The Biggest Secret In Metal Detecting!

[bigscoop]

The Gravity Of The Situation:


Most seasoned detectorist are aware of this but for those detectorist who aren't this is something one should always keep in mind because it can certainly lead you to more good recoveries. And this is true be it on land, at the beach, and even in the water.

Take a quarter and hold it out away from your body, now let go of it and it will fall to the ground, this rate of fall varying depending on the density and the resistance of the item being dropped. Pretty darn basic physics.

BUT, even though these items stop falling when they hit the ground gravity is still, and always, trying to pull those items closer. This is why they remain on the ground. Now then, what might happen over a long period of years if this ground is soft or not very dense? Well, those items are just going to continue to get pulled deeper and deeper until they reach a point where something is in the way to stop them, or until they reach a point where the density of the matrix is equal to, or greater than, that sinking item. See where all of this heading? Let me offer you a few examples as to just how important this gravity situation is.

Take those Florida beaches I use to hunt every day. At low tide one can walk out onto the newly exposed sand after it has drained a bit and that sand feels firm and hard. But if we go back out there after the tide has returned one can sink his scoop into that same area of beach with the easy of scooping butter. So once that water has returned and saturated that sand again items will begin to sink more quickly, and at times at an alarming rate, especially during the summer season when there is additional inches, and even additional feet, of soft fluffy sand on the beach.

And this same thing holds true on land as well. If that ground isn't very dense and it's easy to sink your digger into it for several inches or even a foot or more then the odds aren't very good that older items of value are going to be within our reach regardless how old that property might be. On the other hand, if that ground is firmer, maybe gravel and stone and root infested, or if it has been packed down over long period of years, then our odds of finding those older items start to increase. Of course, this is likely also going to mean the encountering of more trash for all of the same reasons, especially in places where there exist a long history of human use.

If you're finding pull-tabs and other lite items like those aluminum bottle caps at 4 or 5 inches, or more, then be suspect that the ground is simply too soft and too loose to support those older items. I know many such places that even have thick layers of grass and those surface roots but once you get below this layer it's not uncommon to recover those pull-tabs and aluminum bottle caps at 8-9” or more. So unless I'm just tooling around in search of recent drops I avoid these areas at all cost. The same being said of my beach hunting and water hunting too.

The following is the biggest secret in metal detecting. “Always keep your coil over those accessible firmer bottoms where those desirable items can settle and gather.” If you focus on nothing else this alone can make all the difference in the world in your metal detecting success.....Cheers!

 

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[Blak bart]

I'm often times amazed at what I don't find, that should be there....I've hunted beaches all over the Caribbean, and all the way north to newfoundland, and into the great lakes. The beaches in the Bahamas can swallow objects in a manner that leaves you baffled?? On top of the incredible sink rate through the sands there, the salt content of the ocean eats clad coins up at an alarming rate. The loose packed sand can pile up in places to 20 foot depths in a years time....come back in one year, and the whole area can be unrecognizable. Combine that with a metal dissolving salt and chemical content and there are black hole type beaches where you just can't find anything except something that's dropped in the last 24 hours....2 tide changes, some wind and foot traffic and everything is gone ?? It's still an enigma, and mystery after a lifetime of beach combing and detecting these sites across the Bahamas.....truly Bermuda triangle stuff. One new theory being floated regarding the "Bermuda triangle" mystery, is that strong spring tides, sweeping trillions of tons of silica sand back and forth across the Bahamas on a daily basis is creating a giant localized static charge that affects the entire magnetic field of the area !! This in turn affects everything from electronics and compass 🧭 readings, to even the gravitational effects on metal objects in this static induced magnetic field....I'm not sure I believe all this theory as of yet, but I'm telling you that things get sucked down through this sand much faster than other areas I've hunted. When you do find objects down deep, they are often corroded at an alarmingly fast rate compared to other areas I hunt...almost like leaving something to long in a reverse electrolysis bath !! If it's not to deep, it's just been dissolved....as if the sand is dissolving the object with a static induced electric charge amplified by salt and mineral content in the water....coins can become razor thin in a matter of months at some locations....these effects don't harm gold, or platinum, but do affect silver somewhat, and to a greater extent all the other metals....poof there gone to dust, and crumble in your hand.....if you knock the crust off a greenie here, you'll barley have a coin left. Thus I've discovered certain beaches that I just avoid unless a massive erosion event has taken place (hurricane type event). I have no explanation, just observation 😉

 

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[Bucket Lister]

It would be interesting to visit sites that track tremors and such.

Shouldn't be too difficult; tremors (and such) are monitored via USGS and other agencies' seismometers all over the globe.

Monitoring | U.S. Geological Survey

Global, national and regional networks recording earthquakes and crustal movements, maps, station information, and realtime seismic waveforms.

www.usgs.gov

Here's an example map of quakes in NYS.

 

[bigscoop]

The study of the matrix/substrate is really an ever-changing observation wherever we go. But it's that observation that can make all the difference in world in where we decide to detect and what we recover. "Consistent Succes" is what we should always be after and there's just a huge amount of territory and ground that can't offer us that. "If it isn't within range we can't detect it."