First time out with F-2 total bust so frustrated
- Thread starter hillbillydigger
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hillbillydigger
Elite Member
I think every signal in front yard was in that range. Its a thin gold band he said cost around $70 back at that time so its not going to ring high I wouldn't think. This should be fun.
hillbillydigger
Elite Member
Hmmm... but how do you get permission to detect in people's living rooms because that's where everyone is here?
I noticed what few kids are taken to the park there parents let them play an average of 5 minutes. Its really odd. I am trying to get a permit to detect area lakes since fishermen seem to have a real problem losing things judging by the stuff I find by sight. You have to get a permit though and the agency has said they aren't issuing permits until they make a "decision" in January. So far the little league parks have been real bummers. The biggest one has solid concrete bleachers and the others had concrete pads under the bleachers which makes it more easy for enterprising youngsters to pick up clad by sight as I have found none around bleachers. I think the town was settled in mid to late-1800's...is that considered old? It was a Indian territory prior. My apartment complex which is enormous sits on a former Cherokee village and the landlord said absolutely no detecting! I shouldn't have asked as I could have probably at least gotten through the volleyball sand court and get some jewelry before they could spot me and say something. Now I can't use ignorance as an excuse 
triplehooked
Elite Member
If I lived in East TN I'd be looking into civil war maps and troop movements in the area.... Just a suggestion. I have family in SE Ky (Harlan Co.) and I'm already researching the Cumberland Gap area for a future hunt! I'd take a three ringer over clad anyday!
jwebs
Elite Member
Have you tried empty lots(where homes used to stand) in older parts of towns, or open pavilion type areas? looking at old maps (if you can find them) really helps. Also, just looking at google earth maps of your town can help you spot empty areas where things used to be or where people congregate(d).
hillbillydigger
Elite Member
There were no known battles in this county. The only historic area here is around the river crossings where there used to be ferries. However you have to get a permit for those areas and they stopped issuing them in August.
There is one park on the river that doesn't require a permit, but so far all I have found there is 26 cents and 2 baseballs. I've seen two other detectors over there, so it may be picked clean. However, if it ever stops raining I will try there again.
hillbillydigger
Elite Member
I will keep that in mind, but can't think of any empty lots. The town is very rural and very ummm clannish. So everything is private land save for 4 parks. Asking permission is not something I really care to do for private residential property. There's just too many rough rednecks and meth labs in the woods. People are found dead all the time. Its just not like other towns is all I can say; its hard to explain. The distance to larger cities is also a factor with the price of gas. Everywhere is a long drive. However I did hear tell a nearby county is in negotiations to purchase 4 private parcels that were former battlesites and turning them into parks. So I'm waiting and hoping... Then it might be worth the gas to drive over there.
triplehooked
Elite Member
That's a pretty good machine if it picks up baseballs...
Just some advice, don't ever assume a place is "picked clean". Keep hitting those spots that others pass over and you'll end up being the lucky son of a gun who pulls out something shiny! I readily admit that the F2 wasn't my favorite machine, but it hit a clad quarter in my front yard that was missed by both my Vaquero and my MXT. Was it a shift in the ground matrix due to moisture, a freq. difference in the machines, the angle/speed of sweep, or maybe I was just holding my mouth right... who knows! My point is, is that areas keep producing for some odd reason and many here can attest to it. Keep learning that machine, and do some more research in your area if you are at all interested in CW relic hunting. Solders were all over that state at one time or another. It doesn't have to be a Shiloh or Gettysburg to produce... Good luck with your detector!
hillbillydigger
Elite Member
That's a pretty good machine if it picks up baseballs...
I was wondering just how often the over-detected sites will still yield older items. There is this other park in same town a detector from another county told me he and his buddies had been all over and found a good amount of silver. He said was oldest park in area, but I went to same spot he said they found the silver and I found nothing and I was even digging 7 inches deep...and of course bringing up vintage Budweiser cans.
I will go to both parks again. I am curious how the 5 inches of rain we have had in past two days will move things around in the ground. Course will have to wait as we are suppose to get more rain and snow flurries tonight. Last week we got 2-3 inches of rain and I went out in mud at this other place and turned up clad that I had not found the week before and I doubt it was new because people just don't spend much time there and especially not with the weather as it has been. To be honest I had just taken my detector there to use as sort of a prop. lol I wanted to look for more arrowheads like I had found last time as I figure there are more. Wandering around looking at the ground attracts attention 
, but take the detector and headphones out there and suddenly you have an excuse. lmao I'm not sure how to find out if there were any minor skirmishs took place in area. The internet yields nothing concerning Civil War other than it stated there were not any battles in this county. The library's reference section consists of encyclopedia and dictionary, so my research material is limited in this little town. I am going to check out the next larger towns library and see if they have historical info on this town.
demyansk1942
Elite Member
The F2 was my first detector and that was in June 2011, I have found about $120 dollars so far including a number of silver coins, plat ring and silver rings. The best thing to do is run it at zinc, dime, quarter and 1-2 bars sensitivity. Then you will memorize the signal numbers and be on the way. If you dont want to dig pennies, run it dime quarter and you will be sure to find that. Sometimes, I dont feel like digging everything. back in Sept I went to a playground and found 16 bucks in 3-4 hours. Go to a totlot and you will find stuff. I like my F2 better than my f5 due to the speaker being louder in the F2. I hate headphones - hate - hate- hate headphones. I almost sent the f5 back to bart but I just decided to keep it and use as a second machine and its more expensive!!!
hillbillydigger
Elite Member
I hear what you saying. All this stuff totally makes sense to me. I'm just not coming up with heaps of clad at the totlots even. I seriously think the problem must be this is a poor rural area and people don't have money to give their kids so they can lose it. They also don't take their kids anywhere. I scoured a totlot yesterday and only came up with 2 pennies. I dig whatever comes up minus iron at this point. The most I have come up with in 4 hours at a park is 36 cents and no jewelry yet save for a metal ear stud. I will scan this other park again in a few days as it was sopping wet from the 5 inches of rain. There's 3 more totlots I know of I haven't hit yet. The problem recently has been the nonstop rain. Just to pay off the expense of my machine and supplies would make me happy so I won't feel like I wasted money on yet another play toy.
Something I am running into is the metal posts at the tot lots are ringing up from zinc on up to quarter range if I get within 6-8 inches of them. I am using the 4 inch sniper coil in the lots, but still I keep wondering if I am missing things near the posts. When I dig the posts almost always never find any metal so can't help but think its the posts interfering. The lot yesterday seem to have a long metal pole underneath the catwalk section as the detector was showing something that appeared to be a foot long running the length of the walkway. Also notice near bottoms of slides there seems to be metal base or something under the mulch. Now I do well if a target is far away from a post and always am able to find the object. I find most of my coins under the cat walks and also by the swingsets. Where does everyone else find the coins the most?
hi I am in east TN too
about 40 miles north of knoxville
I am still learning too, today my husband was ready to see if the man would let him borrow is back hoe becouse I kept telling him its a little further down lol
it was a old metal basketball hoop about 6 to 8 inches down lol we just covered it back up and i put a big rock over it so i would not dig it anymore
we would have had to dig another big hole to get it out. hopefully this weekend the weather will stay warm and i can practice all weekend
I am just hoping these holes look better before the landlord comes to town
(landlord is my parents) i wont even think about digging in the park except for the tot lots with the mulch untill i get better at digging the plugs
about 40 miles north of knoxville
I am still learning too, today my husband was ready to see if the man would let him borrow is back hoe becouse I kept telling him its a little further down lol
it was a old metal basketball hoop about 6 to 8 inches down lol we just covered it back up and i put a big rock over it so i would not dig it anymore
we would have had to dig another big hole to get it out. hopefully this weekend the weather will stay warm and i can practice all weekend
I am just hoping these holes look better before the landlord comes to town
(landlord is my parents) i wont even think about digging in the park except for the tot lots with the mulch untill i get better at digging the plugs
hillbillydigger
Elite Member
Hi, I wonder if we are close since I am outside Knoxville? Maybe we could detect together sometime? One thing I can tell you about most of the parks I have been in is most of the dirt seems to have sand mixed in it for whatever reason so it doesn't dig a pretty plug. But it does go back together good if you save the grass and just fill everything back in and smush the grass down with your shoe then it looks no different than all the holes the skunks and squirrels leave behind. Maybe this will help you - I found a lot of shallow and surface coins at parks around the covered picnic areas. Also around trees particularly on the lower shady side whichever side looks more comfy if you are looking to sit down and you can find pocket spills there. I found a penny pocket spill under tree and then found a 80's penny that looked like it had sit there over 20 years laying on top of gravel around the concrete edge at the covered picnic area. Looked like a weedeater had hit it as it had 3 or 4 gashes in it which makes you wonder at people who will walk by money and not pick it up. Oh well that's more coins for us! So look shallow-surface at newer parks around garbage cans and water fountains too. Learn the pinpointing feature by googling articles online as once I did that I quit having things "move" after I dug the hole.
The main thing gets me now is the tot lots with the thick metal poles as those fool my detector even with edging up parallel to them with sensitivity down. Definitely a learning curve.bbmHi, I wonder if we are close since I am outside Knoxville? Maybe we could detect together sometime? One thing I can tell you about most of the parks I have been in is most of the dirt seems to have sand mixed in it for whatever reason so it doesn't dig a pretty plug. But it does go back together good if you save the grass and just fill everything back in and smush the grass down with your shoe then it looks no different than all the holes the skunks and squirrels leave behind. Maybe this will help you - I found a lot of shallow and surface coins at parks around the covered picnic areas. Also around trees particularly on the lower shady side whichever side looks more comfy if you are looking to sit down and you can find pocket spills there. I found a penny pocket spill under tree and then found a 80's penny that looked like it had sit there over 20 years laying on top of gravel around the concrete edge at the covered picnic area. Looked like a weedeater had hit it as it had 3 or 4 gashes in it which makes you wonder at people who will walk by money and not pick it up. Oh well that's more coins for us! So look shallow-surface at newer parks around garbage cans and water fountains too. Learn the pinpointing feature by googling articles online as once I did that I quit having things "move" after I dug the hole.
thats funny my husband said today that worm must have the metal strapped to his back lol he would dig where i thought it was then i was a little to the left or a little to the right and then to the left again lol
hillbillydigger
Elite Member
Do you have the F-2? If so, once you get in close to the target hold down that pinpoint button and move the machine around till the number goes down to lowest number you can make it- then dig there. Maybe you already are doing that, but that was my problem my first few times out. Like I would think I was over the object and I saw 06 so I dug down 6 inches and wondered why I couldn't find it. Well I learned I wasn't really over the center so if you pinpoint then get it to go down to say 01 then suddenly its not 6 inches down the darn thing is laying on the ground 5 inches away on the surface! I'm glad my first few tries were out in a wooded area where few will ever see it cuz I dug some darn big holes out there!
yardhunter
Senior Member
I don't have a practice ground. I live in apartment.
This is something you can build with 1 bolt & a bunch of hardware store paint sticks.
Tape the targets to the sticks & swing them below the coil & listen to what the detector is saying.
I spread it out so you can see what's on the sticks.
This works well in apts.
Good luck............see ya yardhunter
pryan67
Forum Supporter
This is something you can build with 1 bolt & a bunch of hardware store paint sticks.
Tape the targets to the sticks & swing them below the coil & listen to what the detector is saying.
I spread it out so you can see what's on the sticks.
This works well in apts.
Good luck............see ya yardhunter
I'm having the same issues as the OP with my F2....I just got it....this is an excellent idea...
but you don't have stick for gold dubloons
I live here in Chattanooga,TN and also hunt with an F2. Believe me, I know about those TVA power lines and how they can mess with an F2! I hunted a spot with my friend who uses an ETrac.
He was the only one who could really hunt this spot, as his unit could just change frequencies. He found a couple CW pistol rounds and an 1870 Indian while I got to watch. This spot was criss-crossed with high voltage lines off of the Chickamauga Dam.
I've used my F2 for almost a year and love it so far. Once you get it down, you will too, no doubt!
He was the only one who could really hunt this spot, as his unit could just change frequencies. He found a couple CW pistol rounds and an 1870 Indian while I got to watch. This spot was criss-crossed with high voltage lines off of the Chickamauga Dam.
I've used my F2 for almost a year and love it so far. Once you get it down, you will too, no doubt!
DIRT DOBBER
Forum Supporter
That's most people's first experience with a MD. Think of it like learning to run a 10k. You can read all you want but you have to get out there and train. You put your new running shoes on and went out and ran 100 yards on your first trip out and call yourself a failure.
Put them shoes back on and run 200 yards today.
khouse
Forum Supporter
I've had 2 - F2's. You need to put that small coil on in the tot lots. Heck just leave it on because it does good everywhere. If your getting beeps everywhere and no targets then reduce your sensitivity until it runs smooth. All you need in bark chips is a screwdriver. Make sure you dig a proper flap in the grass. Make sure you cut strait down with your digger of knife. Don't be making any funnel shaped plugs! They kill the grass and pull right out.
