Ground Conditions Determines Success???

Trashfinder

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After seeing the post on what were your worst DUDS ... i decided to make this post. I have met a couple of older gentlemen nearby who have hunted for over 40 years together around this area. They called me up on a Friday and they were at the fairgrounds and wondered if i could bring my Nokta Impact out and let them see it. They were both using the Racer 2's . Work was slow , so i went out there at 10:30 am and they had been there since around 9:30 am. They have hunted that place themselves for 40 years and they mentioned a couple of dead gentlemen who told them a lot about the place when they were alive.
These two guys have not found anything there in a long while, but wanted to try out their new racer 2's. When i got there they showed me several old coins they just found , oldest being an 1860 ish dime and said we will look at your impact later, grab it and come join us. So i did and in the next hour i found 3 wheaties newest being 1917. They found a couple of old nickels and more wheaties. I think all together in the two hours we hunted 10 old coins were found nothing newer than my 1917.

I had to get back to work and they had something else to go do and that was the end of the hunt. So i go back a couple days later on Sunday and i can't find anything in 3.5 hours hunting with Impact. So i break out my CTX 3030 and hunt another 2 hours till i am wore out and still nothing! It was hit again this past Sunday hard and again nothing was found by any of us!

So i am thinking to myself what gives here??? I used several machines and nothing , nothing , nothing. So then i start thinking about how i read on the forum how people go to these hunted out parks and other places and say look what i found that others missed!!!

So basically i am convinced it was the moisture in the soil that day, these guys were talking about how easy it was to dig and how many times they have hunted there and the ground was so hard you needed a backhoe!

And now i am thinking how many places have i hunted thinking that it was cleaned out and maybe it was just really dry soil and i could do much better when the ground conditions were more favorable?

Just to add this spot is not that big, all coins that day were 6 plus inches as well , we were all talking about how deep we were finding stuff that day. It has to be moisture in the soil, as i and they have hit it with lots of top end machines and nothing was found afterwards.

I knew soil conditions played a role in my success ,, but i realize now it plays a HUGE role for older deep coins!
 
I knew soil conditions played a role in my success ,, but i realize now it plays a HUGE role for older deep coins!

Yep, soil moisture is a big help! I always try to get out a day or two after a good soaking rain!
 
It's well known that water is a great conductor (much better than air in the soil).

As a result, moisture rich dirt will signal better on "edge of range" signals, often giving solid signals where none was even noted before.

That being said, there has to BE something there to signal on. We often talk about going to a "hunted out park" and there's still something to be found. You proved that with your wheaties and such, but sometimes, it really is just hunted out (or targets are so deep they're out of range).

And then there's this:
https://metaldetectingforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=363935&d=1475212033
 
Well and another thing that happens often would be that a person would make an assumption that if you had a Racer 2 or an Impact that you could get one up on everybody else and find stuff they missed. But since we have been back with those same machines and cannot find a darn thing and i used my other machines too. Heck i even put the 13 in ultimate coil on my etrac and still had no luck. I need to make a mental note to hit the place and older parks again after several days of rain!
 
There's no doubt that getting rain helps, and helps a lot, especially for deep targets, but the biggest variable in this game IMO is just getting that coil over the target in the first place.

I don't know if you have the same experience I've had, but I have carefully *I thought* hunted certain sites, then gone back another time and hunted them again and hit targets I just plain missed before. Considering the size of the average coil and how large a site you're hunting, I'd say you can hunt any given site for a long, long time before you get every target!
 
I totally agree about the Earth conditions can be monitored to enhance success in this Sport! Not only soil moisture, but temp, incoming CME's, time of day, time of year...

Of course, getting out hunting no matter what the weather is doing is better than sitting around in the house, (amply proven by numerous posters here)....But, as a guy soon experiences, on SOME perfect weather/moisture days, (maybe 12 out of the year), everything is just awesome....

As personally experienced, I have my best dirt hunts in Nov/Dec...after the first snow but before the frost...overcast, 40 degrees, spitting sleet,...flat grass and moist soil, nobody else around.....All those coins were locked in the dry dirt and tall grass for most of the year, and that seems to be the perfect Window of overall conditions to really make pay...No bugs, no overheating, a guy can hunt all day kind of deal....

So yeah...on certain days when everything is just right, the signals are crisp and the finds heavy...I guess this is why we say 'No Place is ever hunted out'...unless a really killer dude was there on that site on one of the 'Perfect days' in the past 25yrs after Metal Detecting came along and became popular...:?:

Some sites a guy has hunted and scouted and the finds tell you to keep this place in mind when one of those Perfect days comes along...You tell yourself, "With all this poo, theres gotta be a Pony in here somewhere".:laughing:...So you file this place away in your head and target to hit it on a 'Perfect Day'

This is a Big Planet, these coils are small and time is short for all of us, so paying attention to the conditions and hunting 'The right place at the right time, with the right gear and the right mind'.. is something to be considered....

This Sport allows for many genres of success...Some days its kicking totters for jewelry and clad, somedays its beach or water hunting for gold, and somedays, you better be looking for that old silver dirt Pony!
 
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As personally experienced, I have my best dirt hunts in Nov/Dec...after the first snow but before the frost...overcast, 40 degrees, spitting sleet,...flat grass and moist soil, nobody else around.....All those coins were locked in the dry dirt and tall grass for most of the year, and that seems to be the perfect Window of overall conditions to really make pay...No bugs, no overheating, a guy can hunt all day kind of deal....
This has been my experience also. At least when hunting turf. The parks here have their mowers set high (3.5-4 inches?) and the ground dries out fast during the growing season. After a good hard frost (but before the ground freezes), most of the grass lays down.
 
As the moisture level in soil drops, the minerals become more concentrated causing a loss of depth, not to mention making it much harder to cut a plug. Last year during the heart of the drought conditions, I was getting signal loss due to mineralization in some sites that was upwards of 50%. Normally, I would experience 10-15% signal loss due to mineralization. Though, on average it normally doubles (10-11% where I usually experience 5%, etc).
 
I actually find that damp nights are the best hunting for me for some reason? 90 percent of my best finds are on damp nights. the weird part is that damp days are not quite the same for me?
 
I actually find that damp nights are the best hunting for me for some reason? 90 percent of my best finds are on damp nights. the weird part is that damp days are not quite the same for me?

That is because in the daylight the coins can see you coming.
 
Understanding the location, dirt conditions, and employing the optimum "Fast Target Extraction Skills" The topic of TIME from "Ping to Pouch" is often overlooked...

Case in point, Theres a few places I hunt, clay base, in the Summer its as dry as a brick and twice as hard...even if you hit a target, getting it out is a Time consuming effort...In the wet, same deal, that clay sticks to a conventional diggers blade damnably and makes one hell of a mess...So a hunters take is limited by how fast they can recover a target and move on to the next...

Thats why all these coins were waiting, too hard to get out most of the year using conventional extraction tools...So a guy times an area like this when the conditions are right, and goes in with the right tool for the job and really cleans up...

With all this great detecting gear we have nowadays, you gotta focus and practice on the best method of RAPID target extraction....Or a fellow simply runs out of TIME, no matter how good you are with your rig, if you cant make pay on the PERFECT days without employing rapid extraction techniques/tools!....Might be a screwdriver, might be a serrated edge knife to stab and rip a strip, might be a tiling spade, etc...all depends on the dirt/moisture conditions.....

Examine the 'CPH' in this hunt...45 CPH average in 10hrs? Yes, all these coins were locked in and safe from nearly everybody year round due to the dirt conditions, too dry, and too wet....Fastest I've ever done timing myself was 75 coins in 30 minutes...

Its not that hard if you use the right tool for the job and know what you are dealing with...3 coins/minute is entirely possible, the goal being '15 sec ping to pouch' the other 15 sec out of the minute are sweeping for another signal...Stacks/slanted spills help too! Its like Sweet! Pulling 4 coins at once!:laughing:
 

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Many factors in my opinion but ground condition is a big one.

I've been swinging a detector for 40+ years and tried just about every detector worth trying. I've come to the conclusion it really is a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Having the right detector does play a role, but not near as big as one might think. That is why you read about a no name low end detector being taken out and finding a hand full of goodies from a worked out site. I've done it many times myself.

A good example was just last year. We have an old Fort site we have hunted to death over the last 30+ years. Every detector from the Tesoro's to CTX 3030, Deus, Racer's Fisher's and found just the occasional button or ball. Last year my buddy with his 20 year old DFX and me with a Red Racer walked in the same field and he hits a 1841 seated dime and I hit a 1835 half dime in less than 15 minutes.
 
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