Big Boys Hobbies

City Park Strategies

Redwaller said:
How exactly is it that you tell, though, whether an area has fill dirt for sure? The only time I've ever been certain, was one place where the top 4 inches of dirt was a dark chocolate brown color, and then beneath that it was much lighter and sandy, and then in a different part of that site there was no dark brown layer on top, just the tan sandy dirt. Is there a simple way of telling without having that strong color contrast present?
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I will tell you another thing. I you are hunting along a creek or river then there is often a flood plain. If you find it is sandy, the there is a very good chance you won't find silver. For instance one park I hunt in Atlanta along the Chattahoochee River I am finding memorial zincs 9-11" deep. One can only imagine how deep the silver coins are hiding.

I pretty much stay away from flood plains when looking for silver coins. Never found an old coin in a flood plain.
 
Go slow and have a machine capable of finding deep silver like an Etrac, NOX, or CTX. Figure out what depth the old coins are sitting at. Try around the perimeters and close to walk paths. Most people go right to the middle of the park. Study the maps to see which areas are original. Dig deep iffy signals. If the soil is really dark, it's probably not fill dirt.
 
Jamflicker said:
Go slow and have a machine capable of finding deep silver like an Etrac, NOX, or CTX. Figure out what depth the old coins are sitting at. Try around the perimeters and close to walk paths. Most people go right to the middle of the park. Study the maps to see which areas are original. Dig deep iffy signals. If the soil is really dark, it's probably not fill dirt.
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OH FOR PETE'S SAKE jamflicker, what do YOU know about junky urban turfed park hunting ? I mean, let's get real here. Tsk tsk :sissyfight: :cool3:
 
I use historicaerials.com to see what was there before the park and to see if there are any old trails through the park or what might have been there, then search those areas.
 
maxxkatt said:
I will tell you another thing. I you are hunting along a creek or river then there is often a flood plain. If you find it is sandy, the there is a very good chance you won't find silver. For instance one park I hunt in Atlanta along the Chattahoochee River I am finding memorial zincs 9-11" deep. One can only imagine how deep the silver coins are hiding.

I pretty much stay away from flood plains when looking for silver coins. Never found an old coin in a flood plain.
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This is excellent advice. Some areas are flood prone and if something was there it could be either buried deeper or moved downstream by strong currents.
It might be worth researching how frequent such areas are inundated. Even mild flooding will deposit more sediment. If you don't think so, you could be in de Nile.
Wonder if Corp of Engineers is much help? They have flood maps and may archive historical flood information. Visible levees don't bode well!
Any of you tried in such a river with a snorkel (avoiding snags, hopefully!)?
 
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bazooka said:
Hey all, I've got the treasure bug again after being out of the hobby for 10 years or so. I'll cut to the chase: I live in the south Houston area and there are plenty of city parks around me that should contain silver & wheats. I've looked at all of them on historicaerials... the list I have all show they were parks in the 50's (the oldest imagery available is generally '51 or '53). Of course, all the easy stuff is gone. Right? Or they've been filled. Hard to tell the difference sometimes.

So for those of you who consistently pull old coins from hunted out parks (especially those parks from the 40's and 50's), what are your strategies? What's the one thing that you started doing that opened these places up to consistent finds? Teach me your ways! Is it mindset? Technique? Hardware? Working certain areas of the park? Just digging every signal to clear out the area? (I don't know that I've ever uncovered a masked coin after digging a trash target!)

I use an SE that have several hundred hours on so I like to think I'm pretty decent with it, and had a dfx before that with about the same amount of time. But I wonder, are more coins hidden due to masking, on edge, or depth?

Any input is appreciated!
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In an area where I know that will produce I always look for the big trees. They've been there a while. They also tend to gather crowds.
 
Look for the spots that seem the most obvious to hunt. Do not hunt there. Everyone else already has. I have found the most success in heavily hit part to be the outside perimeter and places that have had brush recently removed.
 
Detector said:
My buddy and I hunted this park for many years and never found much more than the occasional wheat. We figured it had been hunted out or stuff was just not there. All that changed in 1991. I bought a new Whites Eagle Spectrum that could go below 6" and the park came alive./QUOTE]

I have an Eagle Spectrum too, just retired it for the Vanquish 540 and I’m trying to get as good with it as I was with the Spectrum. Only had the new unit out a handful of time so far but starting to get the hang of it. The thing I still haven’t gotten used to is, “I still reach for the trigger switch under the head unit. :laughing: I really miss that thing”. I am really hoping the whole multi. freq. thing is going to live up to the hype. I know it is supposed to shine on the beach, but I don’t live near the coast and only get to visit. So far in the parks the only advantage I am noticing is a bit more depth. Also seems I am digging more deep cans and slaw, but I am still learning it. :cool3:
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Low and slow. Not just with your swing and coil, but also as you move forward with a greater than textbook overlap with the coil. Dont let your desire to cover more ground cause you to speed up. The area ahead can be covered another day. Move around an iffy signal from different directions and listen to the tone to see if there are any changes. I have found several old spills this way.

Sometimes, as in my V nickel park, you can see the higher older dirt between filled areas, especially if a river or creek runs next to the park. I have found some nice older silver in these areas, especially a place I nicknamed barber ridge. If the park is watered, rainfall, even a small amount, can bring out the signals better. I always try to hit hunted areas after a rain. Have fun!
 
bazooka said:
Hey all, I've got the treasure bug again after being out of the hobby for 10 years or so. I'll cut to the chase: I live in the south Houston area and there are plenty of city parks around me that should contain silver & wheats. I've looked at all of them on historicaerials... the list I have all show they were parks in the 50's (the oldest imagery available is generally '51 or '53). Of course, all the easy stuff is gone. Right? Or they've been filled. Hard to tell the difference sometimes.

So for those of you who consistently pull old coins from hunted out parks (especially those parks from the 40's and 50's), what are your strategies? What's the one thing that you started doing that opened these places up to consistent finds? Teach me your ways! Is it mindset? Technique? Hardware? Working certain areas of the park? Just digging every signal to clear out the area? (I don't know that I've ever uncovered a masked coin after digging a trash target!)

I use an SE that have several hundred hours on so I like to think I'm pretty decent with it, and had a dfx before that with about the same amount of time. But I wonder, are more coins hidden due to masking, on edge, or depth?

Any input is appreciated!
Click to expand...


I don’t know of anybody that truthfully can say they consistently do anything in regards to metal detecting.There are too many factors involved, such as your physical condition, the weather, your equipment, your skill using it, and your attitude. Houston has a couple of good things going for it so far as metal detecting goes. First is lots of rain and second is lots of wind. It also has a couple of bad things going for it in regards to metal detect. First is lots of rain, and second is lots of wind. The fun part of metal detecting is the ability of the searcher to apply alchemy in Metallergy as a part of the skills necessary to find good targets. I say the rain is good because it continually changes the surface of the dirt, and metallic objects will be pushed deeper by foot/vehicle traffic, but will rise back toward the surface as they displace their nuclear weight over time. A dime, dropped on a path can be tromped down, and faced at a nearly vertical angle to the surface immediately after its dropped. When you search for it the surface of the coin presented to your coil is the thin ridge around its outer perimeter. But, over time the coin will work its way back nearer the surface, the wind may blow away more soil, and eventually the same dime you overlooked a month ago, now presents its face, and is a more easily detected target. Bracket a area of the park and search the same area in a pattern whereby there is a good probability that the same target will be attacked from two different directions. And remember the rules: First….If it hasn’t been lost, you can’t find it. Second……….If I’ve found it first, you won’t find it. Third…….Just because you don’t find it today, it neither means it wasn’t lost or I have found it. It does mean that you need to keep looking because it may still be there.
 
I appreciate everyone's feedback on this thread. It's motivating me and helping me focus on the prize. I went back to this park I've been working. I just got a nox 800 and this was my first trip out hunting dirt old enough to find something besides clad. I'd been to the local playground a few times just to learn to use it.

My first pleasant surprise was a wheat found in an area that I had covered with the SE a week or two prior. It was maybe 7" deep. At some point I found another wheat, but I must have thought it was a memorial because I didn't know I had two until I got home! Anyway.... I was working slow in a not-so-attractive area between the gravel driveway, the playground, and the backyard fence of a home and hit on a nice signal that felt small but was screaming pretty good. It was in between two pieces of trash but the nox sniffed it out, loud and clear. First silver coin in about 10 years! Good to be back detecting again.
 

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