Got a question about detecting for rings

[mr.thumb]

Ok, my mother-in-law asked me to see if i can find her long long lost wedding ring. Seems she lost it off her finger while throwing canning wast into the edge of the woods in her back yard, well i spent a couple of hours using both the standard and 4 inch coils in what she thinks is the area that it went, except this happened about 30 years ago. Now I have a BH pioneer 505 and have only had it for a couple of months using it on the beach mostly. My question is how do you know when you have a good signal/tone for a ring? I understand it may fall into the lower tone around 5 cent area on the LCD display, but really do I need to dig up every single iron/nickle indicated signal or is there a certain way of knowing it is the ring or something close to that. I tried using some rings from the wife's jewelery box to simulate the tone and indication, but i thought it would be helpful if you more experienced hunter could give me a clue as to a better way of looking and searching for that darn ring. Now maybe its been too long since it was lost to attempt to find it, but i would like to make sure i am not doing something stupid and missing an obvious signal. Help,guys! Thanks for listening anyway.

Mike

 

[bigsquid55]

Hey, Mike! Bigsquid here! I swing a BH SS II UM..... Have found 4 rings w/ it. They were 10KGF, but, still rings! They showed up on my LED in the gold range... 5 cent slot. not a hard signal, but a good one. @ this same signal I have turned up Nickles, tokens, & small pieces of waded up steel. So, whenever I have a hit like this, I've got to got to get after it. People find there lost rings @ the time they lose them a whole lot more than they even think about going after a nickle they dropped!!!! BUT, those RINGS are out there. RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME.... you know..... Good Luck & HH!! Bigsquid55

 

[TRIPLE-SSS]

Hi Mike,
A couple of things, you said that It's been about 30 years. Is there allot of trees in that general location? Has that area been undisturbed in the last 30 years? Is that area flat or hilly? What part of the country do you live? You have to do some research in order to increase your odds of finding that ring.
For example: with allot of trees, the ring might be 12 plus inches deep from the last 30 years of foliage cover-up. Has that area been disturbed causing that ring to be relocated to another area? If the area is hilly, you might of had water erosion that might of either moved or buried that ring deeper in the last 30 years or so. Depending where you live, a very cold region with per ma frost or a warm region which both might affect the rings location. You also mentioned that the location was used as some what of a dumping area which might affect the dept of the ring over the years.
In short, you have to do some detective work in order to increase you odds of finding it. I hunt the beaches in my area and never realized how the beaches change so much from one season to the next. Rain, wind, storms and man, have a huge impact on the landscape. In some cases only a few months.
I would probably scan that area in zero discrimination for the most depth possible and dig up every signal, just in case you have multiple targets in your scanned area. You won't get the same signal or tone like you did when you tried on the rings from the jewelry box if you do have multiple targets. Take your time, be patient, do some research and I'm sure that you will find that ring.
Good Luck,
Stan.

 

[mwaynebennett]

Any rings that are 10KGF have about $0.02 worth of gold, for the "GF" means "Gold Filled" which means gold plated.
I tested three different gold rings that were 10K and14k and even the two that were the same purity read differently, so to answer your question, if you want to find gold, you will have to dig all the tones above iron and I believe that even small gold items may sometimes show up as iron.

Mark

 

[mr.thumb]

[size=large]Thanks guys, I tried my wife's rings and stuff I found in her jewelry box today and I also received my new 10 inch coil, which should help for deeper detections. I really appreciate the info and I will try again. The area is in south eastern Georgia and has a medium amount of trees, but I found lots of iron and metal junk, so I guess it will take some time to locate, if that is possible. I am sure that it was not moved from it's resting place, where ever that may be, but short of taking a bull dozer into the area it will be a bit of work. Again thanks for your help and suggestions.

Mike [/size]

 

[wasp]

Actually, "gold filled" indicates a layer of karat gold, most likely 10K or 12K, over a base metal which is then gold plated to give it a uniform color and protect the base metal from tarnishing. Usually the layer of gold is 1/20 to 1/10 of the overall thickness of the item. I have even seen gold filled over sterling silver instead of base metal such as copper or brass. A gold filled item should contain considerably more karat gold than a gold plated item but still not nearly as much as a karat gold item since it would be only 5 to 10 percent karat gold.

So save those GF pieces. They aren't just plated junk!