Where to start

[Steveouke]

I would like some advice. I am a rookie MDer whom has only found clad. I have a cousin who lives in a house that was built in 1865. He has offered me to hunt it. What settings would you suggest starting the Ace250 on? Should I start near the home and work my way out from the house? Any good ideas would be very appreciated. I'm stoked to give it a go and hopefully find some older coins and such!

[Kansas Dave]

I can't offer any tips about the 250. But if I were to hunt the property I would search all of it, every inch of soil that I could get to.

[hubbit]

I'd map out the property and then grid it. Depending on how much time you have to hunt, you can either start at those areas that you figure would have had the most traffic over the years, or just start at one end and work your way to the other end (unless it's more than an acre). Also, if you are dealing a very junky property, you can spend some time (if you have it) cleaning up the iron and other stuff like bottle caps quickly and then concentrate on coin signals.

I am excited for you! Good luck and HH!!!

[Patton]

I would take Patton with me for pointers.

[hubbit]

As far as settings on the 250, start out on jewelry mode. If you get too many junk signals, then go to coin mode, but remember you might miss some gold that way. Sensitivity should be at the max allowed without falsing.

[Thatsit]

I would run in coin mode and set the sens around 4 and clear the top ground first, then go back and get the deep signals with the sens at like 6-7 in coin mode, then go to jewelry mode and dig it all. This is gonna take a while so take your time. Took me a while to clear the top "easy finds" at my place, which Im still doing in some spots,,,keep at it and you will do well. The Ace does better than you might think. Good luck.

[Steveouke]

Thank you for the help guys. I have been running the sensitivity at 3-4 bars while learning. This place is about an acre and a half around the actual house. It is out in the middle of nowhere so it should be practice on making my plugs pretty. I will probably hunt this many times before I get everything I can. It should be fun...

Patton- I would love to have company. I would have to check with my cousin and make sure he is ok with it.

[007tallguy]

another option might to be run in all-metal with your sensitivity at about 3 and dig everything. that will get some of the iron out of the way.
after you go over the property that way, you could go to coin or jewelry mode and run it at 6 or even higher and go for the coins that could have been hidden (masked) by all the iron you just finished digging up.
and if you don't have unlimited time, concentrate on the high traffic areas, near doors, clothes line, any pathways.... especially towards any outbuildings, roads, mailbox, outhouse.
good luck!

Pete

[dan]

Don't be disappointed if you don't find much. Old rural houses are often virtually devoid of coins. Listen to #30 here:

http://thetreasurecorner.com

Also listen to #8. All about hunting yards.

Welcome to a wonderful hobby!

[Steveouke]

Dan, thanks for that information. Very useful thoughts.

[Terry Soloman]

Grid 20-foot squares in the front yard, side yard and back yard. Use ALL METAL mode and maximum sensitivity to get maximum depth in these grids - dig it all. North to south, low and slow, then east to west, low and slow. Take your time, listen to your headphones. Shuffle, don't walk. there is all the time in the world.. Relax, tune into the ground and your machine.. Big Gold and Silver to you!