getting frustrated

[alabamahunter]

been detecting a few times now and i thought i was at some good places yet still no silver coins.I know persitance pays off but does anyone have any tips for me?

p.s. does anyone else with a ACE250 have problems finding targets in wet soil?

[Captain Silver]

You said it. 'a few times'...try a few dozen, at least. And totlots don't count, either. Only time on the machine will yield results like you're looking for.

[new jersey andy]

Been detecting steady since 2009 and last year I found my first silver. It also depends on the areas that you are hunting and whether they have been hit by other detectorists.

[Snapolson]

Yeah, it took me over six months before I found my first silver. Location research helps too. Find the oldest areas you can go an hit them. Look to hunt private property too, once you can cut a real neat plug. Don't get discouraged. It takes time for sure.

[gordonquixote]

I've swung every day for several hours since Dec 18th and I only have three silvers....tons of clad and a sweet silver ring. I feel like everywhere I go has already been drilled hard though.

[Gauntlet]

What you see on this forum is only the finds. What you don't see are the countless hours and miles it takes to find them. Between research, time behind the wheel (driving), and time behind the stick (MD), I'd imagine some of these single coins may have hundreds of hours behind them (not saying one particular coin, but more inbetween them).

Many of these folks live in parts of the country that hold goodies the rest of us have a slim/none chance of finding too (I know you're just talking "silver" in a general way though).

Sure it can get frustrating, but only if you let it. It's just as much about enjoying yourself as it is finding something. Sure finds are the icing on the cake, but that shouldn't be the deciding factor.

If it is, you may need to take a break from MDing, or evaluate why you got into it in the 1st place. Stick to it, you'll find silver. Confidence plays a huge factor.

"Be the ball Danny"

[diggerduo]

Patience and research help...... keep it up.

[mdtrapper]

All the above is true. Swing speed is importent also. Try slowing down a bit. Case in point. I went to a park I have hit many time's myself around the same tree at least 5-6 times, over about a month. Never found anything but a few pennys and some clad. Then one day I decided to slow my swing down really slow and heard a cherp. 4 in down a 1919 merc. I think you can miss deep smaller coins like dimes if you swing to fast for sure. As for wet ground it makes silver more conductive and easer to find. Hope this helps. HH.

[turtlefoot]

I found one silver coin in 2011...but I did find pound and pound of junk. I don't spend a lot of time looking for coins though. Just keep at it and the good finds will come. It can be frustrating at times, but that is part of it.

Doug

[joe4077]

Have you found any wheat cents or Indian head cents? Wheats and IH's were in circulation when silver coins were in circulation. So they were all lost in the same era. If you find wheat cents or IH cents then silver coins could possibly be nearby. Don't worry about the silver, just dig the clad. When you do hit it you will be pleasantly surprised. Just keep digging. Good luck.

[alabamahunter]

Thanks for all the kind words and encouragement I am feeling alot better now. I guess I was frustrated because I went to a old church today with high hopes but didn't find much. I can't wait to get a pro pointer I feel like that will make things a lot more efficient and will increase the number of holes I dig thereby increasing my odds

[Jamflicker]

Stick with it and if you do the research for older areas then you will eventually find silver. I love digging wheats because it tells me silver is near. I dug $500 in clad last year and found 30 silvers. You have to dig a lot of clad in old areas to find a few silvers. I have dug 33 wheats since New Years Day and it has produced 4 silver coins. Wheats=silvers. Good luck!

[gosurfh2o]

I swing an Ace 250 as well and I have only found coins in wet sand once, and that was the first time I went out (late November)... I still have yet to find silver ANYTHING... I resently got a propointer and have been doing a lot more research, so I think my time is coming... Just make sure you continue to have fun with it... Good luck and keep swinging!!! GL & HH

[Gauntlet]

Originally Posted by alabamahunter

I can't wait to get a pro pointer I feel like that will make things a lot more efficient and will increase the number of holes I dig thereby increasing my odds

I'm afraid you see the ProPointer for something it's not, and may be sadly disapointed. It has nothing to do regarding as to if you'll dig or not, that's up to your MD (and you). The PP simply assists in locating the target once you break dirt.

[DIRT DOBBER]

Originally Posted by alabamahunter

been detecting a few times now and i thought i was at some good places yet still no silver coins.I know persitance pays off but does anyone have any tips for me?

p.s. does anyone else with a ACE250 have problems finding targets in wet soil?

Yea, ouch. That's why most people don't stick with the hobby. "A few times" and we think we should've discovered Tut's sister's tomb and gotten our own show on Discovery Channel. Give it some time friend.

Think of it like learning a language. You're not gonna score the French girl with just "C'est la vie". It takes a few dozen trips to start to understand what your MD is telling you it's seeing and where to take it to score le silver........

[Gauntlet]

alabamahunter....I just ran across this, thought you might find it useful

http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=18955

[Newby]

Gauntlet is soooooo right! The pinpointer is only a tool to use when you have ALREADY found a signal! Swinging that MD and know where you are and knowing the machine you are using are the most important things! So keep at it and get to know what the machine is telling you, get a variety of coins, pull tabs and bottle caps and air test all of them, then clear out a spot in your yard and make a test garden! It will help really!

[alabamahunter]

Originally Posted by Newby

Gauntlet is soooooo right! The pinpointer is only a tool to use when you have ALREADY found a signal! Swinging that MD and know where you are and knowing the machine you are using are the most important things! So keep at it and get to know what the machine is telling you, get a variety of coins, pull tabs and bottle caps and air test all of them, then clear out a spot in your yard and make a test garden! It will help really!

What i meant by my pinpointer comment is that I will be able to find the target quicker once I have dug the hole. Sometimes I have a hard time finding the target. If I can find the target quicker then I can cover more ground in the amount of time that I have to hunt. I know that right now as a newbie I need to be digging everything and learning my machine. So far I know what a bottle cap looks like

[alabamahunter]

Originally Posted by Gauntlet

alabamahunter....I just ran across this, thought you might find it useful

http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=18955

Thanks for that Gauntlet. I want to be the type of hunter that doesn't give up.

[DIGGER27]

Originally Posted by alabamahunter

been detecting a few times now and i thought i was at some good places yet still no silver coins.I know persitance pays off but does anyone have any tips for me?

p.s. does anyone else with a ACE250 have problems finding targets in wet soil?

Almost fell off my chair when I read this.
Keep in mind there are plenty of things to find in the ground in Alabama, this is the most wonderful hobby in the world and if you stick with it you will have many hours of pure enjoyment ahead of you...a lifetime of it as a matter of fact.
Even some silver coins will be in your future...but....
You really don't know, or have not been on this forum long enough to read about the pitfalls and problems you have hunting in the great state of Alabama.
Again, not to be discouraging, but you happen to live in an area that is one of the most, let's say, "challenging" places to dig in the country.
We who have hunted in most areas of the southeast, and especially in some really bad areas of high mineralization, call the dirt we dig in, Devil Soil...and it has earned it's reputation.

There is a worse place to hunt than yours, the place that hunted in for my first 18 months in this hobby, and that would be Birmingham and the surrounding areas going out for many miles.
Not only do we have that awful dirt, that particular area of the state has the extra bonus of veins and particles of natural iron ore all over, killing the depth of all detectors and making it a very frustrating experience to hunt unless you know how to adjust to hunting in this mess.

You know silver can be shallow sometimes, you never know where it might be hiding, but after reading about members that find silver coins in other parts of the country regularly, I am of the opinion that you have to go 5-6-7 even 8 inches or more to find these older coins in any kind of quantity, something that is not unheard of in Bama, but very rare.
The dirt just won't let us get that deep.

Add to the fact that if you have any kind of clubs or have had hunting activity going on around there in the past, a lot of the silver that was reachable, the easy silver I call that, well, that was scooped up long ago by the older guys that started hunting way back in the 70's and continued through the 80''s-90's and up to the present.

I am not saying you don't have silver around there to find, it is just more difficult than other places.

Lucky you...huh?

In my whole time digging in that state I found a total of 2 silver dimes...and one of those was a seeded target left over from a local club hunt that all the members missed but I was lucky enough to find many months after this club hunt was over.

I realized I would be one frustrated hunter if I aimed for the kind of quantity of silver coins that members in the northeast and out west and other parts of the country are able to find, so I just relaxed and hunted clad and jewelry and became very satisfied with whatever I dug up...and I have dug plenty of great things in my time there.

I have found gold, silver too, but they take the form of rings and bracelets and necklaces and charms, but coins...not so much.

Now don't despair, you can still find some silver coins but you have to be smart about it.
Get very good with your Ace, it won't go real deep in most of your soil but deep enough to find what you want when you learn it well enough.
Research your areas looking for some older sites, and learn where these silver coins might be found and how to find them.
No place is ever hunted out...ever!
Pounded parks might still produce a coin or two if you hunt them right, and learn to think outside the box when you hunt.
Search around large old trees and tree stumps...those roots might just keep a few oldies from sinking too deep and out of range.
Look for washouts after a rain.
If several inches of soil is washed away, there might be some coins to find that were impossible to locate before.
Do a search for a member Ryanchappell, my old hunting partner who still lives in Birmingham and is as obsessive about finding that silver as anyone I have ever met.
He bought an E-Trac for the best chance to find them only to realize that it won't go much deeper than any other detector in that bad dirt, so he got real good at that out of the box thinking stuff.
Read his posts, he usually puts in there where and how he found his silver coins, he has found about 20 in the last year, you can learn from him.
Member Bonesquat, too.
He lives up north of you but has all the same problems we all do, and he still finds silver, but he works for it.

Me, I was lucky enough to escape that bad soil and just relocated to Kansas, one of the states with the "good soil", and I am still a clad and jewelry hunter by heart, but I am looking forward to changing that in the future.
One of the club members in my area had a pretty decent year...390 silvers!
If I find a couple I would be happy, but now I need to change my way of thinking, and so do you.

Take my advice, learn your machine, learn about researching to find sites with possible silver and learn what to look for and how to hunt to find it.
Above all, relax and be happy with what you find, whatever it is.
There are so many cool things to dig up out there and they are all waiting for you to find them...if you don't frustrate yourself out of this hobby.

Good luck, have fun and
HH