First real try and had some hits

[Fropa]

Hello. I've got a White's Spectrum XLT but virtually no experience. I have the opportunity to hunt around what used to be a school and the principles house. I've heard the school had been there since the late 1800s or early 1900s. Since I have the detector but minimal experience I decided to check some of my back yard today and see if I could find anything. I used the coin & jewelery program in the detector. My first couple swings and I had a hit. I found a cent. Next two signals the were identified exactly by the XLT. First was a quarter and the next was a nickel, just like the target icons showed. Found another cent and what I think was a fishing sinker. Then I got a strong hit and started digging. I was down to about 8" and still hadn't found anything. The strongest signal was still right over the hole so I dug a little farther and found a small piece of foil, then the rest of a large foil ball. Last signal was over about a 8-10" area. It took two holes to find the remains of a rusted tin can and tire balancing weight. No exciting finds in general but at least I know I can find something with my detector. The coins were a 1984-D cent, 1987-D cent, 1960-D nickel, and a 1978 quarter.

Since I'm really new to the hobby and have the chance to search what could be a very good site, any tips or advice from the experts here would be very appreciated. These are the tools I've put together so far:

The skewers I planned to use as probes but I never pin pointed anything with them today. I dug all the targets with the black handled transplanter. My holes were probably bigger than they needed to be. Are there any online videos or pictorial guides showing good techniques to removing coins with little to no evidence?

Thanks for any help.

 

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[RPG]

Glad you got out. The more you swing it the better you will get. Experience is the best advise you can get.
Be careful with the skewers, you don't want to scratch something valuable.
Randy

 

[XT18000]

Make sure you cover your holes !!!! If you can see where you dug so can everyone else; PLEASE DON'T DO THAT!!!!!!!
If you are digging in grass learn how to dig a proper plug so as not to kill the grass
plug removed to recover your target. ( cut a hinge type plug ).
These thing's take very little time or effort to do right and they go a long way towards helping all of us not getting
a bad rap and helps to keep area's open to us. Good luck with your hunting !

XT

 

[deepskyal]

I'd get rid of it all except your black handled digger and dull the blade of your screwdriver so you don't scratch anything.

I have an old military knife I've used since I started this hobby back in the early 1980's. Nothing else.

I cut horseshoe shaped plugs, leaving the back half attached to put it back. I always dig my plug several inches bigger than where my center is. I don't worry about scratching my finds that way and if you're off an inch or so, you're not hacking up the sod.

There are quite a few people adept at using just a probe to pop out coins.....I'm not one of them. I can sometimes pop a shallow coin with the tip of my knife....it rounded with age, but the blade I keep sharp to cut roots.
And have a piece of plastic or something to put your soil on as you look for your find. That way you just pick it up and dump it back in without leaving dirt everywhere.

Good luck,
Al

 

[Lowbatts]

Agree with the previous advisors, all good advice. Pinpointing is easy, use targets glued or taped to cardboard, turn the cardboard over, swing the coil at different heights and attempt to poke through the cardboard at each desired target until you're comfortable with where a target is located under your coil. The more diverse and random your test targets are, the better you will get at it.

Use a small scratch awl, 4 inches, rounding the tip. Keyhole saw, great tool for cutting sod and roots. Makes popping a plug up easy also. Stay off the lawns in the hot summer months unless they are well watered, don't kill the grass!

Oh yeah, have fun too!

 

[Fropa]

Thanks for all the advice. I would never leave a hole behind. I was using horseshoe cuts but sometimes the grass detached where I folded it back. I couldn't find most of my dig spots after I was done so I guess I didn't do too bad. I was using a plastic lid to put the dirt on to make it easier to refill the hole. The pinpointing feature in the XLT worked pretty well as most of my targets were right where I dug.