of a rather large hill. The main part of the road goes down rather steeply about a 1/2 mile then flattens out for 20 feet or so. Then it takes a sharp 90 degree turn and stays flat about 100 yards, then continues tapering slowly down through the wooded hillside. That being said, do you think detecting the road right when it flattens out at the 90 degree turn (the first 20 feet) would be a good place to start? I was thinkin when it rains, it must rush down the road/hill and might collect stuff right at the flat part prior to the 90 degree corner... Orrr are coins and relics just more apt to stay put, grasping on to the integrity of the soil with which it was originally stuck into?

 

[TerryC]

Rope-off an area and DIG EVERYTHING! 20 foot by 20 foot. You should be able to get past the junk and start hitting real stuff. If you have continued access, WORK IT! The good stuff is there, you just have to have more patience than the other guys (gals). TTC

 

[Nickleanddime]

Honestly when I started about 6 months ago I dug everything. I use a cheap 30 dollar toy most of these guys on here wouldn't even look at.... But I find all kinds of stuff. In those months I've found over a 100 in clad, one ring, pounds of cans and foil. Luckily mine doesn't pick up certain things but it will gold silver and clad, whole leaving nails in the ground!!! But now that I've learned my md I can leave some items and just keep going. With mine junk is a dunk sound and good stuff it a beep.

 

[DiggityDiggity]

Rope-off an area and DIG EVERYTHING! 20 foot by 20 foot. You should be able to get past the junk and start hitting real stuff. If you have continued access, WORK IT! The good stuff is there, you just have to have more patience than the other guys (gals). TTC

I think I'd have to subcontract the digging then. I don't think my back could handle the 1,000 holes I'd have to dig. haha

 

[team sidewinder]

Honestly when I started about 6 months ago I dug everything. I use a cheap 30 dollar toy most of these guys on here wouldn't even look at.... But I find all kinds of stuff. In those months I've found over a 100 in clad, one ring, pounds of cans and foil. Luckily mine doesn't pick up certain things but it will gold silver and clad, whole leaving nails in the ground!!! But now that I've learned my md I can leave some items and just keep going. With mine junk is a dunk sound and good stuff it a beep.

Sometimes simple is better.

 

[TerryC]

Honestly when I started about 6 months ago I dug everything. I use a cheap 30 dollar toy most of these guys on here wouldn't even look at.... But I find all kinds of stuff. In those months I've found over a 100 in clad, one ring, pounds of cans and foil. Luckily mine doesn't pick up certain things but it will gold silver and clad, whole leaving nails in the ground!!! But now that I've learned my md I can leave some items and just keep going. With mine junk is a dunk sound and good stuff it a beep.

YES! The KEY is knowing your machine. Knowing how to use a 30 dollar machine makes BETTER sense than buying a 1000 dollar machine and not "putting in the time" on it! TTC

 

[TerryC]

I think I'd have to subcontract the digging then. I don't think my back could handle the 1,000 holes I'd have to dig. haha

Take a deep breath. Swallow hard.... and dig. I have titanium holding the L3 to the S1 together. Digging is a form of exercise that the doctor encourages. Now.... if I can only get him to prescribe a GPX 5000 as a required medical device! TTC