I was thinking if I could give any advice for beginners on hunting grass.
First of all..
1. How to find recreation areas ?
To find the grass areas where people sit and spend time: I look them up with Google Maps. Zoom in far enough to see if the area might be fenced. Often you see soccer goals and a bit of destroyed grass in front of them. Or white areas that might be sand of playgrounds. I write down the adresses, ordered by city. I also draw my own simple map of the town with each area in it, so in case one doesn’t work out, I can easily look up which next area is the closest.
The other option is to google playgrounds and parks but then you probably miss out on all the little nameless ones.
2. Equipment needed for digging in grass
A: I use a Garrett Pro pinpointer. Simply because it was the best around (now not so sure anymore) and I got it secondhand (which is never simple cos no one sells it).
B: Also a flat strong screwdriver to open up the grass and dig the target out.
C: Big pocket for junk. Small pocket for treasures.. (this is usually the division unfortunately).
D: Detector might be handy too in case you just arrived here and don’t know what this page is about.
Looking for stuff
THe general overview: THe first time, I just start at the beginning of the grass or sand and see what happens.
You can try to figure out where the hotspots are by experience or by considering this:
-where do people walk on/off the area or where does everybody pass. This is usually the spot where they loose money.
-where do people sit or lie when it’s a nice day in summer ? That is where they lose even more money because pockets go into a horizontal direction and coins can fall out. God knows what else they do in horizontal positions so lots of stuff can fall onto the grass.
In a playground, I can find coins everywhere. In grass also, i even found coins on the border where the bushes start.
If you want to have the whole area covered, walk in straight lines starting on one side, and then make overlapping swings. Go back and forth, each time moving up 2 steps or so.
(that’s common in all detecting).
When to dig ?
When I just start walking around, I still have plenty of juice and I dig everything that sounds solid enough. When I get tired and demotivated however, I start digging only stuff that sounds very solid and has coin-ID’s. Then I end up digging almost exclusively bottle caps so then it’s a sign that I have to go home and have a day off.
THe deal is: the more ‘bad’ ID’s and sounds you dig, the more good things you might find. I’m in the middle. I airtested some golden rings and since then I try to dig the foil-ID’s because they are in the same range as golden rings (very unfortunate but true..). The coin-ID’s for Euro’s are around 73-76-82-85. If I dig all that, I get also older coins and bottle caps.. Some really enthusiastic beeps are just yelling at me: Dig me, I am at least 1 euro lying only 2 cm deep.
That doesn’t happen every 5 mins unfortunately.
The actual digging:
look also here http://blog.absolute-freedom.be/index.php/2015/02/09/my-screwdriver/
You found a target with the big detector, and then try to pinpoint it with big detector.
That leaves me sometimes with an area as big as 13x13cm or so.. If the target is close to the surface, you should be able to find it with the pinpointer. IF it’s deeper, you can try to extend the pinpointers reach by holding the screwdriver or other small metal object near it. Just hold it a tiny bit outside the beeping range.
If you still cannot pinpoint the target, there is the option of piercing through the grass with the screwdriver to find the coin. This only works with surfaces, so you won’t be able to find a pull tab, yay. THe other desperate option is just to open the grass where you think the object is and start pinpointing again from inside the hole. This is just a routine that you have to learn to master. Most stuff I can dig up now, unless it’s something big and deep.
IF you have a shovel or grass-cutting tool, you actually don’t need all that fuss that I described above. You dig out a part of the grass and soil and you will find the target a lot faster (I think, never tried it).
I am not using any cutting device or shovel because I am afraid that cutting roots will cause the grass to die. I already had that happening in my own garden so I’m not so fond of the special grass knives and shovels. What I do use is a flat screwdriver. Yes, lol. It might take some time to dig up a small brown coin that is moving around.. but I rather dig a bit longer than losing my privelidge to dig the place anyway because they say I’m making holes. When I leave, no one can see where I dug.
Don’t the American parks have the rule: you can metaldetect but you cannot dig ? Well, I got around that ! I don’t dig haha. I just pick in the grass with a screwdriver. (I’m not in America but still..it might get to this one day)
I will try to keep updating this post when I think of new tips.