Tips for hunting open lots where old buildings once stood?

[damiani1]

Hi, I have found the lot of an 1850's hotel that once stood there. I am just curious what some tips on hunting a spot where a building once stood. Have any of you had luck, or was there a lot of trash? I will be hitting this lot in all metal digging every signal for like 3 hours tomorrow.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Why would you want to go "all-metal" mode? Wouldn't you at least want to knock out the iron (nails, etc...). The site might be riddled (most likely is) with iron, nails, etc... So you'll at least want to knock that out and just stick with the conductive targets. Later on, if you've done good and gotten old coins and such, if you feel there might be more coins hiding under the nails (masking), THEN you can go back, be a hero, and dig all the nails out. But even then still not necessary (unless you're game for digging 5000 hits up). You can take a machine like the Tesoro silver sabre, or Compass 77b, and they'll fairly reliably see under and around a few nails on top of a coin.

 

[Frankn]

If I were you, I would hunt around where the building was. I agree with Tom on the nails though I think he was conservative in his estimate. lol Frank...

 

[Beans]

If it is a one time hunt, then you need make the most of it. Why dig nails and stuff like that. Dig the signals that may be the most productive. If it as place where you can go to and not be limited on time then use a grid system and dig it all.

 

[damiani1]

Turned out to be a construction dump site now so I stuck around for about 30 minutes. High expectations for this spot too lol, if only google maps could have told me that