Home Metal Detecting

Past few days no good

Well the past few days have been horrible for me. Got nothing yesterday hunting the old wishing well and an old homestead and then today I was almost blanked again. We hiked through the woods for about an hour to get to an old mill that was built along side a creek. HUGER FREAKIN BOULDERS! Way to hard to hunt in there with all the rocks. Found some old iron bits from the structure of hte old mill but that was it. Left there and went to an old hunted out school. Found a clad quarter and 2 pennies. Left there and went to an old ball field that they recently scraped. Now keep in mind this ball field is in the "hood" section of town and even though I ahd my badge and gun on I didn't feel terribly safe there by myself. Regardless I hunted for about 15 minutes and found a 1999 dime then some local thugs came around so I scooted out of there. I'll probably try to hit it again with my buddy so he can watch my back as we work the old fields. So far my honey hole at our local FOP Lodge has been working out nicely turning out large sums of clad, some old 1930's on Wheaties, two civil way bullets, and a few pieces of jewelry. I must be doing something wrong to have not found silver yet so any suggestions are greatly appreciated. It also seems to me that my DFX isn't going as deep as it should. I'm using the factory preset programs but it seems that everything I dig is 5 inches or closer to the surface. I have yet to really hit on anything deep. Maybe I'm missing the tones... who knows. Being a newbie sucks!!! Regardless I'm going to keep hunting the old lodge until I find Silver. I know it is there, and possibly some old gold. I KNOW IT'S THERE.... Wish someone was from around here and knew how to run this DFX and could come school me!!
Todd

Comments

  • Rickc300Rickc300 Posts: 876 ✭✭
    Give it time my friend... Some good things will come about I am sure! You are finding some old stuff so you are already doing something right. Check out the DFX book and learn how to tweak it a little... My detector was stolen out of my truck after only having had the book for a week or so and since I only had the DFX for a couple of months before that I was still learning it myself (where's the police when you need 'em? image just kidding, you guys are way under paid for what you do) but in that short time it was crazy with the hunted out areas I had already hit! The book is worth the $$$, it will pay for itself in no time! Learning the DFX takes time (more than many are willing to put in to it) and by asking questions you are already on the right track to getting the most out of that machine.

    Hh...
    Rick
    Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed lamb contesting that vote. Benjamin Franklin - 1779

    image
    1836 Capped Liberty
    dime. My oldest US
    detecting find so far.
    I dig almost every
    signal I get for the most
    part. Go figure...
  • lordmarcovanlordmarcovan Posts: 43,530 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i> I must be doing something wrong to have not found silver yet so any suggestions are greatly appreciated >>

    I'll tell you what you're doing wrong- you're letting your excitement at the first successes make you impatient. image

    Lady Luck takes her time. Now that you have "proven" yourself with those first finds, you know you're not doing anything wrong as far as technique goes.

    Some sites are just stingy, and cough up the goodies reluctantly, or not at all. I would definitely believe your site has silver goodies, but it's just playing hard to get.

    As the esteemed respondent above just said, it'll happen in time. I suspect sooner rather than later, but you have to go through some skunky periods at times- we all do, no matter how experienced. Then you hit a hot streak, then a drought again. It's all cyclical.

    Maybe try out another site or two, also. Certainly the one you're on deserves further attention, but if you're getting disgusted with it, take a break from it and try somewhere else. Then, when the drought ends and you feel better, go back there.

    Many, many's the time I have been on a site that I knew, beyond any doubt, had silver and old coins waiting to be found... yet I got ZIP.

    That's the breaks.

    If it were easy, everybody would be doing it, and it wouldn't be as fun.

    You've made your first real finds and proven yourself, now you're being challenged again, and it's time to struggle through the disappointment and go on to the next level. It WILL happen, I assure you, unless you give up.

    Explore collections of lordmarcovan on CollecOnline, management, safe-keeping, sharing and valuation solution for art piece and collectibles.
  • patience grasshopper!...you have found some wheaties so the silver can't be far away....keep at those old sites because the good stuff is there "just a waitin".... one thing i see far to often that i believe keeps the rookies and the not so rookies from finding the good /deeper stuff is "coil height"....just from observing people on the hunt, at local beaches, it amazes me how many of them walk around detecting with the coil 6-8 inches above the ground...not a good way to detect the deeper targets....get yourself a coil cover, if you don't have one already, and keep that coil low to the ground....i personally run my coil along the ground and have already worn out and replaced the cover on my excal, and am close to replacing the one on my ace 250.....coil covers are cheap and worth their weight in gold if you ask me....show me a man with a worn out coil cover, and i'll show you a man who digs deep silver!.....good luck todd, i can't wait to see what you find at those older sites....hh
    "see ya at the beach"
    imageimageimageimage
  • ZotZot Posts: 825 ✭✭✭
    Give it time... it sounds like you have some really interesting sites. I'm sure they'll produce in time.
    It took me about a year to find my first silver coin, largely because I wasn't finding the deep targets at first. I was focusing too much on strong coin signals that were fairly close to the surface, and was missing all the faint and iffy sounds from those deep ones..
    I found that significantly slowing down the sweeps while listening more attentively to faint signals helped me a lot.
    Minelab: GPX 5000, Excalibur II, Explorer SE. White's: MXT, PI Pro
  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Lots of good information here Todd... you are moving fast, the learning curve is a bit steep here... slow down, work the books... it will come. Cheers, RickO
  • Todd,

    As a DFX owner I can tell you the learning curve is tough but once you get it hitting on all cylinders for you, you'll be very happy.
    You may want to venture over to DFX Only and check out their forums. Lot's of great information for you.
    Also, Jimmy Sierra has some good books on the DFX as well.
  • ASUtoddASUtodd Posts: 1,312 ✭✭
    Yeah I have been over at DFX but you know, you guys around here I trust... there...not so much. Anyways......... I went BACK to the old lodge to hit it again and to dig every freakin tone, peep, squeak, and squawk I heard.... NOT ONE DAMN PIECE OF SILVER>....... I did find a 1931 wheatie and a 1964 nickel but no freakin silver.. I MUST be doing something wrong but I can't figure it out. I'm going out in the front yard tonight, dig a 8 inch deep hole, throw an old silver Rosie in it and then cover it over.... Hope I can find it! Oh well.....
    Todd

  • The more coin targets you did (in the right site), the more likely it will happen... keep diggin'!

    Also, here's something I've done that may help you get to silver more quickly-
    I sometimes "cherry-pick" areas if I'm looking for the more modern silver coins.
    (I'll dig almost everything in the super old areas= pre-1900)

    +81 through +83 were usually a silver dime when I was using a White's... Sometimes I'd go out and only dig the signals that were +80 or above, but if it was super deep, and in the high 70's along with some +80 "peeps", I would dig those too. (some worn Barber dimes can hit +79)

    Of course if you had been following this excercise, you would not have dug your first IH, but this is what I do when I'm after silver. Guess you could look at this as another "get to know your detector drill." It's also interesting as you get familiar with the sounds, you'll scour a site faster because you'll recognize the high tones that hit the 80's and only dig what you're looking for... yes, some targets could have other items in the hole that would affect the tone, but this is more of a speed drill and hopefully gets you to your first silver more quickly.

    Hope this helps. image
  • Todd,

    You want it so bad, that it is hurting you. (not your take, but your expectations) Take your time, and when you least expect it, it's there.

    I want to relate a story to you:

    Back when I got my first detector, the folks on this site were so helpful. LM gave me a challenge--I was in the United Kingdom and he gave me a homework assignment of finding a Roman coin and a Hammered Silver coin. I got my first detector in late August 2005 and I was due to relocate to the states in Feb 2006. That gave me just a little over 6 months to make those elusive finds. Of course, when I first got the detector, I had to try it out around the yard, playgrounds, parks, etc. That was getting me nowhere towards my homework assignment from LM, but I was learning my machine. I loved my first detector so much, I convinced my wife I needed another. The first one was the Ace 250--I moved up to the GTI2500. She would use the 250, I would use the 2500. We would go out together sometimes and other times I was by myself. I found some fields that I thought may produce the Roman coins and the Hammered Silvers I was after. For 4 months or so, I went without finding those two "assignments" but I was finding some very nice items. I had pretty much resigned the fact that I may not complete my assignment before I left the UK. When I was least expecting it, I find my first Roman coin. It was extremely beat up and corroded, but it was Roman. 50% of the assignment done, I had to find the silver. Well, after the first Roman coin, I find 5 other Roman coins before I left the UK. None were in that great of shape, but I'll cherish them always.

    By the way, I was within 3 weeks of leaving, out detecting the fields and I got this very iffy signal. I dug down about 5-6 inches and pull out my first and only Hammered Silver coin while I was there. It was a 1550ish hammered coin that was bent (the iffy signal) and that is another one that I will always cherish and never ever part with or try and straighten.

    Don't give up, learn your machine and enjoy the hobby. I can go out for hours on end and have a blast. HAVE FUN!!!!

    That's what it's all about.
    Speer34

    imageimageimage
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