Tiftaaft

Great thread and a lot of good information... as a refresher and things to make me think on my future hunts. Based on Goldpick's comment above... I thought I would post my finds from a 2 hour hunt last night. I was searching for a token that was planted at the beginning of the year by my local club... and was unsure the material of construction so I was digging most repeatable signals above foil. I ultimately did find the token (ID'd as a pull tab at about 6 inches, and was planted with 3 pull tabs at varying depths around it), but you can see the amount of trash compared to desirable targets in this particular park, honestly, this park is much cleaner than many others I have been to - so the ratio only gets worse from here in my experience. (My particular new 'favorites' are the condiment wrappers that for whatever reason have started sounding sweet on my explorer). And to the other comments above, I tried to call each one... it is the only way to improve your "game". you can never stop learning when detecting. Tim.

An official Welcome G! Tim.

Agree with all the comments above. Including my excitement to get the EQX in my hands an on the ground. This is a very interesting article, and looking forward to even more information as the release date nears. To your comment Steve, I think all of us that have a "go to" machine or series of machines could be accused of being a shill for our own preference company... but I believe I speak for all on this site when I say that nobody here believes you are hawking the brand for brand's sake. When you comment on a product, we know it is through detailed research and testing and based on your extensive experience and background in this arena. If a product doesn't live up to the hype or even the company promises, you will say that... and that is what I respect about you. If a product us great, you say that too... and because of your honesty, you are trusted. I currently own 4 brands and 7 machines, and enjoy each brand/machine for different reasons. From what I can see (in my opinion, most likely not everyone's), Minelab appears to be taking machine innovation in a new and different direction compared to some other brands, and recognizing some new innovations already released by competitors... and that is what has me most excited about the release of the EQX. Tim.

Thanks Ammie, That is really helpful in researching some of these old neighborhoods in my area. Tim.

Thanks Steve and DT, great comments that I will incorporate into my next research/hunt.

Even a blind squirrel..... So i stopped at a park that should have been old enough for some wheats or silver, but most of the park has been upgraded with ball fields and soccer fields. I spent most of my time walking the outer edge.of the park, hoping to stay away from the over fill.. I did manage about $5.00 in clad and one crusty wheat. I decided to take the explorer loaded with the ultimate coil across the soccer field for mid tones (not the best choice, but it is what I had with me). Very clean field, which is why a nice mid tone jumped out at me. It hit just below a zinc and above a pull tab on the explorer id screen (I use the cursor, not the id numbers). About 3 inches down... 6 grams of 10K. I think it was an accident as much as anything... but since I just posted the questions about gold turf hunting earlier today, I thought I would share. (Apologies for muddying the coin shooting blog with a ring). Tim

Steve, I have been thinking about this comment a lot since you posted it. While I have taken it as a challenge to squeak out a silver coin from this older school... as I mentioned, I have been really considering how to find the "renewable" treasures in town (I am limited in my area for nugget detecting, though that is a whole other area of research I am just starting to embark upon). You noted that you spend your "in town" hunting time focused on jewelry.. so I guess I have a couple of questions on how you approach that, or some assumptions that you will most likely dispel. (This thread should probably be in the jewelry section... so feel free to move it over if you see fit). I am assuming that you focus on areas that are heavily populated and have a lot of activity. Parks with soccer fields and ball fields for example. I am talking about turf hunting in this case, I also look to swimming holes and the ocean beach as well, but that is a whole other thread. As far as equipment.. I would also assume that you are using a machine that will run at a higher frequency to bang on the lower conductive targets, and depending on the area... a larger coil to cover more ground. What are your thoughts on tot lots? Of course a smaller coil would be better suited here, but I haven't found more than modern coins at mine... and a lot of foil... just curious if this is a good target location? It goes without saying that you have to dig a lot of targets... which I don't mind. Also, in all the talk about "going deep" with detectors... I am also assuming that jewelry detecting places less importance on the deep targets... and I guess this is the ultimate question I have. Do you (or DT or Ammie, or anyone else) focus on the top 4-5" when turf hunting, or should I be looking for low conductive deep targets as well? My assumption (I am really making a lot of assumptions here... and you know what they say...) is that I would be looking for recent drops (since the sports fields in question are not usually on old ground in my area... or at least not ground that was more than wide open farm and forest land before becoming a sports field in the last 20 years) so the targets wouldn't have sunk deeper. A friend of mine is the Ring Finder in this area, and he uses a Makro Gold Racer. I have been looking at the killer deals on the F19 right now. Anxious as many of us are on the Equinox E800... Thinking about finding a good used Xterra for the 18.75Khz coil option. Just wanting to be sure I have all my facts in line with my assumptions. Thanks for any thoughts you may have (or links to previous threads where you already answered these questions). Tim.

Thanks Ammie, I did find some Sanborn Maps at the local library online, so great suggestion!! Now I just need to figure out how to read them.

I stand corrected DT... not a "Sat Image" but a flyover image. I am sure if the images were taken by aliens... the quality would have been better. ';)

Thanks Mike, I will check that out. I also use HistoricalAerials.com which is where I was able to pull a sat image from the early 50's, and how I discovered the location of the old school. Hopefully the Google Earth Pro images are better than HA, but both are good tools for research. Tim

GBA... "A million to one"... haha. love that quote.

Nice Month Lagerphone! What part of the world are you, some interesting coins in there! TIm.

I have to give props to the Bounty Hunter... the Discovery 2200 was purchased for my son as a gift, and it got me hooked on detecting. We found some nice targets with that "beginners' detector. :)

JD, it is funny you say that... as I was plotting the old school against the current map, that area stood out to me as well. I think you are exactly correct about that being the old entrance and should have had a lot of traffic over the years!. I am excited to get back out there! Tim.

Good stuff GBA! Some great stuff to keep in mind the next time (s) I am there. 1) well, I have found 7 wheats, so one more and I will expect the silver coin to be next bases on your 8:1 ratio ;). 2) interestingly enough, the area running diagonally, in line with the wheat and token I found last night in front of the two big trees, is all sloped down to the asphalt playground... so your comment about erosion unvovering deeper targets makes sense! I did test that lower right corner by the houses a bit last night and on a previous hunt, but will give it a harder look next time out. Similar comment to the curbside..I tested one curb area, but will focus a full hunt on the perimeter soon. Thanks to all for taking the time to thoughtfully resoond!! Tim

Thanks Steve, great comments as always. I do have other sites I go to, and while I'm not exactly raking in the silver, I have found a few "leftovers" here and there... I'm with you... something about those mercury dimes!! Of course, if I am ever lucky enough to uncover a seated... I might change my tune a little ;). This site though, has thrown down the gauntlet and I am refusing to let it be my Waterloo. lol. When I am not coming to blows with this schoolyard... I am working to hone my research and hunting skills to do exactly what you outlined above. I am trying to focus my future detecting on "renewable" targets. As you mentioned, one piece of gold is worth the best day of silver coin hunting in $$. I also agree with your comments about digging deep plugs and try to be judicious in my deep hole digs. I am also hoping to get past my fear of door knocking... good to know it isn't only me :). Tim.

Ugh! yes those tax tokens sound sooooo goooood at depth!!! Thanks for the suggestions and well wishes Bryan! Tim.

It should be an easy goal really. I made it a personal challenge within the first 10 minutes of swinging my coil at an elementary school in an old neighborhood of my hometown, built in the 1930's. With my kids playing in the bark chips, I powered up my Etrac, and dug my first wheatie within the first 10 feet of starting. I said to myself... "self, you will find a silver coin here". That was in May. Since then, I have stopped by this location at least a half dozen times, usually when time was too short to fight traffic and drive into Portland OR to hunt the old parks and schools there. My hunts at this school have been under two hours each time... but still plenty of time to use a methodically test several areas of the plot. I have used my Etrac, Explorer SE Pro, CTX and briefly, my ATX. My first visit, I found 4 wheats and a couple dollars in clad quarters along with an equal amount in other clad. Most of my recoveries were less than 6". Clad showing up in the 2-4" range, and the wheats in the 4-6" range. All the earmarks of a site that hasn't been overly pounded in recent years, and still giving up old coins. There is a fair amount of trash and iron in the ground, I found myself digging plenty of can slaw and pop tops, pencil erasers and rusty nails, bits of chain link fence and other undesirables... but I was able to isolate enough high tones to keep my interest. So, I started my research. I found that the existing school structure was built in the mid-90's and is positioned on the opposite side of the plot from where the original school structure was built and stood in the 30's. Sadly, much of the prime playground was now covered by the new building, parking lots, asphalt playgrounds and basketball courts, as is the case for many old school grounds. In the illustration below, you can see where the old school buildings stood (blue blocks in the lower right of the picture). Armed with this new knowledge, it made sense that I pulled several wheats from the area just off the edge of the playground on the left side... that ground existed from the time the original school was built. I have placed yellow dots to indicate the general area I found my original 4 wheats and a few additional wheats during subsequent trips. During my second trip, I also found an aluminum tax token from Washington State (shown in red), and I was convinced I was digging a silver coin... high tone, 6+ inches... silver in the hole... Aluminum. Not unhappy about that find... more proof that this site is dated and this target was a solid 2 way tone in 4 directions... so it gave me comfort that those that came before me, left a few goodies behind for me. In one of my follow up trips, the clad finds diminished, but I did find a silver ring in the area used as a youth soccer field. But in these several hunts, maybe 5 or 6 hours swing time... no silver coins. Last night, I spent about 1.5 hours coming in from the opposite side of the field (where the old school previously stood), and my Etrac was nulling all over the place. It was expected... I'm sure that was a lot of fill dirt and loaded with bits of iron from the demo. But surprisingly, I recovered a 1930 wheat and another tax token just below the basketball court, in an area that should have been previously covered by the old building... so my guess is that it was dirt moved into that area during the demo and it happened to contain a few old targets. But again, no silver coins. I post this, for two reasons... to share my misery (and hopefully ultimate celebration) of my thus far futile attempts to find just one silver coin in this old ground. I won't be able to give up on it until I do... which could be a long long road ;). And second, to see if anybody has any tips looking at the pic and positioning of the buildings (old and new) as to where you would focus your hunts.. Obviously, a lot of my time has been spent gridding the small area where the majority of the yellow dots are... not to say I won't be re-gridding that area (which I plan to do with the ATX after reading the other forum thread which also included the Tom D. Behind the Mask article link.) in hopes to clean out anything that may be masking a nice target. It has become my obsession. LOL. This site has to have silver, and I am going to find it. :) Happy Hunting to all. Tim.

This and GB's and AU's comments should really be part of Detector 101 training. So many hunters go into their settings and crank everything up as high as they will go in an attempt to "go deep" - then wondering why their machine is falsing all over and they are digging so much trash. I am guilty of leaning that direction on occasion... but these comments remind me and hopefully others, that detecting at the "next level" requires a finesse and patience... not a sledgehammer approach on a sprint through a field. I am embarrassed to say that I was hunting last week and pocketed several beautiful sounding bent rusty nails from an old park... then I realized I had bumped my gain up to 10 on the SE Pro at the end of a previous hunt and forgot to reset it to 7 where I feel the sweet spot is for my ground.... I didn't dig another bent nail the rest of the day. Great comments guys... #tip of the hat# Tim.

I admit, I didn't spend as much time as I should have walking around the target, so I didn't notice anything but the 12-30, which was pretty solid and a single tone... though thinking back, it was a higher tone than I would expect for a "30"... whivh is probably as much the reason I dug it quick as any. I was also swinging the stock coil, which is pretty great at target separation, but a sniper coil may have separated the two targets better. In hindsight, this would have been a really good "in the wild" test target... I will try to keep that in mind the next time I run across one similar. Tim

All of your post was spot on GBA, and I will most likely read it again and quote it in future posts... but this portion highlighted a situation I had while hunting on Saturday. I was in an old school yard that I have covered many times (at least 4 to match your comments). I have pulled some wheats out of the area, but I keep going back because I am convinced there are at least a couple of silvers lurking (I plan to give this location the research and review treatment a la Deft Tones' "scouting a new patch" post in the jewelry forum.. shout out to DT!). But on this trip, I was thinking about the target masking discussion and started out with my ATX until the rechargables died in the first 20 minutes... I did manage to clean out several nails and pencil erasers, along with a 6" 1964 Jefferson nick before it went dead. So I grabbed the Etrac out of the car and took another pass.. I came across a target that was pretty solid, at 12-30 in all directions. Higher than normal pull tabs, but lower than zinc pennies. I recovered a clad dime first... about 3 inches down, which confused me a bit. I put my pinpointer in the whole and got a deeper target indication... I dug down another few inches and found a nickel. The combination of the two targets gave me the 12-30 reading. I have had this happen before, but didn't think twice about it... but I will be paying closer attention to those odd ID's... as they could be combined goodies. Tim.

I am eating this up! Great post Deft... thank you. This inspires me to be better about documenting my research and finds. Looking forward to your next post. Tim

Thanks for reminding me about this video Khouse... I remember watching it from another forum link and I was amazed by the results then.

I just went back and re-read the "beneath the mask" article. My head is spinning. Thinking about all the nulls, and silent masking I have walked over, even just today... I haven't used a "fast" machine like the Deus and now the upcoming E800, but have noticed a difference in the types of targets I have recovered while spending time learning the ATX Pi on turf. It didn't connect, but thinking back, I found several targets (coins and other relics) in an area I have absolutely pounded with my CTX, Etrac and Explorer... some after removing some ferrous bits... It is starting to connect now. Thanks Steve.... with every post you are making me a more educated hunter. Tim.

As do I Steve! I think all of us turf hunters have come to grips with the fact that the good ol' days of walking through a dated park and getting easy high tones are long past (even though I wasn't detecting then... I still miss it.. haha). So, as Steve H. has said many times... we just need to be smarter in our approach to detecting, and part of being smarter is using the best tools for the job... I may be dreaming a bit... but maybe the E800 will have me seeking out those iron infested parks that most of the other detectorists in the area avoid like the plague. I'm willing to work for it... sounds like you are too :). Tim.