Trash to treasure ratio

[LovestheShiny!]

Depends on location and age. Out here in Montana we don't have much that dates before 1890-1900, so silver coins are what most of the detectorists out here are looking for. At a Montana freshwater beach, pretty much dig everything. At an old home say 1890s I would dig everything but iron. At a busy volleyball court or student housing apartment complex everything but iron, which would also mean a lot of pull tabs but the chance at some gold. At homes from the 1940s-early 50s, I am very selective as I don't expect tokens, Indian Head cents, and the wheat cents would tend to be newer so only solid nickels, copper or silver signals are dug at that type of location. So... my treasure to trash ratio is usually really good.

 

[kac]

Chances of a good target are greater where there is the most activity. Where there is the most activity is the most trash. Hunting high trash areas is much easier with smaller coils but most manufacturers think everyone needs to be swinging an 11" coil in a park...
I like small eliptical coils or a coil no bigger than 9". Overlap swings so you can hear the changes on targets with the tip of the coil will help isolate targets. Remember DD coils are top down detection and don't unmask like the old analog concentrics so you really need to hit mixed signal targets in different directions. I don't use any discrimination when hunting and listen more than chasing id numbers. Try to listen for the less obvious rather than the obvious and more common signals.

 

[OBN]

I love it when I find something good. I love researching the stuff, cleaning it, looking at it. I’m sure that many of my non-detectorist friends think the stuff is cool, but they don’t get it. What they mostly don’t get, is how incredible it is that we can go into a field, or a playground, or an old homestead and come out with treasure that’s been buried underground for year, sometimes decades and even centuries. They also don’t understand how much nasty worthless junk we find.

While bottle tops, pull tabs, and aluminum cans are the most frustrating to me, there is so much foil and nails and barbed wired. On farms, I find lead medicine tubes. The ones that are like toothpaste tubes. Yesterday, all I found was trash. A broken shovel, pieces of barbed wire fence posts, a huge iron or steel bullet looking thing that must have been for breaking through rocks (must have weighed ten pounds).

Maybe I’m just ranting. What trash do you run into most?

Like your collection of travel tokens, I do come across those at different locations, Baltimore ones and Washington DC if I'm hunting in southern Md.. As far as trash, hunting in the Chesapeake Bay if you hunt out a few hundred feet its rare to dig trash, in close you can find just about anything that mankind has made dumped in the Bay. I would say my enemy would be crab pots pieces at most locations. Another would be lead hem weights.

Ratio, that would be gold to other targets. 25 to 1 when I'm rolling.

 

[60streeter]

I am lucky.. I target abandoned early settler sites. Best case scenario my biggest enemy is square nails... on some of the sites that had a longer occupation I have to deal with flat iron.... Some of my best sites so far have been really good with out hardly any trash at all. I just found a site a few weeks ago that had almost no trash, but it was holding five very cool colonial coppers...

 

[deeper]

I dig very little trash because I set my detector to disc out everything below Indians. With my D2 I even mentally disc out shallow coins by judging the “brightness” of the sound. This method has served me well over the years. I only hunt athletic fields and lawn areas and am only interested in finding coins.

 

[stetam]

I mainly hunt fields and woods. Dig a lot of trash/nails looking for old copper and relics, so probably 40-1

Steve

 

[jmaclen]

When I hunt modern trashed parks for coins/jewerly/relics, trash to treasure (I count US clad as treasure) is about 25% trash to 75% treasure.

When I hunt fields and ghost towns for relics, coins and rarely a piece of jewerly, trash to treasure is flipped 75% trash to 25% treasure with most of the trash being nails and scrap iron.

Gold prospecting on a good day trash to treasure is 99% trash to 1% treasure. Sometimes that one nugget is a 1 to 5 gram chunk and those 99 trash targets mean nothing.

Beaches, I just dig everything and I don't care about trash to treasure.

 

[KOB]

I dig very little trash because I set my detector to disc out everything below Indians. With my D2 I even mentally disc out shallow coins by judging the “brightness” of the sound. This method has served me well over the years. I only hunt athletic fields and lawn areas and am only interested in finding coins.

How do you know your shallow nickel is not a gold ring ? Seems to me it could be a freshy that was recently trampled on and is only 2" deep !

 

[deeper]

How do you know your shallow nickel is not a gold ring ? Seems to me it could be a freshy that was recently trampled on and is only 2" deep !

So be it. I’d have to dig at least 500 pull tabs and can slaw before I find a gold ring. I’m too old to stop every ten feet to dig crap. Actually, i have found two gold rings that id’d above an Indian signal.

 

[Diga]

So be it. I’d have to dig at least 500 pull tabs and can slaw before I find a gold ring. I’m too old to stop every ten feet to dig crap. Actually, i have found two gold rings that id’d above an Indian signal.

Pull tabs, can slaw, and foil!

What you said, is exactly why in aluminum trash sites, I only dig ID's from right above rectangular pulltabs and up. That eliminates almost all of those tabs, and almost all foil. Each detector will have a sweet spot for rectangular tabs, in which most rectangular tabs ID at or below a particular ID number. On my Legend in my ground, that ID is 29, so I dig everything 30 and higher. Believe it or not, a lot of gold rings ID above that sweet spot pulltab ID number...and they are usually large gold rings.

Digging all the ID's lower than that in aluminum trash filled site, is to me, an experience in mental frustration and body damage. That's when metal detecting no longer becomes fun.

 

[KOB]

Pull tabs, can slaw, and foil!

What you said, is exactly why in aluminum trash sites, I only dig ID's from right above rectangular pulltabs and up. That eliminates almost all of those tabs, and almost all foil. Each detector will have a sweet spot for rectangular tabs, in which most rectangular tabs ID at or below a particular ID number. On my Legend in my ground, that ID is 29, so I dig everything 30 and higher. Believe it or not, a lot of gold rings ID above that sweet spot pulltab ID number...and they are usually large gold rings.

Digging all the ID's lower than that in aluminum trash filled site, is to me, an experience in mental frustration and body damage. That's when metal detecting no longer becomes fun.

Yeah , I hear you guys. I been to parks where I couldn't swing a full sweep without digging foil. 20 minutes of that and I'm done. And I'm a gold guy. That's why I've always been a beach guy. Easy digging and that trash is no where near abundant as a park or field.

 

[maxxkatt]

Epic series with excellent story lines and acting. I'm about to binge watch it...for the third time

I am thinking about doing the same thing. It would be my third time. Regardless of being about metal detecting it was some great acting by all the actors. Anyone into metal detecting who have not seen "The Detectorists" British TV series should try it out.

 

[maxxkatt]

Yeah , I hear you guys. I been to parks where I couldn't swing a full sweep without digging foil. 20 minutes of that and I'm done. And I'm a gold guy. That's why I've always been a beach guy. Easy digging and that trash is no where near abundant as a park or field.

You guys near beaches are fortunate. I am 7 hours away from an ocean beach. Was planning to retire on the east cost of FL down near Miami. But family obligations here in Atlanta all but rule that out, plus the very expensive insurance along the coast in FL. Let's recount the ways it would be nice to live near the beach. 1) away from the big cities, 2) lots of fresh drops compared to inland hunting, 3) great weather, 4) easy digging, 5) a lot less trash than on large city parks full of metallic trash, 6) more nice weather, 7) occasional storms that can either cover or uncover nice finds, 8) lots of nice eye candy walking by in postage stamp bikinis. 9) fresh breeze 10) Pretty good chance of scoring a wedding/engagement ring with some nice expensive ice attached to the metallic ring, 11) pretty much all beaches are open for metal detecting (whoa, how did that happen?). 12) ?????? any more ideas?

 

[Diga]

I am thinking about doing the same thing. It would be my third time. Regardless of being about metal detecting it was some great acting by all the actors. Anyone into metal detecting who have not seen "The Detectorists" British TV series should try it out.

I'd say it wasn't so much about metal detecting, as it was about friendship, relationships, and what's important in life.

Normally, I would find that kind of show to be sappy and cheesy, but this show did it without that sap and cheese. It was an all around intelligently written and entertaining show.

 

[GroundSweeper]

I dig more trash in the first hour or so of a hunt than I do in the last hour or so of a hunt But if you don't dig you won't know what you missed. It's a trade off. Trash is a large part of the business, unless you are just shooting for a specific target range. I like the oddities and all, so I try to dig a wider range.

 

[Cherry Picker]

I dig more trash in the first hour or so of a hunt than I do in the last hour or so of a hunt But if you don't dig you won't know what you missed. It's a trade off. Trash is a large part of the business, unless you are just shooting for a specific target range. I like the oddities and all, so I try to dig a wider range.

What I find odd for me is my best finds are made within the first 15 minutes of hunting Generally. I have found some killer stuff on the way back to my car, but in 8% of the time, my best stuff will be found in the first 15 minutes. Been that way for as long as I can remember.

 

[vmc1161]

What I find odd for me is my best finds are made within the first 15 minutes of hunting Generally. I have found some killer stuff on the way back to my car, but in 8% of the time, my best stuff will be found in the first 15 minutes. Been that way for as long as I can remember.

If I were you, (and you’re lucky I’m not) . I would hunt for 15 minutes. Go get a coffee. Come back for 15 minutes. Go use the potty. Come back for 15 minutes. Take a morning break. Come back for 15 minutes. Seems reasonable to me. Also take the long way back to your car.

 

[mine sweeper]

Epic series with excellent story lines and acting. I'm about to binge watch it...for the third time

I've been watching it again for the last few days. Three episodes a night, I don't want it to be over, too, soon.