Some subjective debate...

[JGRDHS]

So, its been a little bit since I posted....or found anything while metal detecting. Thinking of putting a monthly post of finds; it will be sparse.

I genuinely love this hobby, as well as the research and belief that I found an interesting site to search. However, a recent post, and several other nuggets of advice kind of got me thinking.

Silver Spoon (I think...) recently speculated that he must have been doing something wrong; considering that he has yet to find any silver; or anything at all very old. Obviously I just started and have no place to speak, but I genuinely agreed with the analysis that it is unlikely that a person would find silver in a freshly melted pile of sledding snow.

My conundrum is this: How much do things really depend on the detector? I saw a metal detector at Hobby Lobby for around $90...I'm guessing that cant detect anything too deep. Then, I see people talking about what seems to be god's gift to metal detecting; the almighty e-trac, which a quick search online reveals a retail price of nearly $1,500...

I have a White's 6000 Pro SL...or something that I bought on craigslist for $60. A very good steal if other same models pricing is realistic; but either way, I think it was manufactured in 1985. The machine works...clearly it can detect metal; I have dug my weight in trash. Clearly it finds coins; I have found several dollars worth of clad coins; some surprisingly deep. All I have found was a handful of wheat pennies and an Indian head penny. (pictures soon...)

I think I'm getting to my point, bear with me; it's late. All these machines have all these bells and whistles, different search modes, on and on. Even my machine is heralded for the different modes and levels of item discrimination. However, the most common advice I have read here, and heard in person is to dig all targets. I suppose, if you were just looking for coins, you could discriminate pretty heavily. My machine seems to be pretty honest as to when it thinks its a coin, versus a smashed beer can from the 70's...but from what I gather, interesting, or valuable relics, including jewelry can often appear and portray itself as pull tabs or otherwise "trashy" signals. So what is the real point in such sophistication with these machines? If the tone, or meter, or heads up display, or whatever these seemingly awesome machine utilize (mine is an analog needle meter....that wasn't probably what its called, but again, its late) displays "junk"....but you are supposed to dig it anyways...then what is the point? Unless of course a $1,500 detector can locate deeper targets, which is probably plausible, however, 20+ year old detector has found targets 8 inches deep. Again, nothing of any significance, but presumably, if it found junk at 8 inches, it stands to reason that it could locate a coin at 8 inches.

So overall...unless you are using the $90 piece of Hobby Lobby junk, or there is a defect in your detector...eventually, if you are looking in an area that actually has silver, you will find it if you are looking. Right? I mean....I have buried silver coins (found in my jar of coins with from like 20 years ago) 8 inches down; the detector accurately tells me what it is. So what is the real advantage of a newer detector?

Has any of this made sense? I'm heading out tomorrow to at least 2 old home sites. A home stood there as late as 1988...its all gone now. I half wish someone with an etrac was there to follow me and see what / if i missed anything!

So, Silver Spoon, I am guessing that you and I haven't found much of anything because we either

1. Don't know what we are doing yet with our machines
2. Aren't searching in the right spot
3. There is something wrong with our machines

 

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[soupie]

Well seems like you have a decent handle on things...and yes it is called an analog meter
as far as the machines,most out today are pretty good machines..and the older models are good machines as well.....the $90 one at hobby lobby I might shy away from...

All of them that are decent will find silver,some of them are just better in the trash and better at finding deeper targets...as to the settings it is more of a preference for me...I haven't found where changing this or that on a machine makes a ton of difference in what I find..but I hunt the same kind of areas all the time so not a lot of variance in the minerals and such...for others switching things around helps them,,for me it doesn't....I take what my machine gives,which will vary from location to location and am happy with that....

I think one of the biggest hurdles in this hobby for a newbie you have already conquered....the trust in ones equipment....
Then comes trust in ones ability...a strong top contender as well in my book...

As far as running all metal on the etrac or the se for that matter,I run it purely as a matter of taste.....I like to hear all the beeps and blips...the recovery time is also much faster...if I get a junk signal ie solid iron and it is not large I will generally not dig,when I have it has always been iron....if its a bit above iron or a mixed signal I dig it as it could be a multitude of desired targets close to trash.....Bigger iron signals I always dig...I like axe heads and rusty iron like that...plus any scrap is worth some money at the recyclers....


To find silver you have to get your coil over it plain and simple...and the machines you and SS are using will find it....I have used both a 6000 and a ace 250 and found several desirable targets with both...

Research is the key to finding anything nowadays....most easy places have been hunted to death......So find an old homesite like you have and dig away,eventually a silver will pop up at one of them My Homesites here have not produced a lot of silver since I switched last year to fields from yards,and some days,well alot of days I may not find a coin at all,but generally when i do find a coin or such,it is a keeper..

Some to sum up what I think are keys to quality finds....

1)You have to love the hobby first and foremost
2)Do your Research
3)Spend as much time in the field as you can
4)Have trust in ones machine and abilities
5)Be willing to dig alot of junk...



I hope some of what I said helped and made some sense.....

Good luck out there...

Soup

 

[Lowbatts]

I'm betting you know the answer. When that Whites machine came out, it was top of the line.

And lots of folks found tons of silver with it, and "tons" may not be much of a stretch, collectively.

The silver does not get replenished. The trash, the clad even the jewelry does.

In the early eighties, you could walk through a lot of the parks and not make it very far or long before your silver to trash/clad ratio made today's look even more miserable than it is.

And if you found a carnie site that hadn't hosted a carnival for 30 years, but no one else had hunted you'd be stuck on your knees because the trash ratio was very thin and it was gonna be a long day.

So the old dogs need to learn new tricks, that's all. I think one of them is patience. And get the best gear for the job. Like some of the relative newbies are doing without the detraction of the old bad habits.

And it will be that way when the next generation of MD technology comes through as well.

 

[kimsdad]

All good answers!

Depth and target separation are things the newer machines do well. Important when trying to find good stuff where others have looked with the old machines and recovered the easy to find targets.

I recently dug a Barber dime in a hunted to death area of the woods. It had a rust stain on it from being buried next to a piece of iron. My bet is that iron caused it to be overlooked by the less capable machines. It was the only decent signal there for three hours.

Don't pay $1500 for an E-trac either. Local dealers cut out the "free" crap that the big guys "throw in" and the price drops big time.

 

[tmanfromtexas]

Here are my thoughts on the subject. I started with an Ace 250 in 2006 and found tons of clad ( i paid for the machine in the first year) and one silver quarter. My problem was I wasnt hunting in spots that had silver (or so I thought). Fast forward to 2007. I met up with GOIO (the silver finding freak of Indiana). He was using a Minelab SE. He and I would hit schools and parks in Gary and Hammond. I would find a ton of clad and he dug crap. I would smoke him everytime we went out but never anything old. Once he learned that machine he was smoking my ass on a regular basis finding older coins, wheats and silver. I decided to upgrade to a Fisher F75. We would hit a specific park in Gary and he would find a lot of older coins and I would too but he would still smoke my ass. One day we were hunting and I went over a spot and he followed me. I missed 6 wheaties in a 20 foot path. I was none too happy. I sent my machine to the shop and used my Ace until it got back. Once I got it back we hit another spot and once again I missed a silver quarter and dime that I had put my coil over and he went behind me and found. I sent it back AGAIN. You might think that I didnt spend enough time trying to learn the machine and you may be right.

At this time, GOIO had bought an Etrac but hadnt used it yet. He, American Coin Hunter (Dave) and I went to a park in Hammond one morning. I asked him if I could use the Etrac instead of another machine I had and he said sure give it a try. It was in stock mode and 4 tones. After about 10 minutes I got a nice 11/47 tone at about 7 inches. I yelled to him and told him what I had. He said dig it. Dave came over with his Minelab Exterra and couldnt get a good tone at all. I dug it and it was a 1924 D SLQ in excellent condition. I continued to use it for about a week while my machine was in the shop. I found 13 silvers during that time including a walking half dollar that GOIO had missed with the SE. I got with Ron at Windy City and traded my F75 for my Etrac and have used it ever since.

While I was in the Chicago area I found over 400 silvers in the area parks. I contribute that to the Etrac and learning what it was telling me. TMAN...

 

[tmanfromtexas]

One more thing. The Etrac has Full Band Spectrum technology and the double d coil helps tremendously with trash discrimination. Also, I learned with hunting with American Coin Hunter (Dave) that hitting a coin from different angles make a difference. Some machines have set coil kiloherts (is that the right word) that are specific to the metal you are looking for. Some one will be better in describing the difference but I believe the lower the number the better the machine is at finding lower conductive numbers, the higher the number the better it is at finding higher conductive number items. The Etrac has the full band sprectum coil that allows the computer to decipher what is under the coil. Just my two cents. Good luck with what ever machine you use. TMAN...