Tips & Tricks
31-45

31. Here's a trick that will make your detector's standard loop size more versatile when hunting trashy "hunted out" park areas while using a 8" to 9.5" size loop. When you hit a trashy area, raise your loop a couple of inches off the ground and scan the area again. This will narrow the pattern that your search coil sends into the ground, only allowing it to "see" a much smaller area (depending on how far you hold the coil away). This enables your deep seeking loop to act much like the smaller coil, giving you greater separation in areas of high trash (that can "mask" valuable targets), yet allows you to find the deep signals when conditions permit. Your detector's loop sends a signal into the ground much like the shape of a funnel. This is also why overlapping the passes you make with your loop is critical when detecting those very deep signals. ~The best of luck to you bringing home the keepers that the others missed.

32. This is for water hunters and night time hunters: Get a can of white (nonmetallic) spray paint. Paint your coil. When you are in the water you can see your coil much better. Also works great with low light hunts. Makes it easier to retrieve your finds!

33. Once when I recovered a clad quarter at less than 3" I lost the signal after I pulled the plug. After a little patient investigating I noticed that the coin had ended up on it's edge in the middle of my recovery. My signal vanished since the surface area of the quarter was greatly diminished from what my detector could see. Sometimes "stirring" the soil after the signal disappears in the middle of recovery, can make your target come back into view. Just thought this little bit of info could save you some frustration out in the field.Good luck out there! Jim (Iowa)

34. Get a Frisbee or plastic lid, when digging for target place the dirt in the Frisbee or lid makes it very neat when you pour the dirt back into the hole. Make sure you cut a slot in the lid for this and also make sure the lid is flexible but strong. I find it works great

35. Communication is priceless. Talking to other detectorists, visiting web sites like this one, reading TH'er magazines, etc helps you learn more about the hobby. Communicating to the non TH'ers (especially the land owners) helps you find more places to search. Both will increase your quality & quantity of finds.

 

36. DON'T GIVE UP: I search the park across the street from my house whenever I have enough time to hunt, but not enough time to travel to any of my other sites. I've been hunting this same park rather heavily the whole time I've been detecting. Even so, I had been missing that 1939 Mercury silver dime until just a few weeks ago. So don't give up on a site. You never know what you may have missed or what may have been lost there since the last time you hunted the site.

 

37. When beach hunting why not make a few bucks on the side:
When hunting on the beach buy a shirt and have someone print on the back:
LOST ITEMS
WILL FIND
FOR FEE
A friend of mine make $500.00 one summer, He didn't charge everyone.....

38. A tip for beach hunting:
A scoop is needed for beach hunting, Try a magnet inside the scoop for pick up all iron objects so that you don't have to keep searching for that item that is too small and slipsthrought your scoop.

39. spray some WD40 on your digging tool for hard ground and it will keep it from rusting too. TX Joe

40. Almost all detectorists have experienced that "lost" feeling while detecting and notice the battery indicator is now in the low area. The solution, of course, is to carry an extra set, but they take up too much room in a pocket, and the chance of shorting is great, especially if you're also carrying keys or change in the same pocket.
An eyeglasses case with a belt clip is a viable option. It will hold two packs of 4 AA batteries, with room left for a 9 volt battery (for Tinytec or similar). The weight is negligible when clipped to a belt. This may not work for some detector packs, but for the Garrett GTA & GTI series, it is excellent. Regards, Frank (TX)

41. If you are ever in a grown up area with weeds, thorns, poison ivy/oak, then take along a small sheet of plywood with a decent hole in it. First of all, you can detect through the plywood. Gives you something you can stand on while watching for critters around you. Pull the hole up to the pinpointed area and dig. Pretty good. They never knew you were even there. Cuts down on contact with poison ivy/oak.

42. Here's a tip for all you nuggetshooters out there, keep that coil right on the ground and parallel to the ground when you're swinging it. If you're not going through a coil cover every 4 or 5 times out you're not close enough to good old mother earth. Remember you might be missing some nice gold because you're swinging that coil 1" or 2" above pay dirt!

43. Here is a nice tip: Find your local detecting club and join up! You can learn a lot from others and have a great time with your fellow treasure hunters.

44. Have you ever wanted to hunt for just a given amount of time and didn't have your watch handy? My time is limited to say the least, and I often don't remember when I need to quit detecting and get on home (which leads me into trouble with my better half). What I have done to remedy this problem is to buy one of the small digital clocks (which have the stickum on the back) and stick it on the face of my metal detector. You can get them in all sizes and shapes and the time is right there in front of your face so you will never have an excuse to be late again because you didn't realize that a lot more time has past having so much fun MD'ing. It works great on my Fishers' and White's units. Happy hunting and God Bless!

45. Carry a bunch of brightly colored golf tees in your apron. Search a small area and mark your hits with the tees. After marking as many as you care to you can set your detector down, take off your headset and concentrate on digging for awhile. You can use white for 3", yellow for 6", red for 10" or something like that.