Are older yards always this packed with metal?

hoola · May 10, 2014

I purchased a Garret Ace 250 as well as a pinpointer from suggestions here on these forums. Tried them out today in my backyard and sideyard. House was built in 1913 and was a farmhouse until the 40s or 50s when the land surrounding it was turned into a neighborhood.

I found all of these in just three holes, one of which I found only one 1944 Wheat penny and nothing else:

The wheat penny was found under a small pine tree about 60 feet from the house while everything else were found between 10-20 feet from it.

I had to turn it onto coin mode because it would never stop ringing due to all the iron in the ground. All of these were found when I got a hit on a 1971 penny and a piece of flat copper that was ringing up as a penny.

It is also almost impossible to use the pinpointer feature on the Ace 250 because the pinpointer picks up every type of metal, so when I get a hit the pinpointer just goes crazy from there being so many pieces of metal in every square foot of the yard.

So my question is, is it normal to find 5+ items in every single plug when you detect older houses and land?

Jason in Enid · May 10, 2014

the older the house, the more time for junk to be lost in it. I have found the generally the first 10-15 feet away from the house is filled with nails and debris from construction, siding and roofing.

GKman · May 10, 2014

Looks about right to me. Maybe a bit heavy as far as nails go, but otherwise, yeah just about right..

Pennyfinder · May 10, 2014

Just my guess but I'd say clean out all that junk (gonna take some time) -- obviously never been hunted before. THEN you just might start finding the coins and other relics! GL & HH!

Irons · May 10, 2014

Old beaches are just as bad, that's where small DD coils really make a difference. Good hunting to you! :grin:

Dsm_mechva · May 10, 2014

Pennyfinder said:
Just my guess but I'd say clean out all that junk (gonna take some time) -- obviously never been hunted before. THEN you just might start finding the coins and other relics! GL & HH!

+1 agree

matthias · May 11, 2014

Hey there. Yeah, this can be normal. If a building burned to the ground or was torn down and the wood rotted away you will finds tons of nails. You have your work cut out for you. As previously stated only thing to do is dig it all and hopefully find some keepers in the mix. I would use a small DD coil (Sniper coil) that separates targets better if you want to "cherry pick" but bottom line is you'll probably need to clean everything out as deep as you can. GL and HH. Matt

goodmore · May 11, 2014

This is why detectors with trash and iron separation are continuously discussed on the forum. You have typical trash and iron for an older house. It is worse if you ever hunt a property that had a building burn down. I would clear one area at a time. A small area and then see what is under all that iron.

hoola · May 11, 2014

Thank you all for the advice. I found a 1942 Mercury Dime in pretty good condition around 50 feet from the house just 20 minutes after making this topic. That makes me think it might be worth the time to dig up all those nails.

Riffmeister · May 12, 2014

clean through it with iron discriminated , then double back and pick through the ca-ca

Tom_in_CA · May 12, 2014

hoola said:
...

I had to turn it onto coin mode because it would never stop ringing due to all the iron in the ground. ...

first off, no, that's not "normal" to have that many nails all over the yard. Well, maybe FARM yards, since .... they might have been industrial/commercial past usage. You know, like having burn-barrels for the house debri (back in the days when rural people without curb-side trash service sometimes burned their trash). And then they'd sometimes scatter the debri. Or things like how rural farm yards where people would scatter the kitchen scraps around for the chickens to pick at, etc... For whatever reason, I find rural yards to be much junkier (with iron-like industrial type junk) than urban yards-of-the-same-age.

And as for eventually switching over the disc. mode to pass the iron: Just so you know, most people hunt in disc. mode (to at *least* knock out iron), to begin with. Exceptions might be at the beach, or in certain relic hunting mindsets (CW site, or whatever).

speeddemon94 · May 12, 2014

My yard is full of nails. Roofing nails, particularly where they'd have fallen off during the roofing process. But it's not 360 degrees, it's worse on the north and West sides of the house.

Mike46151 · May 12, 2014

If you can find where the old cloths line was, try there. Then the front entry walk.
GL&HH

Are older yards always this packed with metal?

hoola

New Member

Jason in Enid

Elite Member

GKman

Pennyfinder

Elite Member

Irons

Dsm_mechva

matthias

Elite Member

goodmore

hoola

New Member

Riffmeister

Tom_in_CA

Elite Member

speeddemon94

Junior Member

Mike46151

Elite Member

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