A few questions concerning depth of objects

Aaron04

I have been hunting 3 houses that are pretty old yet my finds are all modern.I am a novice and still havent quite got the hang of it.

The first house my grandfather built in 1954 and has never been detected.He has lived there the entire 53 years of its existence and assures me nobody had ever MD'd it.
However I have found no silver or wheat pennys.I have found loads of clad but thats it.

The second house belongs to my mom and dad and was built around 1840.I did find 2 silver coins there ( 1918 50c and 1954 10c ) but the rest has been loads of clad.

The third house I purchased 9 months ago and its from 1884.No silver but loads of clad.

What Im wondering is this, is my metal detector not going deep enough to get the good stuff ? How deep would something be on average after spending 50 years or 100 years in the yard ? The only 2 silver coins I found were right at the base of a white pine which I assume fell from a tree climber's pocket and stayed shallow due to the way the tree pushes the soil up near its root base.I have a Garrett 250 metal detector.Is this only going to find shallow clad coins ?

CROCKofCOINS

You need to clean off the top layer of targets first!!! Then you start to work for deeper targets.

Good luck

Jerry

phut

Yeh, what Jerry said.
If all you are digging is coins, try turning discrimination down a little, and swing a little slower. You should have no problems getting 6 to 8 inches once the surface junk is gone.
I've found clad close to 14 inches and 100 year old plus close to the surface. Ya never know.

Aaron04

Thanks for the advice ! I had the discrimination turned to the max, I will turn it down a bit and re sweep some spots.

30AnvZ28

I also have the 250 and have pulled some things at 8-10 inches... so you can get deep enough no problem.

lordmarcovan

I've found modern stuff a foot deep, and 1820s buttons barely a quarter of an inch down. There are a lot of factors affecting the depth of targets, even in soil that has never had any human earthmoving activity. Some of these factors are soil density, frost heave, and earthworm burrowing. (Yes, believe it or not, those l'il wigglers can make a difference over time).

In my experience, most of the older coins I have found were in the 4-6" range, if you were to average out the depth of all my finds.

I watched the previous poster, using his Ace 250 as he mentioned, dig a 1927 chauffer badge out of a pretty deep hole, in a narrow median strip that I had worked many times before, with a more expensive detector. Your detector has what it takes, at least down to six or eight inches, which is deep enough to get old goodies on many sites.

You found an early Walking Liberty half already, which tells me that you're doin' something right! That 1840 house sounds like fun. ANY house that dates before 1900 has possibilities. They don't all pan out, but so it goes.

Some sites just might not be cooperative, but don't despair. Sometimes it just takes some persistence and luck is always a factor.



I wish I had a buck for every time I have gotten clearance to hunt a site that I just KNEW was gonna be awesome, only to get completely skunked and leave emptyhanded and disgusted. Then again, there have been times when I wasn't expecting much at all, and got a pleasant surprise. You never know.



Some past shallow surprises for me: