DetectingWales.com

Guys I think newer detectorists can learn from this thread. For a long time my favourite type of ground was stubble, why ? Well its because I convinced myself that hammered coins were too deep for my dfx in pasture. I ended up with 40+ hammered coins most of which were rubbish due to constant ploughing.

As soon as I found my first pasture hammered which was in lovely condition to all my others, my mind was made up on pasture. But then pasture does not get replenished with ploughing so I'm leaning back to stubble again.

What I know I dont like is ploughed, I just find it awkward to navigate and I find the Etrac rubbish on ploughed.

I've tried Beach detecting and my hat goes off to Badgers for his persistence I just cant get into it.

So what is your favourite type of ground and have you written off a specific type due to bad experience ? What do you find affects the ground for your machine.

One full of finds and not shotgun caps! ;D ;D ;D

All joking aside - I'm a pasture man. Less damage to the item and can on occasion be considered to be found in context.

Not a fan of ploughed to be honest, although I do quite like soft stubble.

At the end of the day if its available I wont turn it down!

cheers
Neil

Old pasture ..with more chance of recovering a complete arfefact and no fertilizer  ;D

pasture  ( with gold coins in. ) ;)

old well nibbled pasture is my favourite , dont mind old woodland but shotty caps can drive a sane man crazy after a while  but i had my only saxon penny from a shotty filled wood so worth all the junk in the end

Well never found very much on ploughed and beaches only seem to turn up modern coins and junk rings for me, ( mind you wish I had a quid for everyone that's asked if Iv found any buried treasure yet?  ;D ) stubble just does my head in so it has to be pasture  ;)

Maize stubble. Dead easy to navigate, figure where you've been and want to go next.

pasture for me..... ;).....but i do like the occasional ploughed, if only to have some easier digging...... ;D.......byron

for me anywhere if there is a chance of a good find  ;D ;D ;D ;D but i do like pasture its easier to walk on  ;).viv

Muddy estuaries with with areas of shingle.

did I mention that my favourite land to detect on is STUBBLE  ;D   ;D    ;D

Hayledge fields are my favourite. Cut twice or even three times a year and turned over every four and re-seeded.
Mostly sheep grazing in between in the winter.

Val

I have been detecting since the 1980s  ;D, and have almost always searched ploughed land! despite having access to what would be deemed productive pasture. So this year I am making a conscious effort to rectify as clearly the less a coin or artifact is moved around by farm machinery the better condition it is likely to be in when found, also depending what county / area you are in many farms no longer plough due to costs, and farming practices and thus as is with some of my farms, find rates can diminish. >:(

I would say ploughed and rolled produces the most objects for me,but for sheer quality and condition then it has to be woodland on a hillside, untouched by the plough or chemicals, a bit like this coin  ;D

I've had some of my best finds on pasture, thats a corker of a coin, Avalon.  :o

I know, I will probably retire on it ;D

God....THat coin is stunning Steve  :o

Head for the woods! ;D not the hills :o

beach where the shale is only a couple of inches down,the rings tend to be at 8'' then and come up on the etrac at a constant 12,20 to 12, 35.
inland would have to be pasture in the winter :)

As pasture is about 85% of my permissions I have to say pasture. Finds such as hammered etc do tend to be a much better condition I find though lately this area has a trend where fields that have been pasture for as long as I can remember are being ploughed up for whatever reason. Just shows how this is a funny old hobby from a field never ploughed in its current family ownership since 1830,s you find a couple of hammered coins at 3-4 inches and a Viccy Gothic florin at 13-14 inches. Five hundred years apart and the modern coin is three times as deep.

pasture for me too.  I've found most of my nice finds this past year on pasture and I hate having to bash my coil against stubble for hours on end .. its such hard work  ;D

Virgin land ploughed and rolled.  ;)  Jerry.

Ploughed and rolled but not uphill!

All my fields are Up-Hill Cardifian.  Thats why I've got bad knees.  They don't do flat round here.

Val

Uphill on rolled and ploughed is bad. Gets my ankles more than my knees. Perhaps I should traverse.

Now this is what you call a hill. Just one of my fields. If you look very carefully you can see the top of a house in the lane. Nis flat bit at the top but getting up there is a killer.  1 in 3  I reckon.

Val

Why do you need to get to the top? Surely you only need to detect at he bottom. Anything dropped at the top of the hill would certainly have tumbled all the way to the bottom. It does look very steep Val.

Hey Cardiffian  at my age I know all about gravity  :o  Everything goes south. ;D

Being serious. I know the theory and would love to explore the bottom bit but it's been built on. Very funny terrain. The lane along the bottom is only half way to the bottom and seems to have been cut into the hill side. The hill is still going down on the other side of the lane and keeps going down into a beautiful valley. Must take my camera next time I go.
The highest point is 145mtrs the lowest is 91mtrs. I reached the conclusion ages ago that most of the habitation was lower down but haven't got permission on that side yet. Hope to though as the Farmers all seem to know each other.

Val

Nice flat, sheep-nibbled pasture, preferably near some old castle/village/church (but not scheduled) obviously.

The answers seem to have divided themselves into two camps, land that is the best to detect on and land that "would ideally" be the best to detect on.
Ideally my choice would be the same as Bobs and many others, sheep grazed pasture, billiard table flat that has never been ploughed. The only problem with my ideal site is that I would never find anything of course as everything would be too deep lol.
The simple truth is that if you find a hammered coin then the land has been ploughed or disturbed, anything on the surface will be covered at a rate of 2" every 10 years, so if your piece of land hasn't seen a plough in the last 100 years then forget it.
Luckily we had a little event called WWII which saw over 90 of pasture given over to the plough and so land that you think of as ancient pasture is probably no older than 60 years. Obviously there are always exceptions to the rule, upland farms and land on slopes will suffer soil erosion and weathering.
The land that I prefer to to detect on because of results is stubble (but any arable), here my finds of hammered and Roman coins are 10 times higher than they are on pasture.

beach beach definatly beach,kaymart kaymart lol (rainman) ;D

I personally prefer to detect on any land i can get permission on!!!!!! you gotta walk over it to find it!!


Pasture is nice going though  ;D