COLCHESTER TREASURE HUNTING HOLIDAYS IN ENGLAND

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Best types and makes of detectors

There are no really bad detectors built these days amongst the well known makes, they will all find metal objects. Every guy thinks his machine is best and that is all that matters, confidence in your machine. The depth argument is a total waste of time as most finds are only normally only a couple of inches deep, air testing a machine and saying mine goes an inch deeper than yours make no difference. To me the test of a good detector is how much junk you don't have to dig in order to make the right find. My previous model a 1266 XB liked iron too much, the Coinstrike I now use however eliminates iron perfectly. Some of the new machines require a very long learning curve so it is not advisable to bring a brand new detector with you but stick to your old faithful if you can!!

Hunting tips

Arkansas Gary has also written a helpful guide below using his XS.

'Arkansas' Gary's guide to detecting in England

My Technique For Detecting England

I have an Explorer XS. I took my 15" WOT and 10.5" Stock coils only. The smaller coils I left home. I've yet to find a field that you need a small coil in with the Explorer. I used the 15" coil in the flat (rolled) planted fields and the 10.5" coil in the set asides and wheat stubble. The 10.5 coil is heavy and made it easier to knock the stubble around. If your coil is light, a smaller coil may be beneficial in stubble.

The ground can be a little nosily (mineralise) in places and will vary in the field and field to field. In noisy areas I ran my gain as high as I could and still picked out most targets. You will miss some of the weak signal but they will be moved around on the next plowing for you to find next time. Most fields are fairly quiet.The fields are large and your first thought is to take off fast and not overlap your sweep. This will cause you to miss most of the targets because you will either not get the coil over the target or be going too fast to hear the smaller targets. The best method for me was to walk slow, in half steps and sweep the entire area in front of me. When I found a coin or nice relic I would grid a small area, if nothing else interesting turned up I would continue my slow walk across the field. If I turned up more items, then I would expand my grid. I've spent several afternoons detecting an area no larger than 100 x 100 feet in stubble with some great finds.

In the rolled planted fields keep the coil almost touching to occasionally touching the small dirt clogs. After a while, if its very muddy you will have to scrap the mud off the bottom of your coil because
of the weight. In the stubble you want to knock the stubble around with your coil so you can get it closer to the ground. Watch that you don't bring the coil up at the ends of your sweep in the stubble, which takes some effort to keep it down. The closer to the ground and slower you go the more likely you will hear that very faint brief signal from a small hammered coin.
I ran my Explorer in iron mask -10 which just gets rid of most iron. I dug everything above iron. There are so many different kinds of coins and relics that you just can't pass up anything that's not iron. The
biggest trash item is lead, from BB size to several ounces. The larger coins are easy to hear except the ones on edge. The really tough signals are small hammered silver and bronze Roman coins. They rarely sound like silver or bronze. They are more in the tin foil, nickel, and pull tab area and can be a very faint signal (coil on the ground and go sloow). The smallest coins and cut hammered coins will read as tin foil. One trip across a field without good finds doesn't mean there's nothing in the field. All fields have good relics and coins. Sometimes they are spread out over the entire field and you will have to work to
find them. Some fields have sweet spots, but they could be anywhere and in several spots. These sweet spots could have been an old well, footpath, road, house site, or a camp to name a few. Everyone worries about a field that's been detected before. This is normal, but it doesn't mean much. One of my best finds, a 1676 Charles II six pence in au condition and only 50 feet from the road and had been hunted by many others last fall and previous years. This same field also gave up 3 hammered silver, 2 Romans and lots of copper coins, plus lots of relics while I was there. I've found coins in people's footprints and under their trash that they threw down. Pickup your dug trash so we won't have to dig it next year and there might be another target under it.. Some days you find a number of good finds and next day its just a long day with lots of lead, a few copper coins and relics. However,a nice relic can make a great day out of a marginal day. I will always remember my Roman broach and rare 14th century thimble. When you least expect it you will find that most prize find. The guy's after me found 2 Celtic gold coins. There's lots of relics and coins to be found.

Cheers Mate, Arkansas Gary

Ground conditions in Colchester

The ground around Colchester is perfect for detecting as it has a low mineral content so sensitivity on Fisher detectors can be turned up to max at all times giving full depth.

Fisher Coinstrike settings

I run in discrimination mode to cut out all iron and with the Coinstrike I get no tone at all when hitting iron targets. (Don't like all metal mode as it is too noisy and I don't want to dig iron anyway). You can still pick up the larger iron/steel targets like a sword, horse shoe because you get a good signal in the middle but negative numbers around the edges, with the pinpoint mode you can trace the outline of the object and decide if it is a plough part or something worth digging

I do not notch out any group of finds i.e. tabs foil etc. on my detectector as the land has very little trash and a ring pull ID & tone can be a small roman coin or ring in reality.

A short guide to the 'hit' tones and ID's on English lands using a CS:

10 to 35 and a low tone like lead can be an early hammered silver ( silver contents vary greatly)
22- 28 high tone solid lock is usually a 17th to 19th copper coin
32-38 high tone solid lock milled silver coins
A signal 12 - 55 low tone and no lock is usually a hot rock, coke etc
8 -20 good lock, button (pewter, brass, lead)
Detecting on the land is basically simple. You crank up your machine to max sensitivity and max volume and dig any metal above iron even if the target will not lock on. Roman coins are real bitches as they will rarely lock on and you will get a signal right the way through the range. There materials vary considerably from bronze to copper (some with 10% gold content) the silver coins are no better as again they can have almost no silver to full silver. Always use max volume so that you hear the faint good signal as that is a target at real depth. The land is as flat as a pancake and compacted so depths of 12 to 16 inches are common.

Garrett supplied the new GTI 2500 for guys to use and it has been very succcesful at finding Celtic gold coins, 3 last season. I have also now got 3 new Whites MXT's and 2 more Fisher Coinstrikes.

Fisher Hoardhunter

2 spare Gray Ghost head phones kindly supplied by Detectorpro

http://www.detectorpro.com/orig-grayghost.htm

http://www.buyametaldetector.com/ - Talk to Boston Bill about detecting kit

http://www.gerrysdetectors.com/ Talk to Idaho Gerry about training and new machines