This is the last go-around in my series on coinshooting tips and techniques that we have covered in the prior two issues. But I’m not about to rest on my laurels and I’ll make you a better coinshooter in spite of yourself. I’m about to show you, and let you prove to yourself, how large an area you may be missing while scanning and how much you may have left behind for other coinshooters - even though you think you have it whipped.

As illustrated in the diagram, tape two felt marking pens to your coil, one in front and one in back. Allow the tip to protrude at least one inch below the bottom surface of the coil, thereby creating a coil that will draw pictures of your scans.

Get a large piece of cardboard and lay it flat on the ground ( or indoors if you have room ). Stand a few feet away from the cardboard ( with coil off the ground ) and then start walking towards it scanning as you usually do when hunting. When to get to the edge of the cardboard lower the coil till the marking pens make contact. Don’t look down as this would be cheating.

Walk and scan the length of the cardboard - then turn around and look at the portrait of skipped areas you have painted. You may be more than surprised. Even if you scan from different directions or diagonally you’ll still miss covering the area completely. Then think of the hundreds of coins and trinkets you have left behind on previous hunts.

You can also do this test with the straight scanning method to see if you improve your score over the arc scanning pattern. Most coinshooters change their scanning habits altogether after doing this test.

You can also use this cardboard to improve your pinpointing skills. Check out a piece of ground the size of the cardboard with your detector to see if it’s metal free. Scatter some newer coins of different denominations around in this area then lay the cardboard ( clean side up ) over the coins and place a couple of rocks or whatever on the side edges to keep the cardboard from sliding around.

Now start scanning until you detect one of the coins. Pinpoint it and with a marking pen make a dot on the cardboard in the exact spot where you think you have pinpointed the coin. Move on to the next coins and mark them accordingly.

Now take an ice pick or other sharp-pointed probe and push through the dot over each coin. If you hit the coin on the dot or close to it then you are doing fine. If not, then move out from the dot, probing in circles around the dot until you hit the coin, then mark that hole with an X.

If you find you have missed some or all of the targets by an inch or more then scan back over each target until you can recognize the audio or read the display correctly on an ID machine ( if it has a signal strength indicator ) over where the coin actually is as opposed to where you thought it was. With practice you will soon be pinpointing right on the button.

I hope that with all I’ve shown you in this series that you have improved your coinshooting skills considerably. Good luck and good hunting.