For all you old house hunters out there....

[TrpnBils]

So I've come to a conclusion over the past several months. I've been detecting for over 5 years and have never found a silver coin, only found maybe 20-30 wheats, and just recently found my first pre-modern coin (IH penny)....I'm coming to realize that even though I'm hunting old sites (most of the time), I'm not hunting the right kind of sites.

I'd like to try to make it a point to hunt more old houses this year (I have one or two vacant ones I hit fairly regularly, with permission, but they've been hunted to death over the years...although I did find that Indian at one of them). Getting permission is one thing, and I'll learn to get more comfortable with that, but my question is this:

Do you make it a point to only hunt vacant houses, or are you just as likely to hunt a house that's currently being lived in? If you hunt lived-in houses, do you make it a point to only hunt away from the house (which is what I've done on multiple occasions) or are you comfortable with just "getting right in there" and hunting, say, right in the front yard off of their porch while they watch you from the living room window?

Okay, so that's two questions, but I'm curious. My pinpointing technique is good, my plugging is good, I always use an old shirt or cloth to put dirt on when I'm in a yard somewhere so there's no mess when I'm done, but I still feel a little weird about it. I also know that's what's holding me back from finding some interesting stuff.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Family Maps of Hinds County, Mississippi, Deluxe Edition - Grab it through Amazon!

[Madmox]

I would ask them if they want to earn some extra credit.

Then hand them a shovel. Haha

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!

[Dwight S]

I keep hearing that but it hasn't panned out yet. My back yard used to be part of a drive in theater in the late 50's and I've pulled more wheats out of my yard than everywhere else I've ever detected combined and still no silver!

If you know where the old projector/snack bar was, hit that area hard and dig it all. There are probably lots of pull tabs and bottle caps, but I'd bet you'll find some silver there. Also, up next to where the screen was is typically a play area for the kids, check that out if possible.

I'd say you'll find silver soon. It's there somewhere, you just have to pass your coil over it.

 

[thommo59]

Don't home owners get really upset with the holes, I know they're filled back in but it's still a disturbance.

If I rocked up to someones house here in Australia and asked to dig holes, I would either need to be bloody fast runner or a good fighter

Same applies if I were to dig any fields or sporting areas here, the local council would charge me.

 

[Hawkeye35]

Nah, not really. They'll be aware that the hobby involves digging holes if they grant permission. Besides, if your a good ethical person you'll leave little to no evidence you've been digging and there will be nothing to complain about.

 

[TrpnBils]

If you know where the old projector/snack bar was, hit that area hard and dig it all. There are probably lots of pull tabs and bottle caps, but I'd bet you'll find some silver there. Also, up next to where the screen was is typically a play area for the kids, check that out if possible.

I'd say you'll find silver soon. It's there somewhere, you just have to pass your coil over it.

The old snack bar/projector booth is now an apartment complex, unfortunately. I live at the top end of the "terraced" viewing area. Some of the old posts are still there, and I know where some of the other pieces were (screen, playground, go-cart track that used to be behind it all) but I'm definitely finding stuff from that era in my yard. Lots of old toy cars, wheats, and other stuff (including syringes from the people in the apartments).

 

[l2hunt]

Interesting responses, so here's mine, at least a couple points. I've hunted plenty of abandoned properties and found them to be disappointing and never found silver on them, some wheaties and some pretty old coins for sure. So I focus on school grounds and parks and walk away with plenty of clad, some light .925 silver jewelry and yup sometimes silver, that works for me

 

[MissIron.Maiden]

I just can't make myself do it. I'm surrounded by homes from 1700's n up. My next door neighbor's house is from late 1700's . I got the nerve to ask to do their yard around the house 1 time . I came up with foil n nails n tab tops. I know there is a treasure trove there , but my anxiety of being watched while I did it just destroyed any enjoyment.
I try to bring it up in conversation to people that I know old homes, but nobody seems interested ... Not even the antique dealer I know.. Lol.
I've heard to call realtors of some of these old houses that are vacant... Twice I been meant with an attitude of " wth, why are you wasting my time with this question" . I get a foggy," well it's not up to me, it's up to the owner" Meanwhile it's falling down n nobody has lived in it for 10 years..
At this point , if I had balls , they would have shriveled up n fallen off.. Lol

 

[MissIron.Maiden]

If you don't look like a dehydrated homeless monster upon returning to your home, you are just not doing it right.... It really is amazing how little there is out there for the average hunter. I am sure that 80% of the people that have bought a 2500.00 Minelab totally give up after their third outing. The best stuff I have found has been after hours and hours and hours of detecting, literally on 5 day weekends in the middle of the week or even more.....Some really nice stuff.. I have found some amazing things sleeping on the beach in Texas, Yeah if you have a season parking pass, you can literally live on the beach in a camper if you move it every few days...... Its something out of the distant past. Other places too. When I 'm home I like to go out for a few hours to a park or beach during the low tide, sometimes in the middle of the night, or whenever.... I find modern coins three feet apart all night long, I mean $5.00 for a typical three hour hunt, I do these in hopes of finding jewelry and for practice and experience. I pretty much have come to know and expect that it just won't be the same.....

I'll tell you what, I've detected my property to death. Literally hundreds and hundreds of holes... But with weather changes there is always more signals! After 2 years of this I just pulled a WWI great Seal , bridle rosette 2 days ago. It was after a heavy rain



Who knew? Lol

 

[MissIron.Maiden]

I think the key word is "should". Poor Area = Less Silver. I hunt a bunch of old farm houses and the silver is slim compared to all the posts on here.

This is so true. I live on property that has history dating back to 1700's and I haven't found anything older than a 1930's quarter.
I look at it like this.. How often to we drop dollar bills, 5's, 10's, 20's.... Not very often ever. Their coins were our 5's n 10's... You'd be keeping them in a pouch in a safe pocket .

 

[Pointman]

I hunt lived in and vacant houses the same way. I look for houses older then 1950 if possible in order to better my chances of finding something old. I have found silver at the foot of the steps in lived in houses and only an inch or two down. I have found silver and lots of old coins in small 1/6 acre yards and then I have detected 1/2 acre yards and found nothing old. I have found 150 year old coins where they shouldn't really be. It is random. Other things I do which proves successful on hard hit places is to detect in the bushes where nobody is willing to search, listen hard for any anomalies in my threshold and to also grid in various directions.

 

[Pointman]

I just can't make myself do it. I'm surrounded by homes from 1700's n up. My next door neighbor's house is from late 1700's . I got the nerve to ask to do their yard around the house 1 time . I came up with foil n nails n tab tops. I know there is a treasure trove there , but my anxiety of being watched while I did it just destroyed any enjoyment.
I try to bring it up in conversation to people that I know old homes, but nobody seems interested ... Not even the antique dealer I know.. Lol.
I've heard to call realtors of some of these old houses that are vacant... Twice I been meant with an attitude of " wth, why are you wasting my time with this question" . I get a foggy," well it's not up to me, it's up to the owner" Meanwhile it's falling down n nobody has lived in it for 10 years..
At this point , if I had balls , they would have shriveled up n fallen off.. Lol

I call a lot of realtors and only get maybe a 50% rate of getting an OK to search. I have never been spoken rude to, but I have been kind of pushed off the phone. Usually, I only call realtors if I am desperate.

I always try and speak to the homeowner's direct. I still get anxiety after hunting hundreds of places, but I concentrate on the times that I have been allowed to hunt and I have to tell myself that I am doing no harm in detecting. If I concentrate on how strange our hobby is (digging holes all day) or that we are greedy or something, it places a negative connotation in my mind on what we do and I will never ask anyone if I can hunt their property.

Oh, and we don't dig holes. Never say "dig" say "cut a plug" or just "plug". Speak positive about what we do. If you do it right and leave the area better then when you got there (pick up trash), then it is better that you were detecting then not.

 

[el padron]

I think the key word is "should". Poor Area = Less Silver. I hunt a bunch of old farm houses and the silver is slim compared to all the posts on here.

I seriously doubt many of the self reported finds that I read about on the internet, As far as hunting someone else's property most people will feel violated to have stranger detecting in their yard,,,,, Those that allow it usually want everything you find,

Im telling you, I've hunted the crap out of old homes for over two years. Many of them as a landlord.....
Its really rare to find silver......I mean really rare.... Clad all night lond, day and night, for that matter....
So many people post about 7 silver in a day..... , unless they are coming out of one hole, I just don't see it......

I do know of very valuable watches or jewelry that occasionally is found.....
These items are never posted or shown off.
Very often they can easily be traced back to their owners, and as of just a few years ago, basically anything that you find anywhere still belongs to whomever lost it.....

 

[el padron]

I think the key word is "should". Poor Area = Less Silver. I hunt a bunch of old farm houses and the silver is slim compared to all the posts on here.

I seriously doubt many of the self reported finds that I read about on the internet, As far as hunting someone else's property, the vast majority of people will feel violated to have stranger detecting in their yard..... Those that allow it usually want everything you find,

Im telling you, I've hunted the crap out of old homes for over two years. Many of them as a landlord.....
Its really rare to find silver......I mean really rare.... Clad all night long, all day and night, for that matter.... 90 holes $6.00, that a really great day, basically you never stopped digging, for 5 hours strait.....
So many people post about 7 silver in a day..... , unless they are coming out of one hole, I just don't see it......

I do know of very valuable watches or jewelry that occasionally is found.....
These items are never posted or shown off.
Very often they can easily be traced back to their owners, and as of just a few years ago, basically anything that you find anywhere still belongs to whomever lost it.....

 

[scotty544]

I seriously doubt many of the self reported finds that I read about on the internet, As far as hunting someone else's property, the vast majority of people will feel violated to have stranger detecting in their yard..... Those that allow it usually want everything you find,

Im telling you, I've hunted the crap out of old homes for over two years. Many of them as a landlord.....
Its really rare to find silver......I mean really rare.... Clad all night long, all day and night, for that matter.... 90 holes $6.00, that a really great day, basically you never stopped digging, for 5 hours strait.....
So many people post about 7 silver in a day..... , unless they are coming out of one hole, I just don't see it......

I do know of very valuable watches or jewelry that occasionally is found.....
These items are never posted or shown off.
Very often they can easily be traced back to their owners, and as of just a few years ago, basically anything that you find anywhere still belongs to whomever lost it.....

I have found 4 silver in one yard in about 5 hours of looking, it all depends on the age of the yard, how many times it has been detected and how much money they had to lose!

 

[klever]

I am a house hunter. 90 percent of the home owners I ask say yes. Once you get into a neighborhood usually most people say ok because they have seen you at their neighbors house. I find on average one or two pieces of silver per house. 50's and older are what I detect. Always find wheat's. Each home is different. While one house has a ton of target the next may have nothing. The other day at one house I found 49 wheat penny's and one silver Rosie. The house next door I found one wheat. You will never know until you detect it. Old houses are the bomb

 

[TrpnBils]

I seriously doubt many of the self reported finds that I read about on the internet, As far as hunting someone else's property, the vast majority of people will feel violated to have stranger detecting in their yard..... Those that allow it usually want everything you find,

I'd be really disheartened about the whole hobby if I really thought that most of the people on here were making things up that they found in yards or anywhere else for that matter. I am skeptical about some of the cache finds in that forum from time to time, but if somebody says they found a spill of mercury dimes or something in the yard of an old house I generally believe it. I can't imagine having so much free time and a desire to make people like me that I would find or stage pictures of dirty coins just to pretend to complete strangers that I found them.

 

[shufflr]

Am just getting into hunting abandoned houses. Have hunted three. One I found a dime and an old matchbox car. Second found a 45 Wheat but it was hard to hunt due to high unknown weeds. Third hunted yesterday with a friend. I found 2 pennies, my friend found a 64 Quarter.

 

[dirtscratcher]

I seriously doubt many of the self reported finds that I read about on the internet, As far as hunting someone else's property most people will feel violated to have stranger detecting in their yard,,,,, Those that allow it usually want everything you find,

Im telling you, I've hunted the crap out of old homes for over two years. Many of them as a landlord.....
Its really rare to find silver......I mean really rare.... Clad all night lond, day and night, for that matter....
So many people post about 7 silver in a day..... , unless they are coming out of one hole, I just don't see it......

I do know of very valuable watches or jewelry that occasionally is found.....
These items are never posted or shown off.
Very often they can easily be traced back to their owners, and as of just a few years ago, basically anything that you find anywhere still belongs to whomever lost it.....

I find this post really interesting. I know of about seven guys around here that detect, out of those there are three of us that find a lot and the rest think we are storytellers to put it nicely. I've taken some hunting and found a silver coin or two and heard through the grapevine I most have brought them with me. The doubters go once or twice a month and me and the other who are finding silver often hunt closer to five days a week. So to me it seems you have to put your time in learn your machine and most important go detecting. I hear people say its 90 per cent location. If you don't know how to use your detector it does'nt matter where your at.

 

[scotty544]

I find this post really interesting. I know of about seven guys around here that detect, out of those there are three of us that find a lot and the rest think we are storytellers to put it nicely. I've taken some hunting and found a silver coin or two and heard through the grapevine I most have brought them with me. The doubters go once or twice a month and me and the other who are finding silver often hunt closer to five days a week. So to me it seems you have to put your time in learn your machine and most important go detecting. I hear people say its 90 per cent location. If you don't know how to use your detector it does'nt matter where your at.

I might add that some of my best silver finds have been at places that the property owner has told me that others have detected before, interesting enough is the fact that most of my finds were either on the fringe of the yard where they didn't look or were deeper than 6 inches and were iffy or faint signals

 

[dirtscratcher]

I might add that some of my best silver finds have been at places that the property owner has told me that others have detected before, interesting enough is the fact that most of my finds were either on the fringe of the yard where they didn't look or were deeper than 6 inches and were iffy or faint signals

I have seen where people say most old coins they dig are 3 to 5 inches deep, not in Western Montana. I think your right most don't learn there detector. There are very very few silver coins here that are not over 5 inches most around 8. To find coins that deep you need a lot of experience and a good detector.