They Say There Are No Dumb Questions

[Stringtyer]

I certainly hope it's true that there are no dumb questions because I'm going to ask what may be one. As I have said in previous posts, I am new to serious metal detecting. My previous MD'ing has been just sort of banging around with a very inexpensive detector my wife gave me a few years ago. I've recently purchased a couple of nice machines and have secured a few permissions.

I've gotten the idea in reading many posts that most of you are working a site over a period of several days (at least). My question is, how do y'all go about doing a systematic search of an area? I am thinking about using a smaller version of search and rescue grids to mark off the property and doing a thorough search in each area.

I think my main issue is that I haven't developed the patience I need in order to do a good search of an area. Any suggestions will be welcomed.

 

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[Carolina Tom]

Grid search is the way to go. Do the same area from multiple directions. Locodigger takes tennis balls with him to mark his "lanes". He moves the ball when he finishes a pass. Works well, but looks goofy to me, like the tennis balls fell off of someone's walker!

I usually meander around, I don't have the patience either.

 

[sprailroad]

I'd have to go with Carolina Tom, his post did make me laugh. To grid?, for me if it is a small area, well.....for me a very small area, otherwise it would seem that I just kind of aimlessly wander around as though I need to pin a note on my shirt with name and phone number on it, saying..........If found, please call........

 

[Stringtyer]

... it would seem that I just kind of aimlessly wander around as though I need to pin a note on my shirt with name and phone number on it, saying..........If found, please call........

I'm glad to hear that I am not the only one! Any time I forget anything, my daughters ask me if it's time for them to take me to the home. I gently remind them that I still have the capacity to change my will and that they should be nicer to me. They remind me that they will be choosing my nursing home. Seems like a stalemate!

@Carolina Tom ... I like the idea of a movable grid that doesn't leave marks on someone else's property. Now, off to the garage to come up with some easy-to-use portable grid system. I'm thinking of a 12' x 12' grid.

After so many years of working in jobs that required me to change directions at the drop of a hat, this whole slow and deliberate discipline is going to take some time. Patience, I have been told, is a virtue.

 

[Ammoman]

I do search my permissions in a grid pattern but I don't mark them off with rope or balls or anything. I follow the landscape and use trees and bushes and other things to mark where I am going. I can also look back in grassy areas and see where I have been by looking at the footprints I have created while taking short steps. Those footprints become my line to follow. I grid as I go so valuable swing time is not wasted.

 

[releventchair]

I focus more on my coils pattern. Keeping it level and overlapping previous swings. Though not swinging like a non electric weed whip.
I can usually see where I have been from wheelchair tracks. The side nearest last pass gets a slight overlap too.

Either a small area is worked from two directions the same day ,or a larger area is visited another day to work across from a different direction than last time.
A bite at a time ,instead of trying to cover from the truck to the horizon......

If a site within a site has been located by homework/ research , it can get a meandering survey if large; and then get gridded if a recovery confirms the why here.
Otherwise it gets broken into sections that can be covered with time allotted.

 

[Carolina Tom]

I'm glad to hear that I am not the only one! Any time I forget anything, my daughters ask me if it's time for them to take me to the home. I gently remind them that I still have the capacity to change my will and that they should be nicer to me. They remind me that they will be choosing my nursing home. Seems like a stalemate!

@Carolina Tom ... I like the idea of a movable grid that doesn't leave marks on someone else's property. Now, off to the garage to come up with some easy-to-use portable grid system. I'm thinking of a 12' x 12' grid.

After so many years of working in jobs that required me to change directions at the drop of a hat, this whole slow and deliberate discipline is going to take some time. Patience, I have been told, is a virtue.

Try the tennis balls, or any other small visible object. It looked like it worked well, and you can kick the tennis ball over a few feet, without bending over. I think that 12' x 12' is too small. You want it to look like a bowling alley, slender and long, so that one or two passes covers the width, then move all of the balls 6 Ft. to the left or right and repeat.

Good luck brother. You are only 3.5 hours away, so if you need help, just let me know.

 

[RTR]

Ditto on a grid pattern.Take a large area and knock it down one chunk at a time.Also these come in handy if your coming back a few days later
>> https://www.lowes.com/pd/Presco-15-...pShpPswQz6p0D60qI_X97tml6YeY0D_4aAvcpEALw_wcB

 

[Bodkin]

Yes, is does take discipline and patience (and like most, I have neither). I have found though unless I do a grid search I will always have a burning feeling that I've missed something. Although I'm a complete techno idiot, I've been using my cell phone to do GPS marks and quick pictures to come back later to and pick up where I've left off. Orange surveyors tape around four trees will give you an instant grid of sorts to work, especially if you have permission property to work on. On the beaches, obviously your foot prints give you the grid you need. Again, I take pictures and GPS marks of where I've been so I can come back, line things up, and continue my search. This seems to work for me in that now I can sleep through the night knowing I did my best not to miss an area.

 

[Stringtyer]

I think that 12' x 12' is too small. You want it to look like a bowling alley, slender and long, so that one or two passes covers the width, then move all of the balls 6 Ft. to the left or right and repeat.

Thanks for the bowling alley suggestion. Makes perfect sense to me. Again, I have so much to learn and I appreciate all the help I can get.

I’m working at learning what the beeps and numbers on my EQ-600 are trying to tell me. Right now, my routine is been and dig. So many beer caps and can tabs at the fairgrounds where fraternities park for football games. Looks like someone would drop some change or jewelry now and then!

 

[Carolina Tom]

Thanks for the bowling alley suggestion. Makes perfect sense to me. Again, I have so much to learn and I appreciate all the help I can get.

I’m working at learning what the beeps and numbers on my EQ-600 are trying to tell me. Right now, my routine is been and dig. So many beer caps and can tabs at the fairgrounds where fraternities park for football games. Looks like someone would drop some change or jewelry now and then!

The other gents helped me when I was getting started, they still help me to this day. I am glad to help.

Most of us try to dig all of the repeatable targets and some of the intermittently signaling targets. At trashy places, it might not be possible, and certainly isn't fun. At a good older spot, you MUST dig it all. You WILL find good stuff that sounds like foil and can slaw.

One thing to learn quickly is that this NOT a hobby of treasure and metal detectors, it's hobby of trash and shovels! The shovel proves what the machine speculates about. OK, enough of that.

A test garden with known buried targets and trash, can be insightful, when learning a new machine.

Good luck to you sir!

 

[Loco-Digger]

The tennis ball work great in an area where there aren't any mower tracks. Space them out it a line and when you come up to one use your coil to sweep it over to the end of your sweep and continue to the next tennis ball.

 

[BeenFishin]

Keep in mind I only started two years ago. Ive come to find the gridding to be the most productive. As far as everyone here probably knows, a property can never be completely hunted out. Ive hit the same place over 30 times and it produces every time. I usually do a cherry picking grid the first time and only dig the good targets. Of course you would want to do this in multiple directions several times. Then after there are no good signals left i start digging the lower tones and eventually i dig up high iron signals and then the low iron signals. I have found many good targets hiding under iron and foil signals. Not to mention gold rings come in around the foil range. There are usually a higher concentration of nails around houses because of roofers. But there is also a higher concentration of good targets hiding around the iron. If you want my NOVICE opinion i would say do what i do and grid out a yard. You can do it over and over again and still find stuff. And when you upgrade your detector you can hit the property all over again! It gets to be a pain in the butt in farm fields but i usually just turn up a clump of dirt every 10 feet or so so i can see where im going.

Also in my opinion i think there are a lot of variables that determine what you will find. Day of the week, humidity, ground saturation, wind, solar wind, local EMI, time of day. Ive gone over spots so many times and somehow keep getting different signals on different days during different conditions. Its really unexplained if you ask me. But some of these pros know more about it then me.

 

[Jesse James]

I do search my permissions in a grid pattern but I don't mark them off with rope or balls or anything. I follow the landscape and use trees and bushes and other things to mark where I am going. I can also look back in grassy areas and see where I have been by looking at the footprints I have created while taking short steps. Those footprints become my line to follow. I grid as I go so valuable swing time is not wasted.

I use exactly your same technique. It works well.

 

[cudamark]

For large search areas without many natural markers, I use some tiny orange traffic type rubber cones. They're easy to slide to the side with your coil once you reach the end of each pass. If you are searching an area with lots of leaves or other debris, they seem to stand out better than other things I've used.

 

[Waterbug]

I have used the surveyor flags on my grid pattern for many years. I cut the wire to 6" and have a place in my belt bag to carry a hand full of them.

 

[GA_Boy]

I have used the surveyor flags on my grid pattern for many years. I cut the wire to 6" and have a place in my belt bag to carry a hand full of them.

Sounds like a winner.
Marvin

 

[Ogre1190]

I have used the surveyor flags on my grid pattern for many years. I cut the wire to 6" and have a place in my belt bag to carry a hand full of them.

Exactly what I do when gridding. Just keep hopscotching the back pair of flags. 😁

 

[Normsel]

I either use small flags like they use to mark buried phone and electrical lines or I use landmarks and focus on a spot each pass. I did a 60 acre soccer park one time and it took me 2 months to grid hunt it. One that site I used about 10 flags and moved one every pass.

I like the tennis ball idea and may try that.

 

[Msbeepbeep]

And go slowly. Also keep in mind that after rain or winter frost heaves targets my now be within your detectors depth range.