One chance at hunting an 1816 home site, how would you attack it?

Tomorrow I've got a shot to detect an 1816 home on a couple acres. This is extremely old for my area.

I've got an Impact with the 9x11 and 4.5x7 coils.

I have about 4 hours tomorrow and likely that's all.

I have so many ideas of frequency use, coils, settings, specific physical areas to start,etc....that I'm confusing myself.

How would you set up and detect this site to cherry pick coins and relics?
I've always been able to hit my permissions multiple times in the past so this situation is new for me.

If it were me, I'd start off with the stock coil in Di3 mode to get a feel for the place on 14kHz.

If it's iron infested/trashy I'd switch over to the 4.5x7 coil and switch to 20kHz.

TAKE THE 4.5x7 coil and use that first on 20khz. Gain about 75-80 ish. The goal here is to scan the yard and get a feel for the target as quickly as possible(I would dig just high tones for this part).

Once you get a feel for the lay out of the yard, then you can broaden your search.

What are good indicators? Old coins of course. Brass items and old large iron is good too.

You will know if the yard was filled.

Under Pressure. Starting where the most people traffic took place, usually close to the house as you know.

Any way you can get a mook to dig for you? Where as you mark them and your helper retrieves them. Equip him/her with the proper dig method a pin-pointer and maybe a 2nd detector to go back over the hole. Not as fun this way but it has its pluses. One plus is, you can mark alum tones/hits by chance there is a 1$ - $2.5 gold coin in the mix.

In a cherry pic situation for coins and under a time limit... you don't just have to pull high tones. After you have marked a number of targets and the closer to the time limit, you may want to go back and help retrieve. Also have different color chips for high tone, mid tone so the highs are the priority for silver.

Are there structures ? If not, do you know where they were located ?


If possible establish where the front and rear doors would have been located.
If there were barns, carriage house, out house, sheds you'll want to establish foot path routs between the main house and these amenities.
Is there was or is a carriage house that was converted to a garage ? If there's no concrete poured, thats a plus.
Areas where children may have played.
Areas where people would have saddled horses, mounted horses or boarded carriages, wagons or buggies.
Any foot paths to wells, docks, creeks, swimming holes or other water sources and around those water sources.
Fence lines, clothes line areas.
Anywhere people would have congregated or walked.
This is where I would start.

Up to my ____ in Pulltabs, Grant

Up to my ____ in Pulltabs, Grant Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Are there structures ? If not, do you know where t
> hey were located ?
>
>
> If possible establish where the front and rear doo
> rs would have been located.
> If there were barns, carriage house, out house, sh
> eds you'll want to establish foot path routs betwe
> en the main house and these amenities.
> Is there was or is a carriage house that was conve
> rted to a garage ? If there's no concrete poured,
> thats a plus.
> Areas where children may have played.
> Areas where people would have saddled horses, moun
> ted horses or boarded carriages, wagons or buggies
> .
> Any foot paths to wells, docks, creeks, swimming h
> oles or other water sources and around those water
> sources.
> Fence lines, clothes line areas.
> Anywhere people would have congregated or walked.
> This is where I would start.
People also congregated around large trees (shade, picnics

PhDtector Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
.
> People also congregated around large trees (sha
> de, picnics

True and these are very good areas but only if you have the time to fight with the roots of these old trees.
Since time is short and the area is large, I would want to hunt open areas first and save the 200 yr old shade trees for last.

Up to my ____ in Pulltabs, Grant

Hunt the right side of yard and the walk to the front door..another thought would be the well if you can find....use whats comfortable for you as far as equipment..

Use a good mid-size coil unless the amount of iron/rusted tin trash says otherwise, then I would opt for the 5". Hit the obvious areas that have the best chance of producing a coin or neat artifact. But most important, even under a time restraint, use a nice slower methodical sweep. Don't try to rush your search by trying to cover as much ground as possible which leads to swinging the coil too fast and poor coverage. You might get lucky with a fast approach and cherry pick a few items, but me personally I would take a more methodical approach and when I found a nice coin or artifact I would work that immediate area.

I think it's smart to hunt every place like that, like it's gonna be your last. You never know, it may very well be. The others have given you some solid advice. I do caution on cherry picking the deeper targets though, until you get a feel for the site. I've been in places and dug 1800s coins just merely a couple inches under the grass roots.

Some of you might remember me posting about having gained permission to an 1840s house where I found a 2 cent piece the first time there. A guy my parents go to church with lived there and I worked out a deal with him in exchange for letting him deer hunt my property, he would let me detect his.

In case some have been wondering why I haven't posted much on it, it's because those two times I made it to the house were my first and last visits. That sorry SOB didn't own the land or the house. He was renting, and not only was he renting, he moved out of the house in December and didn't tell me!! The last time I hunted it, I had texted him asking if it would be okay to come over, and he said "sure, go ahead we wont be there but go ahead". I assumed that meant they were gone some place. WRONG!! That's when I got to meet the actual owner and he wasn't a happy camper with me being there. Not only was he renting, he was behind on several payments and had just up and left the house and gone some place else. He let me off the hook but it made for a VERY interesting and tense situation when I jumped dude over the whole thing. I didn't do it over a computer or phone. I waited til I saw him in person.

Well did the SOB get to deer hunt your land?
Just had to ask. Lol

Find the well if i'ts away from the house and hang out around it...

Use that small coil and 20Khz..3 tone.get solid high tones first...then concentrate on mid tones...don't waste time on jumpy stuff..

If the home is continuously occupied you'll be in for a lot of trash targets..

Keith

“I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own”
-Nikola Tesla

Thanks all.

Update:
TONS of trash and a couple of wheats.