Got my first permission! (And question about detecting yards)

MoonTzu

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Apr 24, 2018
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Still warm in San Diego, California
The other morning I went metal detecting at a local park and got skunked for the first time in a while. And by skunked I don't mean I didn't find anything. It's just that everything I picked up went into my trash bag. So, good news: the park is now a bit cleaner than it was before.

On my way home, filling my car with gas I spotted a penny on the ground. Score for the day: Eyeballs 1, Metal Detector 0.

But then, I spotted (eyeballs again) a homeowner down the street talking to a guy in a Bobcat. I went over and found out that her whole front and back yards are being scraped down and re-landcaped with rock, concrete, and artificial turf. So I asked for permission to detect on her property and dig out stuff. And got it! ("Sure, pleeease, dig it all out," is actually what she said.)

Houses in my neighborhood were built in the early 70s, so it's highly unlikely I'll find buffalo nickels or even wheat pennies. In fact, the whole area was pretty much empty land until it was developed, so I'm unlikely to find any historical relics of any kind.

But still, my first permission!

Yesterday morning before taking the kids to school I got in a quick 15-20 minutes close to the house. I knocked the sensitivity all the way down to strip off the stuff near the surface. I pulled three grungy nails, two spiraly stakes, a metal flower decoration, and a crushed aluminum can. My plan is to hit the same area again going sequentially deeper, and then following the shade to either run a quick section closer to the street or in the back yard just off the patio.

My time with this site is short because the landscaping work is moving along and needs to be finished so the house can be rented out. Do you have any search strategies?
 
The other morning I went metal detecting at a local park and got skunked for the first time in a while. And by skunked I don't mean I didn't find anything. It's just that everything I picked up went into my trash bag. So, good news: the park is now a bit cleaner than it was before.

On my way home, filling my car with gas I spotted a penny on the ground. Score for the day: Eyeballs 1, Metal Detector 0.

But then, I spotted (eyeballs again) a homeowner down the street talking to a guy in a Bobcat. I went over and found out that her whole front and back yards are being scraped down and re-landcaped with rock, concrete, and artificial turf. So I asked for permission to detect on her property and dig out stuff. And got it! ("Sure, pleeease, dig it all out," is actually what she said.)

Houses in my neighborhood were built in the early 70s, so it's highly unlikely I'll find buffalo nickels or even wheat pennies. In fact, the whole area was pretty much empty land until it was developed, so I'm unlikely to find any historical relics of any kind.

But still, my first permission!

Yesterday morning before taking the kids to school I got in a quick 15-20 minutes close to the house. I knocked the sensitivity all the way down to strip off the stuff near the surface. I pulled three grungy nails, two spiraly stakes, a metal flower decoration, and a crushed aluminum can. My plan is to hit the same area again going sequentially deeper, and then following the shade to either run a quick section closer to the street or in the back yard just off the patio.

My time with this site is short because the landscaping work is moving along and needs to be finished so the house can be rented out. Do you have any search strategies?

I would run sensitivity as high as possible without falsing. I would cherry pick high tones, then go after the rest. I wouldn’t try to do it by depth. That is my personal advice.
 
Because of the time limitations the previous reply stands out loudly, High tones are a priority but I would not skip the Nickle signals either. Good Luck. Trapper
 
Definitely cherry pick the good stuff and then go back for the stragglers if you have the time. Since time is short, you'll want to make sure you don't miss any good stuff digging the trash.
 
UPDATE: a whole lotta nuthin'

Well I'm glad I took everyone's advice and went for cherry picking the high tones because there weren't many. And every one of them was a big chunk of metal, fairly shallow (and yes, I checked holes and around holes). I pulled out two small bags of ripped flashing, busted plumbing fixtures, broken-up electrical hardware, and pieces of what might've been lawn furniture or barbecue grills. Every zinc signal was a nail. I found no coins, and nothing of value/interest.

After digging, I've concluded that my neighborhood was built on a scraped virgin chaparral surface or clean 1970s fill. So, there's nothing deep. And, there's little on/near the surface because houses here don't have much of a porch culture - people mostly gather indoors. Thinking back, we were the only people in our group to have our kids' birthday parties in our yard, everyone else had them at parks or indoor venues. (Man, I made some AWESOME birthday cakes - my oldest still remembers the pterodactyl with a wingspan as big as the table!)

So, skunked - except for some swinging time and some empirical knowledge about the local housing developments.
 
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