Woodland Settings ?

[Etruscan_Toad]

Evening all,

I was wondering what programs/settings you have had success with while detecting in woodlands?

The permission I have has a sizeable bit of woodland which is very trashy and absolutely covered in shotties but there was a Roman villa 2 fields over and some Bronze Age axeheads found in an adjacent field, so I feel there is a decent chance something much older is lying in the soil somewhere. The middle of the woods has a small gully running through it and steep inclines either side which suggest it might have been a stream or river in the distant past.

Question is would I be best to run the Deep program looking for faint targets or something else? I use the XP Lite set up so no controller. I'd be interested to hear your recommendations.

Thanks in advance.

[Mick James]

A bit late perhaps.
I have four woodland permissions covering a few thousand acres, Shotties and musket/pistol balls come with the territory. However, I have found a number of fantastic finds. The woods do have to be sloping ie hillsides otherwise forget it because otherwise the two feet thick layer of leaf mould etc will bury everything of age.
I use prog 9 with 98 gain.
The signals to search for are generally the wispy faint signals. Those signals that blow your head off are generally modern rubbish, the removal of which opened the door to my local Town Council woodlands. On one occasion what I thought was modern rubbish as I told the lady dog walker with me turned out to be 15 hammered coins with an iron key.
Ref
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... id/1018476
There is no plough damage in woodland, there is no fertilizer corrosion of copper alloys in woodland, but it needs to be sloping, well drained and you still need permission even if you believe you can't be seen.
Finds from an afternoon in the woods this year excluding the shotties and rubbish.

[KevinB]

A little bird just told me your got some of what you wanted....???

Fantastic, good luck and look forward to seeing some of your finds on here........

[Etruscan_Toad]

Thanks Mick, I appreciate the response. Funnily enough, I headed back to this particular permission for the first time in a few months and to my surprise the dense woodland slopes had been mostly almost entirely cut down. It was quite a sad sight to be honest and the earth had been churned up heavily by the machines cutting all the trees. It was a slow day though and all I found was shotties, trash and a couple of buttons.

When you mention 'wispy faint signals', in your experience do they generally have that signature 'iron' tone? I have been running my Deus on program 9 for several months now and find that the faint signals almost always have an iron tone, though occasionally in tandem with a higher tone too. I guess the machine can't get a solid 'ID' on the metal so is just letting you know there is something down there? So far, when I have dug these quieter signals they have generally turned out to be iron but your advice is making me reassess my approach to some of those faint signals.

Lovely find by the way, funny how those banshee signals sometimes turn out right.

[Mick James]

Iron signals
As you gradually move off the centre of the iron target the signal degrades to more of a buzz, when that happens you know its Iron and not worth digging.
However, if the iron is circular with a hole it returns such a good signal and it is difficult to refuse.

As for my best woodland finds KevinB ,,,, unless I can post a few hundred photos of near mint condition Georgian coppers and Roman bronzes, I don't know where to begin.

A few on PAS that have been (mostly) donated to the museums are as follows:
Celtic purse loss
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... id/1037058

copper alloy bridle bit of late Iron Age to early roman date
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... id/1002128

Copper alloy headstud brooch
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/743609

Copper alloy brooch of Colchester derivative, Polden Hill
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/743602

Roman copper alloy trumpet brooch
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/743588

Roman copper alloy trumpet brooch
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/743570

Roman copper alloy brooch of Colchester derivative, Polden Hill
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/743563

Roman copper alloy D-shaped buckle with separate pin for the strap bar and sheet buckle plate
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/743513

1400-1550 Copper alloy kidney shaped buckle that is sub-oval in cross section
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/743379

1200-1500 Copper alloy D-shaped buckle 
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/743385

Roman, copper-alloy strip bracelet fragment 
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/743545

Roman copper-alloy strip bracelet fragment
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/743547

Roman copper alloy mount that depicts a human or cherubic male face
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/744720

Roman cast copper alloy Henig Type VIII finger ring
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/744725

Roman copper alloy Henig Type VIII finger ring
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/744729

Roman copper alloy finger ring that has a flat elongated oval bezel
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/744751

female head from a late medieval (c.1400-1550) cast copper-alloy integral vessel mount 
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/744703

[KevinB]

As for my best woodland finds KevinB ,,,, unless I can post a few hundred photos of near mint condition Georgian coppers and Roman bronzes, I don't know where to begin.

A few on PAS that have been (mostly) donated to the museums are as follows:
Celtic purse loss
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... id/1037058

copper alloy bridle bit of late Iron Age to early roman date
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... id/1002128

Copper alloy headstud brooch
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/743609

Copper alloy brooch of Colchester derivative, Polden Hill
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/743602

Roman copper alloy trumpet brooch
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/743588

Roman copper alloy trumpet brooch
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/743570

Roman copper alloy brooch of Colchester derivative, Polden Hill
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/743563

Roman copper alloy D-shaped buckle with separate pin for the strap bar and sheet buckle plate
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/743513

1400-1550 Copper alloy kidney shaped buckle that is sub-oval in cross section
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/743379

1200-1500 Copper alloy D-shaped buckle 
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/743385

Roman, copper-alloy strip bracelet fragment 
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/743545

Roman copper-alloy strip bracelet fragment
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/743547

Roman copper alloy mount that depicts a human or cherubic male face
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/744720

Roman cast copper alloy Henig Type VIII finger ring
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/744725

Roman copper alloy Henig Type VIII finger ring
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/744729

Roman copper alloy finger ring that has a flat elongated oval bezel
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/744751

female head from a late medieval (c.1400-1550) cast copper-alloy integral vessel mount 
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/744703

My post was for Etruscan_ Toad not you!!..... Pleased you have got a few bits....

[Etruscan_Toad]

Iron signals
As you gradually move off the centre of the iron target the signal degrades to more of a buzz, when that happens you know its Iron and not worth digging.
However, if the iron is circular with a hole it returns such a good signal and it is difficult to refuse.

As for my best woodland finds KevinB ,,,, unless I can post a few hundred photos of near mint condition Georgian coppers and Roman bronzes, I don't know where to begin.


Superb finds. I can only guess there must have been some settlement there over the centuries if your finds of this calibre are in the hundreds.

[Dave Lowe]

I would look at the old maps to see if its always been woodland, one of my woods was arable till 1850 when it was converted, I find my best finds there, also look at what type of ground you have got in the woods, a lot of ancient woods are woods because the ground is too bad for farming.

[leslie(nova scotia)]

In an area like that the old motto holds true with the older machines;

Swing low
swing sloe and
dig deep

Good luck on that permission.

[Koala]

Depending how dense the wood and type of undergrowth

If you can't swing, you will need a none motion mode or detector

If you can swing, its just normal detecting

Smaller coil might also help if it's dense