Dig every signal?

To dig or not to dig

This really is one of the biggest questions isn't it?

I mean,your heart tells you that if you dig it all you will find it all, but putting it into practice is a real challenge. I tried for years to apply it to my trips out but after the 10 or so pull tabs or canfetti I just cranked up the disc and looked for coins.

A few years ago I read an article about getting a feel for or profiling the field that you are hunting. I applied some of what was explained and added a few bits of my own.

I usually hunt with a note pad and try to download and print off an aerial photo of the site if it is new to me. Start with the disc set fairly high to make sure that your disc is just crackling on square tabs, even nickels make their way through at times this way. As you move along take note of where you are finding the coins, either with a sketch or mark the printout. Move fairly fast and try to cover some ground in an orderly fashion. Some times even discing past zincers makes this a little more fun. Once you see where the coins are showing up, slow down and start dropping your disc and focus on a hotspot that produced a lot of coins. This is not a one visit situation.

My Mark1 allows you to move the notch anywhere you want and blank out everything except the notch region. So after clearing the area up with my Bandido for a few trips I used the M1 to cherry pick. My notch was set to accept just above iron into the foil range but still below nickels. Any larger rings would have shown up earlier with higher disc settings. Within 5 minutes I hauled out a nice medium weight mens wrist chain that read about 6-8 on my meter. This area had produced a lot of dimes, loonies, quarters and zincs.

Use your machine to do more than just go beep on a spot. Use it to help you figure out how the site is/was being used. My buddy with his BIV has really caught on to this and heads for a few favourite "hot spots" whenever we hit a new or tried and true park. People tend to behave in certain ways in a given environment. An example would be to hunt around a tree. If the tree is small it can make a difference as to what side the coins are on. If the field is being used mostly in the late afternoon for lets say baseball, most of the spectators will be on the east side of the tree rather than the west side since the shade will be on the east side of the tree anytime after 12:00. We compared notes one day and almost fell over laughing when we saw this same pattern.

So dig everything? Only when it makes sense. Just my humble opinion.

EDIT
I forgot to add, small coils rule in parks you will actually have a deeper effective signal if there is a lot of junk. I always hunt with a 7" or smaller coil in th park. Remember that your coil is only as big as the receive coil not the outer edge of the casing.
 
I play a game with myself - I dig all the pulltab signals in a park until I have found 25 pulltabs, then I switch to coin mode.

If I skipped the tabs, the rings would still be in the ground.

Dan, what a GREAT idea! It gets frustrating to only dig trash, but you can't find the god stuff because of all the trash.

I usually dig consistant signals. I don't hunt parks, just private property, so I don't much in litter. My trash is nails. It's easy to discriminate out, so if I get a constant signal, I'll dig. I still get mostly junk, but also a fair amount of interesting stuff. CT
 
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