Relic hunting...Best way to grid?

[Brian in TN]

I have been given permission to hunt a known Civil War area of land that has not been developed and would like to get some tips from the experts about detecting relics and what hardware I may want to bring with me.
I will be using the Tesoro CIBOLA on my quest.

What setting should I use?

Below iron?

Above iron?

How should I grid or even begin to grid in a wooded area?

What are unique sounds that I may hear?

The search wont happen til the last part of October due to heat, bugs and what not.
I am super excited about this opportunity and cant wait.

Thanks in advance for any and all pointers!

Brian.

 

[steve in so la]

Brian - You have an opportunity to do something that is very fast disappearing - take advantage of it.
Large camps/forts are at first overwhelming but what I do is to kind of "prospect" around with the detector till you find something then concentrate on the area till it fizzles out.

If you have any research on the area you will be way ahead of things by knowing where to start. Most of the places I have done are listed and described on paper. Sometimes hard to find but well worth the effort.

At one site we were taking quite a bit of stuff out but once we found the old dump area we really started finding stuff, like 200 bullets, 125 eagles buttons, some coins, etc. Each site had one or two dumps - usually just over a hill, out of sight/smell, not too far away but not too close. We just stumbled upon two while prospecting actually.

If you have uneven terrain you might try what works well for me. I took some long (3 feet) welding rods and looped the top. In this loop I tied a pink ribbon to each of about 10. Now when I have a good producing area to detect - but it's all up & down and maybe tall grass - I stick the rods in to make a swinging path. And if you get into a great area you will want to do it all.

I dont know anything about your Cibola - I use a Fisher 1266 or a Shadow X2. I do go on sounds only and sometimes I find an eagle button that chatters. On my units a chatter is usually junk. So while we cannot dig it all, we do come close. Good luck, keep us posted, steve in so az

 

[Brian in TN]

Thanks for the advice Steve! I will post the outcome soon after.

 

[Canewrap]

Re: CW hunt

I CW hunt N. Bama and can help with advice on how to hunt with that Cibola. If you want to email me my addy is wlwalter77 at hotmail dot com.

Bill W.

 

[RelicHound]

I just sorta roam around until i find somthing neat then concentrate my efforts in that area until im satisfied then roam some more. im not to familiar with the cibola yet but i have a tesoro tejon and normally will set both my disc knobs rite in between iron and foil,that will knock out small nails and what not. since surgical digging isn't really needed id suggest using a shovel. im sorta new to relic hunting so thats about all the info i really know.

 

[The Fixer]

Brian:

Don't know if you want to cover 100% of the area or not. Back when I was a crime scene investigator, which is how I started with detecting, I would have 2 - 500 foot spools of a light rope with nails on the end set out for a grid or what we used to call the bowling alley. I would scan in between the ropes and then move the left one 3 feet to the other side of the right side and keep the system going. If you should have to stop for the day, you can mark where you left of with a spot of spray marking paint (which will wash away in a week), or the hardware stores sell flaged markers which is a thin wire with a small colored flag on the end for a few dollars for a dozen.

 

[Brian in TN]

Great hints guys! Thanks so much for the info from your experiences. This will make the hunting a bit more organized and makes me less of a newbie.
Thanks again!:biggrin:

 

[minereader]

Now that's a neat idea!

Brian:

Don't know if you want to cover 100% of the area or not. Back when I was a crime scene investigator, which is how I started with detecting, I would have 2 - 500 foot spools of a light rope with nails on the end set out for a grid or what we used to call the bowling alley. I would scan in between the ropes and then move the left one 3 feet to the other side of the right side and keep the system going. If you should have to stop for the day, you can mark where you left of with a spot of spray marking paint (which will wash away in a week), or the hardware stores sell flaged markers which is a thin wire with a small colored flag on the end for a few dollars for a dozen.

I set my disc. on 5c, or nickel, and I have alot of area to go over that I only spot-checked last winter.