new to site and m.d.ing looking for some help

[drifter05]

hello everyone
my name is andy and i'm new to this site. i live in the elgin area and have done some minor detecting the last couple of years with very little success. i own a lower end ace detector. what i'm looking for is some hints or tricks to help me out. also if anyone knows any good places to go to that would help alot. thanks in advance for everyone's help

 

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[Brett]

Welcome to TreasureNet Andy! I started hunting with the Ace 250 in April of 2008, and quickly moved to a new detector when I wasn't finding much. I'm glad I did move up to the Minelab Explorer SE Pro, and now the E-trac, but really my finds didn't increase right away at all. I would say they started increasing when I started getting out to better hunting sites, and when I learned my detector better.

You should take this winter time to learn EVERYTHING you can about researching older sites. Find all of the old aerial imagery sites, and old map sites, and start looking for history of your town and what went on back in the 1800's and early 1900's. LowBatts is from Elgin and can probably give you an earful about it's history.

I'll get you started with a couple links to 1937-39 flyover images:

Aerial photos:
http://www.isgs.uiuc.edu/nsdihome/webdocs/ilhap/county/

MrSID Viewer:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/downloads/sid_win_viewer.exe

There are a lot of things to learn... try to do a lot of reading this winter. Ask specific questions and try to learn everything you can about a particular resource before moving on to learning another one.

Good luck!

 

[Brett]

I should have also asked, what do you think would be "more successful"? Are you finding lots of clad coins but no silver or gold? Are you concerned you are not going deep enough or able to hunt in trash effectively? Whatever it is I'm sure the members here will have lots of suggestions for you

 

[mikewaz]

Hi Andy and welcome to the forum!

You've come to the right place as you'll soon find out. Just post your questions or tag along on a hunt.
Mike

 

[Lowbatts]

Hey Andy just shoot me an e-mail when it warms up. I was over at Lord's Park today hitting the backside of the hill until I got the chill on. Lots of multi-coin spills such as two or three quarters at a time come out of the flat behind the basketball courts there as it was a large group gathering area through the late 70's and early 80's. But save that ground for when it's more pliable.

There's a few of us that stick around locally so we'll hook up when it warms up for sure. I'll playing in shallow water and mud until then as the opportunity arises.

 

[treasurefiend]

Glad you joined up. Don't dismiss the Ace, it is a great little machine.

 

[twistidd]

The Ace is awesome! If you really want a lower end detector, go to Radio Shack and buy one of those pieces of --deleted--! Man, I used one of those for years. For a long time I was --deleted-- and didn't know about how many different types of detectors there were. I bought the Ace as an upgrade and I am sure glad I did. It is a lot better than a lot of other detectors, for sure.

Joe

 

[sniffer]

do your research, find places that are tougher or harder to get to, places that are easy to get to have usually been hunted quite a bit JMO

 

[twistidd]

The Ace is awesome! If you really want a lower end detector, go to Radio Shack and buy one of those pieces of --deleted--! Man, I used one of those for years. For a long time I was --deleted-- and didn't know about how many different types of detectors there were. I bought the Ace as an upgrade and I am sure glad I did. It is a lot better than a lot of other detectors, for sure.

Joe


Who is running this site? Nazis? I can't say ignorant? That's ig nor ant in case they want to delete it again. What a load of crap.

Cheers!

Joe <----might as well censor that too

 

[Lowbatts]

The Ace is awesome! If you really want a lower end detector, go to Radio Shack and buy one of those pieces of --deleted--! Man, I used one of those for years. For a long time I was --deleted-- and didn't know about how many different types of detectors there were. I bought the Ace as an upgrade and I am sure glad I did. It is a lot better than a lot of other detectors, for sure.

Joe


Who is running this site? Nazis? I can't say --deleted--? That's ig nor ant in case they want to delete it again. What a load of crap.

Cheers!

Joe <----might as well censor that too

Now come on Joe, this is a family friendly site and I really trust Jeff of PA, he's proven his nettiquite many times over and been a great help to newbs and vets alike.

 

[Goose-0]

Is there a park in Elgin called 'Wing ParK'?

 

[trash n cash]

yeah, rt. 31 to wing st. turn west drive 1/2 mile till you come to the park on the right side.

 

[Goose-0]

Why I mentioned Wing Park is because many, many snows ago, my dad used to drive from Chicago (Harlem/Addison) to Elgin with the family for a picnic at that park many times. Now I'm talkin' over 3 score yrs ago. There must be some good detecting there. If I ever get to that area, I would detect that park....I escaped from Illinois 30+ yrs ago and moved to Minnesota.

 

[Lowbatts]

Yeah Wing Park has plentiful history but all the good stuff that remains requires great attention to detail to coax out of the ground. Only a couple very good areas remain, I know they're very good because they're very trashy and have been left for the patient digger. Most of the rest holds only deeper targets. I've pulled several hundred silver coins out of there over the years.

 

[Goose-0]

Some of that silver could have been lost by our family. We were there I'd say from 1946 to around 1951. Then around 1968, MY family & I went there......just once. Boy did it CHANGE! I won't go into it though.

 

[Lowbatts]

Sadly to some Wing Park and Lords Park in Elgin have become places to avoid. Partly because the goodies are not what they used to be, but I think it's something other than that. I find a lot of people around here don't want to admit that they are "progressive" or "liberal" or something like. Seems their preoccupation with certain social or economic themes precludes their desire to detect. Probably because those people are opposed to things like the death penalty.

With the aforementioned parks having such a huge rise in the number of pinada executions some of the candle burners just can't seem to stomach it. But I hunt there, sometimes I come into a spot where there's been mulitiple pinada executions and yeah, it's not always pretty, the candy, confetti and sometimes even the partial carcas of the pinada remain right where they spilled their guts. It's okay! You see I've learned something other detectorists haven't, that's where those Sacajouija dollars come from! That's right. Pinada's are bred for their ability to create Saca's in their belly. They are then ritually killed to obtain those coins which are then put them into circulation.

While I enjoy hunting those sites, I'm not a monster praying on the dirty deeds of others. I have a heart too. And whenever we shop a place like, say Woodman's, where there's pinada's available in the foreign food aisle, we buy one every once in a while and set it free.

 

[Goose-0]

You hit the nail on the head Lowbatts......the place was a pig pen (1968).....chicken bones all over, beer cans, booze bottles, etc. I might go back and see if I can find the barb wire fence that was electrified when my brother had to go. It was on the S side and ran for 1/2 mile....but I guess there are buildings there now. Boy O Boy, did I feel sorry for him at the time.

 

[Lowbatts]

Well the parks are actually cleaner and nicer now than they were from the late 60's to the early 90's. I remembersometime in the mid-late 90's there were gangs from Chicago to Rockford to Aurora and possibly further coming there to have basketball tournaments. Put it this way, no one was allowed to play at the courts unless they were part of one of those gangs. You'd have 300 people around two courts three days a week. The other days I'd be there chasing the bling. Cops stepped in and closed the hoops for about 3 months until only the local kids came to play. Come on out whenever!