Heres another way to hunt trashy parks..

Sure takes patience and a strong back and a good digger but really works...and best do it in an isolated area which may have been a busy park at one time and excess digging is not a problem.

The fella I saw actually roped off an area with pegs and string approx. the width of his swing.

He then hunted in all metal with a beep and dig unit that had moderate depth and cleaned the area.

Next out came the Explorer and left him to hunt in traditional fashion..

Well at the end of the day I met up with him as he was pulling the pegs..

From an 100 or so foot area stringed off so he didn't stray he had a pouch full of junk, some clad, nice gold wedding ring with diamond chips, barber dime and a V nickle and yes this park has been beat for years.

Certainly not for everyone but goes to prove parks are not worked out and one wonders a goodie or two we have missed due to masking....yikes I hope not a gold coin, large diamond ring or etc. etc.

Yep, that'll do it. Sorta like strip mining an area. Sorta reminds me of a situation I got into 2 weeks ago. My brother and I were hunting an old home place he owns. It was a virgin site and I was using an etrac, he was using his V3i. I would get a signal and tell him it was a can. I dug it. He asked what are you digging the can for? I replied, getting the aluminum can out of there may unmask something. One just never knows. And usually the best finds usually surface through detecting some odd place or obstacle around many never think to check.

I try to make my holes count in a public park. If I strip an area like that there will be signs up soon.

i'm with you! less holes ya open up in the environment,the better!
in my view,the best approach is to attempt to "isolate" your targets.(use a small coil!)
BEFORE ya open up the ground. i really DON'T like people approaching me,
and telling me to "screw!" kinda has a tendency to ruin my day!..just sayin'

(h.h.!)
j.t.

I have been doing that technique for last 25 yr's. First read about it in Western/Eastern treasure magazine. While your doing it you question your sanity, but at the end of the day (if fortunate) you have keepers like the guy Dan described. It's an eye opener for sure. Just like Dan said about unused park areas. Got permission once to do a old 'unused' city park picnic grove that was in a neglected state. Got a shovel, peeled off the top 9" of dirt in a 10' x 10 spot. It was a bonanza. Silver up the wazoo and a couple 1909s VDB's. It was a late 1800's-1960's picnic grove in S. Calif. And then I sifted the dug dirt with a custom built screen. You would not believe the amount of bottlecaps....lol. Too old to dig pits anymore. But roping a area really forces one to concentrate along with the best sweep overlap. Dan, thanks for mentioning it on the forum. It really does work. Tom D. does this frequently on his sites. And as mentioned, you can't do this technique everywhere. But one way, is to do a area in multiple visits, in order to give the grass a reprieve/heal from to much digging at one time in a small area. I take a pic of the roped area so I know exactly where I was at, for future visits.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/2012 02:42AM by TerraDigger.

Come on guys(unused isolated area of park) personally I am very selective and dig very few holes even looking for gold rings as I use an old Tesoro and use audio variances. Indeed lots of holes destroys the landscape and off limits signs if we do. I certainly don't have the patience or the back for such a hunt anyway just an alternate way to hunt for understanding members of the forum....

Where I grew up at, there was an old house that was built in the 1850s and stood til the late 1980s. They tore it down and my parents house sits on top of it. It's where I started metal detecting. To say I have hunted it hard would be an under statement! It was very trashy...with over 130 yrs of living in one spot plus the debris that was scattered when they tore the old house down. I had the yards picked clean of good signals. Then one day dad started land scaping and took his tractor and took out about 6" of the top soil in order to get rid of the red clay and to put down good dirt. Once he moved that top layer of dirt/trash out of the way it was like it had never had a detector over it before. I was finding older wheat cents, indian cents, merc dimes, civil war bullets, buttons, and an 1858 half dime in stunning condition. I could not believe what all was coming up in this heavily hunted yard.

Wow, I've always dreamed of finding an old unhunted pinic grove. They put a playground in one of our local parks and indeed moving some dirt around enabled some old wheaties, marbles and such to be found...

I forgot to mention. I restored the pit back to its original form. That was part of being able to get permission.

Starting to realize that depth is critical??? Most folks still hugely underestimate how critical depth is.

"Love Is Deep"

Guys -- these stories are amazing!

I have unlimited permission to hunt an old, abandoned homesite; home was built only in 1930, so not SUPER old, but should hold silver; still, I have yet to find a single silver coin here. It is a TRASH PIT! I spoke of this about a year ago on this forum, and NASA-Tom said it sounds like "Sanford and Sons' lot!" That was a very accurate assessment!

In any case, I have found two wheat cents and a little clad at this site, and that's IT -- getting through the junk is near impossible. This thread really gets me thinking...I could easily take a 10' x 10' area, shave 6" of soil off, and THEN run my machine (while screening the top 6" of dirt to see if IT had any goodies in it...) I wonder what I'd find...

Steve

TerraDigger Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have been doing that technique for last 25 yr's.
> First read about it in Western/Eastern treasure
> magazine. While your doing it you question your
> sanity, but at the end of the day (if fortunate)
> you have keepers like the guy Dan described. It's
> an eye opener for sure. Just like Dan said about
> unused park areas. Got permission once to do a old
> 'unused' city park picnic grove that was in a
> neglected state. Got a shovel, peeled off the top
> 9" of dirt in a 10' x 10 spot. It was a bonanza.
> Silver up the wazoo and a couple 1909s VDB's. It
> was a late 1800's-1960's picnic grove in S. Calif.
> And then I sifted the dug dirt with a custom built
> screen. You would not believe the amount of
> bottlecaps....lol. Too old to dig pits anymore.
> But roping a area really forces one to concentrate
> along with the best sweep overlap. Dan, thanks for
> mentioning it on the forum. It really does work.
> Tom D. does this frequently on his sites. And as
> mentioned, you can't do this technique everywhere.
> But one way, is to do a area in multiple visits,
> in order to give the grass a reprieve/heal from to
> much digging at one time in a small area. I take a
> pic of the roped area so I know exactly where I
> was at, for future visits.


yes terra! "multiple' visits" will help,however you better be virtually a "landscaper"
as to covering your holes,because in "most" cases,even 1 hole improperly dug
will get you "tossed" next time you show up.this is why i try to always have a "good idea"
what is down there,before i open a hole in a any public park..just sayin'

(h.h.!)
j.t.

Agree with Tom that depth is critical and even more so is getting the "masking" junk out of the way.

JMary......I have become a landscaper out of necessity.....lol......for exactly the sensible reasons you stated. My recoveries are a work of art .....yes..I am bragging a little
There are areas I don't work when soil is dryer because I know no matter how well a recovery is done, it will leave a dead spot. I just wait until the rains come.

When doing a multi-visit section I do not extract multiple targets close to each other. I space them out....too much digging in a very small area will kill turf no matter how good one is or how moist dirt is.

Spring is the best time to hit those spots. Abused grass will quickly recover and blend right in with the rest.

steveg ....... It sounds like your issue is more-so 'masking' ..... with depth issues as secondary.

Agreed that it's first and foremost a masking issue, NASA-Tom...but a good bit of the trash seems to be shallow (i.e. sub-6"...old roofing/siding nails...rusted pieces of sheet metal...tractor and car parts...plus tons of more modern, non-ferrous trash). This scrape I spoke of wouldn't be so much to ascertain better depth per se, but instead to get rid of a good bit of the masking trash in the upper layer of soil -- and so give me a "cleaner slate" to work with...

Having said that...the topsoil in the yard of this home is unusually organic/soft for Oklahoma soil; it's not the dense clay right up to the surface that is most typical...and so some sinakage of coins past the 6" mark -- even though the coins will have been dropped only within the past 80 years -- is expected...and thus the scrape can't "hurt" with respect to depth issues, as well...

On a somewhat related note, I just got done re-reading reading your "Soil Conditions/Sink Rate" section in the "Fisher Intelligence" link on your website (just outstanding), and also re-read the story on that dig you did at that old store site -- the one where you were hitting the 15 1/2" deep Walkers and coin spills...LOVED that story. Any chance a new document like that will come from you any time soon? I absolutely love reading your stuff...the approach you take is so meticulous and scientific...and one can't help but learn several new things, not just the FIRST read through, but also in each subsequent re-read. It amazes me every time I read your stuff, as to what an incredible wealth of highly relevant information you have stored in your head, with respect to detecting (among other things... )

Steve

Steve...... right now I have too many things on my plate. If only I could have a few days of free time...... I would certainly put out several more articles. I have a lot of experience/data to share about small coil usage....... and the data is 'unsuspecting'. I would also like to put out more data (again....... unsuspecting) on 'site' selection.

It's difficult to keep up with all of the PM's......... then this web-site.... and phone training.

Funny thing you should mention "site selection" NASA-Tom...as I was just yesterday thinking through what I might need the most help with at this point, and that was the thought that came to my mind. While there are countless "detector/detecting" things that I have yet to learn, I was thinking through a future "phone training" session with you and decided that where I am MOST lacking right now, is my ability at "site selection..."

Thanks for all you do; it really is much appreciated!

Steve

You're welcome. That's what we are here for.

I have thought about using a troyBuilt tiller in the iron nail site that I hunt and then dragging a roofers magent through it. I just KNOW that there is silver coins and CW bullets under that thick carpet of nails. And it doesn't take but ONE well placed square nail to hide a goodie!!! Or a rust flake. Man, this is frustrating me. But I doubt the landowner will let me have my leave with a tiller. Or dozer. LOL But I would LOVE to skim about 3 inches off the top. And then 3 more. etc

I have a simple square frame made of PVC pipe that is the size of my swing , about 5 ft. The elbows & pipes are just stuck together, so I can easily disassemble it. I can lay it beside the string, mentioned earlier, & then search the area COMPLETELY , in BOTH directions. Then I flip it over down the length of string & repeat. Plastic tent stakes keep it in position during the search. Once at the end of the string, I can flip it 90° to start a new row . I have used this method in archaeological work , too.

TerraDigger Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> JMary......I have become a landscaper out of
> necessity.....lol......for exactly the sensible
> reasons you stated. My recoveries are a work of
> art .....yes..I am bragging a little
> There are areas I don't work when soil is dryer
> because I know no matter how well a recovery is
> done, it will leave a dead spot. I just wait until
> the rains come.
>
> When doing a multi-visit section I do not extract
> multiple targets close to each other. I space them
> out....too much digging in a very small area will
> kill turf no matter how good one is or how moist
> dirt is.


i agree! it's important to wait until the ground is sufficiently moist
before digging!..our hobby depends on this!..just sayin'

(h.h.!)
j.t.