Frustrating/Confusing Hunt

[alands94]

I had a frustrating experience yesterday and I thought I would vent/share with the rest of you:

While visiting family in a small Missouri town yesterday I had an opportunity to detect a large home built in the 1880's that I first asked permission to detect almost two years ago. This property has been in the same family for approximately 60 years and was used as an "off the beaten trail" motel in the 1920's - 1930's. The family is pretty reclusive (No Trespassing signs on all 4 sides of the property) but gave my brother in law and I permission to detect it. Since it had never been detected before (according to the family) I was obviously excited.

After nearly 7 hours of hunting we ended up with 14 wheat pennies (oldest 1914), a 1902 Indian head penny, 27 Memorial pennies, and a clad dime. THAT'S ALL!!!! My brother in law and I are not as experienced as many of you, but we are certainly not beginners. There is NO WAY that in the 130 year history of this property that the only things dropped were pennies and a clad dime. Even if this property HAD been detected one or two times before by someone who knew what they were doing one would think there would have been something left. I told the family that their property must have been hit HARD in recent years without their knowledge or consent.

I was using an E-Trac and my brother in law an AT Pro. We took our time, overlapped our sweeps, used a grid pattern, etc. Is it possible that we were doing something wrong or do you think my assessment that the property has been hit HARD before is correct?

[del]

how much discrimination is set on the machines ?? how were the ground conditions ? were you digging many "iffy" targets ? how deep were some of the older targets ??

[OxShoeDrew]

Maybe they added topsoil and you can still reach the copper but the silver is just out of reach...?

[Ill Digger]

That sure is odd. I'd be thinking the same thing as you guys.
Del asked some good questions though, so did Drew. All things to consider.

[RIdirtdigger]

How deep were the targets? If you are getting memorials pennies at 6+ inches deep on average, I would assume fill dirt has been added. The older targets may have come from areas where less fill dirt was added or not added at all. Then again, the place could have been detected before maybe many years ago and the owners simply did not remember. Sorry the place didn't produce as much as you thought. Hopefully the next property you go to will be more productive. HH

[Isaac]

Seems like normal finds for a house site for me??? i would NOT be discouraged after that hunt... maybe they didn't drop as many coins as you wanted them too?

[alands94]

I tried a variety of setting (coins, relics, low to no discrimination, sensitivity 19+). Ground was saturated (heavy rain on and off all day), wheaties were mostly 3-5" deep, no signals deeper than 7" or so. There was definitely some dirt added recently in certain spots. Dirt ranged from nice and black to brown clay. Dug a ton of signals in the 12-12 to 12-15 range, but it was all junk. Thanks for the feedback, fellas. Like Isaac stated - maybe I set my expectations too high considering I've been dreaming about detecting this place for nearly 2 years.

[freemindstuck]

Some old sites just don't produce as much. But it's also possible they let someone detect 30 or 40 years ago and they just don't remember. I wouldn't get discouraged and if the property is very big I would hit it again. Even if it's been detected i guarantee they didn't get all of the silver. I pull silver out of yards that people tell me have been pound through the years all the time. Although sometimes I have to pull junk out to get to the good signal. Good luck!

[Restoring Your Finds]

Maybe they added topsoil and you can still reach the copper but the silver is just out of reach...?

That sure is a possibility.

Don't get discouraged though. As the others said, even at pounded sites, you may still be able to find a gem.

[POKIE73]

its been my experience that some places just did not have that much activity if it had been a place where a lot of people gathered often their should be more to find did they have any kind of other things going on maybe just being a motel their was not people out in the grass to lose change did you try alongside parking areas thats where it would be more likely to be i find at older homes most of the finds are in the high traffic areas along sidewalks and such could be you did as well as you could some places just do not hold a lot good luck in the future

[Beartoe]

I detect a lot of homes in my area. Most of the homes were built around 1905-1910. Some much older. It amazes me how two houses right next to each other will have complete different outcomes. One will have a lot of clad and no older stuff. The house next door will have older silver and copper but no clad. The house across the street will have lots of roofing nails but no coins.

Luck of the draw sometimes.

[MangoAve]

I tried a variety of setting (coins, relics, low to no discrimination, sensitivity 19+). Ground was saturated (heavy rain on and off all day), wheaties were mostly 3-5" deep, no signals deeper than 7" or so.

Did you get a feel for the amount of trash in the ground? This ties in a bit with what Pokie and Bear said. You did say you tried no discrimination and high sensitivity. The machine is always going to transmit at a set power; the sensitivity is how much the receive coil can 'hear'. The targets might be masked a bit if there is a fair amount of trash and the only two things you could do is dig the trash, or lower sensitivity to mid range. The fact that you say no targets were deeper than 7" makes me also think fill, or grading/removal has been done. Your etrac can go deeper than 7" on a US quarter. Realize too, the first thing I mentioned could still affect how deep are all the targets you 'see.' I am at least certain that the property being in the family for 60 years, there wasn't anyone detecting before then. Detectors weren't big in the 50's. I think they were only used in the military during that time. I know that explanation doesn't rule out someone having gone there in the 80's or 90's when personal detectors were more abundant.