First Coin Found And Introducing My Portable Test Bed (Soon To Be Sold Everywhere)

I'm still trying to learn how to use my Bounty Hunter Discovery 3300. After searching my own yard several weeks ago and finding nothing of interest, I searched a 'vacant' lot the following week (farm land now destined to be a housing project) again with mixed results. Found a 3 foot long bar of angle iron, a bottle cap, a 6-link piece of 3/8" chain, one auto hubcap and other less interesting junk.

Off to YouTube to watch how others MD and saw some interesting tips. Such as turn sensitivity to high unless you're in a really trashy area. Also, turn on Airplane Mode to disable Wi-Fi (searching for towers) and BlueTooth. Apparently, those signals can interfere with the detector.

So today I search my side yard again using high sensitivity. My findings?
1. Part of a tin can (can't read label, too rusted)
2. One bent nail
3. A BUNCH of little rocks (see pic) which might be leftovers for pouring concrete. When wet most are black with tiny, shiny specs.
4. A tiny sliver of metal which I think is a fragment of the stem of an artificial plant. Goes to show you that you need to look closely.
5. Saving best for last, found a Lincoln Cent. I think the date is 1978 but the obverse is in really bad shape. Found about 4" down among some of those pesky rocks. Found a rock, rescan hole, find a rock, rescan hole, etc. etc. until I found the penny.

Anyway, I'm still learning and feel the 2 ½ hours spent in the side yard was a worthwhile learning experience. The penny was about 4" down and certainly nothing to get excited about. But Hey, my first coin.




For this image I swiped a little oil from my forehead and rubbed it into the coin. Not much improvement but some.



I hope by now you're wondering about my Portable Test Bed (PTB). Before you scroll down (don't cheat) let me explain. Several YouTubers recommend setting up a test bed where you bury different objects and then use your detector to locate/identify each item as training. I thought the idea was pretty neat but I took it one step further.

My PTB is a squarish, clear, plastic food container filled with potting soil. In use, you locate a metal free area, set down an item (e.g., coin) and place the PTB on top of the item, then scan to top of the PTB. In the upright position, the search coil will be about 6" above the item. When the PTB is laid on its side, the coil will be about 4" above the item. It's a pretty versatile setup in that you can easily rotate out different metal objects and put multiple items under the PTB. No digging required!

I store my test items in a sandwich bag that I keep in the top of the PTB so they are always at hand and don't get lost. Thoughts?

If you make your own PTB, be sure to remove ALL of any foil that the container seal may harbor. Look closely as it may be small bits.