How do you gauge whether you're at an unhunted site?

[A#1]

Just curious what others think.

I stopped at an old homestead the other day, in about half an hour I got 11 Mason jar lids, a silver plate spoon, a 1918 Eveready flashlight can, and a brass E. Miller lamp burner. All solid non-ferrous hits less than 8 inches deep. Seems to me, the last guy shoulda dug those up.

What builds your confidence that you're the first?

 

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[BLK HOLE]

Not finding a pile of big iron objects piled up against a tree trunk, not finding unfilled holes and wheat pennies are some of the indicators I look for.

 

[halfstep]

Old homesteads can be hit or miss depending on how old it is and when it was occupied. Sometimes you find a lot of junk but no coins. People didn't have any money to loose so that's why you don't find much or any at all. Finding old homes that are still occupied and have a history of different generations living there is a good place to find coins. Some of the old homesteads where just one or two generations and there wasn't enough time for coins to accumulate in the ground. But you never know what's in the ground until you put the coil to the ground.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

The way I see people hunt, "running" around, swing like an ape and trying to cover 5 acres in an hour; no place is hunted out. so even if the place was hit earlier, keepers remain. Just take your time a grid an area and cover all the ground. Think of the ground as your canvas and the coil the brush...take your time, goodies still exist at that property.

Good Luck on your future hunts!

 

[Toecutter]

exactly what you mentioned big nonferrous goodies...

 

[A#1]

exactly what you mentioned big nonferrous goodies...

I just keep thinking "Somebody should have found this" Kinda makes me smile. I find this kinda stuff at most of the places I go, but never as much as here.

Stopped again yesterday on the way home from work. Found a couple brass thingys, brass alarm bell, ornate trim ring from something and 7 more mason jar lids.


And actually, right now, i am one of those apes. Walkin around just swingin, seein where the beeps and blanks are, not really tryin to do a good job. I'm tryin to get the lay of it before the leaves start growin and I can't see. I'd say the area is an acre or so, a flat area at the side of a hill. I think where I'm parking used to be the back forty, and the roads I came in on didn't exist. I found what seems to be the drive way, dug into and wrapping up the hillside. Evidence of two more outbuildings, one obviously earth-sheltered. A second "big ass tree", a Maple i'd guess 4'+ diameter.

Kinda geeked that this place if on the way home from work.

 

[A2coins]

Doesnt take long if you find coins or relics then its not been hunted or not hunted very well unless all the coins are new lol

 

[fistfulladirt]

Metal detectors have been on the market for close to 100 years now, I don’t believe any spot I’ve hunted be it public or private, has not been hit.

 

[A#1]

Metal detectors have been on the market for close to 100 years now, I don’t believe any spot I’ve hunted be it public or private, has not been hit.

I would tend to agree, but just the nature, quantity, and location of the sites I like to find lead me to thing they're quite unknown.

Oddly, I've told people like local historical societies, and long time residents things they've never known.

Actually, one guy I work with, his family has owned parcels along a particular road for at least 120 years. The road and a lake.
carry the family name. Land this guy has animal hunted himself for 40 years, and he's quite the locally informed old fart type. I've told him more than he's ever known about his area.

I just think these places are in locations that haven't been hit, simply because there aren't enough people here to take interest in finding them.

Other than tourist cladstabbers on the beach, and road visible foundations obviously torn up by an ignorant newbie, I have only seen maybe 2 detectorists on these type sites.

 

[Trezurehunter]

That's a tough question to answer. I may find only a few items in a yard, but that does not mean I was the first one there. It just means the other person missed something. Detectors have become much better and deeper seeking than 40 years ago. The Professor said it pretty well. Just grid the yard, detect slowly, and hopefully you will make some finds, whether you are the first one there or not. And also remember, that some people had nothing, or very little to lose. If they dropped a penny back then and they knew it, they picked it up. Not like today where young people, (and a lot of adults) will drop coins, and let them roll as opposed to picking them up. Bottom line is, I dont worry about whether someone else has been there. I hunt the place like it's the last hunt I am going on, because someday it will be !

 

[A#1]

That's a tough question to answer. I may find only a few items in a yard, but that does not mean I was the first one there. It just means the other person missed something. Detectors have become much better and deeper seeking than 40 years ago. The Professor said it pretty well. Just grid the yard, detect slowly, and hopefully you will make some finds, whether you are the first one there or not. And also remember, that some people had nothing, or very little to lose. If they dropped a penny back then and they knew it, they picked it up. Not like today where young people, (and a lot of adults) will drop coins, and let them roll as opposed to picking them up. Bottom line is, I dont worry about whether someone else has been there. I hunt the place like it's the last hunt I am going on, because someday it will be !

Yeh, it ain't somethin I'm all that worried about, just a curious conversation I guess. Something most of us probably think about from time to time.

I actually use other means to judge a sites potential before I ever even go, I have to narrow them down somehow. But the first few hunts at a new place seems to get me thinkin about whether someone else has tried before me.

 

[bologna321]

Shallow clad quarters, no way any detector would miss a quarter at 1"