seeded competition hunt

[azmetaldetector]

tomorrow, the MD club I belong to is hosting a competition hunt. They are going to bury over 700 gold and silver coins. In addition they are also burying tokens for prizes. This will be my first hunt like this so I was wondering if any of you that have ever particiapted in something like this can give me some pointers, especially on the quickest way to retireve the target. We are in the Phx, AZ area and where they are byurying this stuff is basically hard dirt (it hasn't rained her in like 4 months) and it won't be in irrigated, grassy area. One of the members told me to buy some small pick that they sell at Home Depot, so I'll look into that. I guess they just turn up the soil real quick with that sinc eth coin isn't buried deep and that's quick. Other than that I plan on turning disc way up and sensitivity way down to avoid picking up other signals.
any other tips?

 

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[Gypsy Heart]

Good Luck on the hunt......one thing is....if they buried the coins ...its not going to be rock hard dirt that you will be 'redigging' it up from unless they buried this stuff months ago. I would dig everywhere it beeped...and if you didnt hit it quick then eliminate it.....because as you said they werent burying them deep....
Our town celebrated its 200 yrs and hid silver commemorative tokens all over the park for the kids to find...I went a week after the celebration and dug twelve of them out of the sandbox and am still finding them a year later....nice that they are also in plastic cases!

 

[stoney56]

skane, watch for the disturbed areas of soil. They usually make a little slit ad slide the coins in at an angle. High disc. is good as well as the low sens. Some of the spots can be seen w/o even detecting. They probably won't allow scratchers so you can use a knife and flip them out with the tip or even pluck 'em out with your fingers. Most hunts don't put the actual gold coins in the ground but use a painted coin or stamped coin as a substitute and then are redeemed after the hunt. Work fast but don't wear yourself out too quick as most fields are pretty well cleared in 15-20 min. You might want to take a couple of aspirin before the hunt. Makes you forget about aches and pains till later. Work from one side to the middle and then work the center area, finally be sure to work the starting line all around the perimeter as a lot get missed since everyone gets in a hurry to get to the middle. Best of luck and let us know how you did.

 

[TORRERO]

Make no mistake about it,....
I would not set my discrimanation high because when we did our hunt, the
tokens that went for the prizes came up in the mid range on discrim...
those tokens are worth more that the silver you will find...
Also the area you will be hunting will almost certainly be devoid of other targets....
I did real well with my Tesoro U-max and set the descrim low and dug anything that pinged
loudly in my ears...
Non of this will be deep, so all will sound stong and clear...
I think I got 35 silver coins and 2-3 tokens.... in our hunt.
Good luck..

 

[stoney56]

Torrero, it depends on what they use for tokens. The ones I go to use stamped silver dimes for tokens and in a gold coin/wheat hunt, they use wheaties and painted wheaties. Always ask what the prize tokens are going to be-they will also let you know before the hunt also-adjust accordingly.

 

[azmetaldetector]

skane, watch for the disturbed areas of soil. They usually make a little slit ad slide the coins in at an angle. High disc. is good as well as the low sens. Some of the spots can be seen w/o even detecting. They probably won't allow scratchers so you can use a knife and flip them out with the tip or even pluck 'em out with your fingers. Most hunts don't put the actual gold coins in the ground but use a painted coin or stamped coin as a substitute and then are redeemed after the hunt. Work fast but don't wear yourself out too quick as most fields are pretty well cleared in 15-20 min. You might want to take a couple of aspirin before the hunt. Makes you forget about aches and pains till later. Work from one side to the middle and then work the center area, finally be sure to work the starting line all around the perimeter as a lot get missed since everyone gets in a hurry to get to the middle. Best of luck and let us know how you did.?

Thanks for the information everyone. Here are the results. 30 hunters in an area about the size of a football field. 650+ silver coins and 100 tokens for prizes.
I claimed 34 silver dimes, 3 silver halves,8 silver quarters and 4 prize tokens for a total of 49 finds. From what I could see from the list I found the most. Unfortunately, I found tokens with the numbers 18 21, 81 and 98 so I only got a couple of good prizes, in fact when #98 rolled around, there was nothing but junk left to choose from so I just passed. I had fun and it was nice to have some silver coins as I haven't found any on my own except a 1942 S war nickel (35% silver).....

 

[stoney56]

Skane, that's great! Glad to hear you enjoyed it. You definitely got more than your fair share. Seeded hunts aren't for everyone. Some don't like the idea of paying for the privilege of digging up planted silver, I guess that they'd rather find just one mercury dime in the wild than to run around a football sized area looking for pre-planted ones. Just glad to hear how ya did. HH however ya do it!