Covering ground

[Goldbear]

Ok, been watching some vids on meteorite and gold detecting. Supposedly good detectorists. They were leaving a foot or better between their sweeps. Does the coil cover more than what is below it? Do you not have to sweep almost like roller painting where the the ground would be completely covered with the coil?

 

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[Sandman]

Looking for meteorites this is OK as they are usually magnetic and the coils field detects them farther from the coil. Sweeping like this looking for coins is a shot in the dark as your chances are greatly reduced. Those type hunters are betting their time against the chance they will walk over a target.

 

[Hemisteve]

Those Meteorite guys are limited on their time afield. So they try to cover as much ground as possible.

Now a good gold detectorist can and will spend all day beeping a 20' x 20' square if they know gold is there. Most gold nuggets are deep and are barely a whisper or slight rise in the threshold. Therefore multiple overlaps of your coil are necessary to maximize the sweet spot and get the depth.

HH
Steve

 

[gleaner1]

Don't just cover ground. Detect the finds.

 

[Monty]

I would imagine that much of the "finds" are staged since it is being filmed so they don't necessarily have to practice good technique for the cameras. At any rate, I have noticed their careless sweeping of the coil also. Good question. Monty

 

[gleaner1]

an f75 will pick up a golf ball sized hunk of crap whilst running with it (the f75, not the golf ball sized crap).

 

[deepskyal]

I was taught by a dealer that I bought my first detector from. He had loads of finds from his years and I was starting out in the early 80's.
Slow, steady, overlapping and scrubbing the ground.

I think it's more important to detectorist today than ever with so many years of detecting gone by that those elusive finds are even rarer now.

Back in the day there was silver abounding. Now you go to a park and if you find a couple clad quarters your hitting it big.

But I still swing the way I did years ago. I'm in no hurry to cover ground, I'm thorough covering the ground in front of me. I believe I have a better chance at finding that silver going slow than someone running helter-skelter with an erratic swing. I've found a silver cross that was quite old that was only about an inch deep that I know dozens passed over. Other silver I found when some told me a tiny park was hunted out and they weren't that deep either.

If I only do a 10x10 area on an outing, I'll have done it thoroughly. There will be another 10x10 area for me tomorrow.

Al