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In our last blog post, we looked at how metal detectors get fooled by messy human history, tiny silver quarters, and iron washers. We settled on a golden rule: if you aren’t completely certain a target is iron, you should dig it. But what about those signals that make you scratch your head? The ones that chirp beautifully in one direction, grunt like old boots in the other, and cause your digital VDI display to bounce around like a lottery machine? These are the infamous "iff

We all want that perfect signal. A clear tone, unbroken, with no grunt of iron. That is the sort of signal that you know you have to dig. However, you can wait a long time for a signal like that, and there is a good reason why. We metal detect where there has been human activity for a long time, and humans are messy creatures. There will often be things in the ground that mean a good signal is hard to pick out of the background noise. Iron is found everywhere, and depending o

One of the good things about detecting in the UK is that we have a very rich history and a long history of metalworking. Metal working started with the Bell Beaker culture introducing copper and gold objects and Bronze (an alloy of Tin and Bronze) followed not longer afterwards. Cast and worked Bronze objects started to be made here about 2500 BCE or around 4500 years ago. This was before most parts of the world, partially because Copper and Tin were both relatively easy to f

… but there is more than one type of ground, and there are some differences in what works for different types of ground. This blog entry is about the differences in the types of ground and what setting and machines and approaches work well, typically. Now, does that mean that these are the only ways that work? Nope – nor do they guarantee success as even the best machine can only find what is under the coil but you may be able to alter the odds a little in your favour. I won’

Here at South East Searchers, we usually look for history underground but there is also a lot of history hidden in names. Today, we will be looking at what names can tell us about the history of a place. The ending “Chester” is well known as an indicator that somewhere was important in Roman times – the city Chester being a prime example but Portchester, Winchester, Cirencester all being well known. This can be a bit misleading though as the Romans didn’t name towns that way.

Thanks to all that braved the weather today, we had plenty of muddy signals to dig, and a few nice finds along the way! See you on the next adventure!

What can you expect to see here? Upcoming events, discussions of how a particular rally went, notable wins, general news about the club... basically, whatever is on our mind. It is also a chance to get to know us. So, onward and upward and keep soil under your coil.