Old houses/foundations beside railroad tracks..

[grogmug]

I have several pictures I have taken the last few months of old houses/foundations I found thanks to my dad who is a train conductor. I've found several old mason jars, bottles, and junk with the detector but NO COINS or anything worth while. I KNOW these places are promising but I do skip around a lot is that my problem? Do you all cover every square inch when your detecting? I have an ACE 250, and usually use the coin mode or relic, but usually leave it on coins with the discrimation turned halfway up. How do I stop digging trash and start finding coins, relics, etc?!?!?!?! Are there certain spots I should be looking on these foundations? I WILL post pictures, as soon as I figure out how to do it!!!

 

[romeo-1]

Try around the actual foundation first and just work your way out!

 

[gold fish]

The first thing I had to learn was to slow down and take my time. Really try not to jump around, remember, it's better to find everything in a quarter of one yard than nothin in ten yards.

 

[halfdime]

Be thorough, especially on a site you can return to over and over.

 

[grogmug]

So your saying take your time and cover EVERY square inch? Are they're certain signals I should ignore or modes that I should keep my detector in? I want to start finding stuff worth while I can post on here...it's starting to get discouraging!!

 

[outdoorgirl]

I always start around the foundation or around where old steps to the house use to be. Old driveways and big trees are good too. I tend ignore the ticks and go for the loud or semi loud "here I am" signals, and Remember to take your time. Just because you didn't get signal walking one way, doesn't mean you won't when you walk the other way. The coin may be on it's side. One good thing to do is to get some clad out and test your MD over it. See how each piece of clad sounds. It's all different. Good Luck.

 

[Gribnitz]

promising looking spots do small grids overlapping your swings. pick out a spot in a 10x10 area and cover it, then move onto the next 10x10 area. Concentric coils look into the ground in a cone shape, so unless you overlap your swings, your going to miss stuff.

 

[West Jersey Detecting]

Around here many of the sites were hunted out years ago. I still find what they didn't dig. I think they dug the obvious tones, but left anything that didn't sound like a solid hit. When I have the time, I dig everything. Even if it means digging tons of cans and foil. I recently found a 175 year old "coin silver" spoon at a site that was "hunted out". There was no way they could have missed it, it just didn't ring like a coin. I also dug a nice pewter button that sounded like a junk tone.

I also find a lot of old bottles by digging in the area where there is a large amound of trash signals! NOT ALL TREASURE IS METAL!

You may not be the first, but don't let that deter you!

 

[Con]

i usually stay in one spot for a couple of hours unless it really get discouraging, remember, the Tortoise beat the Hare

 

[grogmug]

These spots are really good, the houses are big, built in the 1800's and are near railroad tracks. Shouldn't I expect more then cans, and old railroad spikes?!!

 

[Alchemy]

Skipping around could be a problem.

I have an area like that. I thought sure I'd find loads of stuff there. And it didn't help finding my first large cent on the first day there.
I figured I'd be finding coins every time I went there. But, no such luck. I haven't found another coin there since.
Perfect area too, early 1800's, was even a resort at one time. Hell, there's even a doggone wishing well on the property...still no coins around it

I figure it wasn't detected before either...unless the old owner had done it (doubtful though)

I've also got a spot where I think I'm all done finding anything, then I go back for one more shot and find more because I missed it the last time.

As someone else mentioned, swing walking one way, then go back over your tracks and swing over the area again swinging the opposite way...

So, yes being really through is advised.
Chances are when you do find something it'll be something really sweet

(Ya gotta say a prayer to the detector gods and goddess first!)LOL

 

[shootist]

you really want to make sure you cover ay area you are working completely. Dont worry about the whole yard concentrate on small areas overlapping constantly. When you think you have a decent signal walk around the target swinging your coil all over it and try and discern the shape and size of the item. Look for good repeatable tones,if it sounds like 4 different things from 4 different angles its a good bet its junk. If you arent getting a lot of targets then I would dig everything and you really need to drop the discrim down some,you have to get used to hearing junky sounds so you will know when you have a good sound. Its not something that you will get good at overnight. When you start to get discouraged go hunt some clad at some easy places it will really help your confidence and help you to identify good targets. It sounds like you really have some great spot if you will be able to hunt them for a long time then there is no hurry,whereas if you only have a short time then hit the traffic areas,driveways,walkways around the porches,hit the clothesline first thing and the path to and all around the outhouse also around where the mailbox would have been should yield a coin. It is a very difficult hobby to get good at especially if you want to dig the old stuff I usually wont hunt any spot for more than a couple of hours it seems I lose focus so I move on to another spot,though I dont have to walk very far to reach any of my spots. Im sure if I had a big hike in it would be a different story. I hope this helps ya out some,Ive struggled a lot and still do when trying to find older coins but every trip out I get a little better and Im sure you will too if you stick with it Gl and HH....Shoot

 

[Mystro7]

Take your time,dig it all,practice makes...well almost perfect. When i first started ,I did my yard ten times each time thinkin i got everything until I found my first walking liberty. Im sure I can go back out there and find a wheatie he he.

 

[gold fish]

Here's what I tried, it really helped me to dig A LOT less trash-

Every time you get a signal, pay VERY close attention to it. The way it sounds, how "big" it is(how far you can move the coil and still get a tone), where it comes in on disc.(target id), how deep it is, then dig it. The only way to know for sure whats down there is to hold it in your hand, but if you learn how your MD re-acts to different targets, you will start to get an idea of what you are looking at while it's still in the ground. The only way to figure that out is to remember what the target sounded like BEFORE you dug it.

Here's a little story - My tesoro is very frequency specific, it reads the magnetic signature of a target, not necissarily(sp?) the metal type/size. Therefore, when I get "near" iron, it comes up as silver, after a little pinpointing, it usually reads a lot truer. So usually when I get a nickel signal that changes to iron/foil, it turns out to be just that. The last couple days I have been in an area that has been giving a lot of nickel signals, when I pinpoint them, they start to read zinc penny. They are showing up at 3-6", a little deep for clad, and corroded pennies can sometimes(on my machine, I know from past experience) show up as zinc, so I started digging these "almost junk" signals, and so far I have 6 wheats and seven Indian pennies to show for it.

The object isn't to dig TONS of coins EVERY time out, at least, when you're getting started. Worry more about learning how your machine "sees" things, when you learn that, you'll start digging A LOT better stuff.

P.S.- Shootist is usually a little "touched", but that advice about reading a target that has 4 different IDs, so far as I've seen, thats pretty much right-on.

 

[grogmug]

my problem is I think I have to dig EVERY signal. It's hard NOT to sometimes, when I found my wheat pennies beside an old dock it read the same as a pull-tab or can. It's just hard for me to discriminate with my ACE250, I figure when the signal goes CRAZY and bounces all over the place that it's something good. I found my buddies graduation ring in his yard with this kind of signal, since then nothing but JUNK. I need to get one of you out there with me, I know of TONS of old spots here in Kentucky that look very promising. Thanks again for all your help and advice.

 

[Wolfbite]

One thing that helped me is to enjoy it.Enjoy getting out there and hunting.When i try to be productive its more like work.Outdoorgirl gave some great info.Just take your time..
I hunted a RR depot for months and never found any keepers.But the area had been dozed off.
Good luck and keep swinging.HH wolfbite

 

[Mainedigger]

Take your time, cover every square inch at least a couple of times and be patient..the coins will come, as will other nice finds. Remember...the posts you see on here are just the good stuff....not many show the hundreds, sometimes thousands of pulltabs, foil, cans,bullet shells and other junk that they dug at one site...just the "sweet" finds and they usually isn;t alot of those. Sometimes the detector gods are smiling on you big time and you find nothing but coins and a good amount of them, but usually it takes alot of time, patience and persistence to find these few nice coins and alot of dug junk to go along with them. Also remember that in this hobby there are going to be bad days, some not so bad days, some REALLY bad days and occasionally a decent day and then once in a while a good day and if you are really lucky...a great day. The idea of this hobby is to enjoy it..expect nothing and appreciate the nice finds for sometimes they are few and far between... Fortunately good research, patience and some hard work will usually reward you in some way...but not always, so don;t expect it everytime. Also, as advised by many above, until you REALLY know your detector...dig every signal, then once you get REALLY used to your detector...dig every signal... the meters are fairly accurate but not 100% and alot of times gold will register as foil, so not digging may mean you are passing up a nice gold ring, sometimes silver dimes will register as pulltabs. The only way of knowing for sure is to dig every signal. Good luck and be patient, the nice coins and other relics will come your way eventually.

 

[West Jersey Detecting]

my problem is I think I have to dig EVERY signal. It's hard NOT to sometimes, when I found my wheat pennies beside an old dock it read the same as a pull-tab or can. It's just hard for me to discriminate with my ACE250, I figure when the signal goes CRAZY and bounces all over the place that it's something good. I found my buddies graduation ring in his yard with this kind of signal, since then nothing but JUNK. I need to get one of you out there with me, I know of TONS of old spots here in Kentucky that look very promising. Thanks again for all your help and advice.

Sounds like you have your sensitivity too high! Try lowerring it a notch.

 

[TreasureTales]

Not familiar with the ACE 250, but here's some ideas that may help anyway.

First, start from the beginning--test your settings. Make a test garden and try your machine with the current settings. Fine tune and adjust until you get the signals/readings for a cent, nickel, dime, quarter, half. Borrow a gold ring and tune your machine in for that as well. Practice in your garden until you feel confident with your settings.

Second, go to a barkbox and get some experience searching for items that haven't been planted. IOW, go to a place that probably has coins, but which was not planted by you. Again, building up your experience and confidence in your settings. Hunt until you find some coins.

Third, return to the railroad/old houses area. Work one area no bigger than 10ft. x 10ft. DIG EVERYTHING in this small area. This will be lots of work, but well worthwhile in the long run. You will learn the "good" signals and metering from the "bad." You will also probably learn that some of those bad or iffy signals are actually good stuff.

This is not a hobby that can be learned quickly. It takes practice and dedication. It's something in which we all have a slow learning curve at first. Don't despair. Don't quit. Just knuckle down and do the necessary work. You'll never regret it, this is a wonderful hobby. And remember, no place is ever hunted out, it just may take some extra work or thinking outside the box to find something. Good Luck.

 

[gold fish]

treasuretales/mainedigger, way to hit it on the head. I spent 6+ hours out today, I finally turned up a 1974 penny at a spot that used to house several 100+ year-old cabins. Man those stupid shotgun cases sound like gold !!!! In short, today was pretty much poo(unless you cosider 30-40 shotshell ends good). In other words, grog, I won't be posting any finds today(my digs were, frankly..........embarassing.), so that kinda lets you know, you really are seeing just the good stuff in the posts. When I stop and think about it, I've found some decent stuff, by that I mean four silver quarters, a few mercs, IH pennies, and some wheats. I've beeen at this since Sept. and I have put in A LOT of hours. I will never say that I am an authority on this hobby(nobody really can) but I've done some homework, and in doing homework, you'll start to notice that certain factors carry over from situation to situation. That ace250 is a pretty popular machine and you should be able to get some good advice on here about it, just remember, in this hobby, advice is generalized, and you won't know until you try(or you become PBK).

Here's a TN find for ya, Call it today's find(I saved it when I saw it a few months ago)