Sports Field Questions.....

[stpauli914]

OK, so I am an avid beach hunter with my Minelab Excalibur II, but I am trying to expand my horizons a bit. There is a large City owned sports complex real close to my house that I was thinking about giving a try. Particularly the soccer field area where all kinds of games are played, flag football, soccer, etc. A few questions...

I am not so much interested in digging a bunch of clad, just looking for jewelry etc. What is the best detector to do this? I don't want to be cutting plugs all over the beautiful field just pulling pennies, ya know? Also, what is the best digging tool for this purpose? I drive by these fields ALL THE TIME and have never seen anyone detecting. I am unsure of the age of them but I don't believe they go back too far(maybe 10 or 15 years?) Do I still stand a chance at finding some nice stuff??

Thanks,
Aaron

 

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[Sandman]

You stand an excellent chance of finding some gold rings but not with the Excal II. At the beach you scoop everything the Excal goes off on since it doesn't respond to hairpins, but on the grass the Excal doesn't pinpoint as well for what you want to use it for.

What detector do you need for this is something along the lines of a MXT or White's DFX or any detector with a display where you can notch out certain numbers and accept others. Like reject everything up to pull tab and accept those tabs up to zinc penny and reject all above that if you aren't interested in clad coins. This way you will only hear the targets with the same range of conductivity as pull tabs and gold rings. This way you won't get any white gold as they are near foil or silver rings which are closer to dime and beyond.

You are going to find a lot of tabs, but maybe not so many on the field. For a tool I would use a knife like a bayonet as this will jam in the center of the rings or pull tabs and be levered out of the ground. The bayonet has two sides sharp but what your interested in is the point in the center of the blade. You shouldn't have to dig any plugs and if someone sees you digging you could be charged with destroying public property or some such if they wanna get mean. Most of the rings I've gotten at these fields have been shallow near the grass roots. It takes practice to probe this way but we didn't used to have electronic probes. If your detector your using doesn't have a depth probe and the "ring" is deep, I leave it and look for something shallower. Time spent on your knees means less time to sweep for the rings that are shallow.

Good Luck,
Sandman

 

[jeepcj5]

stpauli914,
If you're seeking advice for field jewelry, look for pl8man's posts, Glen is the most consistent ring finder on these forums, I've nicknamed him LOTR, Lord OF The Rings, he is that good and a VERY helpful nice guy, look for him on the today's finds section.... he has found over 100 rings so far this year!!!

HH buddy

 

[stpauli914]

Thanks guys!!

Aaron

 

[Tom_in_CA]

There are guys who angle for gold jewelry in turf, but you have to be real selective about what type turf you're at. Because some turf can be prohibitively junky. Like around picnic tables and BBQ pits areas of parks. Sports fields will be less junky, d/t it's less eating/picnicking, and more frolicking type activity. But even then, if gold jewelry is your goal, you might be better off angling at beaches, where digging is effortless, holes are not a problem, and activities there are equally, if not more-so, condusive to gold jewelry loss.

Yes it's a pain in the b*tt to go digging 100 holes (even if just probing/prying for shallow stuff) in the turf for random clad that doesn't amount to more than $3 in change (not to mention the self-conscious feeling). You can certainly disc. out all your high conductors, and simply pass clad of all sorts (except nickels of course). But you might still be looking at odds of 100 to 1 junk to gold jewelry ratio, even in the more upscale type sites. It will depend on if lawn mowers have created can-slaw, and other types usage that introduce junk.

 

[MrPoptop]

Easily 100-1 odds.
Get a high Frequency machine like the whites m-6 or mxt pro, also consider the garretts at pro.

 

[stpauli914]

Tom and Pop Top,

Thanks for giving it to me straight. I think I'll save my $ and stick to the beach. I have found plenty of jewelry in the last couple months, I think I'll leave the sports fields alone for now.

HH,
Aaron