CW site with nails and more nails

dig it all. could be other goodies under those nails. might try a smaller coil too. good luck

Welcome to the forum . All I can say is swing slow , keep your coil flat (scrub the ground ), overlap your swings , use a small coil , cover the area from different directions and grid the area . Maybe even rake the area ( if ground and depth permit ). Use your pinpointer to totally clean out your holes then go over it with the coil again .
Best of luck to you .

You'll learn after a while how to determine the size of the item while swinging over it. But with my Civil War and Colonial sites I pretty much dig everything. They used iron a lot and sometimes while you might think it's a nail, it could be something cool. My sites are also low in modern trash, and I have at times found more signals under those iron nails. It's a pain, but it can def pay off just to dig it.

Soil Surgeon said:

Welcome to the forum . All I can say is swing slow , keep your coil flat (scrub the ground ), overlap your swings , use a small coil , cover the area from different directions and grid the area . Maybe even rake the area ( if ground and depth permit ). Use your pinpointer to totally clean out your holes then go over it with the coil again .
Best of luck to you .

Click to expand...

Well said.

Thanks for the feedback. I am going to look into the smaller coil as well.

Are they square nails? If so keep clearing them out. You might unmask some good targets. Good luck.

You might want to buy a used Equinox or E Trac or Nokta/ Makro... something that can handle iron better.(If you can afford it).
Happy hunting.

5"x8" coil on the AT Pro is a sweet setup and maybe it would help you in the heavy nail areas.

1000 lb magnet Know your site

Hard chose. Couple of ideas. They have these magnets that hole a 1000 lbs or maybe even more. Get the most powerful one you can find. If its worth raking. then rake it and you'll get better depth after its clean. People are starting to use magnets to clean out ponds, streams before detecting them. What's a few bucks to have a useful tool in your bag of tricks. The problem is a trade off. If you dis the nails. You miss out on good stuff. But if you find a better area where your searching. I would start working their first. You might be able to tell by the stuff your detecting up on how your site is set up. Like getting coins in this area. Or more useful item's. Or your getting tons of metal over here. Sit back and look at your site. Where would be the best place to put your guns or men at this spot. When I hunt the woods. I walk the high points. Hunters used these high points to look for say deer. Plus walking deep into the woods. If your walking high points. You don't get lost. I find a lot of stuff on high points. Find a lot of musket balls and coins that hunters dropped. Back then the didn't have a stop and shop. They hunted for their food. Think different. Look at your land set up for what your finding. Your lucky to have a spot like that. I would dis the nails and pick just the good stuff at first. Then you'll know where you want to start hunting. Maybe go around and find the outside areas of your hunting area. Then you know how big it is. Once you know that. You can look at how you would set it up if you were fighting or even practicing on how to fight the other side. You're not going to want to be in the open. Date your site. Say 150 years. Look at your oldest trees. Is their water near by? Etc. I hope this helps. Nails and pull tabs go with detecting. Unless you want to miss stuff. Its part of the game.

Also turn down your threshold so its not loud.

You don't want to hear a loud nail or a screaming detector all day. Or even a loud hum all day. Make it loud enough to hear. But doesn't get you upset. Something you can deal with all day. Listening to loud targets and just pulling nails all day would drive me crazy. You'll hear a target. I don't want to get discouraged after the first 15 mins. I
want to enjoy my hunt as much as possible. Even if its pulling nails. I detect better that way.