Ok I am bumping this old post of mine because a new hunting season is now upon us...for most of us, anyway, and this thread seemed to have helped a lot of people the first time that did not know or realize this stuff, (over 7400 views), and also as a reminder to the old pros about slowing down.
I always tended to swing to fast if I didn't pay attention, myself, still do, so I know this can help, and I know that swinging too fast can be a big problem for any of us no matter what detector we are using.
I had fun and found a bunch of coins and other great targets my first year and a half doing this, but it all came together for me when I had these experiences and it changed the way I hunted forever more.
This site was my own private laboratory.
I know for sure that there were not many other hunters in my area at the time, and even if there were none of them ever thought about hunting a site like this so this was virgin ground and the only people ever to hunt this place was me and Ryanchappell a couple of times...so I could easily notice any results from experimenting with very little outside influence or interference from others.
So much more volume and the best targets I have ever dug started to come to me much more easily at all my sites after I changed my hunting style, slowed way down and heavily overlapped, that I can still hardly believe the difference before and after.
I might not have covered the same amount of real estate in my hunts, but I still ended up finding way more than ever before.
This is one of those key lessons I learned and learned well, and I am thankful it only took me 18 months to finally understand it.
Who knows how much more I could have found if I was doing it this way from the beginning?
After I wrote the original post I revisited that same high school island site mentioned many more times and not only found an unbelievable amount of still hidden clad doing it this new way, eventually I found more jewelry too...including 2 gold rings in areas I know for sure I had hunted and scanned before with 2 different detectors and a few different coils many times...just going way to fast.
I was never able to cover the whole thing this new way, either, something I regret because we moved out of the area to another state.
These experiences were with the 8" coil on the F2...knowing what I know now about the abilities of sniper coils I suspect there is still much more to be found at this site and it is a busy high school so the many grassy islands are still reloading.
I go back on vacation from time to time with the wife to visit her relatives and I do believe I need to revisit it at least once more and find some of the old treasures that I am sure are still buried, and some of the new ones those butter fingered high school kids have lost since I left.
)....Curt
This read and some of those numbers will help push us away from the desire to move quick! Thanks!
