From zero to hero with DetectingSA

[DetectingSA]

Hello forum,

I went on my first solo hunt today, I just went to my local park to test out the machine for a few hours.

As many of you may already know, I am brand new to the hobby and I've set my self some metal detecting goals which are as follows:

Id love for everyone to follow me on this journey, I will update here after every single hunt even if the finds are poor. And we can see what we can accomplish :Y:

Hunt #1

The main of my junk found:

This looks like a part of a toy revolver:

My second best find, though I can't help but feel sorry for the poor tacka that lost it:

And so far my best find, 1940 British 3 pence. I don't know how this got to a park in adelaide but there you go. Though I just feel like it's too good to be true and maybe is play money or something, it feels really really light and is quite thin:

Now while the 3 pence is technically a silver, I did mean Australian silvers. So I won't be ticking that one off just yet

Thanks everyone for your time, I shall see you again in the next hunt :Y:

 

[DetectingSA]

What I didn't anticipate is the ground being so hard about 10cm down, my little edge digger was worthless there and I had to leave quite a few signals behind because I was exhausting myself and not getting anywhere :lol:

Maybe the purchase of a pick is in order

 

[dam it]

What I didn't anticipate is the ground being so hard about 10cm down, my little edge digger was worthless there and I had to leave quite a few signals behind because I was exhausting myself and not getting anywhere :lol:

Maybe the purchase of a pick is in order

:lol: :lol: Welcome to the Jungle :lol:
Youre gonna need a bigger Pick :lol:

 

[Goldpick]

Great to see you've set out some objectives to tick off for the foreseeable future, most usually crop up when you least expect it.

As for using a pick in an urban park, forget about it, that will be probably the easiest way to get run out of the park by local council rangers and usually results in a very visible mess. Unfortunately at this time of the year, making recoveries can be rather difficult due to ground conditions, that's just a fact of life. Better off waiting till an area has been hit by rain, trying a different area altogether, or alternatively the ground can have more moisture at night or in the early morning (probably one for the more experienced). If I can't make a clean and neat recovery due to ultra hard ground, then I simply walk away and leave it for the new year, there are usually plenty of other areas to explore, especially if you can latch onto an area with sandy soil. Good luck & happy hunting.

 

[DetectingSA]

Great to see you've set out some objectives to tick off for the foreseeable future, most usually crop up when you least expect it.

As for using a pick in an urban park, forget about it, that will be probably the easiest way to get run out of the park by local council rangers and usually results in a very visible mess. Unfortunately at this time of the year, making recoveries can be rather difficult due to ground conditions, that's just a fact of life. Better off waiting till an area has been hit by rain, trying a different area altogether, or alternatively the ground can have more moisture at night or in the early morning (probably one for the more experienced). If I can't make a clean and neat recovery due to ultra hard ground, then I simply walk away and leave it for the new year, there are usually plenty of other areas to explore, especially if you can latch onto an area with sandy soil. Good luck & happy hunting.

Thanks for the advice goldpick, last thing I want to do is commit a diggers faux pas

I've got my eye on a few parks that dates back to 1800s, I'll pray for softer soil there when I go over the Christmas break!

Failing that, the beach is looking okay this summer :Y:

 

[Biggest Kev]

Welcome to the forum DSA, I to am new at this hobby and enjoy every hunt, like you I'm finding lots of junk with the odd bit of treasure. Its all good fun, good hunting and I will look forward to reading your future adventures. :Y:

Cheers
Kev

 

[DetectingSA]

Welcome to the forum DSA, I to am new at this hobby and enjoy every hunt, like you I'm finding lots of junk with the odd bit of treasure. Its all good fun, good hunting and I will look forward to reading your future adventures. :Y:

Cheers
Kev

Thanks kev!

I'm still learning my machine and the pin-pointer, so even when I was pulling out nails and pieces of aluminum I has having fun finding what made the signals

I did almost have a heart attack when I saw the silver though and realized it wasn't a 5c. I'm still not sure about that one though

 

[flyrodder]

only ever use a screw driver in parks and nothing else other wise someone may kick you off Screw driver onley air rates the soil

Great to see you've set out some objectives to tick off for the foreseeable future, most usually crop up when you least expect it.

As for using a pick in an urban park, forget about it, that will be probably the easiest way to get run out of the park by local council rangers and usually results in a very visible mess. Unfortunately at this time of the year, making recoveries can be rather difficult due to ground conditions, that's just a fact of life. Better off waiting till an area has been hit by rain, trying a different area altogether, or alternatively the ground can have more moisture at night or in the early morning (probably one for the more experienced). If I can't make a clean and neat recovery due to ultra hard ground, then I simply walk away and leave it for the new year, there are usually plenty of other areas to explore, especially if you can latch onto an area with sandy soil. Good luck & happy hunting.

Thanks for the advice goldpick, last thing I want to do is commit a diggers faux pas

I've got my eye on a few parks that dates back to 1800s, I'll pray for softer soil there when I go over the Christmas break!

Failing that, the beach is looking okay this summer :Y:

 

[DetectingSA]

Thanks for the tip! I don't want to be run off the land or ruin it for anyone else.

I just YouTube'd the screw driver method, seems abit difficult but shouldn't be hard to get the hang of it!

Cheers :Y:

 

[DetectingSA]

Hunt 2# has been an absolute bust, I've been at this park for 5 hours and no decent finds at all.

There is so much brick, concrete, tile, quartz and other rock in the ground here. Literally every hole of the 50+ I've dig today had one of the above in it!

And quite a few were too deep, and the soil to hard for me to even find, had to leave a few high 80-90s signals behind.

It had potential, it's one of adelaides oldest suburbs, and this park used to be a stables in the 1850s.

Abit disappointed to be honest, I thought for sure I'd find my first Australian silver here, but alas it was not to be! I know that's the game, I'll be back at it next time. I have my eye on another park in the local area that hopefully has a better bounty for me!

Until next time :Y:

 

[HeadsUp]

Hunt 2# has been an absolute bust, I've been at this park for 5 hours and no decent finds at all.

There is so much brick, concrete, tile, quartz and other rock in the ground here. Literally every hole of the 50+ I've dig today had one of the above in it!

And quite a few were too deep, and the soil to hard for me to even find, had to leave a few high 80-90s signals behind.

It had potential, it's one of adelaides oldest suburbs, and this park used to be a stables in the 1850s.

Abit disappointed to be honest, I thought for sure I'd find my first Australian silver here, but alas it was not to be! I know that's the game, I'll be back at it next time. I have my eye on another park in the local area that hopefully has a better bounty for me!

Until next time :Y:

horse stables might have more than a few horse shoe nails and horse shoes....

but persevere learning the places that can be productive.

anywhere that drunk people would have coins in their hands or their pockets ?

 

[DetectingSA]

Unless the drunk people were from 1966 or prior I'm not really interested in their coins

But you live and you learn, I was out today in the nice weather getting some exercise. That's gotta be worth something

I'll be back at it as soon as I can, new place next time, hopefully better

 

[Biggest Kev]

I know the feeling DSA, but keep going back pick a new area each visit and you might jag some loot.

Cheers
Kev

 

[pete165]

Keep going . Do not get upset if nothing is found as it is all part of the learning process.

 

[DetectingSA]

Thanks for the encouragement lads :Y:

I'll be back at it, can't scare me off that easily

I've come up so sore this morning, aching muscles and I'm pretty badly sunburnt aha but I'll be back at it

 

[DetectingSA]

I was back out today with hunt 3#

I went to my local beach in adelaide, glenelg for about 2 hours today.

After abit of messing around with discrimination and sensitivity I got my 400i working fairly decently on the wet sand and in the water, though I was fairly consistently getting signals of 52. After the first few I dug and couldn't find anything with the pinpointer I gave up on those and chalked them up as false signals even though they were repeatable signals

I didn't manage to find anything other than trash today but I was out there having fun and finding targets, one of theses days I'm going to get into something nice

I assume at this time of year the beach is very thoroughly cleaned out daily by some old hats at the game.

But I had a nice relaxing morning, I'll be back at it soon :Y:

 

[Mackka]

Early to bed, early to rise!
Keep going mate ,it will happen.
Mackka

 

[DetectingSA]

Back again with hunt #4,

I managed to make it down to the beach today for around 5:30am but still I was beaten to the punch by some locals

I was hoping today would be the day I scored a piece of jewelry given it was New Years even last night, the beach was packed with drunkards :lol:

And the only "jewelry I found was this wooden bracelet and a squishy ring that flashes

my only noteworthy find today was this coin/token which I haven't identified yet, need to take it home and clean it, writing possibly Russian?

And the rest of the junk: tent pegs, bottle tops, sparklers, part of a firework, a huge bolt and $2.20

I had fun, maybe hunt #5 will be when I get my first good find :Y:

Happy new year everyone

 

[flyrodder]

Mate i did Brighton Beach 40 mins after midnite last nite 2hrs for 5 bottle tops 2 ring pulls and $1.65 which most had been there for couple of weeks before. I was the first one there The beach was absolutely clean so they took all their rubbish and money with them.But earlier in the week i took the 3030 to a local park i had done 7 times over the last year with a 705 and found over $50 bucks so figured id find very little but lo n behold i ended up with $16.95 of which most had been there a long time so i had missed it so doesnt mean you havnt found it yet you just missed it so keep going back

Back again with hunt #4,

I managed to make it down to the beach today for around 5:30am but still I was beaten to the punch by some locals

I was hoping today would be the day I scored a piece of jewelry given it was New Years even last night, the beach was packed with drunkards :lol:

And the only "jewelry I found was this wooden bracelet and a squishy ring that flashes

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/11609/1514756539_img_3264.jpg

my only noteworthy find today was this coin/token which I haven't identified yet, need to take it home and clean it, writing possibly Russian?

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/11609/1514756374_img_3262.jpg

And the rest of the junk: tent pegs, bottle tops, sparklers, part of a firework, a huge bolt and $2.20 >Happy New Year Hunting :lol:

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/11609/1514756696_img_3265.jpg

I had fun, maybe hunt #5 will be when I get my first good find :Y:

Happy new year everyone

 

[DetectingSA]

Patience and persistence is the name of the game

I'm going to try to sneak back out tomorrow to a new spot for a few hours, if I can get it passed the missus that is :lol:

Ps. That coin was Russian. 10 rubles