Admittedly, me & my merry band of fellow treasure hunting comrades do cherry pick signals...at some of our spots. Reason is twofold...
First, TIME. We like to play the odds. Yes, not digging the low & medium tones means we're walking over gold and other assorted finds. However, on land, in most spots, we prefer to 'cut to the chase' and go for the silver. If we have four hours to hunt, and have to dig through a heap of junk to maybe get some gold, we would sacrifice our silver tallies. All for a possibility. Second...
JUNK. Most of our spots are in urban settings. Our junk is just that...junk (pull tabs, can slaw, iron encrusted nails...). Whereas, in some rarer, select type of spots, even the junk is interesting & worthy (thimbles, buttons, pins, heel plates, buckles, etc.). So, if we're not hunting in one of those better, prime location spots, instead of digging bales of modern trash, again, we forego all the crap and detect just for the silver. To repeat, we're simply playing the odds. Now...
On the beach, we dig EVERYTHING. At an older site without an abundance of modern trash, we dig mostly EVERYTHING, except for the straight out shittiest of signals.
I think a lot of what this hobby comes down to is, picking & choosing your battles. Meaning, you can't go for ALL types of targets at ALL spots. Now...
I've known swingers who dig damn near every target, and those who cherry pick. As well as those kinda in-between. If one isn't going by the clock, and isn't afraid to dig a landfill of trash, surely he or she WILL prevail with more/better finds over the long haul. However, in general, I've never been a 'long haul' kinda guy. I'm a gambler at heart who plays the odds.
This is an interesting topic, that I think we can all learn from. I don't think there's a right & wrong, but rather, what works for the individual. So...
What say you? What's your strategy?
Joe
I like to dig any good tone. Doesn't matter the pitch of it. I dig alot of trash. I find some cool stuff though. I used to cherry pick, but not anymore. I would end up with a pocket full of clad and not much of interest.
That's a definitely site specific thing with me but based on signal type and not depth.
The last two silver coins I have found , and we don't find many around here due to the relative newness of the sites , were both Rosies less than 2" deep--in the thatch actually. Low tones near the 12 line and between 6 and about 14 that sound true and melodious on my etrac get dug almost all of the time. I've dug 10 gold items following that regime -- same with targets above 36 even if I know they're zinc's. There seems to be more surprises in the high tones than the low.
It's definitely cherry picking but some of us can tolerate more tartness than others
Well Joe, I'm kind of an in between guy. Doesn't matter what site I'm at, I dig just about everything for the first 2 to 3 hours. Then these old bones and my back get pretty creaky and the Tylenol starts to wear off and I cherry pick A LOT after that. I'm taking a cheap collapsible walking/hiking stick with me now so for the end of the hunt I have something to help me get back up into prone position. It works, it's light weight but that scenario only lasts about another 2 hours before I toss in the towel. When I'm feeling good I dig almost everything. With the Delta 4000 I learned the machine by digging everything, then later mixed the search based on "Hunch". That brought me a good deal of positive results because I was able to scan the ground fast. Now with the SE Pro I'm slowly opening up the discrimination and digging targets with ridiculous numbers just to see what I'm hitting. It'll probably take me 6 months to learn most of it but I don't think you could ever learn a machine like that entirely. I know a number of you guys like to dig tones and I can see that coming down the road. I want to define the machine first and then go "Pro/Am", so to speak. OT: And those Killer Bees, were they the Hornets?
(04-02-2014 07:36 PM)Ohio Dirt Fisher Wrote: [ -> ]Well Joe, I'm kind of an in between guy. Doesn't matter what site I'm at, I dig just about everything for the first 2 to 3 hours. Then these old bones and my back get pretty creaky and the Tylenol starts to wear off and I cherry pick A LOT after that. I'm taking a cheap collapsible walking/hiking stick with me now so for the end of the hunt I have something to help me get back up into prone position. It works, it's light weight but that scenario only lasts about another 2 hours before I toss in the towel. When I'm feeling good I dig almost everything. With the Delta 4000 I learned the machine by digging everything, then later mixed the search based on "Hunch". That brought me a good deal of positive results because I was able to scan the ground fast. Now with the SE Pro I'm slowly opening up the discrimination and digging targets with ridiculous numbers just to see what I'm hitting. It'll probably take me 6 months to learn most of it but I don't think you could ever learn a machine like that entirely. I know a number of you guys like to dig tones and I can see that coming down the road. I want to define the machine first and then go "Pro/Am", so to speak. OT: And those Killer Bees, were they the Hornets?
Killer Bees are sweet. I got the Stinger single ear one. It's kinda tight on my big head, but the sound is awesome.
Hey Will, but I know this sounds like a strange question, but what makes it different? I've got Koss U 30 for the SE Pro and I've got the U 20 for the Delta. I've swapped them out and I can't hear any noticeable difference. Maybe I'm not paying attention to the tones enough!!!??? I do have some hearing loss, (generally to the girlfriend
,) but all those years of running a demolition hammer and target practice without hearing protection may have taken its' toll. I wonder if they'd help now?
Why you do that stuff with no earpro man? I can hear every little variance of the tone like the detector is playing a song. The headphones you have might be as good. I never used them to compare. I know they are the best that I have used.
Well Will, your the umpteenth person that has said that to me. Maybe I am missing something without them. I'll have to scour the budget, but between the X-1 Probe and Killers I'm going to have to opt for the Killers. Least/most cost effective solution and hope they work for me. Where are you at in them there hills of Pittsburgh? Maybe we can go out sometime this summer on a weekend and have a T2/SE Pro challenge! I'll bring a Browns jersey! That way you can protect me!
That would be cool Ohio. You know I've not detected with any grown up people yet. Just the kids. I am planning on getting out with a young dude at work. He has not detected and wants to try it. There are some spots right by his his place that I want to try too. He can use my F2. As for the browns jersey, you would be on your own there. Protecting browns fans is against my religion.
Some times I HAVE to cherry-pick--as some of you may have seen from my previous posts, I do alot of WW2 battle sites. There it's absolutely necessary to discriminate to the max...If I don't, then I'd spend the whole day digging schrapnel!!!!!!
There are some areas though where I MUST dig EVERYTHING.....there are a few celtic sites where even the most trashy iron signals are something perhaps thousands of years old (eg. spring clasps, arrowheads, lance ends, etc).