DetectingWales.com

Just wondering how you people find these saxon coins, brooches, even much later victoria coins or georges etc or anything dating back few hundred years or so. Is it  to do  entirely with research,or have some of these finds been made where common sense would tell you theres no chance to find such an item?
                            Being a new starter and being over the moon at having permission to detect on a farm a few miles from me.I was a little deflated after trying there saturday and sunday for around 8 hours in total and uncovered a crushed up coke tin.....nothing else at all....1 good signal and 1 bloody can which was aeround 5 inches down.....much ado about nothing. a 20 p peice would have been great find the way i felyt at the time to be honest.....in total around 4 smallish feilds and 1 large one.....and zilch.As far as i see it,if there is an historical area ,or an area ,farm whatever ,that is drenched in history,its either off limits legally,or everyone else knows about it,including the owner or farmer and other detectorists and one probabley wouldnt get a look in.So guess my question is,is it just as well to detect (with permission) at almost ,within reason, any farm or area ......and let the chips fall where they may?......or stick to beaches that have been busy during summer periods..or come to that not busy lol?

not me lol :D

Oh well badgers,you must be the only one here ,apart from me ;D who doesnt find these items.

Doug the majority of items people find are losses or things that have been thrown away, A loss can happen at any time in any place so there is no research on earth that can find these, it's just a matter of covering as many miles as you can.
Yes you can research old routes and areas which would point to a greater foot fall and thus a greater chance of losses but you will still have to put the hours and yardage in.
I'm not sure how you are searching but you say you detected for 8 hours in total and then that you have searched 4 smallish fields and one large one ??? ??? ??? ???
I hate to tell you that in 8 hours you wouldn't even cover 1 acre properly. Remember, that coil has got to pass right over the target and 1 inch away is the same as a million miles.
So perseverance is the name of the game ;)

Sound advice from chef  :) also ask the farmer if the surrounding areas been built up ;)

I keep reminding myself of the 3 p's. Patience, persistence and perseverance. I've lost count of the number of realy promising sites I've come away from with nothing but (as Geoff said) pocket loses. It can be soul destroying and I've often thought 'thats it, I'm never going again'. But after a few days my brains working over time again and out I go. The next one is always going to be the big one.
One thing I've learned is that just because you know there was something there doesn't mean you're going to find anything. On an unknown farm try as near to the farm house as you can get, fields that border a lane, old hedge lines, old drover tracks. Check out these old maps against your area for tracks and buildings or even buy your own.. Have you tried Google Earth ?

http://visionofbritain.org.uk/maps/results.jsp?xCenter=3016027.88557&yCenter=2883841.20712&scale=63360&mapLayer=nineteenth&subLayer=first_edition&title=Ordnance%20Survey%20and%20Ordnance%20Survey%20of%20Scotland%20First%20Series (http://visionofbritain.org.uk/maps/results.jsp?xCenter=3016027.88557&yCenter=2883841.20712&scale=63360&mapLayer=nineteenth&subLayer=first_edition&title=Ordnance%20Survey%20and%20Ordnance%20Survey%20of%20Scotland%20First%20Series)

Keep plugging away Doug.When you least expect it you'll get that lovely signal and up will come something nice.

Val

i  know many of us detect certain areas that look like it may produce early finds and some really good pointers have been mentioned , it is true that old finds can be anywhere, any field that i first go in i check the hedges first{ about 2 metres in all round} then look for where hedgerows are thinnest or where there is a kink in the hedge {could mean lost gateway or path},, look for any raised areas  {could mean lost buildings} look for any old trees in the field , do they follow a line?}    when youve checked all the above areas i would be surprised if you aint found anything old then do rest of field  paying attention to any buildings that surround field, is there a line of site between 2 or more buildings?,,,,,,,,,,,,if your in a old area look for the smaller irregular shaped fields ,, all these huge square fields are ok as many small fields were were made into i large 1 but in my experiance ive had far more finds detecting the small irregular fields plus they are far more easier to cover as much as possible ,,,,, good luck. 

The other thing that helps you is a good detecting technique.

You need to keep the search head low, level, and swing slow. Listen for those deeper signals that are likely to be older items.

It's no good detecting a productive field if you are missing stuff because you are moving too fast and swinging your detector like a pendulum.....you'd be surprised how many do this!

Chef Geoff,    Im not gonna pretend i covered every blade of grass in 8 hrs  :)But i thought i did a generous sample of each field,maybe im too impatient,but i dont think honestly think that ive got the patience to do it as you suggest. I guess the way you describe it is,indeed, REAL metal detecting,whereas maybe Im only an amatuer "playing" at it and I dont think i can deny that.I guess nothing worth while comes easy and maybe ill have to rethink my tactics somewhat and take a bit more time and detect with my fingerscrossed. Thanks for advice from you all ,its appreciated.

Alright Doug
At the of the day its all down to what you want  out of detecting. I ve had some great days out just mountain walking, I ve taken my fast detector out and if I find, I find. If I'm going out particularly to look for history then then I take my slow but deep detector  and change the pattern on how I detect......slow and methodical. Both different hobbies in my opinion but I enjoy them non the less ;)

Dont get down hearted Douglas, we have all been there.
I am a newbie and yes i blanked out many times. But by listening to sound advice and learning my detector the finds slowly came. I am still on a uphill learning curve but loving it. The areas i have gone for now are inland, both ploughed and virgin. Frustrating, but when you find your first thats when you know your on your way.
Good luck buddy

Not so much downhearted, :-\ I prob expected too much to begin with I suppose.But I remember thinking mid way through sunday ,what am i doing here? ;D There I was on this farm,a pretty bleak ,ungodly place which led down to the beach....between pontlyffni and trevor ,if anyone knows the place.And the thoughts that went through my head were thus.....Why would anyone in their right mind,other than the farmer,walk through here...so ok SOMEBODY,SOMETIME no doubt did ,but I doubt many,and Im depending on one of the few visitors actually dropping something :-\The odds werent very good..then of course Id need to find the spot where one of the few actually dropped something......if indeed they did ...the more factors that are brought into play,the greater the odds increase.I doubt the bloody farmer would drop anything ,they are notoriously tight ;D....Ok ,then one might say "aaah yes but you dont know what this place was used for,or who visited it ,say 500-1000 years ago" Which is quite true ,but its such a bleak place one might wonder if anyone other than a refugee from justice would purposefully seek out such a forlorn and desolate place. Maybe Joseph of Arimathea might have passed through on his pilgramage to Glastonbury,or even Gerralt of Wales,,again I have no way of knowing for sure,but somehow doubt it.A roman military encampment maybe? Again possible.....I mean ,true theres no reason why they couldnt  have stayed for a night,but then no reason why they should have either.,no strategic importance that I could see ::)But looking back to when I first asked the farmer for permission,Ithought Irecognised a suppressed grin on his face,A kind of "another bloody idiot" grin ya know.....added to that he gave in too easily ;D no hint of "well I dont know really,lots of valuable stuff under the ground hereabouts ya know" no resistance to my request at all.....perhaps I should have known better lol.........My tactics are gonna change from now on.....Ive got a Beefeaters suit and am going to smuggle myself into the tower of london.....Under the cover of darkness with my brand new Garrett top of the range pro pointer with handy flashlight utility and a friends jcb Ill be sure to find something.....saxon crowns by the dozen,guineas by the 100,maybe even whats left of sir walter raleighs head......watch this space.

Douglas just bear in mind that before the stone walls were investigated at Caerleon nobody knew the Romans had even been there.
And the Farmer in Stafford who said 'Yes go ahead, but you wont find anything, other detectorists have been there and found nothing.'

Till it's found it stays lost. Go boy go.

Val

Douglas, without giving too much away , what area is the farm and is it upland or lowland?

Hi tafflaff    its ok ,no secret lol....the farm is between pontlyffni and aberdesach on pwhelli road gwynedd  few miles from trevor.....its lowland i guess ,the farm backs on to pebble /shingle beach...if your from that way ive no doubt hell let you on.........i certainly wont be going back there ;D..Im taking break from it completely for few months at least hopefully....Ill sit back then and decide if i want to continue,luckily I bought Garret md and pointer so apparently theuy keep their price ,so we will see.....this is second time ive packed in within a fortnight  ::)anyway it doesnt stop me from looking in here to see whats going on........if you want more detailed instructions how to get there let me know.

great news doug , im up that way in august on holidays , if you dont want it send me the guys details , and i will give it a swing  ;) ;) ;)

Theres so many reasons why it can be desolate, we've come across lovely rolling fields in the past on rallies, only to find out that they were indeed forested for centuries. Chef will give you the worm activity info, but unless the ground is disturbed within the last century or so or unless theres erosion or land sliding then the finds are going to be deep deep deep. Also location is king and casual losses can actually be dropped anywhere, I can guarantee you. If went detecting on a 5 acre field in the Rhondda and you went on the same size field in the Polden hills area only one of us would be coming away with a Roman coin  :)

Well tafflaff,
    Aguarrantee is a fine thing,easily imagined and given,but not always fullfillable ;DBut that aside, deep,deep deep ,to me would seem to mean 2 feet,3 feet  6 feet or perhaps more. Well a roman coin ,to me, wouldnt be worth that much digging anyway.One has to have a sense of proportion ,otherwise every metal detector would consider a JCB as an essential piece of equipment. ;D. It wasnt so much a desire for a roman coin that triggered my initial question( though i guess it would be nice to find anything of a distant age) but more a difficulty in believing that any detectorist could go out and find regularly saxon crowns,brooches and artifacts of that kind,seemingly almost at will,UNLESS they were either detecting at known archeological sites,monuments  or whatever illegally ,or by virtue of being a member of the  archeologist fraternity,which may or may not give them access to such sites legally OR had access to sites unknown to 99% of others,and  which would surely become sites of archeological interest,and therefore coming under government rules and regulations purely because of the very finds made there.My post was both an observation and a question.    By the way I own over 300 coins( roman)  No I didnt dig them up..I bought them through the years, :o mostly from a dealer in carlisle I knew/know personally.

Douglas a lot of the fun of metal detecting is in the "searching"
not only the" finding", I've yet to find anything older than a viccy sovereign,
but the enjoyment for me is everytime I go out I don't know what I'm
going to find ,If anything, everybody has a blank day. Anybody can buy coins
but not everybody can find them. I hope I'm not speaking out of turn here but I don't think that ANYBODY on D W detects illegal and neither would we condone it. keep at it

of course some people in the detecting fraternity detect illegally and seem as this site reports its 1 of the busiest in europe for detecting, i would really really be surprised if were all on here whiter that white,,, as for condoning it ,, i dont  but you cant do anything about it,, so might as well ignore it. ,,, just a little note   so far this week ive heard reports of nighthawking taking place at brecon and hay,,, {must be immigrants ;D ;D} 

Now Carling that sort of attitude is will guarantee you a place in Polish history. ::)
Of course we can do something about it. If you know someone who is where they shouldn't be then kiss and tell.
There are a lot of us who would dearly love to detect around, say, Caerleon but we know we can't so we live with it. So should every body.

Val

i don,t know whos doing it but oviously its more than 1 person ,, must be pretty busy,, all im hearing is people being where they shouldent and when someone shouts to em they leg it,, now im not prepared to sit in a hedge all night long waiting for em to come or not , only to be smacked round the head with a spade repetadly by 3-4 blokes,, scheduled sites are scheduled for a reason ,, nobody sopposed to be tectin there at all,do i have a right to sit in a farmers hedge on a scheduled site mmm?   im sure most of us on this site has heard of people detecting where they shouldent,, and actually how many people get done for it {a very tiny proportion},,, nighthawking has gone underground. 

I wouldn't be so naive Dryland, three members of this forum were caught trespassing on one of my permissions this Sunday gone, (one of which is a notorious nighthawk) and all of which are regular DW rally goers.  Goes to show that all are certainly not whiter than white on DW.  

yep i aint surprised at all,, since losing my full time detecting partner {who was also my transport} someone suggested that i put up a post advertising for a  detecting partner, now i do have lots of land but the point is its who to trust ,, so ive come to the point where i aint tectin no more beacuse i cant get to my sites,,, i did post a request on another forum many months ago for a tectin partner  and i did have a couple of replys only then to get mail stating for me to be carefull as some of the guys that responded were known nighthawks. 

name and shame then mark

I would like to Mike but I will refrain from doing so;  for now, suffice to say that when challenged, one walked off, one feebly tried to say he thought the farm was owned by a different farmer, and the night hawk, in his own words said "I don't give a F@^k".  I am discussing with the farmer/landowner what action to take next, but I think it goes without saying that I don't feel comfortable attending DW rallies if these unsavory characters are also in attendance. 

well Carling and Mark maybe I was being naive and what I should
have said is MOST people , not  ANYBODY.