Thoughts?

[bob_e99]

Well, much to my surprise, I finally found a couple of sites that are yielding quite a bit of clad. I believe one of these sites was created in the early 1900 and the other maybe 20 or 40 years later. While I have only had a chance to spend a short amount of time at either site, I would have expected at least one silver coin to pop up. My questions to the experienced folks on this forum are:

1) Have you come across old sites that yielded only clad and does that mean
a) restoration of the surface in the not too distant past?
b) has been detected at some point in the past but not the recent past?
c) silver is down deeper than I'm picking up?

I will definitely keep detecting at these places but have to limit it to early morning and weekends when the crowds are down. I haven't developed that ability to have people watching me yet.

As always, I appreciate the knowledge that is shared on this forum so thank you for whatever info you provide, humorous or otherwise.

[BOWSER]

First of all there is so much modern clad in the ground you can't help but find it,sometimes i stop diggin pennies because there are so many of them. I dig every pennie dime signal as they can turn up something really good.Sometimes ther is money laying on top of the ground.My problem is not finding gold,i don't dig enough trash signals,just too lazy i guess.good luck,As time goes by you will find some good stuff.

[Lowjiber]

I've found that many older parks have had as much as seven inches of topsoil added over time. That puts the older stuff down pretty deep.

I've had some success going to a lower single frequency (2.5kHz) with the V3i and swinging very slowly. I'm pushing the limits of depth and really have to concentrate, but it's paid off. (Transmit Boost helps too, but is hard on battery life.)

Also, I've noticed that if one stands back an looks at the terrain carefully, there are often small rises in seemingly flat ground. In many cases, the added topsoil is not as deep in these areas...making the depth of older coins a bit easier to deal with.

A final thought...Try the tree line on the edges (assuming there is one). Often, topsoil has not been really applied as deeply (if at all) in those areas.

My two pennies worth. :rolleyes:

[bob_e99]

First of all there is so much modern clad in the ground you can't help but find it,sometimes i stop diggin pennies because there are so many of them. I dig every pennie dime signal as they can turn up something really good.Sometimes ther is money laying on top of the ground.My problem is not finding gold,i don't dig enough trash signals,just too lazy i guess.good luck,As time goes by you will find some good stuff.


Thanks Bowser. Yes, not only is there so much clad but it exists in a time when change doesn't mean anything anymore so if someone loses a pocketful of it, they don't think twice about it. And your point about it being on top of the ground reinforces the lesson I learned recently about scanning the surface with the pointer before digging. I dug a couple of holes only to find the target sitting on top. :embarrassed: Also, at this point, I still dig most stuff that sounds good because I feel that I need to improve on learning the tones even though the Sovereign has the digital display.




I've found that many older parks have had as much as seven inches of topsoil added over time. That puts the older stuff down pretty deep.

I've had some success going to a lower single frequency (2.5kHz) with the V3i and swinging very slowly. I'm pushing the limits of depth and really have to concentrate, but it's paid off. (Transmit Boost helps too, but is hard on battery life.)

Also, I've noticed that if one stands back an looks at the terrain carefully, there are often small rises in seemingly flat ground. In many cases, the added topsoil is not as deep in these areas...making the depth of older coins a bit easier to deal with.

A final thought...Try the tree line on the edges (assuming there is one). Often, topsoil has not been really applied as deeply (if at all) in those areas.

My two pennies worth. :rolleyes:


And thank you lowjiber. I was assuming something might have happened to the surface but your point is a great one and it should have been more obvious to me. I'll check to see how much of the tree roots are exposed which should give me an idea of changes in the surface. I'm still new to the whole thing so I'm not sure how deep the Sovereign can detect but will keep my ears open for weak signals.

Thanks again for the responses.

[RobW]

It's there. You just have to be diligent. I've pounded parks where I'll go 5+ times with no silver. Then all of a sudden a silver or more, then another 5 times with no silver, then more...in the same area. Lots of variables....It's kinda like taking your wife out for dinner...you just never know how it exactly is going to end.

[milco]

Like others have said just be patient and keep hitting it. I find I am most successful working he edges of such parks and along brush/tree lines and fences. If grading and adding of topsoil has occurred those areas are often the least manipulated. HH!

[coinnut]

If you are getting clad at 5-7, move on lol That is a sure sign of top soil added. If your time is limited, spend one visit there finding an area that your depth meter tells you, that you have a target at 6 or deeper. This way you can locate the older, untouched deep area. Sometimes when I have only a short time to hunt, I catch myself hurring along :embarrassed: That is the worst thing to do. Deep targets are easily missed if you hurry and don't grid one area. Find a nice spot, like near the old trees, and grid that area slowly, listening for the deeper targets. Even if you only dig ten targets, you will know what is in the deeper layer. Good luck and keep us posted on how everyone's advice worked out for you.

[steve in so az]

last year I had a city park that produced very few old coins anymore. Over the years I (and others) have taken a lot out of it. It went back to 1890 or so.
Well the city decided to put in new sprinkler lines and came in with a digger that made a trench about a foot wide but it was about 15 inches or more down. I could see old sprinkler heads 12 -15 inches down. Anyway, in the dirt they brought up I had a terriffic time for about 3 weeks. There were barbers, indian heads, mercs, wheats, v nickels, just about anything you can think of. What a great time - all together I dug several hundred coins - none new. steve in so az

[coinnut]

last year I had a city park that produced very few old coins anymore. Over the years I (and others) have taken a lot out of it. It went back to 1890 or so.
Well the city decided to put in new sprinkler lines and came in with a digger that made a trench about a foot wide but it was about 15 inches or more down. I could see old sprinkler heads 12 -15 inches down. Anyway, in the dirt they brought up I had a terriffic time for about 3 weeks. There were barbers, indian heads, mercs, wheats, v nickels, just about anything you can think of. What a great time - all together I dug several hundred coins - none new. steve in so az


It's amazing, and an eye opening experience on what is just below the layers we are getting too. The coins are there and naturally they are gonna be the old coins :drool: :drool: If we could just get every area we hunt to just skim 4 off of the dirt, It would be heaven :daydream: :daydream: lol

[russellt]

i agree about fill dirt being brought in . it makes the good stuff really deep . . an old park down the road will give up a wheat for me every now and then . but its getting harder to find the good stuff locally

[bob_e99]

I made it back to one of the sites and the comments regarding the fill are correct. The old trees all have no roots showing and the center of the park is higher than the edges (much higher). I dug up more clad and a lot of pennies but today was an off day for me with the Sovereign giving me some problems or maybe my biorithyms are off. After hunting for about three and a half hours I started to dig holes and not find the target. It was frustrating to get a nice signal over the hole but not find anything even after digging deeper. I would think twelve inches was deep enough. In some holes, the pointer gave a mild vibration when I pointed to the bottom of the hole but unless it was way deeper, I couldn't spot it. I checked the sides but it was definitely coming from the bottom. I need to improve deep holes with most of my finds in parks to date coming pretty close to the surface. Can anyone offer any thoughts on deep digging?

Again, thanks for all the comments. They are making me a better dectectorist, slowly but surely.

[bob_e99]

I know the hole questions seems strange but seriously, can someone tell me how deep you dig before you decide that your off the mark and then what? Fill the hole and dig adjacent to it? The pinpointer has helped me tremendously in most cases but I had one really sweet signal (textbook signal for a coin) that I really would have liked to find but not even the pinpointer helped in this case.

[z118]

You should be able to get a sense after a while of how large an object is based on the signal. However, sometimes deep, large objects can throw you off a bit. When you get a signal that may be questionable, try lifting the coil 6 inches and sweeping again. If you still get a signal it's a deep, large object. Also, make sure you check the signal from all sides. Sometimes if you are coming in from one angle a target will sound great, but if you check it fromt he opposite side as well you'd realize it's much bigger than it should be for a coin or other small target.

With the Sov if you are getting a normal sized coin tone and you have dug 10 or 11 inches and it's still reading at the bottom of the hole then it's safe to bet it's NOT a coin.

Also, I've noticed with the Propointer that it will false a bit if you apply pressure to the end - as in when I press it into the dirt at the bottom of the hole. I've read some other posts about this too. So be careful that when you are getting a signal with the Propointer that you are not pushing it into the dirt at the bottom of the hole, because that could be what is giving you the signal.

[z118]

If you are getting clad at 5-7, move on lol That is a sure sign of top soil added.

I don't know about this... perhaps it depends on the type of location? I would dig clad at 5-7 inches consistently at almost all of the schools I have hunted. Much of it was pretty recent too, and in areas that too the best of my knowledge had not had fill added.

I don't think coins sink and much as ground simply accumulates on top of them in the form of grass clippings, worm casting, etc. That's why for the most part I think that once an item gets to a depth below grass roots (6 or so) it tends to slow down a bit. As I mentioned, clad at 6 was pretty run of the mill at all of the schools I would hunt, and based on that I don't think it takes very long for an item to get to that depth in a regularly mowed area. The occasion older coins would be around the same depth too, sometimes slightly deeper, and sometimes not.

That's my 2 cents anyway, maybe worth less than that!

[bob_e99]

You should be able to get a sense after a while of how large an object is based on the signal. However, sometimes deep, large objects can throw you off a bit. When you get a signal that may be questionable, try lifting the coil 6 inches and sweeping again. If you still get a signal it's a deep, large object. Also, make sure you check the signal from all sides. Sometimes if you are coming in from one angle a target will sound great, but if you check it fromt he opposite side as well you'd realize it's much bigger than it should be for a coin or other small target.

With the Sov if you are getting a normal sized coin tone and you have dug 10 or 11 inches and it's still reading at the bottom of the hole then it's safe to bet it's NOT a coin.

Also, I've noticed with the Propointer that it will false a bit if you apply pressure to the end - as in when I press it into the dirt at the bottom of the hole. I've read some other posts about this too. So be careful that when you are getting a signal with the Propointer that you are not pushing it into the dirt at the bottom of the hole, because that could be what is giving you the signal.


Thank you Matt. I didn't know that about the propointer and that's a VERY GOOD thing to know. That signal sounded just too good to completely ignore and I'll have to revisit it one more time. Also good to know about the Sovereign and the depth but wouldn't it vary according to soil type? Is there any chance it could detect deeper on a coin if conditions were right?

[z118]

Thank you Matt. I didn't know that about the propointer and that's a VERY GOOD thing to know. That signal sounded just too good to completely ignore and I'll have to revisit it one more time. Also good to know about the Sovereign and the depth but wouldn't it vary according to soil type? Is there any chance it could detect deeper on a coin if conditions were right?


Yeah, soil / conditions will have some impact. At the beach I will dig past 10 for sure because the depth the Sov gets in the sand is amazing. But the deepest I ever pulled a coin with the Sov in the dirt was 11 and that was a large copper. It was the faintest whisper of a signal so I knew if it was anything good it would be deep. If you are getting a clear coin tone and you haven't found it after 10, it's not likely to be a coin. A coin deeper than 6 or 7 inches will sound deep, if that makes sense. The signal will be smaller and fainter.

[coinnut]

A lot of pinpointers detect a bit from the side of the pinpointer. I usually dig a deep hole and if it is still sounding off, I dig a wider hole or I use my pinpointer along the sides of the hole. I start at the bottom and work my way up each side until the signal fades. A lot of times a coin in against the side of the wall. But if it is still at the bottom of the hole, I dig it depending on where I am. Even in a park, I have dug 12 for a target. To me it's no different than digging 6 deep, as long as you have a towel to keep the dirt on. I just can't let a good, deep coin sound stay in the ground without knowing what it was. lol

[angellionel]

Great discussion guys! thumbsup01

[jkress]

I'm kind of new to this whole thing too... so take this with a grain of salt.
The following is how I would assess your situation, assuming you are talking about parks.

a) - Consider the size of the trees as well as the base of them. If you see no evidence of roots it is quite possible fill has been added.
b) - Quite a bit of clad would definitely hint to not a lot of detectors. Or of course heavy park usage if the clad is almost on the surface.
c) - A park established in 1900 with lots of clad still around would definitely be one worth spending more time at to gauge it's potential.

4 to 6 hours of hunting would give me a pretty good idea if the park holds potential(and by potential I mean one or two Wheats). One of our heaviest used parks in town was established in the first years of 1900. I find minimal clad there but I do get lucky enough to recover Wheats, IH's and silver if I listen between and below the overwhelming amount of pull tabs.

I'd say any site that has seen human usage since 1900 will have plenty there left discover. Unless, of course, this site is within a 30 mile radius from Angel's home. lol ... :yes:

Good luck.

[bob_e99]

I was detecting at one of these sites and found that it's a bit older than I thought. They erected a monument in 1881 dedicated to those who lost their lives in the civil war. I'm still pulling only clad but I'm dreaming of what may be down deep. Even if it was detected in the past, could those detectors go deep? Also, as Angel continues to show, even detected sites have good stuff to pull up. I really need to bone up on deep detecting.

[coinnut]

They erected a monument in 1881 dedicated to those who lost their lives in the civil war. I'm still pulling only clad but I'm dreaming of what may be down deep.

Some times the good stuff is away from the plaque (monument) lol I would check the surrounding area too. I bet no one tried that. ;)

[bob_e99]

Yes, I was thinking the same thing. Start a search pattern working my way away from the monument. I think I'll wait until I receive the E-trac as I seem to do a bit better with that detector.

Thank you.

[bob_e99]

I have been practicing my deep detecting by going to well hunted sites so I'm not getting distracted by shallow targets (except for some junk). I'm still not doing well and have a couple of questions but at least now I can ask them in terms of the E-trac.

How often will a deep target be repeatable? I am ignoring the Fe number and looking at the Co number and will sometimes think I may have a deep target but when I dig, there's nothing there and no more signal.

Also, if you get a faint choppy signal at say around 10 or 12 inches, will the signal get stronger when you remove about 8 inches of dirt or is it still dependent on the distance between the target and the coil along with the remaining few inches of dirt?

Lastly, when digging deep holes, is there a trick to keeping the hole to a reasonalble size and being able to dig into the firmer bottom and remove the soil? I probably should have paid more attention when I was taking sandbox in my early days.

Thanks for your patience with the questioning but I know that until I get a good feel for deep signals, I will be stuck digging up clad for a very long time.

[angellionel]

I have been practicing my deep detecting by going to well hunted sites so I'm not getting distracted by shallow targets (except for some junk). I'm still not doing well and have a couple of questions but at least now I can ask them in terms of the E-trac.

How often will a deep target be repeatable? I am ignoring the Fe number and looking at the Co number and will sometimes think I may have a deep target but when I dig, there's nothing there and no more signal.


There are other factors to take into consideration as well, such as the level of ground mineralization and iron, but at sites where trash is moderate, the deep target's signal will likely be repeatable from every angle. The Fe numbers are also likely to have a substantial bounce. Remember though, if the signal is consistent and repeatable, even if faint, then there is metal under the coil. Don't assume that there is nothing there if the signal is lost after cutting the plug and removing some soil. It just may be that the target is not yet within the probe's or hand-pinpointer's range of detection.




Also, if you get a faint choppy signal at say around 10 or 12 inches, will the signal get stronger when you remove about 8 inches of dirt or is it still dependent on the distance between the target and the coil along with the remaining few inches of dirt?


Actually, on such deep targets you may often lose the signal once a plug is cut and soil is removed, though the target should still be clearly discernible in all-metal mode. That is why a pinpointer is essential. I have had very deep targets sound off on my probe with a discernible signal only after about 9 or 10 inches of soil had been removed. Had I stopped digging at 8 inches just because my probe did not sound off I would have walked away from a desirable find.




Lastly, when digging deep holes, is there a trick to keeping the hole to a reasonalble size and being able to dig into the firmer bottom and remove the soil? I probably should have paid more attention when I was taking sandbox in my early days.

Thanks for your patience with the questioning but I know that until I get a good feel for deep signals, I will be stuck digging up clad for a very long time.


Digging wide holes when out in the woods is not a major concern, but at parks that is another matter. I try ( emphasis on try, for I don't always succeed :cheesysmile: ) to cut plugs no wider than 5 or 6 inches. I then just scrape the sides of the hole to widen the inside in order to have room to maneuver the trowel as I dig deeper, lessening the chances of making contact with the target. :yes:

[bob_e99]

Angel, I can't thank you enough for that information. It helped me find my third (don't laugh too hard) silver and more importantly, I'm starting to be able to detect deep. This wasn't my deepest hole but there was a crusty old dime at the bottom of it.

If we ever meet, I'd like to buy you dinner.

[angellionel]

Very good score Bob! Given the sites you have been hitting, I have a feeling that you will end up with a relatively good silver count by year end. :clapping:

I'm glad the info was of help. thumbsup01 That's what the forum is for, to share tips, ideas, finds, and overall help each other improve. :beerbuddy: Hopefully we can together for a hunt sometime. A drive to NH for a hunt would be fun. :yes: