Frustrated digger

[chub]

As I read somewhere about doing the 100 hours... Dont do the same hour 100 times over! try and learn more with every hour so that your 100 hours means something.

Chub

 

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[Davers]

I have a Garrett AT Pro. Which I think is a good unit, from reviews and many guys on You Tube that I enjoy watching use it as well.

As far as time, I am less than 100 hrs, I admit to being a novice, maybe I am expecting to much to quick.

Are headphones that important? I don't currently use them.

Yea HP'S will help with deeper targets or in loud areas especially

I hunted for years W/O HP's Cause mine broke & I was Broke.

Then I realized ,I needed them (privacy issues) Now I feel lost without them.

They take getting used to , Heck until a year ago I used 1980's Radio Shack brand cause I loved the long chord.
So they don't have to be high dollar ones .

I hate aluminium as well, Zinc ill's me, bottlecaps Kill me, Foil Makes me Sad , & deep (larger) Iron makes me wanna wrap my detector around a Tree.

Could say More but Ill be typing all day.

So. " Put in the time & You will find."
GL
Davers

 

[Mzjavert]

Here's my advice. It's summertime, take 2 hunts and hit your local elementary school playgrounds. You should find a couple of handfuls of modern coins in the mulch and sand areas. You will also find foil, pulltabs and bottle caps at a 1:1 ratio with the coins. After a couple of days at this, learning a penny sound, zincoln tone, dime nickel quarter, you will start to see how these are slightly different than the trash. You should be able to eventually swing and by the tone know "99% this is going to be a dime 4" down". You may even get lucky at the schools and pick up a ring. Main thing is to have some small success, don't get frustrated. Hunting old home sites is difficult weeding your way around iron, buried pipes and electrical cables and who knows what else took place over the century on these spots. Once you figure it out these old locations will produce for you. Good luck!

Make sure you hit under the swings, in and around directly under the seats. I find clad here all the time. I once snagged close to 40 coins under one seat.

 

[Davers]

The AT Pro is a good machine and a lot on here use it. I think you have a lot of good advise here and it is just remembering that on a lot of days you are going to find the trash piling up fast and the other may not and then you may hit that coil spill or find that spot under the huge shade tree everyone sat under to read and relax and coins and the occasional ring would escape to never be found again. You Tube vids only highlight the hits of the hunt and not the whole days' hunt and sometimes it looks like hit after hit. I like to watch them but remember that they may have gone through ten pulltabs or foil to find that coin or a long bit of silence before paydirt. I am searching around the apartment complex I live in and it is full of pull tabs, bottle caps, foil, nails and clad. I figure that if I keep looking, I clear out the trash and find the good stuff and it is just hitting the right place and knowing what the detector is telling me. Take time and Good Luck!

So true.
You know , it's been since the early -mid 80's that pull tabs (beaver-tails) stopped being used.
Yet they are still everywhere!!!!

I eyeballed 30+ & dug more at a old Park on Sunday, this area had 6 inches of rain last week .
heck I checked a creek & could see them peeking from out the side the Bank 8 INCHES DOWN!!!!!

Their like roaches , The Earth could Blow Up & Only Beaver-Tail pull tabs would be left 'floating in Space'.

 

[Davers]

The sites I have lined up to search, have never been searched, and they are mostly early 1900s and older. I have a few that are way out in the woods, that I hope to hit this fall, that are nothing more than a chimney.

I wish that I had yr line-up. SOUNDS GOOD!

Just know if these sites are easily known to you they are also known to others.

 

[Davers]

You answered part of the question right there 100hrs is nothing really when it comes to knowing/understanding a machine. Its like anything one has to put in the time to become efficient in the sport/hobby/or what ever one is trying to do. Example of what I can expect from buying a new machine even after 45+ yrs of playing the dirt digging crap. I think 1000 hrs down the road of digging gets me close in knowing the machine to a point of some confidence. Numbers on the screen lie most times as so many factors come into play for a signal and sound will be your best friend.
I went out this past Sunday, dug for 4 hrs and I had nothing in the pouch(even after emptying it 4 times) to even do a post, not that I didn't dig things it was mostly iron, or bits of aluminum, brass sheeting, and a few items that were ok.
The thing is I don't go out seeking the killer find, I go out to dig and in that process I guess (and wish) what the next target is before I dig. I don't think of anything, I forget about life, and all responsibilities when I go detecting. It's my time to unwind, dream of maybe just maybe it'll be a keeper. Then the unexpected happens I turn the sod and there it lays a round disk, made of copper, and sometimes silver, a cool piece of history, even a button, and it all comes up flooding the senses a keeper.
The main thing is not to get frustrated, enjoy, and when you get a little bummed out go hang it up for the day, and dream of another day to hunt.

I could not have said it better...

 

[Davers]

I don't think headphones are all that important The only time I use them is when I have too. The mane thing I don't like about headphones is that you are shut off from the world around you. Anybody or anything could sneak up on you and you would never know it until it's to late. But if you do use then watch your back.

Yes Sir.
Always have Situ-Awareness , Esp, in rougher parts of town , but also in the Woods cause...."I bet you got some Purdy Lips ".

 

[rjeffw]

I wish that I had yr line-up. SOUNDS GOOD!

Just know if these sites are easily known to you they are also known to others.

Thankfully I have already acquired the permissions for these sites, and some of which I had to do some running around and phone calls to get. So I hope they will stay that way, with me.

 

[jockoj]

Anybody or anything could sneak up on you and you would never know it until it's to late. But if you do use then watch your back.

Where the hell are you detecting? Are you hunting mines in Afghanistan?

 

[AlienLifeForm]

Where the hell are you detecting? Are you hunting mines in Afghanistan?

A lot of old areas are now considered 'da hood' so I agree, watch your back. There have been members here that have been attacked while out detecting. To be honest, there are some areas in the US where I would feel safer poking around in Afghanistan.

 

[sawmill man]

Dont get frustrated about detecting ,like was said its part of the game not finding good stuff . those youtube channels will ruin you ,sure there are some good ones but most are fantasy flicks . them old homesteads back in the woods are great for relics but as for money scattered every where .i will just say alot of them poor country folks starved to death. i was detecting a place and found nothing and was later told by a old man that lived there that he was 24 years old before he saw his first nickle of his life.

 

[GA_Boy]

I don't think headphones are all that important The only time I use them is when I have too. The mane thing I don't like about headphones is that you are shut off from the world around you. Anybody or anything could sneak up on you and you would never know it until it's to late. But if you do use then watch your back.

That is where the Pit Bull comes in handy.
Marvin

 

[rjeffw]

Here ya go Chub.

Feel free to post the pic of the plastic tea cup

Chub

 

[rjeffw]

And here is a pic of the plastic truck I found, well what is left of it.

 

[junkhunt]

Where the hell are you detecting? Are you hunting mines in Afghanistan?

I don't think headphones are all that important The only time I use them is when I have too. The mane thing I don't like about headphones is that you are shut off from the world around you. Anybody or anything could sneak up on you and you would never know it until it's to late. But if you do use then watch your back.

 

[trdking]

If all we did was find "keeper" stuff this site would be called Bannernet. Keep digging the trash nd don't forget to recheck your hole once you pull the trash out. Aluminum has such a sweet ring to it but when the hole still rings after the pop top is out, well that is sweeter.

If I had a penny for every pop top I've dug I would cancel my Social Security benefits

 

[junkhunt]

I can't lie, I have dug, and dug and the best finds I have are a plastic cup from a tea set and a arrowhead, neither of which are metal. Heck I can't even find cool junk. All i find is aluminum. I really dislike aluminum. The places I have permissions for should be good spots. Old houses, old inn you would think they would produce something. So my question to you is, what to do? I see some of you vets, say ignore the VDU, why? Some advice would be appreciated.

What kind of unit are you using? and the settings are set right?

 

[Kurios1]

You answered part of the question right there 100hrs is nothing really when it comes to knowing/understanding a machine. Its like anything one has to put in the time to become efficient in the sport/hobby/or what ever one is trying to do. Example of what I can expect from buying a new machine even after 45+ yrs of playing the dirt digging crap. I think 1000 hrs down the road of digging gets me close in knowing the machine to a point of some confidence. Numbers on the screen lie most times as so many factors come into play for a signal and sound will be your best friend.
I went out this past Sunday, dug for 4 hrs and I had nothing in the pouch(even after emptying it 4 times) to even do a post, not that I didn't dig things it was mostly iron, or bits of aluminum, brass sheeting, and a few items that were ok.
The thing is I don't go out seeking the killer find, I go out to dig and in that process I guess (and wish) what the next target is before I dig. I don't think of anything, I forget about life, and all responsibilities when I go detecting. It's my time to unwind, dream of maybe just maybe it'll be a keeper. Then the unexpected happens I turn the sod and there it lays a round disk, made of copper, and sometimes silver, a cool piece of history, even a button, and it all comes up flooding the senses a keeper.
The main thing is not to get frustrated, enjoy, and when you get a little bummed out go hang it up for the day, and dream of another day to hunt.

Probably the best advice and mindset I have read about this amazing sport we partake in. It definitely takes many hours to learn the specific language a machine speaks. So many variables can alter your signals. The MAIN thing you mentioned is the why we do this metal detecting. For PEACE of MIND! Amen to that. If for whatever reason we get frustrated or discouraged we need to take a step back and consider our motive and intent for hunting metal. I surely do all I can to improve my chances of scoring the better older targets but, if they do not come at the frequency that I would like then I just have to live with it and enjoy the areas I hunt and the scenery while out swinging. 100 hours hunting time ain't even a well formed "bud" on the vine.

 

[miboje]

It's not unusual for my husband and I to get a fairly dry entire season. Sucks, but that's how it goes.