10x10 challenge finds old gold

[Southwind]

We have been looking for new ways to breath life back into our local city park. We have cleaned out all the easy stuff and a good majority of the iffys but we know there is plenty of goodies left among the 128 years of trash. I was really hoping I'd see people claiming they took their 3030 to these worked out spots and it pulled new goods, but I'm just not seeing it so we have decided to try a the 10x10 challenge. That is to take a 10' by 10' area and clean out every signal and see what we come up with. I gave it a shot yesterday and after 45 minutes I found 1 keeper. A 10 kt old mans ring.

The area I choose is so littered with trash that ever swing would sound on 10 or more targets. Digging every signal is unrealistic as it would leave the area looking like a mine field so I went more for the CO above 10 targets. Still left me many targets in this small area. About 45 minutes, and 30 targets later, I got a repeatable 12-17 signal and pulled this ring out at about 3-4". There are no stamps but it tests at 10K. I believe it could be fairly old by the style. What do you think?

 

[Bryannagirl]

n/t

 

[NebTrac]

Nice looking ring. I think you're on the right track. There shouldn't be much left after your experiment. Thanks for the pictures.

NebTrac

 

[doc1964]

Nice job sniffing that ring out - I'm sure that there's a lot of gold out there just waiting for someone to do what you just did - dig 'em!

 

[Larry (IL)]

Gold marks were not required before 1900 plus it just looks old, nice find........

 

[banditicey]

I agree about Old Gold and it certainly looks Old

Congrats

 

[pescadore]

That's an old ring for sure. I remember my grandfather wearing the exact same ring. Crazy because his last name was Dodson and it had a D on it like yours. I am going to try that 10x10 experiment on my park soon. They are renovating a nearby City park and so I have been spending a lot of time over there. I know there is gold and silver still in my park but like yours it is full of trash.

 

[Goes4ever]

That is a sweet ring! Congrats, I like your challenge idea

 

[elki1052]

Yes I like your Idea, I'm going to try it out on my park.
Nice finds, and beatifull ring too!

 

[Critterhunter]

Good find. I've been planning on doing just that. Yes, many old parks are usually loaded with "junk" in certain spots so it makes the task daunting, but the key is to zero in and grid out a small area and be content with doing that and not having the "grass is always greener" syndrome. Despite advancements in detecting technology, no machine can see a deeper metal object if it first hits something shallower in the detection field. Far as I know that just can't be changed, so there should be many old coins lurking beneath junk waiting for somebody to find it. Then there's also the odd coins that read lower on the scale, or of course gold rings or other good finds that also read down in the lower ranges. As public hunting spots continue to dry up, I think this form of hunting will be used more by die hards who can put up with digging a bunch of junk to find the good stuff. Even somebody with a cheap machine can make some great finds by digging it all in a small area like this.

Only risk involved is not digging every single signal if the spot is real trashy, because like you said the spot will look like a mine field if you dig every signal above iron there in one day. I think what you did was smart by just digging the solid signals above a certain range or so. Later, after the ground has healed, you can go back and dig the rest of the signals above iron that didn't seem to solid the first time around to bother with.

The key I think is doing it at an old site that has the potential for old coins as well as gold rings and such. I don't think I'd have as much heart to do this at modern parks where there isn't really any potential to find old coins but rather just gold rings. Hitting an old spot makes the possibilities more endless. Not just masked silver coins might show up, but those "odd" coins that read lower on the scale like certain indians, silver 3 cent pieces, gold coins, and so on.

People worry about their spots drying up but I don't. I don't know about you guys but just one old park near me would take a life time to dig all the junk out of. What really is a good indicator of the spot's potential is if you are finding a bunch of old round tabs. Those were invented around I think 1963 or 1965 or so. The early metal detectors didn't have discrimination ability, so obviously they missed these tabs being too deep or something I would guess? Then when discriminating machines came along people didn't bother digging those tabs, so who knows how many goodies they are masking or that they turn out to be a gold ring, gold coin, or some other great find that read like a round tab.

 

[SilverBear]

That is a very cool looking ring! I really hope I can get out later today and find something!

 

[SilverBear]

That is a very cool looking ring! I really hope I can get out later today and find something because I have not been able to go recently due to DCI

 

[markg]

Great idea, I'll have to try the 10x10 soon.
I did something the other day simular to the 10x10.
I went real slow in an area I was sure was no more good targets and dug 5 nickels in an hour. Had a great time at that.

 

[badjim]

nice ring and great ideal. wife took the last ring i found