What am I doing wrong? I'm not finding anything at all old.

jordanmills

Senior Member
Joined
May 10, 2020
Messages
378
Location
Houston, Texas
So I'm not finding anything but recent clad. No old coins, no silver (except a very shallow ring), etc. Can anyone offer advice on what I might be doing wrong or where I should go instead of where I've been going? Here's the long story:

I haven't been doing this for too long, but I think I've been giving it a good shot. I got an "advanced entry level" detector when a landscaper guy lost his truck keys in my yard and it was on sale.

With this Bounty Hunter Land Star, I went over almost all of my yard (except over buried electrical and around the metal fences with overhead power lines). At first, I dug pretty much every signal, and I found some interesting stuff (a chromed plastic pendant, a couple of matchbox cars, a fishing weight, a few dollars in clad - the only coin worth mentioning was a 1968 half dollar). As I got a better feel for it, I tried messing with discrimination and being more selective about targets. I got to where I could reliably identify and pull out quarters and dimes and ignore almost everything else. But the MD does have the limitations you'd expect from an entry level model at its price point and I believe I hit them.

After asking for some advice (and not being able to buy an Equinox 800 on a whim) I bought a Nokta Makro Simplex+. It's pretty different from the BH LS, but I gave it some time and I feel like I have a good handle on it now. It seems to be FAR more capable, and can find targets with better identification (and better indication resolution than ten LCD segments, duh), more depth, and more ways to tune it to particular scenarios and environmental conditions. I've found even less with it, but I'm sure that's mostly because I've made a point of going over the same places with it and pulled most of the targets out with the first detector. I also made sure to dig a variety of targets across the identification spectrum just to experience what it sees first-hand (but I also familiarized myself with posted lists of what IDs it gives for common targets, air-tested, and made sure to keep the ID in mind when digging a target - and everyone else's list is pretty much exactly what I see too).

I'm in Houston, Texas, and live in a house that was built in about 1930, along with most of the neighborhood. I've gone over my entire yard, and my next door neighbor's yard (with permission of course), about an acre of surface area detected between the two. To the knowledge of them and the previous owners of my house, nobody has ever detected their yards (that goes back to the late 1970s or so).

I've also detected a most of one neighborhood park, boy scout house, church yard, elementary school, and part of the other neighborhood park. The swing sets at the parks had plenty of clad, and clad (and lots of can slaw) are scattered around the rest of the parks (including some whole buried old cans). The church yard (built in the 1930s, used for church until about five years ago and now a high school campus) was FULL of modern clad, but nothing at all old (which probably just means that high schoolers play as fast and loose with their pocket change nowadays as I did when I was in high school). Between all of them, the oldest coin I found was a late 1950s penny and everything else is 1965 and later.

After a while, I made sure to research to focusing detecting efforts on places that seemed more likely to have high traffic. For example, I verified which church buildings were present in the 1950s (earliest aerial photos I have) and spent extra time around them and likely paths to them. In one park, the baseball diamond has been in the same place for 90 years, so I gave greater scrutiny to the places with more likely drops (home plate, deck, spectator areas, and outfield). At the other park, the diamond moved some time in the 1960s, so I focused efforts on where those places would have been then. I'm sure some spots have been re-graded (the old whole cans buried eight inches deep would seem to indicate that), but others have not (evidenced by older buildings having ground levels as expected around their foundations).

One site of interest is not near my house, and I don't have a chance to go there often. A family member has a ranch that had a farm on it some time in the 1800s (possibly earlier). We have practically no information on the history of it, but it has rock walls of various ages, and a targeted archaeological dig got lots of artefacts of an indian village that likely traded with earlier settlers (apparently they've found lots of arrowheads, and I've found tons of flint knapping fragments but no arrowheads). I was able to spend a few hours detecting that with the BH LS detector, and found one square nail and a whole lot of rusted barb wire and metal panel trash, but not much else. Identifying building/habitation areas was a higher priority than detecting, but I think I have a few spots to focus on next time I'm there. But the point is that I spent hours detecting one of those spots and found nothing but trash.

So all told, I have a few hundred hours in on this. My finds are a bunch of can slaw, a couple of pieces of iron farm implements, a fishing weight, matchbox cars, one sterling silver ring, and a dozen dollars in modern/clad coins.

So am I doing something wrong that I should be doing differently? Do the detecting gods hate me, and how can I repent for offending them? Should I be looking at other kinds of places (yeah curb strips are on the list)? I'd really like to find some silver coins. I mean a huge cache of gold coins would be nice too, but one or two silvers would be just great if I want to keep to what seems realistic.
 
I think in your situation you may need some "luck". It sounds like you are doing everything right so far. But keep in mind , many here have 1000s upon 1000s of hours detecting experience. Many years...do more research on sites ,dial in your detector and don't give up. It will happen for you ! HH
 
Actually you did find a silver coin because the 1968 half dollar is 40% silver.

I was going to point this out too. A silver Kennedy is one of the silver coins I've never dug.

OP: Have patience. Maybe bury some silver coins and see how they sound at depth. It sounds like you are detecting areas that have probability of silver coins. You might be walking over them going too fast.
 
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Actually you did find a silver coin because the 1968 half dollar is 40% silver.


I was going to point this out too. A silver Kennedy is one of the silver coins I've never dug.

OP: Have patience. Maybe bury some silver coins and see how they sound at depth. It sounds like you are detecting areas that have probability of silver coins. You might be walking over them gong too fast.

I could swear I looked that up. Maybe I got it confused with the composition change in the eisenhower dollar. I do remember it looking especially shiny and not as grey as clad quarters. I'll have to go find it and check it out again. Well I guess that would not be bad for my first twenty hours of detecting (I found it pretty early).

I've buried some coins and tested them. I've also made sure to pay attention to the ID and "feel" from the machine on targets before I dig them (well at least some times). I'm not convinced that a freshly buried coin will be identified the same as one that's been in the ground for fifty years, though it's probably not too far off. The problem is that I don't have any silver coins to test with (except that half, I guess, but I wouldn't expect to come across many of those so testing won't help much). I need to get around to a local coin shop and see if they have any junk silver to sell me for testing.

I'm pretty sure I'm not swinging too fast. At least not all the time. My "slow" swing is about two or three feet linear in a second, and less if I heard something funny and want a better signal. That is, if I taped a marker to the coil and went over a piece of paper instead of the ground, the line would be about two to three feet long.

Patience is not a problem. I can keep at it. I just want to make sure that I'm not wasting time keeping at doing something wrong or in the wrong place.
 
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I'm in the same boat as you. This is my first year of real detecting since I bought an Equinox 600. Still learning the machine and this summer and fall I have pulled about $200 in clad but only two silver coins, one IHP and one buffalo nickel along with probably 75 wheat pennies. However I did dig one gold and three silver rings as well as a couple other pieces of silver jewelry. Just like me, stay at it, dig those signals you think are pull tabs/bottle caps and your luck will change.

Steve
 
I’m sorry to say this but get yourself a nox 600 get rid of the bounty hunter never was a fan of them or Garrett’s. You’ll get it are you getting depth with it. I guess that doesn’t matter I’ve dug a silver dollar at 2 inches. Just pound them parks go slow dig those iffy high tones the ones that are so faint but you can hear a little bit of a high tone. Do some door knocking.
 
You're not doing bad at all for being new at this, you're starting out a lot better than I did where I was only finding trash at first when I first started :lol:

A really big part of finding good targets like older coins is "location" because even the best detector can't find what isn't there.

I live in a small town that has a history dating back into the 1700's but I think that because it is known for that history that past detectorists have pretty much hunted out most of the older coins in public areas, it took me a long while to find my first "Merc" dime and that was about 8 inched deep in a public park.

Things will vary from area to area depending on how much detecting was already done before you got started.

In my area I believe my best chance of finding older coins will be as I can get more permissions to detect on private properties, hopefully I can get some permissions that have never yet been detected at all, while even that is no guarantee, it's still offers a better chance of finding older coins.
 
Jordan, it sounds like you're doing everything right. Don't be discouraged by reading this forum and seeing the piles of silver and gold that some people seem to always find. They are in the right place at the right time. That's all.

I have a huge colonial farm permission that I'm working right now. The main house was built in 1860. The yard, which you would suspect to have silver, had nothing but a few Memorial pennies and other clad. If I had stopped at the house, I would have been disappointed. But the owner showed me an old foundation. Bang. A couple large cents. Half Cent. etc. Hit a field....seated dime.

My neighborhood is very old. I hunted one yard recently and it was the same story. I thought it should be there but it wasn't.

Keep doing what you're doing. You'll find it. I promise. And FWIW, I started with a White's Coinmaster. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't find something without a $1000 detector.

Happy Hunting.
Erik
 
I’m sorry to say this but get yourself a nox 600 get rid of the bounty hunter never was a fan of them or Garrett’s. You’ll get it are you getting depth with it. I guess that doesn’t matter I’ve dug a silver dollar at 2 inches. Just pound them parks go slow dig those iffy high tones the ones that are so faint but you can hear a little bit of a high tone. Do some door knocking.

The bounty hunter is on a shelf for now. Using a Simplex+ instead, and it's definitely better. Can't afford an equinox 600 or 800 right now.
 
The bounty hunter is on a shelf for now. Using a Simplex+ instead, and it's definitely better. Can't afford an equinox 600 or 800 right now.

Message me your address. I'll send you a mix of mid-century silver coins to get your test garden set up. This forum and community has been such a help to me. I'm interested in your hunts and success! Keep at it!
 
Jordan, it sounds like you're doing everything right. Don't be discouraged by reading this forum and seeing the piles of silver and gold that some people seem to always find. They are in the right place at the right time. That's all.

I have a huge colonial farm permission that I'm working right now. The main house was built in 1860. The yard, which you would suspect to have silver, had nothing but a few Memorial pennies and other clad. If I had stopped at the house, I would have been disappointed. But the owner showed me an old foundation. Bang. A couple large cents. Half Cent. etc. Hit a field....seated dime.

My neighborhood is very old. I hunted one yard recently and it was the same story. I thought it should be there but it wasn't.

Keep doing what you're doing. You'll find it. I promise. And FWIW, I started with a White's Coinmaster. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't find something without a $1000 detector.

Happy Hunting.
Erik

Thanks. I'm not expecting to turn up dozens of old silver coins every trip. What gets posted are the best and interesting finds. Nobody is going to bother posting or watching a video of a three hour hunt where they find fifty-three cents in clad, ten bottle caps, and a half pound of can slaw, even when that is far closer to the average hunt.

It's like deer hunting. You may not see anything if you if you go out and hunt, but you are sure to see nothing if you don't go out and hunt. When I first got a chance to bag a deer (as an adult, no chance before that), I sat in a stand for hours at sunrise and sunset, three or four days a week, for several weekends. I only saw one, too small to take, the entire first year. My host expressed surprise that I kept at it, even though it was what I needed to do. But one eventually came the next year and I got it. I'm sure MDing is pretty much the same in that regard.
 
The bounty hunter is on a shelf for now. Using a Simplex+ instead, and it's definitely better. Can't afford an equinox 600 or 800 right now.

Ive seen lotsa good reviews on that simplex... the hard sad fact is silver is getting very hard to come buy in public places...ive never been down where you are but you have to look up and see how old the areas are that your diggin... you wont find silver in parks newer than say 1970. Unless it was something with people action prior to being a parks ......as the silver coins were mostly done by 1964 besides a few large 30% silvers... the govt started grabbing the silvers like mad men IMMEDIATELY after 1964 and started replacing them with worthless clad . If the parks down there were established after 1970...most of the coins dropped in them were clad

In public places you have to dig the iffy deep tones that may not be sold high tones and not just the signals that blast your ears off ....as this point in time people have cherry picked the parks for decades with every machine made
 
Ive seen lotsa good reviews on that simplex... the hard sad fact is silver is getting very hard to come buy in public places...ive never been down where you are but you have to look up and see how old the areas are that your diggin... you wont find silver in parks newer than say 1970. Unless it was something with people action prior to being a parks ......as the silver coins were mostly done by 1964 besides a few large 30% silvers... the govt started grabbing the silvers like mad men IMMEDIATELY after 1964 and started replacing them with worthless clad . If the parks down there were established after 1970...most of the coins dropped in them were clad

In public places you have to dig the iffy deep tones that may not be sold high tones and not just the signals that blast your ears off ....as this point in time people have cherry picked the parks for decades with every machine made

I addressed that in the first post. Public parks, schools/churches, and several private yards, all of which were inhabited in the 1920 and 1930s.
 
I addressed that in the first post. Public parks, schools/churches, and several private yards, all of which were inhabited in the 1920 and 1930s.

Farmers Fields. You'll be surprised what you will find. And nothing wrong with clad, it adds up quick . $$$$

Steve
 
I guess I should post this in finds, but it looks like I was wrong about not finding silver.

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It has a nice ding on the back and a lot of minor damage. Might be worth as much as a couple of dollars!
 

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Definitely rely on experienced hunters. Especially when it comes to identifying finds. Anything you find with a "gold" color you can send to THE KOB for proper I'd.
 
Jordan,

Thanks for sharing your story. It sounds like your willing to put in the work, both in doing research and in being patient during the hunt.

I haven't been detecting long either. I started 2 1/2 years ago with a Fisher F22. I detected with it for 4 months during the Fall of 2018 and from March through August of 2019. That $225 machine was great at finding clad anywhere up to 4-5 inches down. Not much of anything deeper, unless it was huge. I found about $350 in clad with that thing and was just lucky enough to find 3 silver dimes with, actually a trifecta, one Rosie, one Merc, and one Barber. I certainly wasn't looking for the silver when I found it, it just happened to be in the right place and at the right depth. Found the Rosie at a ballfield built in the last 30 years, the Barber in an old park in a small town, and the Merc in my Mother in Laws front yard of her 1950's farm house that had a previous house on property. Point it, I got so good at knowing I was digging clad (quarters, dimes, and copper pennies) that I was rarely pulling anything else out of the ground. I was knowingly skipping over nickel and zinc penny signals because of all the pull tabs and shape of the zincs. This most likely cost me a few good finds in terms of jewelry, but oh well.

Anyway, bought the Nox 600 back in early June and have enjoyed using it this year. I'm up to about 20 silvers and 5 Indians here in Central Iowa. I will admit, it's been an learning curve and probably the most difficult lesson was the fact that the silver just isn't easy to find. A LOT of it has already been plucked. I was first faced with this reality back in mid-July when I was detecting a nearby park that I knew went back to the late 1800's. The park is in a County Seat, 6000 people, and sits next to the County Fairgrounds and used to house both a pool and the HS football field until the 1980's. Point is, this park had gotten lots of use for decades upon decades. I'm in the middle of my hunt and an older gentleman (in his late 60's) drives up and yells from 50 feet away, "Hey, your swinging the Nox 600, that's a great machine! I've got one too!" Turns out, he's been hunting my neighborhood for the better part of the last 40 years. Pretty much everywhere I'd researched, he had stories of being there and what he'd found over the years. He even gave me a detecting business card and said he'd hook me up with some sweet spots and invited me along. I haven't taken him up on it yet due to the Covid, but plan to this next year when/if all settles down.

Sorry this is so long-winded. Another idea, some people are better visual learners. Have you watched Youtube videos? I know Plugmaster Ford and Missouri Mike swing Nokta's and put out quality videos detecting in Southern Missouri. I think they use Anfibios but they really tout the Nokta brand. They are big into private house permissions. Also, MDing East Texas with Kevin is another guy putting out quality videos in your area. He has a bit of a different approach, mostly schools and ballfields, but is more of a "dig it all" sort. He used to mostly use an AT Pro, but switched to the Nox 600 this year. Check out their vids if you haven't already.

Good luck with the hunt!
 
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