They say no place is ever “Hunted Out.” That may be true, but there are places that have been detected so much that the good finds are few and far between. The park closest to my house is hunted out according to my definition of the words. I have detected there over 50 times in the last couple of years. Usually I don’t find much in that park. One time I did find a nice .925 Ring, but that was an exception and not the norm.
Modern clad coins and trash are the usual finds in that park. It could be because the park has only been there since the 1970’s. Couple that with the fact that not many people actually use the park and you have a recipe for some tough hunting. Still, I enjoy getting out there and swinging. The first few hunts there were pretty good, and I found my share of quarters, but the last year or so hasn’t been very productive.
I detected there for about an hour yesterday. First I hit the playground and only found one bullet casing. It always intrigues me how bullet shells get on playgrounds since I find them there all the time! I figure the gravel is brought from creeks, and the shells are in the gravel. Since I wasn’t finding much on the tot lot, I moved to the grassy areas between the parking lot.
Button & Charm
As you can see from the picture, I didn’t find much, but I did find a few things in this “hunted out” park. The best of which was this button and charm. Both are junkers, but I was satisfied to find ‘something’ there.
Finds in an hour
All in all it was a fun hunt, I got outside and got some fresh air, and sometimes that’s all I really need to rejuvenate and relax my mind. I have a once in a lifetime hunt planned next weekend, and this hunt will hold me over until then. The anticipation is killin me, but at least I have a full day of metal detecting to look forward to!
Take care my friends, and remember, sometimes it’s not about the finds. Sometimes it’s about just enjoying the hunt!
HAPPY HUNTING!
Ozarks
Metal Detecting the Ozark Mountains 
The cool thing about hunted out parks is that if ya wait a while, more goodies are dropped. Can’t wait to hear of your neat hunt!
Yep, parks always have new depositors so you just never know when you’ll find a goodie! I have found silver in places that I personally detected over 10 times. I hear ya, I sure hope that I can finally break into the 1800’s with a coin or two! 30% chance of rain on the day I plan to go, but I hope that doesn’t deter the landowner from meeting me out there and letting me get after it this weekend! You KNOW I’ll be posting whatever goodies I find. Can. Not. Wait!
Hey !
Yes, that´s the typical finds in parks – but i like it to detect sometimes in parks for extra beer cash 🙂 I love the coins of the US and i hope i can detect someday in the US ?! 😉
HELLO from Germany – RALF
WELCOME! Thanks for visiting, appreciate the comments! See ya next time bud!
Any idea as to why most, if not all items detected and they’re few and far between at that, turn out to mostly be trash like 12″ deep, buried beer cans, 12″ deep ring pulls, and (one) lousy penny, the entire afternoon. What’s going on in the State of Florida ???!!
Oh, and the beach sucked too. Only a few coins and the rest, which was 95% of the finds, was nothing but tabs, shredded cans, foil, one roofing nail and at least ten bottle caps. I am trying (very) hard, using a very deep detector, swinging very methodically and slowly, scraping the coil in the sand and at the end of 6 wasted hours, absolutely nothing. Scratching my head as I just don’t get it………..It seems like someone is going around to all the places I have been for the last couple of years, just ‘cleaning house’. Any ideas as to why this is happening Ozarks ??
Hi Greg, sorry for the delay in response… Appreciate the comment and questions. I’ll try to help you understand what you’re stacked against, at beaches. Seems everyone that has a metal detector, takes it to the beach. Then factor in the local guys who hunt those beaches daily, sprinkle in the weekend warriors and you have some stiff competition at beaches. But, there’s even one more, unseen layer to it… there are guys who live in or travel to those areas at night, and detect the beaches at night, before the early birds get there to detect the beaches. Compound that with all of the usual factors that metal detecting entails, and you have a recipe for some tough metal detecting scenarios.
So what can you do? Study WHERE people tend to congregate on the beaches where you detect. Find hot spots, where people sit or play… learn the tides, and times of tides… when the tide goes out, you can follow it out and detect areas further out than you can usually access, and for longer…. then when the tides come back in you can work your way back to the shore. Anywhere that wet sand meets dry sand is a good spot to follow, and detect. Likewise, at beaches, dig everything to miss nothing… the tones you listen for when detecting the beach are some of the tones you’re used to ignoring on land. Dig in water targets you may not dig on land… jewelry and rings will most likely be mixed tones, or lower tones than you’re used to focusing on when coin shooting. In other words, dig everything at the beach, that’s going to include some trash, and, in some instances produce no good finds…as stated it tough competition on beaches.
Parks and areas where you’re diggin junk, it just goes with the territory… as far as that goes, learning how to “size” a target before digging can cut out some of those deeper, larger targets. Two ways, among others, to size a target… if you get a 9 inch quarter signal, and you raise your coil off the ground 8 inches, and you still have a loud solid signal, chances are it’s a larger deep target. Another way to tell, swing over the target as you push your coil forward, when the tone drops off at the rear of the coil, make a mental note of the spot. Then swing and pull the coil back towards you, doing the same thing, until the tone again goes silent. Note the spot on the ground… then you should have somewhat of a visualization of how large the target is. Likewise, if you can swing 4-5-6 inches wide and still get a tone, it’s probably a larger target…not that large targets are bad, but when coin shooting those larger targets are “possibly” ‘not’ coins… Another way to size a target, pre-dig is to swing towards the target with the the side of your coil, when you get an alert, note the spot on the ground, do this repeatedly, as you walk sideways AROUND the target, each time swinging towards the target with the side of your coil…if you can make a BIG circle ‘around’ the target then chances are, it’s not a coin…if that makes sense (hard to describe without showing you) Basically, coin shooting, you want a small, tight, wrist wiggle target pre-dig. We all get fooled, but using a few general rules, you can dig less junk….. Anyway, those tips should give you some ideas of where to do more research to increase your odds. Sorry for the delay, hopefully the quality of the reply makes up for it! Appreciate you checking out my blog, and asking questions…OZ