Hard time getting started.

deezdrama

Junior Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2017
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40
I got into metal detecting a little bit a couple years ago with a bouty hunter tracker iv. Didnt get a pinpointer, headphones, a proper digging tool or anything and didnt take it real serious. The interest came and went.

My son wanted a detector a couple months ago and started doing hours upon hours of research for the past couple months. Even been listening to detecting podcasts at work.

I settled on Tesoro and picked myself up a Vaquero and my son a Compadre. Got us some headphones, lesche style digging tools, the carrot clone gp-pointers, etc....

Ive spent countless hours watching youtube videos on the Vaquero, countless hours reading articles and guides on it, and even read the "Mastering the tejon and Vaquero" kindle book.

Been out in my backyard a few times. I feel like im setting the groundbalance and sens and threshold fine but cant find much so getting frustrated.

My yard is full of trash, alot of it probably from me lol. My house was built in the 50's so was hoping to find some 90% silver coins. I ran my disc 3/4 of the way up (inbetween tab and max) I seem to be getting alot of sporatic tones that sound good or disappear if I sweep at a different angle so skip those targets. I found a few "good" (good to me but what do i know lol) hits but cant find the target. I spend a huge amount of time pinpointing it just perfect (or so I thought) then dig my plug..... and dig and dig untill I have a 2 foot wide hole because my cheap gp-pointers beep as soon as they are put in a hole so I cant even use them, ill swing my coil back over the hole and the target just seems to move slightly so keep digging the side of my hole away and still cant find the target.
Ive been running handfuls across the coil because like I mentioned...the gp-pointers just beep like crazy if they are pointed at any soil. Im in central Illinois and dont think we have very mineralized soil so I dont know what the deal is. Either my yard is just super trashy or the gp-pointers suck although they seem to work good when air testing.

Anyway.... Ive spent several hours, several times in the backyard and not even pulled a single coin. There has to be some roosevelts or mercs in this yard just not having any luck pulling any targets.
I need to get my pinpointing and target acquiring down before I move to other areas which I dont even know where that will be since parks are off the list here in Illinois.

Just a little frustrated I guess and need to get a garret carrot I guess and learn what the tesoro tone is telling me.

Any pointers or slaps of reality to my expectations are appreciated lol.
 
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Lay coins on the ground, scan over them all, as you do, thumb the discrimination knob until everything BELOW COIN is disc'd out.... but the coins.

Now you are in a coin hunting mode. You will still dig some brass, copper, or large aluminum but the mid and lower range junk will be omitted, thus saving you that much less trash to dig.
 
Those knock off carrots are horrible, my advice, FWIW is get the real Garrett AT pinpointer. Hit up Craig at show me treasure, he's a sponsor here on the forum. Tough to beat. That will make a world of a difference. Good luck and happy hunting!
 
I’ve been at this for a month so my advice should be taken for what it’s worth. I’ve been using a “beef and dig” machine and I’m glad I started that way honestly. I too have dug small craters trying to find targets but today I went out and was able to use just a screwdriver to po coins oh yeah with no pinpointer. I am glad I started as basic as I do because it has forced me to learn the basics. There’s stuff there, maybe not silver but stuff and eventually you will be able to translate the info the machine is giving you but crawl before you walk. Use this time to practice finding targets without pp turn disc off clean out some of the trash as practice then as you start to understand your machine better it’ll be that much easier to cherry pick. Don’t get discouraged, this is the learning phase from your machine to research to permissions it all will come.

That is discouraging news about the GP. I ordered mine Monday. I know they don’t supposedly have a ground balance but watching Aquachigger the other day, with a carrot of course, he said if you turn it on while in contact with the ground that it does ground balance. If you try that will you let me know the results? Thanks and keep your head up well down to see the coil but some say you don’t have to look at the..... anyways don’t get discouraged.
 
Like Nectar said get you some coins and experiment.
Also get you some nails, big ones too, even a horse shoe and axe head if you can.

You need to learn what iron wrap is.
Try to read up on it.

For example, with disc set to knock out nails (regular sized) your detector likely will beep on a horseshoe and the axe head.

So pinpointing for size can help.
Iron wrap signals have their signatures too.
When you listen to these you will notice.
Raising your coil too can help identify monster sized targets like iron and the good ole aluminum cans.

Something else to be mindful of.
Let's say you have tabs in your yard.
And you are looking for silver coins.

If you turn your disc up to knock out tabs or a little higher.
If one of your silver coins is real close to tab, your detector may see both and read as average conductive level.
So if you are running high disc, these silver coins may go unnoticed tonally.

Now, if you use some disc, any target(s) scenario where the felt conductivity is real close to disc setting, your detector may bring a chopped signal, cracking.
This is where the targets is so close to disc level and are bleeding through.

You can also experiment with say a dime and tab laying real near one another.
Sweep from various directions, and play with your disc and see what disc setting lets the target or targets through.

Find you some clean ground.
Bury some coins at6" deep and practice.
Bury even deeper like 7" deep.

Play with your ground balance while sweeping the buried coins.
See how ground balance affects your signals on your coins.
Pinpoint these coins and notice how they sound, and how big they seem.

Even get you a bottle cap, top of a can, whole can.

Practice, practice, test, test.

Lots can be learned with targets buried and also when placed on top of the ground.
More than a lot of folks think can be learned.
 
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That is discouraging news about the GP. I ordered mine Monday. I know they don’t supposedly have a ground balance but watching Aquachigger the other day, with a carrot of course, he said if you turn it on while in contact with the ground that it does ground balance. If you try that will you let me know the results?

Yeah, i tried ground balancing them by turning them off, setting tip near the soil and turning back on.... it didnt help. Sometimes they just beep in the air. I got mine on ebay, they are the newest model. They feel really well built and tested out good untill I took them outside. I even tried swapping batteries from new cheap 9v to new energizer 9v to fresh charged ebl lithium-ion. I have $80 in 2 of these so thats a bummer as it would of been a good chunk torwards a garret pointer.
I need to get a good working pinpointer... is the garret still the way to go? Didnt minelab just release a dual tone pointer?

Anyway....
Thanks guys for the tips and encouragement. Just kind of bummed that after i bought all my equipment I found out detecting is banned in all Illinois parks. Just another point for Illinois being a bad place to live. I wanted to go camp at a historic site that lincoln once lived at that is near me and detect there but guess that will be out of question.
The river here was a transportation route back in the day so might go try there as ive canoe'd there alot and never seen any rangers or anything.

Ill have to get some test objects and learn the tesoro tone language. I knew it wouldnt be something you can just master in a couple outings but didnt think it would be so difficult either lol.

Time to research pinpointers.
 
I hunt several homes in my neighborhearlyood, circa mid 1920's to early 1930's.
A few have yielded wheats and a few silvers, dimes and war nickels and some jewelry, others have had nothing except maybe a couple modern zincolns and clad coins and not many of them, either.
One house had several wheaties and eventually I started finding a few silver coins but only after hunting this same small area close to 10 times did they start to show up.
My dirt has a lot if iron in it and that can hide better targets more than just well, plus the Vaq seems to like iron and that can mess with you but you can learn to deal with it with experience.
Those one way hits just might be coins masked by iron.
Here are two instances where I found coins in some small front lawns that were masked badly by iron so I totally missed them a dozen or more times before.
One with a Mojave, one with an F70.
I have way more experience than you but it still took me a long time to find these coins, I just had to hit them from the right angle to do it.
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=249307

http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=245759

All better coins were in the front lawns, the backyards don't hold near as much as the front lawns I have found.
Also I hunt parks where there used to be rows of old houses along streets going back to the 1800's.
I have found wheats, some silver, an old pocket watch and a V nickel in one such site but they were all in the front lawn area near the street, the backyards not so much.

You might not have any silver in yours at all or at least in that backyard, just because a house was around during the silver coin era doesn't mean there has to be silver there.
Also you need to get better at this stuff, there could be some kind of coins but masking can be hiding them from someone with your skill level.
Try using the Compadre instead, it is great in trash and iron infested sites.
If you have an older park near you try that, or someone else's front lawn after you learn to make smaller holes which will get way better after you get efficient at pinpointing.

You are getting frustrated because you are assuming things that might not be true...keep hitting your property but also try other sites.

Some info on how I use my Tesoros from back in the day when I used to dig much more trash.
Nowadays I cut out digging 80-90% of most trash but still find the good stuff in difficult sites.
This just took time to learn and gain experience.
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=149441
 
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Yeah, i tried ground balancing them by turning them off, setting tip near the soil and turning back on.... it didnt help. Sometimes they just beep in the air. I got mine on ebay, they are the newest model. They feel really well built and tested out good untill I took them outside. I even tried swapping batteries from new cheap 9v to new energizer 9v to fresh charged ebl lithium-ion. I have $80 in 2 of these so thats a bummer as it would of been a good chunk torwards a garret pointer.
I need to get a good working pinpointer... is the garret still the way to go? Didnt minelab just release a dual tone pointer?

Anyway....
Thanks guys for the tips and encouragement. Just kind of bummed that after i bought all my equipment I found out detecting is banned in all Illinois parks. Just another point for Illinois being a bad place to live. I wanted to go camp at a historic site that lincoln once lived at that is near me and detect there but guess that will be out of question.
The river here was a transportation route back in the day so might go try there as ive canoe'd there alot and never seen any rangers or anything.

Ill have to get some test objects and learn the tesoro tone language. I knew it wouldnt be something you can just master in a couple outings but didnt think it would be so difficult either lol.

Time to research pinpointers.

There are some videos on turning the sensitivity up on those things I wonder if turning them down might help you. Anyway I'll just have to see what mine does just hate to think that either of us wasted good money for bad.
 
There are some videos on turning the sensitivity up on those things I wonder if turning them down might help you. Anyway I'll just have to see what mine does just hate to think that either of us wasted good money for bad.

Yeah... please re visit this thread and let me know what you find out when you have had time to test it will you?
 
don't get discouraged with the trash yet. Its good in the beginning to dig almost everything so you can learn your machines language. This also give you a chance to work on digging clean plugs. Once you learn these two things you can start asking for permission to detect friends properties (easier to help fix your mistake in a friends lawn than lose permission from someone you don't know). Then once your better start some door knocking and get some other permissions. Once it clicks you will be hooked. All the others on here are giving great advice, listen to them they are great detectorists.
 
I hunt several homes in my neighborhearlyood, circa mid 1920's to early 1930's.
A few have yielded wheats and a few silvers, dimes and war nickels and some jewelry, others have had nothing except maybe a couple modern zincolns and clad coins and not many of them, either.
One house had several wheaties and eventually I started finding a few silver coins but only after hunting this same small area close to 10 times did they start to show up.
My dirt has a lot if iron in it and that can hide better targets more than just well, plus the Vaq seems to like iron and that can mess with you but you can learn to deal with it with experience.
Those one way hits just might be coins masked by iron.
Here are two instances where I found coins in some small front lawns that were masked badly by iron so I totally missed them a dozen or more times before.
One with a Mojave, one with an F70.
I have way more experience than you but it still took me a long time to find these coins, I just had to hit them from the right angle to do it.
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=249307

http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=245759

All better coins were in the front lawns, the backyards don't hold near as much as the front lawns I have found.
Also I hunt parks where there used to be rows of old houses along streets going back to the 1800's.
I have found wheats, some silver, an old pocket watch and a V nickel in one such site but they were all in the front lawn area near the street, the backyards not so much.

You might not have any silver in yours at all or at least in that backyard, just because a house was around during the silver coin era doesn't mean there has to be silver there.
Also you need to get better at this stuff, there could be some kind of coins but masking can be hiding them from someone with your skill level.
Try using the Compadre instead, it is great in trash and iron infested sites.
If you have an older park near you try that, or someone else's front lawn after you learn to make smaller holes which will get way better after you get efficient at pinpointing.

You are getting frustrated because you are assuming things that might not be true...keep hitting your property but also try other sites.

Some info on how I use my Tesoros from back in the day when I used to dig much more trash.
Nowadays I cut out digging 80-90% of most trash but still find the good stuff in difficult sites.
This just took time to learn and gain experience.
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=149441


Those are some cool posts with the rewards of learning your machine. You should of never found those but you did. Awesome
 
You been doing all the right things. But now get out of your comfort zone and hit a park or two. And I think you will start to find the coins, etc. Just remember, no park is ever really cleaned out. Good luck, you are half way there!
 
Agreed...With previous post. Don't get discouraged!!!.. It doesn't come to ya in a day or two. It'll take some time to get comfortable with your machine. I've been detecting since July and it seems I learn something new about my machine every time I turn it on...LOL. I use the Garrett carrot and it does a great job. Has different sensitivity level adjustments and is spot on. I highly recommend it....Good luck and HH...
 
Snipped some out of your OP:

Been out in my backyard a few times. I feel like im setting the groundbalance and sens and threshold fine but cant find much so getting frustrated.

My yard is full of trash, alot of it probably from me lol. My house was built in the 50's so was hoping to find some 90% silver coins. I ran my disc 3/4 of the way up (inbetween tab and max) I seem to be getting alot of sporatic tones that sound good or disappear if I sweep at a different angle so skip those targets. I found a few "good" (good to me but what do i know lol) hits but cant find the target. I spend a huge amount of time pinpointing it just perfect (or so I thought) then dig my plug..... and dig and dig untill I have a 2 foot wide hole because my cheap gp-pointers beep as soon as they are put in a hole so I cant even use them, ill swing my coil back over the hole and the target just seems to move slightly so keep digging the side of my hole away and still cant find the target.


I need to get my pinpointing and target acquiring down before I move to other areas which I dont even know where that will be since parks are off the list here in Illinois.

Are you starting out in all metal, and finding a clean spot to set your GB in? After doing that, is the tone remaining the same while slowly pumping coil up and down? If so, then you're good there.

The higher disc you run, the more depth you lose. I generally set just below (left of) nickle. You're disc'ing out additional trash you should be removing, which is adding to the "snap/crackle/pop" noise.

Sounds like a trashy area, and you'll likely have to clean it out some,. In a perfect world, a "good" signal would be repeatable, but we don't live there. Coin orientation in the ground, and nearby trash could both play a factor. Only way to find out is to dig it, not to mention it'll be good practice for you and your son.

You also didn't mention the coil you're using, but I'll guess it's the stock 9x8. Buying a 5.75 would definitely be helpful in trashy situations. I hunted an area Thursday with a 9x8 on my DeLeon, went back Friday with Cibola and 5.75", covered the same area to find I hadn't missed anything, but I had dug a lot of trash Thursday from the area.

You may want to narrow-down the distance you're swinging to pinpoint (to say 6" total, 3 left and 3 right of target). Are you pinpointing by tone or using the PinPointer button (which puts you into All Metal mode)? I'll assume you're pressing the PP button...so "+" until you find the strongest signal one way, never taking your eyes off the spot, and when you cross in the other direction, at the spot you intersect should put the target right in front of the shaft on the coil.

You could be hitting the halo from a long-gone nail or small piece of iron, which would explain why you aren't finding the target. For now, move away from the trashier spots, and give yourself a bit of breathing room to learn/practice.
 
Even though Illinois doesnt allow detecting in parks I decided to go for it since the park near me is being worked on and they have huge areas being bulldozed.
I figured I could stick to the dug up areas.

I used the Vaquero with 9x8 and my boy used the compadre with the 5.75"

Ground balanced it and started out fairly low on the disc dial. Dug up alot of can slaw and several pulltabs. Set disc just above pulltabs and started getting quite a few coins. Im starting to be able to tell a coin vs trash pretty good.
Dug a clad quarter and a couple dimes, several copper pennies all abe's. Then heard a really good but faint solid tone. Thumbing my disc it didnt fall off, pulled out my first silver! A 64 roosie about 5-6" deep. What a good feeling, pulling the plug and seeing that bright white coin rim. Amazing how good silver can look after being in the ground so long!
By that time my boy was excited and we headed from the trails to the tot lot.
We lost all track of time and it was getting dark as we pulled a couple coppers from the cedar chips and headed back in the dark to the car.

The gp-pointers worked decent about 75% of the time. In really red soil they would just beep in the hole nomatter what. I tried turning them off and on in the soil to try and balance them, sometimes it seemed to work, other times it didnt. Several of the coins I dug where just sitting right there under the plug looking at me, so Im getting better at pinpointing my targets.
When the pinpointers worked...they are invaluable assets.....when they didnt, it was frustrating. I think Im going to pickup a true carrot.

Anyway.... yeah my backyard is just trashed out. I think that was were the frustration came from. Cant wait to go again!
 

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Congrats on the first silver you need to start a new thread and let everyone in on the excitement. Good to hear that I've got a 50/50 chance with the gp
 
I'd keep the disc at max. If the tone is nice and crisp and not choppy dig it. Enjoy the coins! Dont dig poppy or clipped sounding tones. Once you learn the correct sound you can go back later with lower disc. Try a test by burying a dime at 4".
 
When in your yard with the disc that high those sporadic signals that sound good one way than disappear or don't sound good the other way are probably either bent nails or roofing nails with a large head. And when you dig those signals and can't find anything I would almost bet you'd find one of those nails mentioned above in the sidewall of the plug or even another inch or so into the sidewall.
 
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