Where to detect?

[Garrett_Gti_Dan]

Hello, I am relatively new to metal detecting and am not familiar to the 'good' places to detect. So far I have hit a few parks and my yard and have only found a lot of junk and a few pennies. Is anyone familiar to the Barrington, IL area or anywhere nearby and know where to detect?
Thanks,
Dan


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[Digger_O'Dell]

Dan, being from Wisconsin I can't give much advice to specific places. But I will say that it is unlikely anyone in this hobby would willingly just point out their hot spots! :shocked04:

What I can do is give a few pointers. First you need to know that unless you are in a very rural backwater area, it's highly unlikely that anything public and easily accessible has not been detected already at some point. Now, that does not mean every park has been pounded into submission and dug out to 2 feet down-just that all the easy targets have been picked. Usually though the remaining good targets are going to be harder to get to, or are masked by a lot of trash and/or iron. So you will have to work much harder (small coil moving REAL slow) in those areas to find the best keepers under the garbage. Of course you may have to dig a lot more trash too, but that will also clean up the area allowing you to find more keepers.

Secondly, often great places either may not be easily accessed such as needing to take a long hike, or having to get through some deep brush, swamps, and so forth. Also, many good spots may be too small or inconspicuous to be noticed by other casual detectorists such as nooks or breezeways at public buildings, or the areas between the sidewalk and the street. Also try street or sidewalk tear outs. Those give temporary access to places usually sealed and often hide very old coins or relics (Think "time capsule"!) Personally I have also had good luck at some schools and other publicly owned properties.

Third option often takes a LOT of time and effort, but can in itself be really enjoyable and can give something to do on days you can't be outside actually detecting-and that is RESEARCH! Go online and look up old platt maps of the areas you might want to hunt. Look up old aerial photos and compare them to new photos or google earth to see what has changed. For example, maybe an old school was torn down, but the lot is now vacant. Scan google earth to look for possible cellar holes or ruins of old home sites, etc. There are tons of ways to research-just think of your goal and how to achieve it, such as going online and reading through old newspapers or go to the local historical society to discover more "forgotten" history.

Lastly, the one I have not tried yet is knocking on doors and asking permission to detect on their property. Some here seem to have great success with that, and many of the great finds I have seen posted here have come from permissions.

I hope this helps you locate more items. I hear the GTI is a really good machine, although some articles I have read say it has a few issues. So let us know how the Garrett works out for you, and keep us posted on your progress. We love pics and stories here!

[Garrett_Gti_Dan]

Thanks for the tips. It is hard to find public areas, since I live in a small suburb. Also, do you know how to properly ground balance the GTI, because when I went to a historical site in Romania, it went haywire, and it gives some false, quiet signals, especially on the beach. If you or anybody has any tips on what modes to use for certain places, or for how to properly use it, leave them here!
Thanks,
Dan


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[chief5709]

Welcome to the forum Dan and good luck. Digger has some good advice to follow and remember to always ask for permission before going on private property.

[GA1dad]

Welcome to the AD forum Dan!!

[Digger_O'Dell]

Sorry, but I know almost nothing about the GTI. Looks like it has potential to be a really good machine from the marketing hype, but I have been skittish about Garretts due to lack of adjustability in many cases, and so many conflicting reports at both far ends of the spectrum on how they perform. But, you are the only one I know of with the GTI

[MangoAve]

Thanks for the tips. It is hard to find public areas, since I live in a small suburb. Also, do you know how to properly ground balance the GTI, because when I went to a historical site in Romania, it went haywire, and it gives some false, quiet signals, especially on the beach. If you or anybody has any tips on what modes to use for certain places, or for how to properly use it, leave them here!
Thanks,
Dan

There is no need to ground balance the machine unless you are using the All metal mode. It says in the manual about the fast track ground balance allows for a manual balance, but you should not need to use it. I have seen it go haywire due to EMI. Stuff like dog fences or near certain power wires. The best solution to that is to go into the menu, cycle through until you get to frequency (NOT tone) and you hit up or down. It will give a 'preview' to how it acts while you are in the menu selection so you don't need to come back to it. Just choose the best frequency that allows no interference. There is no correlation to an actual frequency but obvi the lower number (less bars in the display) would be a lower frequency than the nominal of the machine.


There was a mention of a beach site. Use the salt elimination selection for saltwater beaches to help with any falsing. There is a selection to do so. There aren't many things you need to change with the machine.

[Garrett_Gti_Dan]

Thanks for the tips! They were very useful! I never considered changing frequencies. I used all metal mode In Romania, because I was searching for Roman artifacts and WW2 artifacts that could be decently deep. I am also looking for a bullet that my dad lost in our yard. Could it be found with relics mode? Or what mode could I use?


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[Digger Don]

Door knocking has worked best for me. It seems easier to find virgin ground.
The #1 rule to door knocking is dig a clean plug and leave it so the homeowner can't tell where you dug.
Good Luck. You have many great finds ahead of you!!

[MangoAve]

Thanks for the tips! They were very useful! I never considered changing frequencies. I used all metal mode In Romania, because I was searching for Roman artifacts and WW2 artifacts that could be decently deep. I am also looking for a bullet that my dad lost in our yard. Could it be found with relics mode? Or what mode could I use?

Are you searching for things where you don't want to null iron? Usually I stick to the coin mode. It does however null out the gold rings in the middle categories. You can use the jewelry mode which gives almost all the items selected (less iron of course) or go to the custom mode. There is an even easier way. The accept/reject button. Idk exactly which place it will default to IF you had no previous targets. Definitely within the 2 second window which the last target is displayed, the selection will default to that one. To accept the target, you just gotta hit the button so the bar below is highlighted. Use the arrows to move to next bar you want to change. I'd say depending on how clean the site is, you best use all above the foil range. If there are a lot of nails, I'd knock off up until the lower of the two for nickels. I haven't used it much in trashy areas. And bent nails will have the same "size" target as a coin so there is no escaping that.

Edit: I did see they make DD coils for the GTI series. You gain separation of multiple targets in the ground, but you lose the treasure vision. There is no way to tell the target size from the screen pic if you use the DD coil. I have not invested in one so I do not know if there is still something that shows on the screen in the treasure vision window to at least tell you a depth of the target.

[Garrett_Gti_Dan]

Thanks for the advice! It was really useful! I changed the frequency and it was a bit better. I also tried fast track before several times and it made minimal correction. In the future, I'm thinking of getting a new coil. I like the dd coil, but would like to keep imaging. Any recommendations?
Thanks,
Dan


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[Garrett_Gti_Dan]

Digger Don,
Thanks for the advice. I have never tried that before, thinking it would not work because of angry men who would call the cops, because metal detecting is illegal in Lake Zurich and I don't know about neighboring Barrington. If you know certain laws pls tell me. There are old houses in Barrington and I will try that.
Thanks,
Dan


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[Digger Don]

Dan,
I have only found a couple of towns that didn't allow detecting. If Metal detecting is against the law in your town, I'm sure its only for public property.
If a private residence gives you permission, Go For It!
Best of Luck, Don

[MangoAve]

I am also looking for a bullet that my dad lost in our yard. Could it be found with relics mode? Or what mode could I use?


In the future, I'm thinking of getting a new coil. I like the dd coil, but would like to keep imaging. Any recommendations?

Yes, use the jewelry, relic, custom, and most likely the coin modes should find the bullet. I would stick to those because you don't need to search through,or hear, the iron. It all depends on size of the bullet and what the top is made from which would give a category it would fall under. I can't be certain because shells all ring up different. a .22 rings up low near a nickel. A 30/30 reads somewhere below a penny. I have found the tips that still have the copper jacket have read as high as dimes. If you have another of the same type, you could always check what it reads with the machine and then prob put the machine into custom mode and then eliminate all bars except the one or two above and below what you got a known item to read.

As far as the coil, I did say you lose the treasure vision with DD before. So until Garrett comes out with a way to make a DD also have the capability of the treasure vision (there needs to be two receive coils) then you are stuck with choosing a DD without Tvision or keeping the CC with it. No other way right now.

[Garrett_Gti_Dan]

Ok I'll see if they come up with a new coil or just get another one. When I looked up the dd coil, another one from another brand for the GTI also showed up. Do you know anything about it? The bullet that my dad dropped was definitely larger than a .22 and a bit smaller than a .50. It might be a 30/30. I did not know that disc. Coins could find it. Thanks for the info.


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Edit: It was just a casing he had from a friend.

[metalfinder]

The forest reserves are off limits. Illinois is very restrictive as to where to go. Better to check first with the local authorities before you go