Re-posted from a thread response I had.
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showpost.php?p=1099853
Silver tips in Alabama
-This hobby is all about patience, but in Alabama it is about extreme patience and perseverance. Typically most people around here that try the hobby get to the initial point you are at and give up. Don't give up. Similarly people, especially around here, think that metal detectors are only good at the beach, or in sand, probably because our soil is so bad, and extra hard to dig in.
- I know you want silver, but clad rings up almost the same, and is great practice. A site like a somewhat modern park or school with a totlot, if not hunted recently can produce, a lot of clad with very little junk if it has been well maintained and trash picked up recently, which they may not do very often in the country, but finding one will be rewarding. You really need an easier site to learn your detector, and learn what finding a coin is like, about 200 times. I got my wife interested in detecting at a school that had never been hunted that had very little trash and tons of clad coins, that had been there since the 70s.
Seriously try to dig 200 clad coins at easy sites, going to an old junky site is going to be very frustrating, even if you know your detector inside and out, and near impossible if you don't.
With any luck you will find silver or gold rings or other sweet items, to get you even more hooked!
-Look for washouts, ditches, lower spots, and hill sides where the topsoil is being washed away faster than it accumulates. I found a 1920 Mercury dime and a 1916 wheat penny just lying on the surface in different areas. If there are pebbles and rocks laying on the surface, (in a sloped, hilltop/side, or ditch) there could be shallow or surface coins as well.
-Watch out for old sites that have been filled in with offsite dirt. If you are at a 200 year old park and only finding coins from the 1970s, the dirt might only be 30 years old, but there could be spots, especially around old trees and washouts, where the original soil remains.
-Count your wheat pennies. If you are finding wheat pennies, keep hunting those sites. You should find about one silver coin for every 5 wheat pennies, as a long term average. Sort term you could find 10 silver coins without a single wheat or 60 wheats without a single silver, but it will even out eventually. If you are hunting a site and finding 10-20 wheats to each silver coin consider the possibility that someone has hunted the site with decent detector and only recovered mostly recovered silver dimes, and larger coins. On premium machines wheats often come in lower than memorial pennies and dimes, so some experienced hunters leave those behind. If so you should run into this, hit it hard anyway, because Barber dimes and worn Mercury dimes come in lower, and the soil can change revealing more silver.
-Try not to skip the zinc signals, they can be Indian head cents or even huge gold class rings. At an old site digging all non-iron signals will yield bullets, nickels, tokens, and relics, and at the same time you might get lucky and find silver or non metal items that your detector did not detect.
-Rich black soil increases your depth, usually, but it also lets the coins sink. I typically find old coins on the bottom of the black topsoil layer, just working themselves into the clay beneath it or just above it. Look for areas with a shallow layer of topsoil, which is hard to do, usually I just notice it after I dig targets.
-A lot of the older areas have a nail every 6 inches. This might be a problem with an Ace 250. A 5-6" DD coil would help.
-Hunt old sites. If your house was built 1950 or earlier hunt it. Clean it up nails and junk targets, it might reveal silver.
Research old sites that are not obvious, an old church on the main road is more likely to be detected than an old church that was torn down and all that remains is a few trees. Bonesquat has a site with a newer church that was built on the same spot where multiple churches have been built since the early 1800s, and the church yard left mostly intact!
-I am the slowest detectorist I know, but speedy target recovery is always a huge plus. Bonesquat and Cowboy are probably finding twice as much silver as me, because they are digging twice as many memorial pennies, and junk that comes in just like a dime, like can fragments and brass fittings. Cowboy and I have been digging 20-60 memorial pennies on each outing, and that many more pieces of trash, that is what it is taking to find silver.
-Get a Harbor freight pinpointer, and then later a propointer if you stay with it long term. Also get a good digging tool, try a sturdy garden trowel, and upgrade a lesche if you stay with it. The harbor freight PP and the trowel will wearout, after a month or two of 10-20 hours a week of hunting, if you hunt that much, you are hooked and need to upgrade, so it will be better and cheaper than buying junk accessories every month. Both will greatly speed up your digging.
-Upgrading detectors helps, but ...
I don't think anyone has ever regretted buying an E-Trac, (unless they just don't want to learn it) it finds coins in by the dozen, but a lot of people have regretted getting two or three detectors in between the ACE 250 and an E-Trac. An AT-Pro might be a good upgrade someday.
