Lejeuene, Congrats on your new machine! As I was reading all of these posts, I kept thinking about the wisdom of learning "how" to use the detector......whatever detector anyone may choose. I have a golden olde'. A White's 800 classic id. I received it two christmas' ago from my dad who has a minelab (he loves his explorer). I talk to a lot of detectorist in my area who have newer, more expensive, state of the art machines, and I find as much, and in many cases MORE treasure than they do. Why? I know my machine and I have a great work ethic. I like to find coins (turned in almost $300.00 in clad last year). I LOVE to find jewelry! Last year I found 72 rings, 5 silver crosses/1 gold. This year I have found 5 rings so far. I am sure the following is WAY more than you actually asked for; however, this is what works for me:
1. Choose a place to hunt that you know for a fact LOTS of people go for recreation.
2. Check the hole after finding a coin or jewelry. Yep, nothing will put your underwear in a bunch more than having your metal detecting buddy find a quarter(s) in a hole you dug with your blood, sweat, and tears, because you were in a hurry to detect the rest of the area. Not that has ever happened to me personally….ehem…..
3. Trash is good (when you have a small coil). Yes, you read correctly, trash is good! Trash tells me that people have been in the area I am hunting. The amount tells me HOW many people go there. The KIND of trash has helped me date the area I am hunting (old pull tabs vs. new, old popbottles, etc). I especially like to see beer, or wine trash! Those folks don’t know how NOT to lose their money and jewelry at the beach. Twisted, I know, but it works for me!
3. I usually find more at the beginning of a hunt than at the end. I think I have an idea of why that is true for me. At the beginning of a hunt I swing slow and low. At the end of the hunt I am kind of making a happy face with my coil, know what I mean? At the beginning of the hunt I dig EVERYTHING. At the end, just the “good sounds.” I usually grid the area out in the beginning. At the end of the hunt, I just kind of willy-nilly it.
4. Speakinig of Gridding the area! I have proven it to myself time and again that I will find more coins and jewelry when I take the time to grid out the area I am going to hunt. When I grid, I miss less treasure. The number one thing my fellow detectorist don't seem to want to do, is grid. I was hunting an area a treasure club hunts a lot and one of the detectorist told me to not waste my time (he wasn't being snarky...he really was trying to be nice), because they have hunted it out! I smiled and said thank you, but continued to hunt in a grid. I found a gold ring by a bunch of poptops......Notice I didn’t say I would get ALL treasure! Which brings me to number 5....
5. No place is ever hunted out. I tried to hunt out an area, and what I found was that nature can cover, and uncover treasure. An area that has 2 or 3 inches of sand or soil removed WILL equal more coins and treasure. People will also continue to lose things in a hunted out area. Case and point: I found my 2nd gold ring last year in an area I would have bet $$$ you wouldn't be able to find coins, or jewelry becuase I hunt it once a week. I have pulled cans, tabs, tokens, coins and silver; and yet, this week, there it was under a rock I had been avoiding with my coil. Which brings me to six...
6. There is treasure by trees, bushes, and big rocks. I have found many a coin and ring by, and under this stuff. If I am in a good area (one that is producing coins) I will move these things if I can. If not, I swing all around them and listen for tone or whisper.
7. Finding lots of quarters or keys means I have found an area that is not hunted much by other detectorists! They will miss dimes, and nickels; but, they don't consitently miss quarters or keys. Has anyone else surmised this as well? I have also found that when I find a lot of quarters in a hunting area that I find jewelry too.
8. Treasure is in the eye of the beholder! I never, and I mean NEVER have a bad hunt. I have hunts where I find more, or better treasure than others; however, just being outdoors in the fresh air is wonderful. I like the physical activity, and the joy of the hunt. The anticipation of the dig. That's what keeps me interested in the MDing.
9. Turn down the discrimination. I remember how excited I was to have a machine that would cancel out/discriminate trash. Woo-hoo! I would only find coins and treasure. Not true....I have an older whites classic. When I use high discrimination, I lose depth. Plus, trash will mask the good stuff. PERIOD! The only time I use discrimination is when I have less than an hour to hunt, or I am feeling discouraged from digging to much trash. I flip over to discriminate, find a few coins or whatever, and back to no discrimination I go! I will also put the detector on discriminate to case out a new hunting area. If I find clad and/or silver, I turn down the discrimination and start digging trash.
10. Gold sounds and looks like foil or a nickel! Did I mention to turn down the discrimination and dig everything? Enough said!
11. Depth. I think how much depth you need is based on what you're hunting, where you are hunting! For me, because of my dad's machine (explorer: which by the way can hear sounds at the center of the earth's core), I know I may be missing some deeper targets (8 inches or more)... However, most of my good finds have been no more than 5 to six inches deep......I hunt at a fresh water lake that has sand and rocks.
12. Hunting alone. Being females we have to be very careful when hunting. I walk tall (I am about 5' 10") and carry a wicked looking knife for digging, or if need be, carving me up a little "would be" threat to my metal detecting day. Seriously.....I never go out without letting my husband know where I am. I carry my cell phone at all times. I have a detecting buddy. When she can't go out with me, I only hunt when I know some people will be where I am hunting. Safety in numbers......I do get a few more questions from folks, but I have also found some new places to hunt by talking to them.
Hope this was helpful! HH
