Trash to Treasure ratio? Metal Detecting...

[chillimack]

What is your MD trash to treasure ratio? Over the past 8 yrs. my ratio has hovered around 28 trash to each treasure, or 28:1.

 

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[Rad1sh]

About the same. Depends on the site. I am in sone picked over areas and sometimes I am lucky to fill my pouch

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Hello Chillimack,

In my situation it is site specific. In a play area or ball fields more treasure better ratio. In the farm fields and parks less treasure more trash. On the beach or in the water it's a coin flip depending on the search area.

Doc

 

[ticndig]

I hunted this one iron/trash infested site for over 20 years . my goal was to dig 50 targets per visit .
most of the time there was 50 trash targets and 0 relics.
but over the years I got through the trash and recovered 2 breast plates , a colt's powder flask ,a large cent and a few 3 ringers.
because I moved the trash that masked the goods.

other sites I've dug nothing but civil war relics and related iron.
but my average is still about one keeper for ever 50 holes as the area I live in now simply isn't loaded with relics like Fredericksburg was .

 

[Coinboy]

I get about 1 treasure to 15 trash in the parks

 

[chillimack]

I have just recently found a silver spoon at an old farmhouse, but everything else has been trash. I've started a grid approach to clear debris rather that just cherrypick. I'm sure my ratio will go way up before leveling out again. I'll have to persevere like ticindig.

 

[ToddsPoint]

I think you guys have the right idea clearing away the iron. I can't imagine doing it at the old farmsteads I hunt though. They burned the old houses down and there are thousands of nails everywhere, plus all the usual iron pieces from equipment. I'm having trouble "winning". Gary

 

[ticndig]

I think you guys have the right idea clearing away the iron. I can't imagine doing it at the old farmsteads I hunt though. They burned the old houses down and there are thousands of nails everywhere, plus all the usual iron pieces from equipment. I'm having trouble "winning". Gary

that's the exact reason I aimed for 50 targets and then leave until another day , the iron , trash , and modern ammo was overwhelming .
the trash was everything from can slaw to old cars.I hunted for 20 years , one day I went to dig and a new house was built on the site. so it ended there.

The site was the home of a union spy living in the Confederate held Fredericksburg Va so my hopes were high on civil war artifacts .
I'm 100% sure if it were not for the trash those relics would have been gone by the cherry pickers.

That's not to say I never cherry pick , one time I had 2 hours to hunt a site before bulldozers would strip it down to the clay . the job superintendent said I could dig until they started and I'd not be allowed on site afterwards ,I was swinging the machine like a madman with a weed eater and only dug the very best tones to start . first two targets were union plates. then a bunch of round balls. no trash to speak of . today the site is under a roller rink.

 

[Muddyhandz]

Depends on what you consider as trash or treasure. Many here think a modern penny is treasure.
I've hated pennies for the 35 years I've detected and have always thrown them in the trash pouch.

Say you've dug a handful of pennies (calling it treasure) but threw away a nice chunk of scrap copper (calling it trash.)
You found 35 pennies (half are corroded to dust) but that scrap copper piece is worth over a buck.....
What's really treasure here?

At remote fur trade sites, almost everything I dig up is treasure. Even nice rose head nails. The junk is the odd shotgun shell.
BUT....I started collecting shotgun headstamps finally a few years ago and now even that doesn't hit the trash bin.

There's a lot of examples of this. One man's junk is another man's treasure.

 

[CalReg]

As the others have mentioned, site has everything to do with it. I mostly hunt parks and beaches, which are pretty trashy anyway. If I dug everything (which I don't anymore), I'd say 3-1 ratio on trash to treasure.

 

[CASPER-2]

some places its high - some low
I go to a Fla. beach and i get tons of bottle caps so good to bad is low
I hit an old New england beach and my good to bad is usually high
cause a lot of the trash has been cleaned out
most of my farm fields - trash has been cleaned out
so my good to bad is high - depending what you call treasure
I will pull bits and pieces of 1600-1700 stuff that some would consider trash
but i consider relics
I usually took pics of both good and bad finds for all to see and compare over the years
check out 2012 - 2015 vids
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9z25g56LhkEv_fdD_Gglsg/videos