Question to the veteran hunters

[$stinger]

I wanted to ask all you veteran hunters out there in general where do you have more success fields and places with lots of ground to cover or smaller yards?

 

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[ARC]

Not to reply with such a general answer to your question...

But cool stuff is where you find it.
There is no rhyme or reason to it.

Ever heard the phrase "Size does not matter". heh well in this case it is true.

 

[rick67]

If I'm in what used to be a field. The spot I go first is the ends. You'll know when you find it from all the noise.

 

[FreeBirdTim]

Public places (parks, baseball fields, schools) have more potential for a large amount of good finds, regardless of size. But the down side is that most have been hunted to death. Finding public land that hasn't been hit too hard is the key. And finding old, untouched public land with large areas to check is the Holy Grail of metal detecting.

I've had limited success with private property, but all of them were small properties (less than three acres). You may get a few old coins and relics, but the quantity is rarely there. The amount of finds per acre is much lower than what you would find at a public spot.

For example, my house was built in the early 1930's. Thought I'd find a ton of good coins and when I first detected it. Nope. Just found 1 Barber dime, 1 Merc and a few pre-1920 wheaties. No big silver and just 2 measly silver coins! This place has been in my family since 1965, so I'm positive it hadn't been detected before.

This is just my personal take on it. Your results may vary...

 

[boogeyman]

AARC put it very good! There's no hard set rule. That's one of the really cool things about detecting, you can search 20 different fields and every one will be different. Makes it hard to get bored with the search!

1. research
2. search and go back and search at a later time/day. Almost guaranteed you missed a lot for one reason or the other.
3. Don't rush! especially if finds are far & few between.

Try kicking back and look over the area. Ask yourself "If I were" if you're shortcutting, or playing or roughhousing where would you go. Don't count on finding something every 2' like the folks on TV. Remember! the shows are edited for entertainment value. The 10 or 15 finds they found on that episode might've taken them 4 or 5 days.

 

[Terry Soloman]

The vast majority of my gold and silver jewelry finds are at the beach (both salt- & fresh- water).

When dirt hunting, it goes Sports fields; Parks; Private permissions.

Honestly, location is everything. I'll take a virgin location over the best metal detecting technology every time.

 

[luvsdux]

Locations where numerous people have been active over the years are the best choices for coins and jewelry. However, as mentioned above, you may find that "keeper" most any place. Even where it would seem very unlikely.
luvsdux

 

[Oddjob]

I hunt for profit, so I stay away from fields as they do not pay out as much. Beaches, river banks, diving or places that folks like to show off how much they can drink and loose stuff.

 

[foiler]

First I say this: When you have a basket full of eggs and the promise of many more eggs tomorrow, you may not be so concerned with the care of the eggs in that basket. If one or two fall and break, well plenty more tomorrow. Then I tell you this: Ingrid was a farm wife in Kansas. It was 1933, the Great Depression was in full force. She dropped a nickle one day near the steps to her back porch. Had found it in her husbands pants pocket will hanging the clothes to dry. She hunted for it but couldn't find it. For the next 7 weeks she hunted for that nickle every spare moment she had until she found it. Unlike the basket of eggs, there weren't many nickles in her future. Human behavior determines what is found in the ground. Use it to research your locations to your advantage.

 

[fistfulladirt]

I've hunted dozens of farm yards. If there are good finds, they're usually in the front yard. Three out of four don't produce much of anything worthwhile. Some don't even give up a single coin, including civil-war era homes. Not that these weren't virgin sites, (there are very few, as yards were hit ever since detecting became popular, I hit yards with my White's back in the mid-late 1970's), but people back then didn't have a lot of money to lose. The best yards are residential city-folk yards.

My best spots have been public gathering areas such as old parks and ball fields. Everything from silver dollars to large cents and everything in between.

 

[$stinger]

My home was built in the late 40's after the war. I didn't find one silver coin in my yard just a lot of clad turns out in the 80's a lady did piano lessons in the home. I did find a WW2 army air corps bracelet this was one of my first big finds. Then smack dab in the middle a 1830 large cent. I was able to find the daughter of the man who lost the bracelet and returned it to her. She was amazed I took the time to find her and return it. Even though I don't have it anymore still one of my favorites. Thanks for the replies I was just throwing it out there to see where you all had more luck.

 

[boogeyman]

I hunt for profit, so I stay away from fields as they do not pay out as much. Beaches, river banks, diving or places that folks like to show off how much they can drink and loose stuff.

And don't forget the nice ones that slather on the copper tone to give you a better shot at the rings!!! Or the smarter ones who take off their chains & rings and tuck them safely in the corner of their blanket so they don't lose them in the water!

 

[BigWaveDave]

If I am not in the yard of an old home.....I find myself wishing I was....

 

[$stinger]

If I am not in the yard of an old home.....I find myself wishing I was....

I agree Dave I travel an average of an hour each direction to work and find myself eyeballing houses and old farms along the way!

 

[Loco-Digger]

I live in Northern Ohio and most of the public lands and prominent private properties have been pounded over the decades (since the 70's). If you want clad, I mean tons of it, find the out of the way parks or defunct football fields that have some age. One football field at an old school and a park in a smaller town both produced over $200 each. The older FB field and adjoining school also gave up some nice keepers (the oldest being an 1894 Barber quarter). The majority of my keeper coins have come from private permissions (in town) that are old or within a lot or 2 of old properties. For instance I dug a LC in the front yard of a house built in the 1940's, but it is next door to a house that was built in the 1850's. My virgin sites are off the main streets but on the 1874 Atlas. I feel lucky to be in my area since there are county maps and atlases that date 1874 or earlier and show where all the houses and businesses were. I have researched other areas like Colorado and Charlotte NC and neither have as good of old maps nor atlases like my area. Sometimes I hunt farm fields, but have yet to pull any coin older than a 1964 Lincoln. I also hunt fresh water beaches, they do not produce like the tourist attracting coastal ocean beaches, but are fun to hunt especially during the hot dry month of August, when it's too dry to hunt permissions.