Should I dig ALL the signals??

[gold chick]

I have found some interesting detecting spots that I will hit this summer (when the snow melts) in Montana.

I found an old mining town that had a few thousand residents in and out in the late 1800s. There was a brothel, bar, grocery, livery, and houses, let alone the actual mines.

My question is if I should dig every hit? Pretty sure I have read that its the thing to do. But in Montana, time is very limited in the mountains, and these old mining locations will be full of nails and miners' garbage.

Should I dig up all targets? As you can see, there is a lot of ground to cover.

 

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[Toecutter]

New sites I cherry pick, if I like the new spot Ill cherry pick till the cherries are gone then if I still like the new area I go after the lower tone stuff...

 

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[SanMan]

Old fire insurance records will help map out the area.

 

[Molewacker]

Perhaps you could do some screening to clear out surface junk instead of a nail at a time. It might also help to ID productive areas quicker.

 

[Davers]

Thanks for all the great tips. I guess I'm already feeling overwhelmed with the site, especially since I have found several unclaimed public land sites that are beckoning me.

I feel like a site like this could take months, if not years, to fully cover. It's about 7000 feet elevation, giving me maybe a three month window in montana to dirtfish.

Maybe I should do a cherry pick sweep then go back to hot targets?

That's what I would do , & you can still pick up the Big Iron tools before going back to get the deep and small items. GL

 

[Aeds151]

Good info. My detector likes to register a lot of things as certain coins (penny/dine). I dig and its trash. Then it will indicate “tabs” and I have found coins so I have decided to dig everything. It does get tiring though.

 

[bc5391]

a lot of great ideas posted, I keep going back to sites I have found and I am still digging nails. My next trip I will take a rake and work an area before I start detecting.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Been digging since '83.

Took some time off since then, but found a whole lot more when I was digging every solid hit, than I do now when selectively digging based on modern electronics....

 

[Treasureman25]

I will tell you this GC...

People are always looking for "shortcuts"... or to get around a whole lot of digging junk.

But in reality... there are no real shortcuts that pay really well in life.

Simplistic "law of nature".

Get used to digging and digging...

IF you want to find shortcuts...

Find them in the digging and you will eventually find what others have missed or would not have found.

I concur!

 

[CarsonChris]

I have about a year of learning my machine. I keep hearing about the depth of finds that an equinox has but haven’t found items that deep because I always look for a repeatable signal. Last night I stopped looking for repeatable signals and went by tone. 3 out of 4 targets were coins masked by nails. Some of the deep signals that have high tone weren’t coins but were high conductors they were down 10-12”. They had no VDI but gave the sound. I will be digging more off sound and less off VDI going forward.

 

[gold chick]

I will tell you this GC...

People are always looking for "shortcuts"... or to get around a whole lot of digging junk.

But in reality... there are no real shortcuts that pay really well in life.

Simplistic "law of nature".

Get used to digging and digging...

IF you want to find shortcuts...

Find them in the digging and you will eventually find what others have missed or would not have found.

This is the real advice here: there are no shortcuts. From what I have been reading, the valuables are mixed in with the junk. Coins in a tin can. Old nails by jewelry, etc. There is no way to discern what is good and bad, especially in the area I have found. Tons of mining traffic, collapsed buildings, etc.

I do think I will do a first pass in an area, just to get the feel for it, and cherry pick. And then keep digging targets, layer by layer.

Should be an interesting summer!

 

[cyzak]

That is why I tell new folks getting into metal detecting get ya a cheap machine to start off because you will either love it or hate it.