I have only been doing this a year and a half, so I am by no means any sort of expert.
Still kind of a newbie in my eyes, compared to a lot of you.
One thing I am very good at, however, is reading and researching and learning.
If I don't know something, I know how to find other more experienced people that do...so I seek out and listen to them.
Last year I was looking for some info on search patterns and came across a guy named Bill Revis who wrote a few articles for Treasure depot magazine.
http://www.thetreasuredepot.com/tdmag.html
He made complete sense to me, about this subject, and some others.
I have come to find out that he is also known as Uncle Willy, and he hangs out at the Finds Treasure forum in the Garrett section...over 800 PAGES of posts, listed.
Seems pretty experienced to me.
(A side note...Bill is a little older now and in the hospital.
I think a few prayers sent his way for a guy that has been trying to help so many in this hobby for so many years is not so much to ask.)
So in one of his articles I read this, and I understood it, but I always thought the numbers were a little mind boggling...
The average coin or ring will fit into a none inch by one inch space. If you are hunting a patch of only 20X 20 this equates to 57,600 square inches or that many potential targets.
Let's say your machine is equipped with an eight-inch coil and you make a four foot pass with each scan. Even if you overlap each pass you will more than likely miss a minimum one-inch strip each scan ( 48 square inches or targets.) Say it takes fifty passes to cover the twenty feet, then you make four more passes up and down to cover the 20x 20 area, for a total of five passes. Each pass you sacrifice 48 square inches, times 50 passes = 2400 square inches. Five trips up and down the site times 2400 = 12,000 square inches or 12,000 possible targets you missed scanning this site. If only one percent of those 12,000 square inches actually contained a target, you left 120 targets behind. Multiply that by every 20x 20 patch contained within the area you are hunting ( such as a park ) and you begin to get the picture. Scary ain't it? And you thought you were doing so good.
Then, a couple of weeks ago, I read another paragraph written by someone else with much experience, and for the life of me I can't remember by whom, but he said pretty much the same thing but in a different way.
He asked a question...
How long would it take you to search a 10x10 area in order to do it right and cover the most ground and locate the most targets?
10 minutes
1/2 hour
1 hour
More than one hour
The answer, according to him, was the last one.
Recently, an experience I had brought these ideas home and something clicked.
A eureka moment, I call those.
Some of you might have read a post or two of mine where I talk about a large high school parking lot with those grassy island dividers, and how many targets I am recovering from this site.
I first hit it last November on a day where I found a record amount of coins and clad, for me, a silver ring and several other cool things.
That day, I had covered most of this large area in a few hours.
Every time I swung it seemed I would find a good target, and I was tired from all that digging, but very happy.
Found over 130 coins including 90 zincolns and copper pennies that trip, and even though they are a hassle, I dig zinc because I have found several really cool medallions, medals, pins and tokens that were made of this metal.
I also know larger gold rings can come in at zinc, too, and I sure don't want to miss those.
I went back a few weeks later and found some more clad, another small silver ring, and a few more pins and other goodies, but much less than before.
That time I covered most of the area again, in a few hours.
Went back again for short hunts a few times after, still found stuff, but pickings were getting slim.
Then, last week, I hit this place again, but this time I decided to go very slow and swing a very tight pattern and really overlap.
I was looking for some jewelry because I figured I already got most of the clad.
Boy was I wrong.
$4.99 in clad, some other trinkets, no jewelry but over 90 coins including over 50 zincolns and copper pennies,
I was dumbfounded!
The first trip here I picked up 130 coins and over 90 pennies.
Subsequent trips I picked up several more coins but a lot less and not so many pennies.
Last week, after covering not the whole area, like I usually do, but just a very, very small section which I had already gone over several times with 2 different detectors, well, it was like I had never hit this place before or had taken a thing out of the dirt from this place in the past.
The difference....going slow and that very tight pattern.
Those ideas and advice from those two experts and others I have read hit me like a ton of bricks...I get it now.
Eureka!!
I had to see if I was right about this.
Sure, every time I go out with any detector I swing I try to pay attention and learn something new and continue to get better at this wonderful hobby, and it seems to be working.
But it was that tight pattern and slow swinging that was making this old site seem new to me again.
This past Sunday, I went back.
Just a very, very small section was targeted again with that slow and tight search pattern
Over 100 coins, 70 of them zincolns or copper pennies, a few nice pins and trinkets, and another cool and different large zinc music medal/ award...the second I have found at this place.
Now I realize my old sites that I rotate and hit...the ones I have been getting bored with because there is less and less to find, those probably need a return visit too...only this time there is a new sheriff in town with a new way of hunting.
Not to mention that hitting the exact same areas that I have pulled so much out of in the last two weeks, maybe by coming at them from a different angle they might produce even more.
Several of you have said it...grid the area...hit it from different angles, swing slow in a tight pattern.
Yea...I get it now.
An old dog can learn some new tricks, it seems.
My eyes are now truly opened and I am really looking forward to my next several hunts at my old haunts.
Just thought I would let you guys know.
HH.
Great story Digger with some great tips. Can't wait to try some of these ideals on todays hunt. Well done sir!