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How ofen do you get skunked...

Skunked..... No....Not Completely

Skunked is a pretty broad term, for me i dont always have time to stay out for long periods of time and just getting out for 15 or 20 minutes and finding some can-slaw. I dont worry to much as to what i bring home as long as i have some fun doing it. T hat doesn't mean i want to come home with nothing but for example i went out for an hr the other day and found 2 cents and a bullet shell along with a lot of garbage. But i had fun doing it and i got a bit of a workout in so that was ok with me
 
On my way home from work, I saw a soccer field with two guys swinging machines. I could distinctly see the yellow sticker of the Garrett Sea Hunter PI and the unmistakeable green Minelab Excal. :lol: You know its bad when the beach hunting guys are resorting to sports fields.
:laughing::laughing:

Hiiting a sports field with a PI????? That will drive you insane really quick...
 
I do alot of woods hunting, especially in the winter after the brush dies down. Often I'm lucky to come home with a couple of headstamps or a semi modern bullet or 2. That said I enjoy being out there so it's more about the journey than the finds. Good time to relax. If I want to dig clad I can hit any of the local sports fields and come away with a few bucks. Just don't find clad all that interesting. Prefer the half rotted whatzits. They are what can lead to an interesting history lesson.

Same here, woods and abandoned farms so either lots of shot gun shells or nails with a good find from time to time. Also don't care for clad but a colonial copper or even some IHP's makes the times of not finding anything worth it.
 
"Skunked" for me means no shiny silver. Had that happen just a couple of days ago, had permission at two places... a 1905 home and a 1940's home. The older place had a torn down separate house, which meant tons of nails, iron, and metal garbage everywhere, and disturbed soil! I found TWO copper Memorial pennies. The other house had minimal targets... a clad quarter, two Memorials, and one 1946-D wheatie... pretty poor results but at least I can check those houses off my "to do" list.
 
Check out some of the elementary and jr. high school playgrounds in your area. You will come home with at least a small handful of cash.
 
I always find something. It may not be much of anything with any value but I am outdoors, getting fresh air and exercise. I have had days when I detected for 5 hours and found 38 cents. And I have had days when I came home with a pocket full of modern clad coins. I have also had aneven rarer day or two when I came home with a beautiful diamond ring in my pocket. But I have never been skunked. Too much pleasure derived from the hunt to even think about being skunked.

It is a fun hobby that sometimes rewards you for your diligence. If hitting the jackpot is your goal then go to the casino where the odds just may be better in your favor.
 
" Skunked " to me means a very disappointing hunt , whether because I found nothing of value at all or just so little that it was hardly worth the time. I am fairly confident this is a definition most would agree with.


Under this definition I get skunked now and then.....it happens to everybody. But location is the most important factor in whether you find stuff or not and that means choosing the right sites is important. So is knowing when to give up on one and move on to another.

You will get skunked a lot at first but as you gain experience and knowledge of your detector it should happen less often.
 
For me research is critical, It helps me to know what "could/should" be there from factual information (think private property with permission) I've rooted through online and from local historical society information.

I hunt at least 2 days a week weather permitting and so far this year I've only found a couple of pull tabs because research helps me avoid places where pull tabs, bottle caps, and can slaw live.

As an example, you probably have a "Grove" name close in your vicinity, Oak Grove, Pecan Grove, Shady Grove ect. Your particular Grove might today be heavily populated or it could be an obscure place somewhere in the country.

Grove names were called that because it's where people congregated in the 1800's for shaded community events, picnics, horse races or whatever. Find an original old Grove long since used away from town and you will find old stuff not today's trash.

Your local historical society library can be a wealth of information, some are even online.

Of course there are hunters that don't have the time to go that depth to avoid trash but even so, if you turned off the TV, got off the couch, headed to the local park and got some exercise then you didn't get "skunked".
 
Everywhere I hunt is like that, people are pigs and have been for 100's of years... With time you will be able to go slow and listen for the little peeps of good signals amongst the trash, slow going but rewarding hunting!
 
Without my car running I have been pretty much limited to hunting one park in walking distance that is about a mile away. I have been hunting that same park for over thirty years and the finds are few and far between. Mostly new drops and on days when there is little activity in the park, sometimes I don't find very much of anything. At leat finding artifacts is about as rewarding to me as finding coins so I usually come away with something.
 
"skunked" to me means no finds of value at all, not even a crusty zinclon.


That's rarely happened to me...although yesterday I was at "pull tab hill" near me (where I pulled over 100 pull tabs in one day) and found absolutely nothing of value...but prior to that we had been at another park and found about a buck in clad.

Almost got skunked at the second site we were at today, but managed to pull out 12 cents and a tiny little bell at the very end while walking back to my car
 
I hunt to get away and clear the head. I mostly beach hunt. Skunked? I usually find some clad. Gold? Less and less compared to the old days. I've been doing this for forty some years. There is less gold, but there is also less material used in those bikini bottoms. Skunked?
 
I get skunked a lot

I practice with my new 800 in a very trashy park and always find clad and even two 1965 quarters. getting close to silver.

but my new focus is on gold and civil war relics. Have about 15 - 20 hours on CW sites and found no civil war relics. After a long hot hunt (Atlanta in August) I consider ditching this hobby. But 2-3 days later I am right back out there.

I finally gave up finding silver in metro Atlanta. Now I am going to two places where I know there are civil war relics and the other one has some small gold potential. You have to deal with your location you are hunting and have realistic expectations.

For me it is the thrill of the of the hunt. You really never truly actually know what is beneath your coil. yes experience give you an idea of what it is, but sometimes you are surprised.

Since I work from home, I get cabin fever and a 2-3 hour hunt relieves the cabin fever symptons.
 
I've experienced the same thing... searching an old park only to come up with very little after hours except lots of trash.

I'm still new and go out with a friend who has done this far longer than I have, and he's helping to develop the appreciation. And I'm learning that just what ROBOTCOP13 said, the zen is in the hunt. I'm learning to enjoy the proverbial cat and mouse game with whatever is hiding.

I had a bad weekend last weekend. While frustrating it's a challenge to overcome. I talked about it with my mom and she pointed out that it makes you appreciate and enjoy even the small finds.
 
I've experienced the same thing... searching an old park only to come up with very little after hours except lots of trash.

I'm still new and go out with a friend who has done this far longer than I have, and he's helping to develop the appreciation. And I'm learning that just what ROBOTCOP13 said, the zen is in the hunt. I'm learning to enjoy the proverbial cat and mouse game with whatever is hiding.

I had a bad weekend last weekend. While frustrating it's a challenge to overcome. I talked about it with my mom and she pointed out that it makes you appreciate and enjoy even the small finds.



Yep...I agree with your mom...after hunting for a couple of hours and having a pound and a half of pull tabs to show for it, then finding that "junk" stainless steel ring really makes the day complete.
 
Let me put it to you this way. I have hundreds of hours in the field metal detecting looking mostly for old silver coins.

This is what I found to date with all that time. 1 Mercury dime and a couple of wheat Pennies and some clad coins. That's it.


So the reality is that most of the time you don't find anything. Truth is, there isn't much left to be found.


I think the rule of thumb is 5 X 5 gallons buckets of garbage to every one silver coin.

happy hunting.
 
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