Old home site hunting

[KCFindIt]

I'm new at MD'ing, so I'm throwing this out there in hopes someone can give me pointers. A landowner has given me permission to hunt and told me there used to be houses long long ago (and he pointed to a general area). Hovering over the ground in the area pointed out, the detector goes crazy and I have unearthed a ton of old iron (pipe pieces, straps, implement tines, etc). It seems as if it was not only an old homesite, but perhaps their dump site. What is the best way to identify and find the "right" place on a 40 acre piece of open land to locate anything good? Any ideas would be helpful.
Thank you,
Kasey

 

[Full Metal Digger]

I recommend you go online and search for old maps or aerial photographs of that property. It will help considerably. I use this method a lot to figure out which part of a cornfield the old house or school once sat. Best wishes and HH, Dave.

 

[coinnut]

You are probably in the right area and may be nearer the barn area, which should be close to the home. Being new I would approach it from a backwards perspective. Instead of starting out in the iron patch, go out until you get relatively few signals and work inward. First time through take only the very good to nearly very good signals. Don't worry about working every signal. In other words cherry pick the good targets. I'm not sure what machine you are using so I can't help you on what to dig, but try for the solid hits first.

 

[KCFindIt]

Coinnut, I'm using the Teknetics Delta 4000, so I can disc. out the iron, but I fear that I could be missing something when I do that. I have had a few solid 88 and 94 hits, but it ended up being an old sardine can and a round lid, both about 6 inches deep.

 

[Digger Don]

Welcome to the world of metal detecting. No one said it is was easy, but sure can be rewarding. The fact that your digging trash tells me that your probably close to the right spot. I agree with Daddy Digger, old photos and maps are a valuable tool. Try historic aerials.com
Best of luck and Happy hunting

 

[Skamaniac]

If you find an actual dump site you can usually find some awesome old bottles and jars in with the metal. I just found an old ointment jar from 30's last week because it was in a dump site that lit up my detector. That one is not worth much, but some old bottles can be quite valuable.

 

[Boulder]

I recommend you go online and search for old maps or aerial photographs of that property. It will help considerably. I use this method a lot to figure out which part of a cornfield the old house or school once sat. Best wishes and HH, Dave.

I agree, check your local branch, city hall and the web. :thumbsup01:

 

[del]

Coinnut, I'm using the Teknetics Delta 4000, so I can disc. out the iron, but I fear that I could be missing something when I do that. I have had a few solid 88 and 94 hits, but it ended up being an old sardine can and a round lid, both about 6 inches deep.

just remember KCFindIt that sardine can could of easily have been a walking liberty half too. it was a solid high vdi target , sometimes you have to go through the junk to find the goodies. keep at it and take the time to look around for other close by features , large trees , worn dirt driveways or pathways , remember a yard was a lot of area around a house. don't be afraid to move away from where you think the actual house was. be patient .

Dan