Newbie question from an oldy

[aa battery]

I have been metal detecting a WW2 Army Air Base here for 1 year and still have not found a steel 1943 wheat cent. Is it because the Army didnt issue them or does a steel cent hit like an iron target? I know my garrett gets confused when pennies are 1930 something and older. Indian Head read different to. If iam missing steel cents because i dont want to dig up nails iam going to

 

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[Montana Jim]

Yes... dig it all or miss the steal cents... or whats left of them

They should still be sounding off like a coin... a nice repeatable target...

 

[Highwater]

aa,
You need to beg, borrow or steal a steel penny to air test and set your discriminator accordingly. Once you have your detector tuned in you will start finding them. I haven't found one for a couple years, but in the right soil conditions I have found some that are still in good shape.
Also, for any other type of item you would want or expect to find in the area you are searching you need to obtain samples of the items and air test them on the bench. Set your machine to accept the items and you should start having more success.
Likewise, if there are items that you don't want to hear or dig up then wave them over your coil and adjust your discriminator to reject. If good and bad fall into the same area of discrimination then you have to decide if it is worth accepting that level or rejecting it.
No matter where we hunt we need to remember to tune our machines for that particular ground and adjust for what we want to accept and reject. It is the same as listening to the car radio. If the station isn't dialed in properly we won't get a good signal and the radio will give us a diminished result, so we reach up and turn the dial until the signal comes in clear. We need to make sure our detectors are tuned properly each and every time we hunt. It is wise to recheck the settings a couple times an hour to make sure they haven't drifted on us, or the ground has changed, or a knob or switch got bumped.
Remember, your detector is the link between you and what is beneath the ground. Tune it as crystal clear as you possibly can and dial it in for the type of targets you want to accept and reject and for the ground conditions. Also remember that higher sensitivity isn't always the answer to finding more targets. I am working a land site at this time that I do much better with the sens turned down about half due to a lot of aluminum in the ground. It would be easy to 'swamp' out if I ran the power too high.
Old military post are always a good hunt. Good luck and HH. Highwater

 

[aa battery]

Highwater your probably right i have been kinda lazy about digging everything.I can set my Garrett to discriminate but iam afraid i will miss something.

 

[Highwater]

aa,
When I am relic hunting I pretty much go with the all metal mode and dig everything if the site I am hunting doesn't have a lot of modern trash.
Also, I am sure you have seen many times when a new detectorist has beginners luck. Most of the time when starting out newbees are told to dig everything until they get the hang of it and they often start out finding some good stuff. Once we get into it for a while and dig a lot of trash we do tend to get lazy, then pretty soon we wonder why we aren't digging up the little gold rings and other neat stuff like we used to find. We make excuses like "they just aren't here" or start questioning our equipment when actually we have set our discriminators too high or notched out to reject something at one site and forget to reset it for the next hunt. It is easy to just run in the same mode all the time and when we get to a site just turn on the power and start hunting.
It is all a trade off. Like the land site I am working, it is just too trashed out to start cleaning patches to try to find the good stuff. I started the site with this in mind but quickly figured out it just isn't worth it so I just go cherry picking. On the other hand, when a site is really old and most of the trash is really old then I like to grid out a section at a time and dig everything. Relics aren't always noble metal. A lot of good stuff is ferrous, but very much worth finding but we won't find this stuff if our detector is choked down too tight.
I know you have been at it for a long time and know how to set up your machine. Sometimes we just have to modify our thought pattern once in a while and take the time to tune into the situation.
I am going to put a link below to a post I made sometime back. I think there is something in it for everyone if they take the time to read it. Highwater

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,120170.0.html

 

[aa battery]

I wonder why i didnt read your post earlier. Ok i know why sometimes old dogs dont think they can learn new tricks but this dog did.Thanks Highwater ..aa