What should I expect?

Call Me V

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Montana
No dance practice after school today, so that gives me some time off. So this afternoon after school my friend and I are going out to hunt a giant park area that gets used by the city soccer clubs. I've seen thousands of people out there on the weekends. I can see lots of lost pocket change, but what else? I'm sure there could be anything. I think I'm letting the size of the fields throw me off a little.

How would you go about MD'ing them? Recommendations on settings? It's not in an old area of town, so probably won't find anything old.

Thanks for the suggestions!
 
No dance practice after school today, so that gives me some time off. So this afternoon after school my friend and I are going out to hunt a giant park area that gets used by the city soccer clubs. I've seen thousands of people out there on the weekends. I can see lots of lost pocket change, but what else? I'm sure there could be anything. I think I'm letting the size of the fields throw me off a little.

How would you go about MD'ing them? Recommendations on settings? It's not in an old area of town, so probably won't find anything old.

Thanks for the suggestions!

V it really depends on what your primary goal of what you want to find.
In a park such as you describe for me you would be looking for 2 things

Clad Coins or Jewelry

I am going to post a link from one of our most prolific Ring hunters on this site.. It is an excellent read and has helped many a forum member who's primary focus is Jewelry..

https://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=245454&highlight=skippy+rings

One observation I have found myself in hunting "GIANT" parks is you can waste a lot of valuable hunting time searching areas that get little to no activity.. sometimes a park can be TOO BIG.

Skippy makes some very good points in his observations that addressed this for me.
Good luck and hope you find a lot of interesting items.
 
Go to where the people you saw were...look for where their kids may have played and check that out for lost change. If you recall where the concession stand was, hit that too.


Expect lots of pull tabs and foil pieces...but don't let that discourage you.
 
If you recall where the concession stand was, hit that too.

I hit our local soccer fields this spring and found $5.75 just in quarters in a 20 ft radious if the concession stand..... that was my best clad day ever, over $8 in about an hour and a half...
 
As stated you will find mostly clad coins and zinc pennies. But it is entirely possible to find a gold ring on a soccer/football/baseball field. Relatively new recreation complex that I was initially hesitant to detect due to its youth had yielded over 400 dollars in coins. One 10k gold ring three silver coins and three sterling silver rings.

Watching where people congregate will be where you will find the majority of targets
 
V it really depends on what your primary goal of what you want to find.
In a park such as you describe for me you would be looking for 2 things

Clad Coins or Jewelry

I am going to post a link from one of our most prolific Ring hunters on this site.. It is an excellent read and has helped many a forum member who's primary focus is Jewelry..

https://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=245454&highlight=skippy+rings

One observation I have found myself in hunting "GIANT" parks is you can waste a lot of valuable hunting time searching areas that get little to no activity.. sometimes a park can be TOO BIG.

Skippy makes some very good points in his observations that addressed this for me.
Good luck and hope you find a lot of interesting items.




Great article! Thanks for sharing.
 
Concession stand and the paths heading back to the stands are always good for clad. If there is a big shade tree I spiral my way around it. I don't have much luck on the fields, I do better where the crowds are watching. You can normally see the traffic patterns worn in the grass. I try to find where the soccer moms are parking strollers and coolers. That's where they dish out sunscreen and lose rings and pass out snack money. Some of our sports facilities have a No Smoking beyond this point sign and I have had good luck around them. You need a spot that gets a crowd, but you want a spot where they are messing with money or gear.
 
..... Expect lots of pull tabs and foil pieces...but don't let that discourage you.

That's what I was thinking. So if that becomes true, and you start digging lots of little foil, tabs, etc.... , Don't be afraid to raise up the disc. To at least knock out foil. There are still LOTS of gold rings that read above foil. And if you are bedevilled with tons of tabs, then don't be afraid to knock out round tabs too (but perhaps keep square tabs accepted). Because you can still find gold rings in the square tab range.

I know some people will *bristle* at the suggestion of raising up the disc. level for any hunting. Because, sure, you'll miss small gold rings and nickels. But IMHO, if gold rings are someone's agenda, why the heck are they in junky parks ? If you want gold rings, the solution is not lowering the disc. and digging junk till your arms fall off. The solution is: Location location location. Namely : Swim beaches, sand volleyball courts, wrestle pits, etc... And if you must do turf, you can be more selective on the type turf :

Turf that has any sort of eating, drinking, and BBQ'ing, will naturally have punishing ratios of aluminum. Aluminum from cans and food wrap. And molten nuggets from the BBQ slag. So find turf that is *strictly* athletic in nature (soccer fields with no picnicking, baseball fields AWAY from the spectator stands, etc...). And you will have less punishing trash ratios.

So for turf, I would typically only be angling for old silver (if your park is old enough).
 
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