METAL DETECTING IN THE SNOW

We have had a few snowstorms up here in New England this year. It has been very mild and only a few inches of snow in the woods. Thats perfect conditions for  detecting in the woods. Yes old cart roads, fields and lawns are frozen. However wooded area’s are easily diggable.

      I grabbed my backpack , my shovel and Teknetics T2 and headed out into the woods. It was a warm 40 degrees at one of my favorite hunt site. I was only hovering over 2 to 5 inches of snow, so I was confident that the T2 would still grab a good deeper signal. After finding new bullet shells and some random shallow iron, I was wondering if I was going to find anything old. I got a good solid dime signal at about 8″ deep including the snow depth. After a few shovel fulls of dirt and snow, there popped out a nice little button. It was good to finally find something old. I have found a few coins at this site from the 1700′s.

       I decided I would go right next to the old foundation where there are a million iron signals. I wanted to see if I could pull a coin out of all the trash. After a few more modern bullet shells I started getting fustrated. I then got another decent signal, after digging through roots and rocks. I finally found it! I belive its an old pendant from a necklace. Its not a coin but still a very cool find. Made the trip worth it.

So if your not afraid of some cooler weather and your woods are not frozen solid. Get out your boots and gloves, and grab your detector, and head off to one of your favorite sites. Good Luck!!!!

 

 

 

            KEEP GOING BACK IN 2012

There are many cellar holes in the surrounding towns we hunt in. We usually try to cherry pick around the old foundation for a few hours, then move on to another spot. Some places will produce nothing but the usual junk, and other places will keep producing good finds. It can be impossible to tell how long the old settlers may have lived at these places. They may have burned down just a few years after being built, or may have been lived in for 100+ years. That is a big factor when it comes to trying to pull coins and relics. There is this one old foundation, where I have found many old military buttons like my 7th regement button  from the Revolutionary war, and cool relics but no coins yet. The button I found was with a Tesoro Cibola, and it was just a chirp of a signal but I dug it. Now thats my rarest button to date. I keep going back, because there is a coin or another old military button just waiting for me to dig it up.

      There maybe just a tiny little cellar hole that you know, and it may not look like much. It could produce some of the best coins and relics. Most of my oldest coins have come from tiny little foundations that do not look impressive at all. However if you hunt a place like this and don’t find anything your first outing, just leave it on the back burner for a bit. Then go back and hunt it again. You may be surprised what you, or others have missed. Same idea works for parks, beaches or other spots. Using other detectors or coils can also help find those goodies. My buddy is always pulling out large cents with his Garrett Ace 250 with the 6X9 coil. I’m impressed, how he keeps digging these old coins in trashy areas with this detector. He said its simple.The detector is simple and it just finds them. Now he is not finding them at blistering depths, just around the 6″ mark. So deeper and more exspensive detectors are not always the answer.

Its fun and exciting finding new cellar holes to hunt. But don’t forget about the ones you have already hit in the past. I know I won’t.

                                                                                     FALL  TREASURE HUNTING

This is the start of my favorite time of the year, cooler weather and less bugs. It makes for a more enjoyable experience while detecting in the woods. This past week I hunted a spot where the last time I had visted turned up nothing at all. The old foundation had no stone walls to give away its presence. I was just lucky and stumbled apon it one day. The first time I spent almost 2 hours digging, and didn’t even find a button. So I figured this place had very little activity and I was wasting my time so I left. I did not have much time today, so I wanted to hunt some where close. I decided to go back to that foundation and actually try to find something.

When I got there It sounded like there was a turkey fight going on, boy did that sound weird. Lately I have been testing a Fisher F2 with the 11″ DD coil and have had good sucess with it. So I fired up the F2 and started to swing slowly between the trees and rocks. I was determined to find something other then a shot gun shell today. I was Picking up iron signals here and there then finally.  My first signal was a faint but good signal, it was jumpin around in the 70′s and 80′s on the VDI. It was showing 8″ deep when I pinpointed the signal, I was loving this right away. I started out with digging a large plug, and flipping it off to the side. When I scanned the the plug, there was no signal. I started to make my hole wider and deeper. I then checked the dirt and now I had no signal in the hole or in my pile of dirt. This is not the first time this has happend to me or you guys I’m sure. So I knew I was getting close, I was guessing the signal was moved around and just fell deeper in the hole. Well a long story short, It took ten minutes for me to find my signal. Then that sweet sound came out of the hole in my last shovel full of dark dirt. I quickly grabed for it and notice I just found a nice readable date, 1802 Bust Large Cent. It looked like someone had clamped the coin and tried to hole it. However I did stab the coin at around 11 o clock with my shovel at some point.

I learned a few things today, First never leave home without your pinpointer. I probably would of found my coin faster and not have stabbed it. The second thing I learned was, when your digging in the woods, and you get one of those good deep signals, always dig your hole wider and deeper then you need to. This can help prevent stabbing any coins or other relics. The third thing I learned is if you plan on video taping your adventure make sure you have your memory card in your camera!! Yup it figures I left my memory card at home, so I was not able to video tape my finds. The final one was kinda of scary, After I found my coin I started swing again, then all of a sudden I heard a bunch of gun shots very close……. I yelled pretty loud so the hunter knew I was there. It is now bird season so wear orange and be careful out there during hunting season. So go out and enjoy the cool weather and minimum bugs, and go find something good!!

“VINTAGE METAL DETECTOR REVIEWS“

 Here at METAL DETECT AMERICA we are addicted to Metal Detecting  and Treasure Hunting.  We are going to put together Pages full of Vintage Metal Detector Reviews and Specs.  This may take some time to do, little more then a month or so.  Right now I have the list up  and I’m starting to fill them up.  Even though some detectors may be 2o years or older, they still work fantastic for Treasure Hunting.  As it is, we have many pages full of the more recent line of detectors that are out.  We have tried to review as many Metal Detectors we can get our hands on.  But we can only purchase so many detectors and review them every month.  So we are asking other Metal Detectorist, to review detectors they have used in the past or currently.  This helps our community provide valuable information on Detectors others maybe interested in purchasing.  Using the search bar is a easy way to find info on many of the Metal Detectors listed on this site.  There is also a list of Metal Detectors brands you can search on the right hand side of this page. 

    We are also going to make a page for exceptional finds that people have found. It’s always fun to show off your favorite finds.   While we keep up with New weekly articles and some new pages, we hope to find time to get out and dig some goodies too.  Hey the East Coast is getting hit by Irene right now……If you live near the coast, hit up the beaches after the storm.  There will be a lot of unearthed treasures to be found on the beach.  Just think of all those deeply buried coins, jewelry and artifacts that can be found.  Good Luck and Stayed Tuned.

                     JUST A FEW TIPS         

For your next old foundation hunt              

1. These coins and buttons are my better finds this week up here in New England.  They all have something in common.  They were found in iron infested sites that litter my neck of the woods.  While detecting around old foundations, many of the coins and relics are masked by iron.  I have used many detectors in sites like this,and have had some great finds.  One of the detectors I would love to try at a site like this is, Minelab E-trac. Most say this detector really shines in this situation. My latest detector I have been reviewing is the Fisher F2 with the 11″ DD coil.  This detector is an animal, when it comes to performance and price. The F2 in my opinion performs just as good as the higher prices detector. I run the detector wide open, accepting all metals. Let it make noise, and when you hear a tone that is not iron, DIG IT.  The narrow, yet long 11″ DD coil I belive is a great design while hunting in these areas (I also loved that coil with the T2).  The main reason why this detector works fairly well, is the coil and fast processing speed it has while working in the iron.  Its like a baby F75 or T2 .

When I hunt the area of a Cellar hole, I like to go around it first in a circular pattern. I run it in all metal mode, so I can hear everything. This is very important!   It may drive you crazy at first, but you will get used to it.  This allows me to hear the good tones in all the iron. You may only hear a little squeak or blip of a good tone. Those are the ones you want to dig. We all know that these spots are loaded with rusty nails and there could be a few hidden coins and relics.

2. Next I like to walk up and down in rows. Sometimes tracking the ground in a different direction, can pick up signals you may have not heard before.

This helped me find my Sweet little 1845 Half Dime, a 1803 Large Cent and Large Colonial Button(picture above). All with my Fisher F2, in a iron infested site. Dig all signals that are not iron. Even after the Half Dime came out of the hole, it was hard to find. It was due to the rusty nails I was unearthing. They were still masking it some.   Every old foundation has different obstacles, just work around them. Take your time and be methodical, if you rush you may miss the hidden treasures !

*also if there are sticks and small fallen branches and trees in your way. MOVE THEM

ALL YOU NEED IS A GOOD HUNTING SPOT AND YOU WILL FIND THE GOODS

Who says you need the newest top of the line detector to find old coins that our colonial ancestors lost. I have a friend who keeps unearthing 200+ year old coins with his Garrett Ace 250. We hunt pretty much the same neighboring towns, I use a Teknetics T2 or Garrett At Pro ” and many others” while he has been using the same Ace 250 for the past 2 years. He finds just as many Large Cents, Colonial coins like Fugio’s old silver and relics as I do or more.  “HE JUST HAS GOOD HUNTING SPOTS”  Now he is using a detector that has no manual ground balance,or super deep detecting capablilities like the E trac. He prefers the 6X9 stock coil over the 10X12, he gets alot better target separation with the smaller coil in the iron infested area’s of old cellar holes.

Watch the Video below of my friend destroying me with his Ace 250.

Now getting to know your machine is the first big step in finding old coins and relics. The Ace 250 is a basic machine, however using it in trashy area’s takes alittle practice to be able to pull coins out of the iron. For the most part alot of the old coins he has found at these old foundations have been in the 3 to 8 inch depth. And alot of the old coins I have found been at the same depth, yes I have found some large cents around the 10″ mark with my machines. But most of the large cent and coins like that have been no deeper then 8″. Now the soil here in New Hampshire is not heavy in minerals, so maybe the Ace 250 will shine alittle more here then places where the mineralization is hi.

Extra coils are very affordable for the Ace 250 and other detectors in the same price range, you can get sniper coils to get those coins in hard to reach trashy area’s. You can also get DD coils for the Ace and Fisher F2 models. Check out other entry level models from Teknetics,Minelab,Garrett,Whites,Tesoro and Bounty Hunter. I’m sure once you master one of these detector you will be finding some incredible stuff.

Ok now for the second part……..A Good Hunting Spot may be hard to find if you don’t know what to look for. First what kind of detecting do you like to do. Parks Beaches and Old foundations are what I like to do, my friend only does old cellar holes and fields. If you want to try your luck at old foundations, just get in your car or truck and start driving down some roads, look for stone walls and do some hiking in the woods and you will find them. I prefer old dirt roads and trails there the best spots to find them. This is where we find most of our hunting spots, deep in the woods. Just get permission if you plan on digging on someone’s property. If your a park hunter, just think outside the box, read my other articles on how to hunt parks for more info. To hunt Beaches you just got to work the crowd and the tide and you should walk home with some bling ! Then If you do some research you just might find a virgin picnic site or old hang out and you may be rewarded very well with hand fulls of old coins and jewelry. So get your self an affordable detector, learn it and use it at a good hunting spot and you will not be disappointed.

Have Fun

The Garrett At Pro or Con

Garrett’s At Pro has turned a lot of heads since it’s release late last year. It seems like the folks who have purchased one either hate it or love it. With its sleek look, rugged build,easy to use features and ability to dunk it in water. Garrett built a machine we have all been waiting for Right ? I think some people just bashed the At Pro without  giving  it  an honest run. I will give you my 2 cents on this machine.

I have used the At Pro off and on for the past 3 months now, and watched a good friend use it for just as long.  We have used it in the heavy Iron around cellar holes, old New Hampshire  city parks and fresh and salt water beaches with good success.

At first just like using any detector you need to get a hang of it. Since every detector has a learning curve, short or long. You need to use it and understand how it reacts to the metal in the ground we are all trying to find. Wow this thing is a deep machine ! I was impressed when I was already 8+ inches still looking for my target and I had to keep digging and there it is a big colonial button. Yes the signal was kinda jumpy 62 69 59 64 . However if it beeps and I like the tone in pro mode I will dig it. Jumpy #’s like this example is probably Iron 89 91 39 66 you will see this sometimes and its usually iron. However once again you may have a coin next to some iron nails and the detector could be reading both. So I like to listen to the signal at different angles and switch it to different modes before I dig. So the deeper the item is sometimes the jumper the ID #’s get. At first I really didn’t like it as a relic machine, but after a month of using it in the woods in New England I got a hang of it and I love it.

Parks have been very good to me, I have found most of my gold and silver there. I have also found my share of very old coins and relics as well. I think the At Pro rocks at park hunting. I use pro mode in all metal during my park hunts so I can hear all the metal in the ground. I have dug some coins at impressive depths for mid range priced detector. It is easy to pinpoint once you get used to it,very easy and accurate. The DD coil covers a lot of ground and is easy to dig targets that are close to each other. But it does take practice to be efficient with any metal detector. If the signal you hear is broken up and crackly its prob junk, but not all the time. It could be a coin on edge, deep small item, or just plain trash. Thats why when I’m out, I really like to dig all signals, but that’s the type of hunter I’am. Yes I dig a lot of trash, but I also find a lot of goodies. Just look at some of the video’s here with the At Pro In Action !

The Beach is a great place to relax and find some lost treasures or junk. I love this machine in fresh water, I spent today in chest deep water. I found some coins and some cheap jewelry,no gold or silver. But If it was under the coil the At Pro would have found it. I dug some quarters DEEP, How deep ? 3 or 4 scoops deep. The Picture above does not have any impressive finds, but it works great in the water.  Water Detecting and  digging is not easy, it is tough so I can see why people get disappointed when they don’t find anything. Now the ocean is only a 40 minute drive from my door step. What you need to understand this is not a multi frequency machine or is it a pulse induction. So yes you will get falsing even if you ground balance it. When I’m hunting salt water wet sand I turn the sensitivity half way down and notch out up to foil. This makes the machine run quieter with less falsing. But you are losing the ability to find small gold now. Yes I did dig some   at 6″ in the wet sand, so if there was gold there I would have found it. So if you want a salt machine get a PI or multi freq minelab or whites. In dry sand it goes just as deep as it would in dirt.

So the At pro may have some Jumpy #’s , a bit nose heavy with the DD coil, had some tech issues on the first models,and may like Iron.  My biggest thing is they should have put a volume adjustment on the machine. But the Pro’s out weigh the Con’s in my book.   It goes really deep,it is rugged, has good features like ground balance,ID #’s, pro mode and standard mode,good amount of coils available,and its water proof up to 10 feet.If you buy one use it and use it so you understand it and it will be good too you. If you’re not finding any thing good then just maybe you’re in a slump or your hunting spot has nothing there. At Pro has High end depth at a mid range cost and its has more capabilites than most detectors on the market. Good Luck and Go Find Something Good

“FIND MORE SILVER COINS“

We would all like to see a Variety of Silver Coins like this in our collection right. Well I have a few tips for everyone to help increase your chance on finding more silver in the city.

I would start out by detecting the parks you may have found silver coins in the past. What I have done at ”hunted out parks” is go near the road and side walks and hit those spots good.  Yes, there may be a lot of trash. However if you use a smaller coil it helps with better target separation. Most people tend to go straight for the middle of the park when detecting. I prefer the edges of the park and closer to the sidewalks. My favorite parts of the parks are the wooded areas! They have always produced well for me. Steep hills and embankments have been very good to me too. It is easy to lose coins when walking up or falling down hills. Most people do not prefer the steep hills because they are hard to detect. I find they are worth the time. Also some deep and small silver coins may not read on your detector as silver. So the saying “dig them all” applies here aswell.

My next tip for finding silver coins would be to research fishing spots or area’s where people fish today. People might have fished there long ago too.  A buddy of mine and I found a nice spot near a little river. Unfortunately there was junk all over the place; car parts, rusty metal, and other random junk. However there was silver coins to be found all over that spot. We found coins dated from the early 1900′s. Check out the video of that day! We sporting the Tesoro Vaquero and The Garrett AT Pro.

Another spot that everyone knows about is old fair grounds. Now they may be hard to find because they may have built something there like a new building. But if you know where one was, try to detect some of the area’s around it. They used a lot of parks back in the day for fairs too. Bring your sniper coil you will be happy you did! Get in between those trashy signals and find the silver we all want.

Research old maps, you might find a park that no longer exist. Once again the city may have built a building on top of the old land. Detect around the perimeter of the building or wooded areas and start finding some loot.

I have found more silver coins at parks then anywhere else. Second to that is various lawns and yards. For example I have detected my sisters yard here in the city. Over one summer I have dug up 6 silver coins,28 wheat pennies,8 indian head pennies and 5 buffalo nickels. I have also found some gold and silver jewelry as well! If you have the chance go and knock of some of your neighbors doors and ask them if you can detect their lawn. Make sure you don’t make it look like a bunch of gophers attacked it!! I prefer to use a  bandana to put my dirt on when digging a hole. Also try cutting your plugs clean.

Go and do your research find out where people mingled back in the day. Get permission if you need to, and start digging up some silver coins in your town or city with these few tips.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE………

HOW TO FIND GOLD

Finding gold is not always easy and could take a long time before you see it come out of the ground. But with this added insight I hope to lead you on your  way to a successful gold recovery at your local park,beach or yard.

Since a small gold ring could sound like foil, you’re going to have to dig a lot of foil signals in order to find that gold.  But hey most Small Gold rings that ring up in the foil range could be a valuable diamond ring worth hundreds or even thousands.  Now a bigger gold ring can sound off in the 5 cent or pulltab range, but most of us dig 5 cent signals anyways right ?

Now the most famous of them all is the Pull Tab, now some come out of the ground        looking like a ring for a split second and then you realize its just a gold tone pull tab from the 1960′s or 1970′s  Ughhhhh.  Well I have dug thousands of them at local parks and will continue to because Pull tabs can also be a big chunk of gold, most mens rings that are BIG will sound off in the pull tab range.  So yes I will dig all pull tab signals.  However 50% of the time a pull tab signal is not always a pull tab, it could be a deep Indian Head Penny,I have had those ring up in that range, it could also be anything, may be a small copper ring and don’t forget A GOLD COIN.        Yes for the most part the same applies for Gold Coins as for Gold Rings.  The smaller the gold coin the closer it going to sound off near the foil range, like a US 1 dollar gold coin.  Then the bigger they get the further up the scale they will ring, a bigger Gold coin could ring up near the zinc or copper  area or more if it’s a big gold coin.

So the past two years I have dug 6 Gold Jewelry pieces and  when I dug the hole and found the signal I never once guessed it was going to be gold.  I have had a deep coin signal and knew right away it was a old silver or copper coin, but gold will always elude your assumption on whats in the hole.  I have found 5 of my 6 gold rings and pendants at parks, I have only found one gold ring at the beach so far and it was in dry sand.  So what I’m saying is you just will never know unless you dig pretty much every signal from FOIL to Zinc.  Now at that point you should just dig every signal Right.

I just started working a park where we have found some old silver and copper coins, and a gold and silver ring.   Now this park has been either never detected or very little has been done there in the past.  Well I plan on cleaning it out, it may take a few years and I hope no one in the neighborhood catches on but……I will be detecting  it until most diggable signals are gone.  Can this be done, well prob not but at one small park “about the size of two little league   ball fields” I have cleared out most signals to the point where I will only go back with a different detector.  I found a big mens gold ring there and a deep old catholic pendant at about 9″ deep with a Tesoro Cibola with a weak but sold signal.  To find deeper gold a higher freq machine 10 or more would be best, but not necessary.

So of course there are going to be times where you don’t feel like digging every signal.  There are times when I don’t feel like digging every signal because at some parks there are just way to many signals.   However for the most part I dig just about every repeatable signal and at the end of the year I produce a small hand full of gold.   Now I have friends who are just beach hunters for the most part.  They do better than me when it comes to gold,  but they also use a more expensive  machines that can cut through the salt water disturbance and high mineralization.  I do enjoy hunting beaches, fresh water and salt water.  First the designated area’s where people swim with have a better concentration of gold jewelry then say a city park.  The swimmers for the most part are kept in an area that is marked off with buoys.  That is great because it makes it easy for us metal detectorist to get in there and find the gold.  And at $1500 dollars an ounce its a good reason too…..

AND THAT WILL LEAD ME TO NEXT WEEKS TIPS ON FINDING SILVER COINS IN THE CITY.

To wrap things up, if you want to find gold coins or jewelry you must have it in your mind that you don’t care how much foil,can slaw,random metal chunks,candy wrappers,pull tabs and what ever other junk is out there, your gonna dig that signal and find your self some GOLD.