Treasure Classifieds Forum

I just replied to a post Tony made about spots that don't produce, and thought it would be helpful to members of our community if everyone shared their specific hunting techniques or strategies, regarding a specific type of site, like turf, surf, woods, iron infested, mining camps, etc.

I can kickstart it with a few. Bear in mind, these things have worked for ME, in my locations. Your results might vary due to equipment used, environment, etc. Also, different techniques for different strokes. You have to use what works best for YOU, and what's most enjoyable.

PARK HUNTING

*Never assume - I learned this the hard way. Some spots look like a million bucks, but have squat. Other places look like tiny holes in the wall, but are loaded with old coins and relics. Until you hunt a particular location, make no hard and fast opinions of a place.

*Find the "hot spots" or "pockets" - Detectorists have been hunting parks hard since the mid 70's. They had a 40 year jump on us. Most of the easier, shallow coins and relics are gone from most areas. However, there are still pockets that were missed by other hunters, not covered well, or have never been searched with the newer (deeper) machines. This is where the opportunity comes in. You need to keep trying different locations, and different sections WITHIN these locations, to find the pockets. Once you do, hit these areas HARD, and work outward from there until the finds starts dying off. Then wander and find the next pocket. Most parks have at least a hot spot or two with old coins, but you have to find it. If you cannot, you either missed it, or it doesn't exist, and you should move on. I've seen guys working the same parks, the same general areas for years, even though they find very little, or nothing. Don't do this.

*Play the odds - Most of us don't have unlimited time, and we also want to bag the old stuff. So you need to play the odds. Chances are, most of the older stuff is in the 4" to 8" range, give or take a few inches. You need to find out where the demarkation line is on those older finds. If you're pulling out wheats, silvers & indicators at 2" or 3", you have a rare spot, and should generally dig almost all good signals, regardless of depth. However, this isn't common. For example, if you see that wheats and silvers are being found at around the 5" mark, that is primarily the depth you should be digging signals at. Anything else is likely to be newer. And yes, there might be an occasional shallow oldie you will miss, but again, that's the exception, and you need to play the odds. If you enjoy digging it all however, and don't want to miss anything, feel free. But I like to concentrate my efforts, and direct them where the oldest finds are likely to be made. Find the depth line where old stuff is coming in at, and hone in on that depth mark and beyond.

*Hunt in All Metal - You need to squeeze every drop of depth juice out of your machine, regardless of what brand/model it is. Stock programs are easier to operate with, and if you're new to a unit, by all means try them. But they severely decrease depth, and you will surely lose out on finding deeper coins when using them. If you can't use all metal, or just don't enjoy doing so, use as little discrimination as possible. Unlike a lot of other types of locations, most older finds in the parks tend to be on the deeper side. From my experience, 5" or more. So, working in all metal will push your detector to its limit, and will ensure you're able to punch down deep to get those oldies.

*Look for UN-obvious parks or those in bad neighborhoods - Everyone and their uncle has hit the bigger, popular parks, and still are. And there's still stuff there, too. But it's harder to find. Which is why I'm always on the lookout for small, out-of-the-way, 'baby' parks. These are usually tiny places, and many aren't even on maps. While they are a bit harder to locate, chances are, they haven't been hunted nearly as often...sometimes at all. I've only found a handful of these over the years, but each time I did, it paid off well. A buddy and I hunted one years ago, and he walked away with TEN SILVERS in about 3 hours! Drive around one day and keep your eyes opened. You'd be surprised at what you'll find. And go where others were/are afraid to tread. Parks in rough neighborhoods almost always tend to have more finds than one's in the 'nice' neighborhoods, in my experience. Just be sure to hunt them early in the morning, and always bring at least another hunter or two with you for backup.

I share these tips because they are like the gospel to me. And I've done well with them. You might, too

Very sound advice. I've written bits and pieces of my method over the seasons and will repost a compilation of ideas and strategies I use at a later time. It may get a little wordy so I'll do it on my Open Office Apache word first, then post.

Ed

That's like a book summarized down to a quick lesson. Great post. Don't forget to go outside the fences of old athletic fields. Them fences weren't always there.

Joe, great post, thank you. I couldn't have said it as good as you.
We all like parks and they still have coins to find, even hunted out parks. They are hidden amoungsts the trash and don't give off much of a signal, it's a tight or narrow signal. Penny's and clad have a hallo - they are louder and sometimes seem to be about a few inches wide in a circle but it is just a clad dime or older memorial.
There are fringe areas of parks that folks haven't hit that hard, due to traffic or exposure to residential areas near the park. I don't knock on doors but I am sure those homes around parks have older coins.
I like your depth perception but I have to say to folks if you are finding memorials at 7 or 8 inches then you are in a fill area. Crazy I know but it happens. Just move on to another site.
I hope this post made sense - I am tired from my family stuff and am watching the Devils trying to win against the Winnipeg Jets.

As I've only seriously detected 8 months now...I've learned for the fields, as everyone may know...they are never hunted out. Between ploughs and different machines and different directions. So many factors that are included for the fields. So always give a field a shot even if it was hunted out. I've gotten my best finds from "pounded fields". If no research was done, look for iron signals and work around there. Circle grid out from the keeper finds.
In field situations you want to go no disc and as high sensitivity as possible. High spots and low spots in fields and cuts in the fields usually yield the most. Learn to read the fields and what it's telling you. Learn what the machine is telling you before you dig. Sometimes those deep iffy signals can become lost by the detector or at least the at pro. If you have a good signal, give it at least 5 minutes before moving on. There's been multiple times I've lost the target and I was picking up nothing with my pinpointer but I kept digging, and bam. Coin or a button.
Also, dig the iffy signals that you think may be cans. My best real sounded like shit and I dug multiple cans before it along side the road of a home site. You're not only cleaning up but can get a surprise in with it.
That's about all I can think of for now.
Best of luck and get your coil over it! research, old maps, old aerials via historical aerials or pine Barrens maps and reading the land is key to being more successful.
Best of luck and happy hunting

Great idea for a thread Joe. We read daily of finds and how they come about, but it's usually bits and pieces from a single episode. I'm hoping lots of posters will seize the opportunity to "put it all together" from their experiences and let us see how they tackle detecting in their specialties. Your post was a fine start and would stand alone as a blog entry.

I have such a little time to hunt that, like you,  I almost always go to a quickly accessible park or athletic field. So I think you've presented a thorough analysis of hunting that type site and I really can't say much without being repetitive.
 I would suggest that hunters not shy away from fences, they can be difficult to work but lots of targets end up near and under metal fences. I also liked to look in parking areas in parks that have pools or concessions areas as people always lost drink and snack money and rings while getting in and out of cars with towels, toys, baskets, etc.  And lastly I would advise hitting the site again. If silver is there in one of those pockets, and someone else has missed it, chances are you might miss it too. Don't beat the dead horse, but nothing wrong with going back a different day, different weather, different approach, different attitude. As you said, don't assume it's barren.

I'm pretty new to this but one thing I've noticed in parks is that sloped areas even small ones seem very lucrative. I think that kids just can't resist rolling down a hill spewing everything from their pockets. I find this especially true around athletic fields where younger siblings get bored waiting for games to end. Any slope but mainly those ones that provide drainage for the area seem to be good.

I basically follow Joe's method in parks , but in big pounded parks I have had great success hitting the areas along the sidewalks and porches near any kind of pavilion or rental hall. This has yielded jewelry and other interesting items many times.
   Also any park that has a Boy Scout cabin or meeting building seems to do well . I don't know if their pockets were too full because they were trying to Be Prepared or what. I have found silver coins and silver Boy Scout rings near a few of them. 
   On old house sites I focus near the entrances and the likely path to the driveway .
Also near the mailbox , people used to put money in the boxes to pay for postage. If you can figure out where the clothes line was it usually gives up some goodies. If was old enough to have an outhouse or an outdoor well focus on these areas and the path to them. Last but not least , I hunt areas under old trees quite hard , before air conditioning people would use them for shade.

Soccer fields For the Win!

It seems that I find the most Clad and gold in Soccer fields not Football or Baseball or even Rugby. I think it has to do with the People who play the game they love to wear gold and carry change around. The Older the field the better the newer ones may also frown on you popping a few plugs. Earlier this year I did a soccer field behind Schaaf Highschool and I really cleaned that place out over 20.00 in clad and most of it in Piles of 30-50 cents of random clad. Now I was a bit green with gold signals I may return in the spring and do some gold searching the soccer field in the Metro Parks I got some gold from and once again lots of clad. I know not everyone likes clad but .25 is .25 no matter how you look at it and a few hours of swinging pays for 3 months of batteries. Start by 1 goal swing up to the first pole from one side of the field and turn around keep going its easier then trying to go all the way across find a target in the distance each time you turn around even if you go left or right some keep at the target do this till at the other goal and repeat. I save the middle for last going from 1 full goal to the other in short side to side instead of long walks from goals. Shorten your lines so you don't slowly move into your old line and miss large sections. Thats all I have to say about that! Thanks for reading.

Don't have much to add here. But I agree about the parks or lots in rough areas. But you are rolling the dice there.

No coin is worth dieing over. No sure of your definition of bad neighborhoods. But there are areas out there that it is not worth it and trouble will find you.

Normally morning is better but meth and crack heads stay up all night for several days. Even with a concealed weapon its still a gamble.

I know a park I would love to detect. But several people have died there by drive by shootings, nobody see a thing, only heard shots that is all. I'm not going to chance it and my detecting should be some what relaxing. Can't relax in that type of environment.

If you are even considering bad areas. You should do your homework. There are crime maps and apps on the internet. Most show robberies etc, some even shows murders.

Some areas you might need several guarding (Armed) and swap off and on with sharing the detector.

Neighborhoods with burglar bars might be a sign.