dfxonly.com

[Myownwings]

Has anyone actually figured out a way to make a living out of this yet, or at least substantially augmented their income? Or is this all just about clad and wishful thinking?

[V-tail]

For me it's just about being an enjoyable hobby. I like the aspect of not knowing what I might find next- clad, silver, trash, or whatever. If I happen to get lucky and discover silver or gold, that's just an added bonus. If I had to rely on this hobby to support my income, that would be too much like work and take all the fun out of it.

Just my two zincolns worth. ----V-tail

[ricko]

This is mainly a hobby. Some find items (such as gold rings etc) more frequently than others, but none I know make a living at it. A few rare finds in the UK (recent treasure hoards) have allowed the finders some degree of financial independence... but this is uncommon. Even cache hunters, who occasionally find substantial sums, do not find enough to 'retire' on. A fellow on another forum did an experiment to see if he could survive on his findings. Did it for a couple months as I recall... it was a meager living, but he did manage. Just barely paid bills, of which he did not have many. RickO
_________________
V3, DFX, Dual Surf PI, PI PRO, TDI, GMT, DX-1, Coiltek, Garret wall detector, Pistol Probe, HotShot, DD1400, 4x6, Spider coil and others.

[Rick@UK]

I think it has to be seen really as a hobby but some people have hit it lucky by finding hoards etc but these type of finds are few and far between,i would say that if you live in say kangaroo-land which does have the right conditions to find gold nuggets i guess it could well be possible but i have never heard anyone that has done it.

We see the odd large nuggets of gold in detector sales picture but once again they dont come out very ofton,to me its the history and the thought that you can never tell what is going to come out next this could be a new coin or a massive hoard.

Rick
_________________
http://www.valuethe.net
http://www.filethe.net
http://www.rapidthe.net
http://www.scepd.net
http://www.emailthe.net
http://www.iphonecases.info

[ricko]

Rick,
You are the icon king... RickO
_________________
V3, DFX, Dual Surf PI, PI PRO, TDI, GMT, DX-1, Coiltek, Garret wall detector, Pistol Probe, HotShot, DD1400, 4x6, Spider coil and others.

[Myownwings]

I guess my frustration is just coming out. I try to hunt at least a couple hours everyday. I live in an area that was settled in the 1750's and the oldest coin I've found is a 1892 Silver Barber Quarter. I have access to some choice sites (a home built in 1776 and a mansion built in 1802) and I'm just not having any luck with anything really old which I could sell on Ebay and get a V3. I have fantastic luck with clad, I find it constantly...to the point I'm beginning to hate it..our newer coins are crap and lack character.

[Goinup]

try the 6x9 coil. and go s l o w.

[Myownwings]

Do you believe the 6 x whatever can search deeper than the 950? I probably could slow down a little but the property is large and there is a lot of ground to cover. I am assuming that most lost coins would be closest to the house, where I do slow down a lot.

[ernie46]

The 6x9 gives you a little less depth but dramatically raises the ability to separate targets. In trashy areas, you do not need to maximize depth but to separate that rosie or walker that is right next to the piece of junk. The 6x9 target area is like a windshield wiper, long but skinny, while the 950 is a nice big fat circle. The 6x9 skinny target area can separate one target lying right next to another while the 950 picks up all of them in the coil radius.

[Myownwings]

The area I'm hunting has virtually no trash. What I'm finding is newer type clad and large iron pieces, along with large pieces of lead a some silver plated spoons and knives, all of which are pretty old. The site dates to 1802 and I have yet to find any coins older than 1932.
It rained today a bit and it is not nearly as hot and humid as it has been for the past week or so in PA. I think I'm going to try 3 khz mixed mode, tone id off and -30 ~ +94 desc. and look for signals that can't be identified but pinpoint as deep. I put the 950 back on last night so I'll go with that for now.

[PlunkTwang]

Hope that works for you! Having the Disc Accept down to -30 does two things: 1) lets you see the Iron (which gives you high chirps from wrap-around that you can ignore, but watch the Signagraph); and 2) makes VDI info that you see more accurate for targets from -10 to "Good". I REJect +94 and +95, forgot to mention that [my MM program is in the programs section].

If there's "too much information", you can try Correlate instead of 3KHz single-frequency.

A 'solid and significant' mid-range tone, maybe a Signagraph bar that's not at either end of the scale, and a pinpoint value [remember that the pinpoint VDI# is shown in 15 KHz 'Raw'] that's somewhere + and interesting---are what I look for.
_________________
"There comes a time in every rightly-constructed boy's life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure." - Mark Twain in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

DFX w/ D2 & Eclipse 5.3; Sunray DX-1. M6 2nd Detector

[Myownwings]

Plunk,
I have come to the conclusion that each and every day I hunt I have to modify my settings. The optimal program for any particular day is always different. I find it funny how I can talk myself into digging just about anything that gives even the slightest possibility of something good. Sometimes I hit a target and each sweep gives major differences from -70 to + 80 and if pinpoint says anything deeper than 6 inches I'm digging. I have found merc's that had me scratching my head, they were deep and if I depended on VDI's I would have passed them over. That's why I like mixed mode. I get the extra option of driving myself crazy.