New to this site

[Mutt]

I have been MD'ing for about 8 years and live in North East Texas. I am looking for folks in or near my area to team up with and do some good sites. I am in WIlls Point Texas about 50 miles due east of Dallas. I have been using the Garrett GTA 500 Ultra. Find a good bit of pull tabs and aluminum (as I hear gold hits about the same freq as the pull tabs) and misc. relics and I usually keep everything I find (except for real trash)

I have a jar with quite a few coins.The oldest I have found is a 1944 Wheat cent.Then 45 Wheat and then a 55 Wheat . I STILL to date have not found any gold,silver,rings,jewerly or such.

Am I just looking in the wrong places or what. After doing old home sites in town,I go to the school yard and pick up change as it is always there !!!!

What do some of you folks that have 15 to 20 years of experience in the hobby recommend I try as to where to find my first silver/gold/jewerly find? My town has been around since the early to mid 1800's,has an old train depot,etcWhere would be the best place to research my town's history and go about finding old maps of this town?
All help is very much appreciated.Thanks............................Mutt

 

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[jeff of pa]

Welcome MUTT.

Just Keep at It, They are There Somewhere.

ARE you Using Headphones & listining For Weak Signals ?

 

[Mutt]

no ,haven't given much thought to using headphones. The detector buzzes loud and clear. So should I just use headphones and dig at the slighest beeps? I keep my detector in the standard coin mode the vast majority of the time.

 

[SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS]

Mutt,

just wanted to welcome you.

Keep looking, good things will come.

have a good un..................

 

[Southcacalaky]

Welcome to the Forum. Using headphones will help you hear faint signals as Jeff already pointed out. It will also increase the life of your batteries. Have you ever set up a test garden? This too will also help fine tune your skills and help you learn what your machine is telling you by using known targets. You will find gold and silver before you know it and when you least expect it. HH Art...

 

[jeff of pa]

no ,haven't given much thought to using headphones. The detector buzzes loud and clear. So should I just use headphones and dig at the slighest beeps? I keep my detector in the standard coin mode the vast majority of the time.

I believe This will Increase the Chances of you finding Silver & Jewelry.

You would be Supprised How much You Miss, from Outside Destractions.

Just Keep Your Operating tone at JUST Audible, And dig when you get a signal.

Happy Hunting

jeff

 

[Mutt]

Yes,I've tried the putting different coins and stuff and checking the detectors range,It seems to be dead on. I'm going out again tomorrow and see what happens,I'll look into the headphones

 

[Maka]

Welcome. Im looking forward to hearing about your 1st gold soon

Maka

 

[slow sweeper]

no ,haven't given much thought to using headphones. The detector buzzes loud and clear. So should I just use headphones and dig at the slighest beeps? I keep my detector in the standard coin mode the vast majority of the time.

? ? ?You said you've been doing this for eight years so I don't know how much of this you already know. I hope most of it.? ? But here goes.
? ? ?You say you keep your detector in the standard coin mode most of the time. I'm surprised at the number of people who set up their detector at all the preset marks and go merrily on their way. Your detector is only a tool that you need to adjust to your particular hunting situations.
? ? ?I just read a little about your detector. It said that when you turn on your detector it sets itself so that it is silent. Get yourself a good pair of headphones and set your threshold so it is barely audible. Don't only dig solid, locked on hits. Check the depth on any iffy signals. If it's a deep target it may be a keeper. Also, nearby trash will mask good targets by throwing off your VDI.
? ? ?I don't know about Garretts but my Whites will give me a faint audible signal on a DEEP target and not even show up on the VDI.
? ? ?In most public places today the easy pickings are long gone. I believe that there is just no getting around having to dig more trash in order to find what hidden goodies have been left behind.? So getting permission to hunt private property will increase your chances of finding more.
? ? ?But I guess the best advice I can give you is don't rely too much on the VDI. It just will not lock on to the deeper targets. And the best place to find jewelry is where people swim. Local library is one place to find out about your area. Old newspaper archives. There is a number of places you can find online or in treasure magazines where you can order old maps of your area. But I've gotten some pretty poor copies that I can't even read from some companies.
? ? ?Good luck. Have fun. Keep at it and you'll get your share.? ?
? ? ?

 

[IrishCharlieM]

Welcome Mutt

Happy Hunting....

 

[epi-hunter]

I don't have 15 years experience, but I have to agree totally that if you reset your threshold and get a good pair of headphones you'll hear the deep targets that you might be missing now. Those deep targets are the ones you're looking for.

I have found the schools, playgrounds, etc to be a great place to practice and pick up clad. Some people find older silver there but I haven't yet, despite digging the deep signals. I have actually found quite a bit of clad at 6+ inches at parks.

Old homesteads are potentially great places to find old coins and? other relics but remember that they are probably few and far between. In general they were not as populated as some other sites (e.g. the train depot you mentioned; that would be a great site). Make sure you overlap your swings or you may be missing targets, and that you have a systematic approach to these sites so that you cover every inch of ground.

You can find old plat maps of your area sometimes on the internet but if not there, then at your state historical society, or even bigger city libraries. Also you can often find old local books with history and pictures of the area. I found one of the small town (less than 900 people) at a library in the bigger town twenty miles away. This gave me a great idea where things were in the town in the mid-1800's, where people congregated, etc.

I found a 1847 seated liberty half dollar six inches down in a farm field which was not even an old homesite. There was never a home anywhere near this area, and it was the only hit I had for acres on that farm. There are coins everywhere, you just have to be patient and keep looking.

 

[Mutt]

The Garrett detector I have shows depth and has target i.d./It has a customizable settings.The standard mode when the machine comes on only leaves out a few notches in th elowest bottlecap/foil area,but leaves pulltabs/rings/coins notches in place.

It has an adjustable volume that works like this;
Detector on,"audio set in middle of range" If you hold down the plus key,the higher ya go it will buzz contantly beep when over a target and continue to get louder until the max is reached. the lower ya go,the buzz will go away,but if ya adjust it to the lowest setting,it doesn't make any buzzing at all,but beeps when over a target.

Could I get some comments on what you folks think this "audio" does ?That may be helpful.


I went out yesterday,found 10 pennys,a 1968 dime and 2 nickles 3 pull tabs. Then a very old
water hose sprayer at about 9" deep in soft ground.

I plan to go out again today to a place I have been contemplating on for a while,maybe I will have luck there.!!!!!!!!!

 

[EDDE]

a little tip i picked up keep your phones turned up all the way so you can hear the faint deep stuff and so you dont BLOW your ears out(ie a clad penny on the surface).get a cheap sponge/s and cut to size to fit in the ear cups that helps protect your easr and still hear the deep beepss,hu wa pardon speak up....