Metal Detecting Tips
Tips from Fellow MD's cont.
ABANDON VEHICLES
One overlooked place to find old coins is in old abandoned Cars and Trucks, money
fell out of peoples pockets and slipped between the seats and under them, many of
these vehicles were sold of just parked without ever looking for coins left in them, I
have found some very good condition coins in these overlooked places.
CLOTHES LINES
When you are hunting an old home, try to find a tree with growth scars from having a
clothes line attached. Then figure where the clothes line ran. Go slow on all metal
mode under the old clothes line area. many coins/jewelry are left in the pockets, and
make it through the wash to the clothes line where the wind shakes them out on the
ground. also, if there is an old wringer type washer on an old porch check around
the washer. they often did their laundry on the porch and let the wash water run out
on the ground beside the porch, along with whatever was in the washer.
RAILROAD STATIONS
Follow railway lines. Years ago, there were ten times the number of stations - small
ones in rural areas that have long since vanished. If you can talk to railway ol' timers
or get an old rail schedule, you can find these places where people used to wait for
trains.
USE A GPS!
Don't get lost even in bad weather or in the dark. Use it for preplanning your trip so
that you can quickly get to spots where you suspect are good places to check out.
Use it to avoid dangerous territory but if you get into trouble use a GPS unit and a
two-way radio to communicate your exact position to rescue teams.
"HUNTED OUT" MY BACKSIDE!
Never give up!!!!!! Here is why a supposed "hunted out" site probably still holds
goodies others have no patience to find - I can prove it mathematically. We all know
(or should) that the search pattern under the coil is that of an inverted cone. If we
assume that the maximum depth your detector can find a coin reliably is 6", than the
point of the cone is at the 6" mark. Your detector will therefore detect any coin that
falls in the cone pattern below the coil down to the "point" of 6". For simplicity sake,
pretend that your coil is an over-sized spray paint can. Now, if you swing your coil by
overlapping the previous swing by only 1" (which is hard to do if you are moving fast
across the ground), at 2", 4" and 6", your coil would spray paint a swath of a given
width as it passes over these depths with its cone-shaped spray pattern. If we could
actually see the spray pattern left by the "giant" spray can, here's what you would
see with the 1" overlap swing:
At 2" depth - 25% of the area would be missed by the "spray"
At 4" depth - 59% of the area would be missed by the "spray"
At 6" depth - a wapping 86% of the area would be missed by the "spray"
Now, factor in all the other things that may make you miss a target (i.e. bad target id
on a good target) and you have an almost impossible probability that all targets
between 4" to 6" have been successfully cleaned out. The only way to get every
possible target is to grid a small area and clean every "all-metal" signal out of that
area and than move on. How may people ever do that?!?!
BULKY HEADPHONES
I'm not to keen on wearing bulky headphones especially when it's about 90 degrees
out, so what I did was buy a set of small headphones for a walkman radio (the kind
that slip in your ears). I went to radio shack and bought the right size phone plug to
fit my MD and replaced the original one on the new headset. You will need a
soldering iron for this. I been using these for 3 years now and there great, I haven't
noticed any lost signals compared to the big headphones. The total cost for plug
and phones, about $5.
SHOULDER STRAP
I have rigged up a support strap for my detector by using the shoulder strap off my
power weed wacker. I attach it the same way as it is on the weed wacker. This saves
my shoulder and keeps it up at my hand all the time. I can stop detecting for awhile
and rest and never have to lay it down in the dirt. I've had two shoulder surgery's
and this really helps.
SHINY CLEAN
Heres one to restore dug Lincoln's and Indians. After cleaning off the dirt, put a drop
of Tabasco Sauce on the cent. After about 5-10 seconds wipe off. Presto! shiny as
new. Theres some sort of chemical reaction that the copper reacts to the pepper
sauce. Caution! If you have a cent you believe is numismatically valuable don't do
this its better left as dug.
TRASH SOLUTION
Ever have a problem of where to put the trash you dig up? Well, the next time you
get your car washed, remember to get the car trash bag that you hang from the
cigarette lighter. I put mine over the spare probe that I have on my pouch. It's large
enough for the occasional soda can and easy to dispose of. I once got permission to
hunt on the local fairground solely because the grounds keeper saw I was "serious"
about taking my trash with me.
LESS EFFORT, MORE FINDS
Poker Chips make excellent markers for treasure hunting. You can place one on
each found location and after a number of finds stop detecting and start digging.
You can even use different colors for different types of finds - ie, red for "hot" finds,
white for "questionable" finds, and blue for "sounds deep" - make up your own color
code. I've done this for many years and it also gives your arm a chance to rest from
swinging the detector.
DON'T GIVE UP
Getting Permission: Sometimes gaining permission to hunt someone's property may
be negative, but don't give up hope. Sometime ago I asked the police chief of my
town to hunt a piece of property he owned. The old place was empty and had been
partially burned and through speaking to him, it was under investigation for arson.
He turned me down due to these circumstances. I waited for a year or so and asked
again and was granted permission. I'm glad I persisted, because after clearing the
area of newer date coins I began to find silver. Silver mercuries, Roosevelt dimes, a
soldier's dog tag issued prior to W.W.II. Then as the finds became more scarce, I
had a good signal that kept registering in the nickel/foil range and since I've found
many gold rings in this range, I decided to dig this one also. Yes you've guessed it, it
was a very nice 14kt. gold wedding band that was produced in the thirties. So do
not, and I re-iterate do not give up after being turned down.
HESITANT PROPERTY OWNER
If you are wanting to hunt a piece of property, and the owner is hesitant, offer a
spare detector for them to try out while you hunt. Take an extra if you have it, and
you will have a response for them when they tell you, you can't hunt it because they
always wanted to buy one and do it themselves. This might help with those people
that think there is a gold mine in their yard, and you may even turn someone on to
the hobby.
DISPLAY YOUR TREASURES
Need a cheap & quick display board for some of your finds? Use a piece of
Styrofoam about an inch thick...other dimensions to your needs....wrap it in a piece
of felt (purple looks "royal") and keep it in place with straight pins or hot glue. Mount
tokens or other finds with more pins at the edges to hold it in place. The pin heads
are almost invisible, and arrangement of items is a snap. Fashion an easel or simply
prop it up against something. Very impressive and rich looking display for your
treasures.
SENSITIVITY
If you are detecting and your detector starts to give false signals, try to adjust the
sensitivity. If that doesn't work change out the batteries. This will usually fix the
problem.
BEE STING
Do not leave any car windows or doors open when treasure hunting. Reason: when
in a remote area and your hunting not far from your car, you might consider leaving
windows open on a hot day. Don't do it! it will give you a safe haven when you upset
a wasp or bee nest.
SERVING THE COMMUNITY
This is a great way to gain permission to search private property without asking, and
with very little effort. Go to your local police station and volunteer your detecting
services to the community to help find lost jewelry, wedding rings, and such. You'd
be surpassed how many people go to the police when they loose their valuable
jewelry.
Police will also be more friendly when they "see you" especially when you have
offered to help them better serve the community. This may seem pointless, to find
things for people, free of charge, but you'd be surpassed how generous someone
can be, when you find something so personally valuable to them once lost forever.
On many occasions, I have been offered rewards and given permission to search
entire yards, in return for my small effort. And not only that, people are so grateful at
your generosity that they more times than not, turn up more private property for you
to search. All this for spending a little time searching for a wedding ring.
EASY DIGGING
Spray some WD40 on your digging tool for hard ground.
WHAT TIME IS IT?
Have you ever wanted to hunt for just a given amount of time and didn't have your
watch handy? My time is limited to say the least, and I often don't remember when I
need to quit detecting and get on home (which leads me into trouble with my better
half). What I have done to remedy this problem is to buy one of the small digital
clocks (which have the stickum on the back) and stick it on the face of my metal
detector.
You can get them in all sizes and shapes and the time is right there in front of your
face so you will never have an excuse to be late again because you didn't realize
that a lot more time has past having so much fun MD'ing. It works great on my
Fishers' and White's units.
GOLF TEES
Carry a bunch of brightly colored golf tees in your apron. Search a small area and
mark your hits with the tees. After marking as many as you care to you can set your
detector down, take off your headset and concentrate on digging for awhile. You can
use white for 3", yellow for 6", red for 10" or something like that.
HUNTED OUT
When metal detecting old sites that you feel are basically hunted out, go back over
the site in all metal mode. You would be surprised what your detector discriminates
out.
KEEP NOTES
Although nothing beats exploring uncharted ground, the stark reality for many of us
is to go over that local ball field, or city park for yet a third or 4th time. I have found it
is essential to keep notes. On a 3" X 5" note card or computer file, simply note the
site location and any ground anomalies or site characteristics that you should
remember.
In one volleyball court I hunted several times, the contractor had secured the
foundation with asphalt with 1" galvanized pipes pounded into the ground. A steel
pipe on end looks just like a quarter at 8 -10". Because I had forgotten this fact since
the last time I had visited, I dug the same false quarter signal. Keep copious notes of
your programs, detector settings, where you start(when your fresh) and where you
end (When your tired and missing signals). Good notes will let you spend more time
hunting and less time re-learning your favorite sites.
DETECTOR TROUBLE
When you are having trouble with your detector, first turn off your machine, then
remove the battery to allow the computer to reboot; If that doesn't make it better put
in new batteries as your batteries could be weak; the other thing to check is the coil
connection to make sure the coil wire is not flipping around on the stem. I have had
these problems with my Minelab Sovreign & Garrett GTa x 1000 before & the
rebooting by removing batteries solved the problem; but this will work on all the
computerized models.
ALSO ENJOYABLE
This is a very simple and something that I find as enjoyable as the hunt itself.
Whenever people walk by, most are very interested and ask many questions about
my finds and the detector. I always take time to talk with them and many times they
give me ideas about future sites to go to. Many have children and I will show them
how my detector works. I think that this is a great way to promote the hobby with very
little effort
Next
fell out of peoples pockets and slipped between the seats and under them, many of
these vehicles were sold of just parked without ever looking for coins left in them, I
have found some very good condition coins in these overlooked places.
CLOTHES LINES
When you are hunting an old home, try to find a tree with growth scars from having a
clothes line attached. Then figure where the clothes line ran. Go slow on all metal
mode under the old clothes line area. many coins/jewelry are left in the pockets, and
make it through the wash to the clothes line where the wind shakes them out on the
ground. also, if there is an old wringer type washer on an old porch check around
the washer. they often did their laundry on the porch and let the wash water run out
on the ground beside the porch, along with whatever was in the washer.
RAILROAD STATIONS
Follow railway lines. Years ago, there were ten times the number of stations - small
ones in rural areas that have long since vanished. If you can talk to railway ol' timers
or get an old rail schedule, you can find these places where people used to wait for
trains.
USE A GPS!
Don't get lost even in bad weather or in the dark. Use it for preplanning your trip so
that you can quickly get to spots where you suspect are good places to check out.
Use it to avoid dangerous territory but if you get into trouble use a GPS unit and a
two-way radio to communicate your exact position to rescue teams.
"HUNTED OUT" MY BACKSIDE!
Never give up!!!!!! Here is why a supposed "hunted out" site probably still holds
goodies others have no patience to find - I can prove it mathematically. We all know
(or should) that the search pattern under the coil is that of an inverted cone. If we
assume that the maximum depth your detector can find a coin reliably is 6", than the
point of the cone is at the 6" mark. Your detector will therefore detect any coin that
falls in the cone pattern below the coil down to the "point" of 6". For simplicity sake,
pretend that your coil is an over-sized spray paint can. Now, if you swing your coil by
overlapping the previous swing by only 1" (which is hard to do if you are moving fast
across the ground), at 2", 4" and 6", your coil would spray paint a swath of a given
width as it passes over these depths with its cone-shaped spray pattern. If we could
actually see the spray pattern left by the "giant" spray can, here's what you would
see with the 1" overlap swing:
At 2" depth - 25% of the area would be missed by the "spray"
At 4" depth - 59% of the area would be missed by the "spray"
At 6" depth - a wapping 86% of the area would be missed by the "spray"
Now, factor in all the other things that may make you miss a target (i.e. bad target id
on a good target) and you have an almost impossible probability that all targets
between 4" to 6" have been successfully cleaned out. The only way to get every
possible target is to grid a small area and clean every "all-metal" signal out of that
area and than move on. How may people ever do that?!?!
BULKY HEADPHONES
I'm not to keen on wearing bulky headphones especially when it's about 90 degrees
out, so what I did was buy a set of small headphones for a walkman radio (the kind
that slip in your ears). I went to radio shack and bought the right size phone plug to
fit my MD and replaced the original one on the new headset. You will need a
soldering iron for this. I been using these for 3 years now and there great, I haven't
noticed any lost signals compared to the big headphones. The total cost for plug
and phones, about $5.
SHOULDER STRAP
I have rigged up a support strap for my detector by using the shoulder strap off my
power weed wacker. I attach it the same way as it is on the weed wacker. This saves
my shoulder and keeps it up at my hand all the time. I can stop detecting for awhile
and rest and never have to lay it down in the dirt. I've had two shoulder surgery's
and this really helps.
SHINY CLEAN
Heres one to restore dug Lincoln's and Indians. After cleaning off the dirt, put a drop
of Tabasco Sauce on the cent. After about 5-10 seconds wipe off. Presto! shiny as
new. Theres some sort of chemical reaction that the copper reacts to the pepper
sauce. Caution! If you have a cent you believe is numismatically valuable don't do
this its better left as dug.
TRASH SOLUTION
Ever have a problem of where to put the trash you dig up? Well, the next time you
get your car washed, remember to get the car trash bag that you hang from the
cigarette lighter. I put mine over the spare probe that I have on my pouch. It's large
enough for the occasional soda can and easy to dispose of. I once got permission to
hunt on the local fairground solely because the grounds keeper saw I was "serious"
about taking my trash with me.
LESS EFFORT, MORE FINDS
Poker Chips make excellent markers for treasure hunting. You can place one on
each found location and after a number of finds stop detecting and start digging.
You can even use different colors for different types of finds - ie, red for "hot" finds,
white for "questionable" finds, and blue for "sounds deep" - make up your own color
code. I've done this for many years and it also gives your arm a chance to rest from
swinging the detector.
DON'T GIVE UP
Getting Permission: Sometimes gaining permission to hunt someone's property may
be negative, but don't give up hope. Sometime ago I asked the police chief of my
town to hunt a piece of property he owned. The old place was empty and had been
partially burned and through speaking to him, it was under investigation for arson.
He turned me down due to these circumstances. I waited for a year or so and asked
again and was granted permission. I'm glad I persisted, because after clearing the
area of newer date coins I began to find silver. Silver mercuries, Roosevelt dimes, a
soldier's dog tag issued prior to W.W.II. Then as the finds became more scarce, I
had a good signal that kept registering in the nickel/foil range and since I've found
many gold rings in this range, I decided to dig this one also. Yes you've guessed it, it
was a very nice 14kt. gold wedding band that was produced in the thirties. So do
not, and I re-iterate do not give up after being turned down.
HESITANT PROPERTY OWNER
If you are wanting to hunt a piece of property, and the owner is hesitant, offer a
spare detector for them to try out while you hunt. Take an extra if you have it, and
you will have a response for them when they tell you, you can't hunt it because they
always wanted to buy one and do it themselves. This might help with those people
that think there is a gold mine in their yard, and you may even turn someone on to
the hobby.
DISPLAY YOUR TREASURES
Need a cheap & quick display board for some of your finds? Use a piece of
Styrofoam about an inch thick...other dimensions to your needs....wrap it in a piece
of felt (purple looks "royal") and keep it in place with straight pins or hot glue. Mount
tokens or other finds with more pins at the edges to hold it in place. The pin heads
are almost invisible, and arrangement of items is a snap. Fashion an easel or simply
prop it up against something. Very impressive and rich looking display for your
treasures.
SENSITIVITY
If you are detecting and your detector starts to give false signals, try to adjust the
sensitivity. If that doesn't work change out the batteries. This will usually fix the
problem.
BEE STING
Do not leave any car windows or doors open when treasure hunting. Reason: when
in a remote area and your hunting not far from your car, you might consider leaving
windows open on a hot day. Don't do it! it will give you a safe haven when you upset
a wasp or bee nest.
SERVING THE COMMUNITY
This is a great way to gain permission to search private property without asking, and
with very little effort. Go to your local police station and volunteer your detecting
services to the community to help find lost jewelry, wedding rings, and such. You'd
be surpassed how many people go to the police when they loose their valuable
jewelry.
Police will also be more friendly when they "see you" especially when you have
offered to help them better serve the community. This may seem pointless, to find
things for people, free of charge, but you'd be surpassed how generous someone
can be, when you find something so personally valuable to them once lost forever.
On many occasions, I have been offered rewards and given permission to search
entire yards, in return for my small effort. And not only that, people are so grateful at
your generosity that they more times than not, turn up more private property for you
to search. All this for spending a little time searching for a wedding ring.
EASY DIGGING
Spray some WD40 on your digging tool for hard ground.
WHAT TIME IS IT?
Have you ever wanted to hunt for just a given amount of time and didn't have your
watch handy? My time is limited to say the least, and I often don't remember when I
need to quit detecting and get on home (which leads me into trouble with my better
half). What I have done to remedy this problem is to buy one of the small digital
clocks (which have the stickum on the back) and stick it on the face of my metal
detector.
You can get them in all sizes and shapes and the time is right there in front of your
face so you will never have an excuse to be late again because you didn't realize
that a lot more time has past having so much fun MD'ing. It works great on my
Fishers' and White's units.
GOLF TEES
Carry a bunch of brightly colored golf tees in your apron. Search a small area and
mark your hits with the tees. After marking as many as you care to you can set your
detector down, take off your headset and concentrate on digging for awhile. You can
use white for 3", yellow for 6", red for 10" or something like that.
HUNTED OUT
When metal detecting old sites that you feel are basically hunted out, go back over
the site in all metal mode. You would be surprised what your detector discriminates
out.
KEEP NOTES
Although nothing beats exploring uncharted ground, the stark reality for many of us
is to go over that local ball field, or city park for yet a third or 4th time. I have found it
is essential to keep notes. On a 3" X 5" note card or computer file, simply note the
site location and any ground anomalies or site characteristics that you should
remember.
In one volleyball court I hunted several times, the contractor had secured the
foundation with asphalt with 1" galvanized pipes pounded into the ground. A steel
pipe on end looks just like a quarter at 8 -10". Because I had forgotten this fact since
the last time I had visited, I dug the same false quarter signal. Keep copious notes of
your programs, detector settings, where you start(when your fresh) and where you
end (When your tired and missing signals). Good notes will let you spend more time
hunting and less time re-learning your favorite sites.
DETECTOR TROUBLE
When you are having trouble with your detector, first turn off your machine, then
remove the battery to allow the computer to reboot; If that doesn't make it better put
in new batteries as your batteries could be weak; the other thing to check is the coil
connection to make sure the coil wire is not flipping around on the stem. I have had
these problems with my Minelab Sovreign & Garrett GTa x 1000 before & the
rebooting by removing batteries solved the problem; but this will work on all the
computerized models.
ALSO ENJOYABLE
This is a very simple and something that I find as enjoyable as the hunt itself.
Whenever people walk by, most are very interested and ask many questions about
my finds and the detector. I always take time to talk with them and many times they
give me ideas about future sites to go to. Many have children and I will show them
how my detector works. I think that this is a great way to promote the hobby with very
little effort
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