Jewelry Tips?

[MetalMiner]

Hi everyone, just recently joined this forum. I have had my Safari for about 9 months. Was wondering if any of you more experienced folks have any tips for distinguishing gold jewelry from the trash. I have dug many pieces of jewelry,but its always been by pure luck. Not like coins where I can pretty much tell what is there just by the sound. I scanned my gold wedding band & to me it pretty much sounds the same as a pulltab. Thanks

 

[KinTN]

With several years of Safari experience, I could have written the above post.
Sitting here anxiously awaiting on y'all to lairn me some new trix...........!

Seriously, gold is hard to seperate out and I suck at it. Always looking to improve.

 

[Goldstrike]

I'm still waiting for the metal detector manufacturer's to design a metal detector that exclusively picks out gold items from trash myself!....the short answer is they have not and the question to ask is.....how can I raise the chances of finding more gold?
The answer I would give is to detect those places where the chances of finding lost jewellery, rings etc; are much higher than others. For example, beaches, lakes, rivers or any body of water where there is a sandy beach somewhere along the shoreline. Boat ramps are places where guy's (wearing rings etc) struggle to get the boat trailer hooked and unhooked, I know because I have been there and done that!
Of course, if you want more gold, go under the water and you will definitely raise your chances!!
Bottom line, we all share the frustrations of detecting and digging pull tabs period....even the experts!
I was in a park yesterday listening to all the various tones and I swear some of the tones sounded just like gold targets but when I dig, it's another pull tab and that is why you'll find me most times at the beach detecting!..not to say that I do not detect parks but I go where I think I will raise my chances...around ball parks and the bleachers etc;.
Good luck and happy hunting!

 

[MetalMiner]

Thanks for the response, I was hoping maybe there was something I hadn't figured out yet. So I guess the best way to find more gold is to dig the pulltabs faster. I've been MDing some old swimming holes but no luck yet they've been hunted to death, need to get some waders & get in the water.

 

[Prep1957]

Set your Safari for 0 to 12 open, 38,39 open for silver,everything else closed.The gold rings you will get will be smaller ladies rings with nice sparklies,of course you will now get small lead sinkers,small lead bullets,and a ton of costume jewelery,and small lead cracker jack toys they bring good battery money on the Internet.I used this pattern last year in freshwater pit because there were too many coins, I just did not have the time to dig them.I still would get Clad Quarters and Half's and one huge clad dollar with a few Susan B's.But I did find a lot of small gold jeweler,and a set of granny glasses that was 18K.But I did not dig any pulltabs.

 

[DirtAngler]

If you don't want to miss gold jewelry you basically have to dig anything above iron as the composition of different gold will range from foil all the way up to zinc. This is true for ALL metal detectors. Yes you can discriminate some signals out, but you are also taking a chance on discriminating some of the gold ranges too.

 

[Prep1957]

If you don't want to miss gold jewelry you basically have to dig anything above iron as the composition of different gold will range from foil all the way up to zinc. This is true for ALL metal detectors. Yes you can discriminate some signals out, but you are also taking a chance on discriminating some of the gold ranges too.

What you say is true but I have limited time,I am taking the cream of crop off or should I say I am looking for Diamonds.Most of the ladies rings fall between 0 and 12 but after testing 100s of rings you will be surprised that 85% of the ones I have tested come in at 6,7,8 and I have done very good just using those 3 open.doing a pre- hunt before the hunt.

 

[KinTN]

If you don't want to miss gold jewelry you basically have to dig anything above iron as the composition of different gold will range from foil all the way up to zinc. This is true for ALL metal detectors. Yes you can discriminate some signals out, but you are also taking a chance on discriminating some of the gold ranges too.

What you say is true but I have limited time,I am taking the cream of crop off or should I say I am looking for Diamonds.Most of the ladies rings fall between 0 and 12 but after testing 100s of rings you will be surprised that 85% of the ones I have tested come in at 6,7,8 and I have done very good just using those 3 open.doing a pre- hunt before the hunt.

Good tip '57. I'll open 6-8 upon my next hunt. Thanks.
I concur with the idea of 'prehunts' or screening a site. I often do that to see if someone has hit the area before me.

 

[dubmurphy]

Discriminating above 12 would miss a lot of bigger gold and platinum. Like it was already mentioned, gold can come in all the way to zinc. Sure you wouldn't be digging as many pull tabs but you'd still be hitting all the foil and so forth. I do think there is a slight difference in tonal quality between gold and garbage but I say the secret is to dig as many targets at a good pace. Its the only sure-fire way to increase the gold finds. This is what I do...Hit the ballfield closest to your house and clean that baby out. It will most likely take you several hunts to do this, maybe even a couple months of hunting, depending on how often you get out. Once you have a nice clean field, you can then hit it once or twice a week and quickly sweep through the whole area to pick up any lost surface jewelry(or trash). Trust me its worth the work and will also deter any competition that might try to move in on your turf, do to lack of targets most will quickly be discouraged and move on.

 

[KinTN]

After a handfull of hunts with 6,7,8 open (see Prep1957's tip above), I cant say I have found any rings in that range, but I am suprised at the low number of trash targets that are showing up there. I will ignore what few of them that there are in known high foil areas (tho i always dig everything to start a hunt to get a feel for soil conditions), but even if I dug them all, there arent so many as to be a real nuisance. I intend to keep 6,7,8 open as a part of my standard nonbeach hunting program. Thanks for the tip!

Oh, and fwiw, 6,7,8, have almost always been foil, tho twice it was a clad dime at 6. Go figure.