Metal Detecting - The Best Places

What are the best places for metal detecting? That partly depends on what you are looking for. But the following is an example of one type of location that can yield the most finds for the time.

Metal Detecting Drained Areas

Good treasure hunters know a secret: Water hides a lot of valuables, and there are rare opportunities when they can be found. I had read about this technique years ago, and was reminded of it the other day, when my wife and I were walking in a local park near our house. We noticed that the duck pond was drained and almost dry.

The remaining ducks and geese were waddling around one side of their empty home, complaining loudly. But the man who was working the dried bottom of the pond with a metal detector was in a good mood. I stopped to talk to him for a few minutes.

The city had drained the pond to dredge it out and make it better, he told me. He also said it had been eighty years since the duck pond was built, and as far as he knew this was the first time it was without water. As we talked, his detector beeped repeatedly, and he kept pulling coins out of the ground.

Over the course of those eighty years, people had been visiting the park and feeding the ducks, perhaps sometimes losing an occasional ring or other jewelry as they tossed their bread and crackers into the water. Coins were thrown in for good luck as well (I had seen this). There could be some pretty old coins in that mud, and who knows what other treasures.

I was talking to the man for perhaps five minutes, and during that time he dug up another six or seven coins to add to his bulging pockets. He had been there about an hour, and I would guess he had a hundred coins already. In fact, I found three laying on the surface as I was talking. I think I could have found another twenty or thirty if I didn't feel like I was "poaching" on his find.

He was using a decent $300 metal detector which could distinguish between garbage and coins or other valuables. Lower-quality detectors (like the old one I have), will cause you to dig up a lot of metallic gum wrappers, bottle-tops, and other trash. With the good machines you can adjust the settings to make them more effective according to the types of items you're finding at the time.

This treasure hunter also had a small probe, for which he said he paid $60, he said. Once you get a signal that something is down there you can push it into the dirt to pinpoint the location. It definitely sped things up. Without that, you'll spend time digging up a small area, and then pulling apart the resulting pile of dirt to find whatever is there.

Keep your eyes and ears open for metal detecting opportunities like this. Lakes are also drained, and reservoirs get low due to a drought or seasonal changes. Any time water receded or is drained, many years of accumulated things become accessible. Besides coins, bicycles and guns are also found. Watch the newspaper for any mention of low water levels or the draining of some local body of water, and go check it out.

Situations to watch for:

* Drained or shrinking lakes.
* Reservoirs lowered for repair reasons.
* Streams and rivers diverted for construction purposes.
* Any swimming areas at times of low water.
* Ponds on golf courses that are drained to make improvements.
* Agricultural ditches that dry up during droughts or seasonally.
* Lake-bottom exposed near boat docks when the water levels are low.

By the coasts, you can also watch the news for any uniquely low tides that are coming. Amateur treasure hunters will have searched the easy, higher parts of the beach, but jewelry and coins also get lost in the water near shore. A abnormally low tide can be an opportunity try metal detecting there.

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