Ask dealers and other detectorists what their ID meter is like and why they stay with the machine they have.

You may see a pattern, try a few machines before you decide, remember there are detectors built in countries other then the USA that will work well, you may need to ask questions via email for these.

See if you can use or rent this machine before buying, as you may not like the weight or balance, pinpointing or other features.

Most machines can find and ID pennies and dimes, but the real test is do they show up in the exact same spot so your are digging too many pennies or can they tell the difference (In most cases as no machine is perfect) many detectors are calibrated on USA coins and need to be reset for Canadian.. I have used one brand that called most Canadian coins trash.

One more tip even seasoned Hunters dont understand, many machines have no or a poor signal overload protection on a large or close to the surface object, it can pin the needle or give a false reading other machines like garrett make hissing or crackling sounds excedssively unless sensitivity is turned down very low (depth loss).

1. If the fair is in progress and you go, take along a spiral index card notebook and denote the locations of all the booths, especially the food vendors, they will have the highest traffic and yield the greatest coin flow. I make a rough map of the vendors represented by squares on a grid, then I mark food vendors with an "F", jewelry vendors with an "J" and so on.

2. If the fair or event is over, you can still locate the vendor's booths by simply looking for the new grass, tents and people are hard on grass and leave large muddy patches once finished, the land owners will reseed the lawns and this is a sure tell sign of a high traffic area. The bright, fresh grass stands out like a beacon in the night pointing the way to untold riches.

My father always told me about an old race track that existed here around the turn of the last century. I haven't been able to locate where the actual grandstands were located, but I know the general location of the track. I have found several old coins(Indian Head Pennies etc.) around the periphery of the old track.

I have had my MD for only a week and have already had more than $200 dollars(what I paid for the MD) worth of fun.

I found out the hard way that you should always have your detector handy. I took my dad and my grandpa to do a little reminiscing one day in southern Ohio, to a cabin they helped build in the 50's. We got there and my grandpa was walking around near the cabin in what used to be the veggie garden.

He told me a story of when he was plowing it one day in 1960. He said he was going along and all the sudden he seen something shinning on the ground, he stopped and went to see what it was and ended up picking $35 bucks in silver coins. Which I know he didn't get all of it. But at any rate, the owner of the property came home and it turns out she knew my grandpa and they got to talking (not about the money) and she gave me permission to come down anytime and hunt it.

Well dad and grandpa are gone now, and when I called her she declined for me to come down and go over the property. We were on our way home and they wanted to stop by a old park that is not in use any more and visit that. W ell we stopped, and no detector. Well I guess God does have a since of humor. I guess you can just use common sense from here, "LIKE I SHOULD HAVE" If anyone has some good tips on post hole hunting " what to look for, how deep, what size coil, etc. that would be great. I promise I'll have my detector.

Use galvanized screws only - no nails as they will loosen. Build a bottom frame to match the top and put the top on it with large hinges. Now you can swing the top screen back to dump the load after you sift the goods out.

The legs are any height you want. I unscrew mine to fit it into the car trunk if I don’t take my truck.

The smaller one is basically the same as the larger - just use 2 X 2 wood for lightness. Put a BIG handle on the side for carrying it in to a site. Attach 2 swing down legs to the sides using a wing nut so you can tighten & loosen easily.

Metal Detectorist's tend to overlook the importance of old maps in their coin searches. Completely forgotten about is the existence of early county maps that contain a wealth of information. Known as Land Ownership maps they represented a very detailed picture of the population of a given area. A large volume of these rare and sometimes valuable maps were produced in the mid 19th century for publicity purposes, property assessment and to attract new migrants A dedicated Treasure Hunter should research this wonderful item, for they continue to be a great asset in researching for coins, forgotten towns, and other sources of potential discovery.

The original cartographers and engravers produced these giant wall maps, that could average a 6 foot tall image and that clearly defined different survey zones. These maps focused on tax land assessment, supervisory boards, land deeds, political and voter districts. They would show the locality of a property, name of the resident, possible occupation, acreage owned and other notable ancestry interests. Outside of the libraries and government institutions that have a limited staff to assist you with your project. One should look for on-line map libraries for all your needs. These entities are quick to respond to inquiries and can offer a large library of premium priced images of outstanding quality. Browsing the Internet the ever growing entourage of Metal detector enthusiasts, Treasure Seekers who should be aware of two map libraries that have a reputation for quality reproductions.

I was reciently shopping at our local Harbor Frieght tool store, when I saw a metal detector made for finding nails in wooden boards. This unit is only 81/2" long and 1 1/2" wide. The head is 2 3/4" wide. I thought it might come in handy to pinpoint an object under the coil of a metal detector. I had no idea of the sensitivity of this unit but bought it anyway for $15.00

When building a electrolysis machine to clean metal, a better transformer to use is an old AT type computer power supply not a ATX power supply just cut a yellow and a black wire from one of the four wire plug strip and attach clips. Yellow is POSITIVE (+), Black is ground.

In a plastic tub mix tap water, a tablespoon of salt per 8 oz of water, attach yellow lead to a stainless steel piece put in water on one side of the bucket attach black lead to the metal find, put in the water on other side of bucket.

Lots of large ice chest and coolers have a moveable plastic storage tray that comes with them. These are usually rectangular in shape and are used to keep your dry goods off the ice inside the cooler. You can also use a plastic Tupperware tray or a similar tray (as long as it is plastic and deep).

I use these trays to speed up my digs. Simply put the dirt you dig out the tray. After every couple of scoops, run your coil over the dirt in the tray. Since the tray is plastic, it will not cause any false reading.

If your detector beeps they you know you have scooped out the object (now just sift around in the tray until you find it). If your detector does not beep, you will know its still in the ground (just keep scooping).

Every four scoops, dump the tray out near the hole you are digging. This way the amount of dirt in the container is minimal, and you do not have to search through as much once your detector says the object is in the tray.

I have found that this “process of elimination” speeds up my digs. It also makes re-filling your holes quick; you just invert the tray and use it to drag the pile of dirt you made back into the hole.

When traveling the back roads or the forgotten roads in New York State and maybe in other states as well, look for "orange day lilies" or the leaves. They are in front of the house by the road in more than 60% of the cellar holes in the woods. Also watch for 4 or 5 Maple Trees equally spaced along the road, a sure indication. Other sure signs are old lilac bushes and the ground cover "myrtle".

One of the first places to detect these sites is right by the road and around the well hole!

If you have a farm field where you think there was a house, look for shards of brick and white and blue pottery! If you see that? You are in for some fun my friend.

Finding Old Farmhouses.

I think of the Internet as a brief synopsis of all the information available to me from a library. Sometimes the information is incomplete, sometimes not true, but it is a starting point for finding sites I can use my metal detector on. Though it will never replace conventional research, the astronomical growth of the information being placed on the Internet has changed the methods I use to research forever. Here is one project I have begun that hopefully will begin others on the trail of research.

I started this project for my local metal detecting club. I wanted to find all the ghost towns in Montgomery County, Indiana so we could find places for club hunts. I started my research at E-Bay, finding and bidding on any map of Indiana I could and especially maps that drilled down to the county I was researching, providing towns of the era (I limited my research to 1852-1897). I found that the most frequent maps available to me were railroad maps. Not a lot of detail on roads, but great for providing town names and distances from other towns.

I also started looking for maps that were placed on the Internet. My first reference was American Memory Historical Collections for the National Digital Library posted on the web by the Library of Congress http://memory.loc.gov. This site was great for finding many of the state maps for the timeframe. This as well as many other Internet references were obtained by a simple use of a search engines such as Google. I placed the words Map Indiana History Montgomery County Union Township in the search engine and up popped as many maps as I could look at in a week.

Another site located during this search was Hoosier Web Hoosier Geneology and history http://www.hoosierweb.org. This site provided me with a list of post offices in the county for 1875. PERFECT!! I took this information and matched the towns listed against current towns. I looked up the current towns using Yahoo! Maps http://maps.yahoo.com/. I looked up each town from the 1875 list and if it was listed, checked it off my list.

This left 12 towns not listed on Yahoo and were therefore assumed as Ghost Towns for the moment. Now it was time to go back to my basic search engine. I then took each town name left on my list and entered them into my original search (Map Indiana History Montgomery County Union Township TOWN NAME). I had to review a few pages to find out which towns had been renamed to current names and tick them off as well. This left nine towns that no record existed for. Of these nine towns, six had short histories of some kind on the Internet.

Now I just had to be able to find the actual towns' general locations. I added the word plat to my search, hoping to find a few plat maps, but no such luck on this (Note: many states and counties do have historical plat maps on the Internet, but the county I was searching for did not).

Okay... Off to the library then. In the library I found early plat books for 1864 and current plat books of today. I was able to look up the towns and compare their locations. The first town I located is Pawnee, Indiana. Now a cornfield, the plat map pinpointed the town's railroad station. It worked out that the station is on the exact corner of four plats. I again used the current plat map in the library and was able to follow the roads to the exact location. Virginia (my wife) and I went to the site and looked it over. We used the new plat map to find out who the owner is and are now in the process of contacting them to get permission to hunt the site. I hope to take my detector out in a week or two just to check the ground, without digging and see if it is ALL plowed down too deep. If I find anything of note, I will recommend this site to my club for a club hunt.

The old plat map also shows either a school or church in the same area. There is no building there now, though there are a couple of farmhouses nearby. The owner of the land where the old building was is listed on the new plat map as the owner of one of these farmhouses. I will start knocking on doors and hopefully begin a conversation with the owner or a neighbor. Hopefully, I can pinpoint that building.

Back to the library again to try to breakdown exactly where the buildings were in the town. I tried first to look through the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, but could find no map of Pawnee. I then went to the Indiana Historical Magazines. I found four articles on Pawnee, but still nothing on the locations of the buildings. The search is not over, it was just too late to do any more over the weekend.

I will try to keep you abreast the further along I get in my research on the other towns and the progress of the hunt for Pawnee. If others get interested in the idea of research they may find their own for places of interest. Most of us are especially interested, in the methods others use to find sites, determine their hunting prospects and get permission to hunt on them. Pass this article on to the others so as many as might want to get involved in the research of places to hunt can add their comments to your clubs next meeting.

In reviewing old plat maps at our local library you have access to dimensions, survey way points and in some cases latitude and longitude references. I purchased a topo cd from maptech which allows search by feature, eg rail line, well, historic points of interest, etc. Which leads me to putting all this information together to get on target.

I'm always looking for tips from all you fellow metal detecting addicts out there and learning all the time. I have a tip that will help those looking for those all farm homes torn down years ago. I've read tips from getting old maps,talking to seniors,even renting a plane to spot these old home locations. I found a easy way to find old farm homes sites and I wish to share this with all you that have shared your ideas with me.

I live out in the country, with farmland all around.I would always end up driveing to town to metal detect and people in town would tell me I would have better luck hunting the old farm homes, many of which were torn down and now farm fields, but how do I find them? Maps, hear say, airplane, etc. Frustrated, I drove down back roads looking for old farm homes that were still standing, which were far and few, Until one day driving, I noticed something shining in a farm field being prepared for spring planting, curious,I pulled over, got out and checked out what was being reflected,to my surprise it was a piece of glass, infact there was lots of pieces of glass being reflected by the sun.

Thats when it hit me, these were part of the remains of a house which stood there once. Since then I have found many sites thanks to the glass remains. I now can pretty well locate where the house stood, front yard,etc.The glass even gives me a idea of the homes age, the finds also have been rewarding. The best time to look,spring planting time, fall after crops have been harvested,and on sunny days during these periods the glass is easy to spot.Please be considerate to the farmers and hunt before crops are planted and after plants are harvested.Remember your most likey to be the first to hunt the site and more then likely the last.

Never allow yourself to try and out race the other guy, we all find things, that's what this hobby is all about. Don't become competitive, work slowly, keep in mind that this is your enjoyment not your lively hood, enjoy what you are doing. Very soon now in the North Country of New York State we'll be taking to the fields, go back to any area that produced for you last year, re-hunt the same ground, concentrate on the sounds, this is your greatest in metal detecting, it is very similar to fishing, be patient, never mind the speed walking, sweep the area very carefully and listen.

Sometimes it is useful to enlist the aid of a family member, have them 'salt', your driveway, use coins, pull tabs, steel bottle caps, all covered with a handful of snow, now you know exactly where the targets are, but you don't know what the target is, try and identify each one before peeking, a very worthwhile test of yourself and equipment, experiment, don't be afraid to boost up the settings, see what higher settings do to affect your ability to identify the target, it's fun and worthwhile. Tom.

Make a list of your family members ( Uncles, Aunts, Grand Parents, Etc. ), that are say 60 yrs. old and up. Then add people you know with relatives that fall into this age bracket. The reason for this is simple.....

When they were kids, teen agers, and young adults...cities, towns, and surrounding areas were much different from what they are today. Houses, school yards, churches, encampments, cemeteries, parks, sports areas, swimming holes, as well as old roads, paths, drive ways, logging camp locations, battle sites, etc. In many cases were 50 to 100 years then. Do the math, these places are now 100 to 150 years old, possibly even much older.

There are many other ways to contact people in this age group. Family Reunions, Senior Citizens Groups, Bingo Halls, Stores and Gas Stations on the edge or outside city and town limits, etc. Maybe you know someone in a rest home. These people will talk with you for hours and be grateful for the company. Use your imagination and soon your information sources will become endless.

More often than not these places will exist someone's memory, not as a written record. Always have a map handy when talking with someone about locations from "days gone by." That way you can mark the general locations and then cross check this data with other people in that same area. If you don't have a map, then paper and pencil to draw one will do.

Farming areas..... It never hurts to stop at a farm house and ask directions ( even though you aren't lost ). You may even find yourself holding a cup of coffee, glass of ice water or tea and maybe a sandwich for your trouble. While you are there mention what your interest are, the response may surprise you. I have had offers to ride down the road and show me a spot just like what I was hopping to find when I started out that day. In some cases they even ask if I would like to hunt around their place. Maybe even look for a lost item.

Look close while you are there! I have seen cannon balls, insulators, and other items being used as door stops, or maybe just laying around the porch, at the end of a flower bed or hedge row, on the dirt floor or around the outside of an old abandoned shed, or barn. Sometimes, for a few dollars I would have a prize. Oh yes; don't forget to look up, not just down !

I have even offered to clean out and haul away all that old "JUNK" in order to clear the way for my metal detector. Regardless of what is left behind for the ShadowX2 to sniff out, I will already have some valuable "JUNK" in the back of my truck. Learn to SEE, not just LOOK !

Become a name dropper.....I have used this ice breaker many times over the years. Use the name of someone you've met in the same area. Also, it never hurts to take a minute and lend a helping hand to some in need of it. That person as a rule will be extremely grateful and tell you anything you want to know, or refer you to someone else that can put you on the right track. I have learned of enough new ( untouched ) locations to kept me busy a month or two just for helping to carry a little fire wood and stacking it on the back porch.

By the way.....pull tabs, gum wrappers, and other undesirable items, as a rule aren't a problem with these types of locations, which number into the millions in this country alone. That old saying....."One Person's Trash Is Another Person's Treasure" is more true today than ever before, and people will pay well for it too !

In closing just remember.....There are more valuable items yet to be found, than the sum total of everything found to date. The more creative you become the better your chances of finding your fair share.

Let us all practice good Metal Detecting & Treasure Hunting etiquette so that not only us, but those who come after us may enjoy the thrill of the find for many years to come.