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new to detecting? take it or leave it..

Max houser

Full Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2021
Messages
185
Location
Upstate SC
we seem to have alot of first timers...Newbies...when i first started I listened to everyone...take it all in.
everyone gets frustrated learning their detector... myself included. as far as detectors go... you can use a $50 detector or a $2500 detector, If you are not over a target you will not find one.
do not detect where people have not been... yes you can detect the middle of the woods and find a keeper, but the odds are against you. On the other hand finding lots of "trash" pull tabs, bottle caps, and such means your in the right place.
do your research... go to where people once were. gathering places were very common from way back when till we all became socailly distant.
I have watched people with a $50 Wally world detector pull silver out of the ground... study and learn your detector. I found multiple Gold rings with my Ace 250, and since 2010 when I got my first E-trac I have not... the ace is more of dig every signal type of machine, while the Minelab detectors let us discriminate and "cherry pick"...I know I have missed out on so much over the years by ignoring some and digging others... to get gold , you have to dig trash... some of us have forgotten that part, or are just too old and tired to dig every signal.... take this as what it is... truthful knowledge.
 
Agreed!

I also have to admit I found more in the beginning using s beep and dig machine than now with a high end discriminator. I read an article once where a guy took a beachgoing pulse machine to a baseball diamond (bare dirt, should be nothing of value there) after gridding it with a 'professional' machine. He spent several weeks with the non discriminating pulse machine digging every signal...and ended up with 2 gold rings and more silver than you'd ever think possible.
 
I also have to admit I found more in the beginning using s beep and dig machine than now with a high end discriminator. I read an article once where a guy took a beachgoing pulse machine to a baseball diamond (bare dirt, should be nothing of value there) after gridding it with a 'professional' machine. He spent several weeks with the non discriminating pulse machine digging every signal...and ended up with 2 gold rings and more silver than you'd ever think possible.

I read that article too. Pretty sure that was Tom Dankowski.
 
yes you can detect the middle of the woods and find a keeper, but the odds are against you. On the other hand finding lots of "trash" pull tabs, bottle caps, and such means your in the right place

If you're digging pull tabs, you're in the wrong spot. Pull tabs have only been around since the early 1960's, so you won't find many silver coins in those locations. Silver coins were discontinued in 1965.

Some of my best finds have been in spots that are in the middle of nowhere. You have to think outside of the box. Just because it's wooded now doesn't mean it was always that way. Could have been a home site or a farmer's field 250 years ago. Also, hunters were everywhere over the past 250 years. You never know where one of them may have dropped a gold pocket watch or spilled a pocketful of silver coins. I'll take the woods over some trash infested spot any day.
 
Google vintageaerial.com for old aerial photos (mostly east coast). I've pinpointed the locations of several structures that are no longer in existance.
 
....... If you are not over a target you will not find one. do not detect where people have not been... yes you can detect the middle of the woods and find a keeper, but the odds are against you.......

Google vintageaerial.com for old aerial photos (mostly east coast). I've pinpointed the locations of several structures that are no longer in existance.

Yep, no matter how good your detector is and how much you've refined your skills, you can't find what ain't there. I live in a fairly small town with many small public parks but they seemed to likely have been picked over a lot in years past as it is a challenge to find much in the public areas, so I realize to have a better chance of success I need to try to get some more new private property permissions this year.

As far as the woods, we have a lot of woods close by, some that go back for miles in one direction, but I have not yet been able to find any old historical maps that show any past activity in the close by areas that are wooded, nor any old aerial photos of the wooded areas that show any activity, I'll keep looking though. Without anything (old maps or aerial photos) to show if there was past structures or activity in the woods close to me it would seem to be very tough to find anything just randomly hunting thru the woods.
 
If you're digging pull tabs, you're in the wrong spot. Pull tabs have only been around since the early 1960's, so you won't find many silver coins in those locations. Silver coins were discontinued in 1965.

Some of my best finds have been in spots that are in the middle of nowhere. You have to think outside of the box. Just because it's wooded now doesn't mean it was always that way. Could have been a home site or a farmer's field 250 years ago. Also, hunters were everywhere over the past 250 years. You never know where one of them may have dropped a gold pocket watch or spilled a pocketful of silver coins. I'll take the woods over some trash infested spot any day.
I’m trying to make sense of this... Ive found many silver coins in pulltab-infested spots including silver dollars. It’s not like those areas haven’t been used for gatherings before the 1960’s, but perhaps 100 years before that.
 
I’m trying to make sense of this... Ive found many silver coins in pulltab-infested spots including silver dollars. It’s not like those areas haven’t been used for gatherings before the 1960’s, but perhaps 100 years before that.

I'm mainly looking for 1700's and 1800's silver coins. Mercs and silver Rosies are nice to find, but not worth much. That's usually what you'll find in pull tab infested areas.
 
I'm mainly looking for 1700's and 1800's silver coins. Mercs and silver Rosies are nice to find, but not worth much. That's usually what you'll find in pull tab infested areas.
Sure, you never mentioned 1700’s coins just just ‘sayin. I thought we were talking ‘silver coins’ in general, and I’ve found dozens in places heavy with pull tabs, the more tabs, the better as far as I’m concerned, I like the trashy spots.
 
Hunting, trapping, mushroom hunting, and just woods roaming in general, can produce sites worth checking out. This past winter while squirrel hunting, I stumbled upon a well hidden, turn of the century trappers camp, that I intend to hit at some point this year, providing I can find it again. :lol: 40 years ago, I found a dilapidated old trappers shack and found an old fur check from the 1920's in a tobacco tin. This was way before I started detecting, and the property is no longer available to me. But if you are active in other "woodsy" activities, you can stumble upon likely spots.
 
If you're digging pull tabs, you're in the wrong spot. Pull tabs have only been around since the early 1960's, so you won't find many silver coins in those locations. Silver coins were discontinued in 1965.

Some of my best finds have been in spots that are in the middle of nowhere. You have to think outside of the box. Just because it's wooded now doesn't mean it was always that way. Could have been a home site or a farmer's field 250 years ago. Also, hunters were everywhere over the past 250 years. You never know where one of them may have dropped a gold pocket watch or spilled a pocketful of silver coins. I'll take the woods over some trash infested spot any day.

Unless it's an old hangout which has never gone out of style. I grew up near a national landmark in upstate NY with caves, mines and ruins going back almost 400 years to Dutch colonists, and Indians.in some cases. There were many places that I'm sure travelers watered themselves and.picnicked countless times over several centuries. Some stuff may have been deeper than most detectors would pick up, I dont know.. But all I'm saying is that some spots have been used the same way for a long time, so you're likely to find all kinds dsmof stuff through the layers of the past.
 
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