How Do You Break The Funk?

look outside the box

Do some research. ask for permissions. There are 1000 places to hunt near you that have not been detected yet. Ask people you know of places to hunt. This is a numbers game. 100 people will know of places to hunt that you would never think of...And remember that even if you find nothing... It was good exercize and it got you outside. happy hunting...

Fresh drops at parks?
I hunt parks all the time, fresh drops are a bonus, the best treasure is hiding deeper and most have been down there for years.

You got to think outside the box. Try unusual places like the flowerbeds behind car parks. There is a really productive volleyball court not too far from me. One time, once I was done gridding the court, I headed to the flowerbeds behind the parking bays to see if there was anything and I picked up a few more dollars.

Yeah...BCD...this is a natural thing for people with vivid imaginations unrequited..Dont worry about it, just keep plowing!

Probably the best example of a Funk Break I have ever seen was performed last year by our Forum Brother "ForeverRich"...See, about this time last year, after many years behind the coil, he was ready to hang it all up..I'll never forget reading that post of his!

He said on the open Forum, "Hey, anybody want some of this crapola like buttons and bullets I have found over the years?" "I'm about done, nothing more out there for me I reckon"...I greedily hopped on his despair, and he graciously sent me some Civil War bullets and a button! He paid the shipping even!

Then, as he was giving his last gasp, "Woe is Me"....ready to pull the batteries and sell his gear, that hoarders house right down the street from him got torn down, so he said to himself, "What the hell, I'll waddle on down there and give it a quick sweep for Old Times sake"....and the rest is SILVER DOLLAR HISTORY!

I've got those bullets and that button He sent sitting right here in front of me on my desk..In his honor and as an inspiration.....He has not sent me a Silver Dollar though, and Lord!, he has plenty to spare now! Greedy thankless bastard!

Research research research. I'm stacked deep with options due to research. I created a spreadsheet over winter of all public parks and yards through the cities villages and townships in the tri county area. When I did that, I really began to wonder if i had time to hit all those places before i die.

Get in the car and go!

Ask permission.

Open your mind, if you see dirt, that is a potential spot. Detectorist will never cover every square inch of dirt. if the particular park you believe to be hunted out(which many will argue that) find somewhere else to go.

I kind of like the line "Too much dirt, too little time.

Sounds like it is time for some Brute Force metal detecting

BRUTE FORCE DETECTING: FORCING FINDS OUT OF THE GROUND
. ...

Break Slumps ...Read our articles on slump breaking and Win Anyway! http://detecting365.com/?s=Break+slump

DIGGER27 said:

Fresh drops at parks?
I hunt parks all the time, fresh drops are a bonus, the best treasure is hiding deeper and most have been down there for years.

Click to expand...

These are all new parks. like New new. There are no old drops. Also, my county doesn't allow digging so I'm stuck in and around the tot lots and volley ball courts.

BCD

Look at old maps and talk to old timers. Find out where the old swimming holes were, you've got the ATPro, get it wet! Compare old maps to new ones and you'll find more potential sites than you can hunt. Stay positive and motivated.

Farm fields when no crops are in. Ive had great success, old maps where houses once stood, all have been virgin ground, some very coins, artifacts and even jewelry. No roots to contend with. Surface finds, etc

I did a search on county auditors site, found who owned the farm fields, went and found him and asked, he didnt care.

One field, (2) two cent coins, IH's, brass sleigh bells, etc.. another..IH's, rings, jewelry from 1880's.

Ancestry has very old maps showing where houses were 1870's-1900's.

What BCD says is true though!....Never fails! Every Spring, competition in a limited area is a HUGELY discouraging problem! Keeping motivated by FINDING enough goods to make it worth our while!! Motivation aint the problem, We all have motivation in daily abundance painfully coming out the wazoo, its the paltry FINDINGS that creates the problem! Like I always say, and have aptly proven by example...."Wealth is no Respector of Effort or Intelligence"...

Every damn Spring! All sorts of old duffers and noobies with their Christmas gear come scrambling out of the woodwork like a hatch of Formosan termites to ransack our parks/totters/beaches!?...WTH?

Sure, I try to get up early, research recent activity and beat them all to it, But damn! BCD is in one tough area! At least I get 10c/empty can here to defray expenses! Imagine going out in the Georgian modern red dirt parks? In 110 degree F? With no empty can refund?

Everybody in Georgia is either a poor as piss peckerwood peanut farmer or else a pass through tourist on the Interstate making purchases with cell phones and credit cards if at all!...The ones that break down, get arrested for 'talking funny', are eventually released on parole and work for CocaCola or Cnn...!

No big clad spills, no old silver, nobody married long enough to wear gold even! Kudzu all over the place! In Georgia, about all a guy could expect to find is pulltabs, screwoffs, and condom wrappers...at the CNN news desk...

Under these circumstances, What the hell would I do? If I was in BCD's shoes? Living in Georgia? After I killed myself? I'd probably just quit detecting or move to Florida!!....Or perhaps shelter in place and sell boiled peanuts to tourists off an Interstate exit? Just to say, "You talk funny" to the upper east coasties?.....Or, swinging for the bleachers, here...try to get a job with the rest of the 'screwoff condom wrapper' parolees at CNN? On the evening news crew! Yeah!..that should be no problem!...Just Drop Sense to zero, and Crank up the Discrimination! The chatter loud overload volumn like a DD in a steel dumpster! Like Van Jones!

Probably pays better than becoming a CocaCola "pulltab Peter punchclock" pushing pallets of caramelized cans of sugar water out the door...day after day...in a dmaned old Georgia warehouse..temp at 130 degrees F..Kudzu all over the place!

I was just looking over your 2016 finds, and they look really respectable to me. You're ahead of me in the gold count for last year, and we're about dead even on silvers, clad, and 925. This year is just getting its legs under it...don't call it yet.

One thing that has helped me when my go-to places seem to run dry is to radically change up my detector settings. I just did that with my etrac and pulled over $5 out of a park (under high voltage power lines!) that I've hit at least weekly for the last 5 years. It was like having a whole new set of dirt eyes.

The other thing that I've done is having "thematic hunts." One day will be pennies only. The next is can slaw/pull tab day. Then it's "weird signals only" day. I got my 1820 large cent on wierd signal day last year. Heck, one day I've even hunted in all-metal mode. Not sure I'll do that again.

And if you really do need a break...take it! It's no crime, and it doesn't signal defeat. We're only human. Well, except for Mud, Digger, and a few others who are just MD'ing superheroes. And all those beach hunters who make me physically ill, finding handfuls of gold every year. I know, I know....they definitely earn it. But I digress....

I take a different approach to the funk , MDing , or any other activity . Take A BREAK, find something else to do . Often after a break I come back with fresh ideas , missing something makes it a little more appreciated . Good Luck , a good hobby gives pleasure and that's the greatest reward ! HH

Mudd man, you kill me! I needed that laugh.

To the rest of you, thanks for the ideas and encouragement. I may need to door knock some. I just have such limited amts of time to hunt, I like having places where I can drop in for an hour at a time.

BCD

Mud-puppy said:

What BCD says is true though!....Never fails! Every Spring, competition in a limited area is a HUGELY discouraging problem! Keeping motivated by FINDING enough goods to make it worth our while!! Motivation aint the problem, We all have motivation in daily abundance painfully coming out the wazoo, its the paltry FINDINGS that creates the problem! Like I always say, and have aptly proven by example...."Wealth is no Respector of Effort or Intelligence"...

Every damn Spring! All sorts of old duffers and noobies with their Christmas gear come scrambling out of the woodwork like a hatch of Formosan termites to ransack our parks/totters/beaches!?...WTH?

Sure, I try to get up early, research recent activity and beat them all to it, But damn! BCD is in one tough area! At least I get 10c/empty can here to defray expenses! Imagine going out in the Georgian modern red dirt parks? In 110 degree F? With no empty can refund?

Everybody in Georgia is either a poor as piss peckerwood peanut farmer or else a pass through tourist on the Interstate making purchases with cell phones and credit cards if at all!...The ones that break down, get arrested for 'talking funny', are eventually released on parole and work for CocaCola or Cnn...!

No big clad spills, no old silver, nobody married long enough to wear gold even! Kudzu all over the place! In Georgia, about all a guy could expect to find is pulltabs, screwoffs, and condom wrappers...at the CNN news desk...

Under these circumstances, What the hell would I do? If I was in BCD's shoes? Living in Georgia? After I killed myself? I'd probably just quit detecting or move to Florida!!....Or perhaps shelter in place and sell boiled peanuts to tourists off an Interstate exit? Just to say, "You talk funny" to the upper east coasties?.....Or, swinging for the bleachers, here...try to get a job with the rest of the 'screwoff condom wrapper' parolees at CNN? On the evening news crew! Yeah!..that should be no problem!...Just Drop Sense to zero, and Crank up the Discrimination! Like Van Jones!

Click to expand...

During the warmer weather I spend most of my detecting time at the beach and in the winter I concentrate on parks, playgrounds etc. Not setting the world on fire with my finds but so far this year I have dug 70 some dollars in clad and one 10k ring. These are places that I have hit hard before. Some of what I find are shallow and some is quite deep. Went to a recreation complex yesterday afternoon and dug $6.45 in clad and did get one 53 wheat. I use google maps to search out public areas in the local vicinity and in towns where I want to make it a day trip. I love Digging in the dirt.

5 mile said:

Farm fields when no crops are in. Ive had great success, old maps where houses once stood, all have been virgin ground, some very coins, artifacts and even jewelry. No roots to contend with. Surface finds, etc



I did a search on county auditors site, found who owned the farm fields, went and found him and asked, he didnt care.



One field, (2) two cent coins, IH's, brass sleigh bells, etc.. another..IH's, rings, jewelry from 1880's.



Ancestry has very old maps showing where houses were 1870's-1900's.

Click to expand...

On ancestry.com, Do you have to be a member to see any maps? Looks like it's 19.95 per month. Or is that the wrong website? Thanks Jason


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aamechs2 said:

On ancestry.com, Do you have to be a member to see any maps? Looks like it's 19.95 per month. Or is that the wrong website? Thanks Jason

Click to expand...

Have to be a member or know someones that is. Its county maps, so you may be able through the county or library. They are called US Indexed County Land Ownership Maps..usually 1860-1918. They show houses, schools, churches, names of ownership back then.

I find these a lot more useful than Sanborn maps. HistoricAerials.com is helpful too.

When I lived in Georgia I stumbled on many great spots just out driving through the country. Uninteresting dirt roads can lead to some old forgotten about parks or abandoned churches , and being so out of the way many have never seen a metal detector.....some have , but to my enjoyment the incredibly easy pickins at quite a few proved they were virgin sites. There are some pleasant surprises out there but well hidden. Fairgrounds can be amazing , some are no longer fairgrounds and may be something else or even a stand of trees now. Old schools in Georgia can be really good. Lots of research is in order.


If all else fails , sometimes taking a break can be refreshing and a good reset.

Getting into a funk is a problem , but often a change in the thought process is all that's needed to put you back on track and back in the treasure hunting mood. Try hunting sites you normally wouldn't or hit sites you have hunted before but from a different perspective. Its not a guarantee of anything but when you happen to pull your first piece of old silver out of ground you never thought of hunting before , something clicks and a world of other possibilities can open up.

#1 Watch this http://youtu.be/RGIZYOO8O9Q
#2 Go somewhere other than where you've been. Anywhere.
#3 Trust yourself,trust your machine

Competition is ruthless here.

Just seen a guy who dug a 3/4 reale in a park I have seen many silver pulled. But you glean and just hunt fast covering as much ground as you can. You should be able to probe for coins if your inclined too. But tot lots have been my friend over the years. Unfortunately there id a lot of folks out there for some reason and finds have been slow. Get away from the play equipment and hunt the open areas and the edges of the tot lot. Get back with me on your results. Also take a pinpointer and crawl under the equipment as far as you can reach, good luck.