more discrimation = less gold look

[wltdwiz]

i have found 2 gold rings in 2 days .. both were in the pulltab range & i probably would have passed them with the meter on my f70
this makes 3 gold rings in the 40-50 range in the last month or so..
i was useing an old 1220 x at low discrimination ( see 1220 x a blast from the past in the classic forum )
less discrimination is getting me the gold out of very worked out parks
i have been very lazy using the meter on my f70 but i will be paying more attention from now on
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good hunting
walt

 

[markg]

nice

 

[pescadore]

I think your post is a perfect testimonial to what experienced MD'ers tell all of the newbies wanting to dig gold. Meter no meter whatever you just have to dig it all to find the gold. Sometimes simpler is just better...

 

[cometguy]

Hey Walt,
Congrats on the cool finds. Do you remember if the VDI seemed to lock or stayed bouncy? I have been digging mostly the solid signals in that range.
So far, nothing great, mostly big wads of foil, fairly deep. Just curious if the rings seemed to pick and number and stay with it.

HH, Don

 

[wltdwiz]

don
the signals were solid & repeatable 40- 55
you can bet ill be digging solid targets in this range
i already dig all solid targets 17-30
31-36 allways come up square pull tabs ive yet to find a ring that falls there although im sure there are some

good hunting
walt

 

[tvr]

I've got a smaller sized 10K signet ring that I found a couple of seasons ago in the water with the CZ20. It ID's at a solid 34 on the F75LTD. And yes, I dig all those 31 to 36 range pull tabs that I come across.

You've found some nice rings, congrats!
Cheers,
tvr

 

[wltdwiz]

i knew there was some rings that fell there
but my ground has millions of the pesky square tabs so i have to run the percentages
good hunting
walt

 

[dahut]

I find this little tidbit in the Dahut Archives:

What About Those Gold Rings? by Jack Ellet
We all have read or been told if we want to find gold rings you must dig all the trash and hope a gold ring comes out of it.
[This is great for the masochists among us, I suppose, but it has never satisfied me. - David]
But, there is another way to find gold rings with a metal detector.

Many years ago when Fisher first came out with the CZ6 metal detector, they did a test on gold rings. That particular metal detector has a different type of discrimination than other detectors. On the lowest end is iron, next is foil, next comes round tabs, square tabs, then nickels, zinc pennies, and all other
coins or items that have similar electrical conductivity.

To conduct the tests, they used 161 gold rings from four collections. They passed each ring across the coil and noted how it read. The results were interesting:

Iron 0
Foil - 38%
Nickels - 9%
------------------------------------Round tabs - 15%
Square tabs - 29%
Zinc pennys - 5%

The remaining 4% were in the coin range, and of very low karat grade.

So if you dug only those targets in the foil and nickel range you would find about 47% of all gold rings, without having to dig a lot of pull tabs. There will be some trash, but not like if
you dug all the pull tabs. Those rings will be mostly thin gold ladies rings. (Maybe some with stones)

Also white gold reads very low on the scale. I have one heavy mans white gold ring that to my surprise read like a "beavertail" from a round tab. That is about the mid-high foil range. My wife's engagement ring which is also white gold reads almost iron. Very low in the foil range.

Excerpted from the Golden Triangle Explorers Society newsletter, "Treasured Times, 2005" by Jack Ellet.

I recall the original study done by Fisher, which Mr. Ellet mentions. Take notice of these numbers, people - 85% of ALL gold rings sampled fall in the ranges surrounding round tabs... the ones just above nickels.

 

[jmaryt]

absolutely correct,unfortunately unless you can physcologically "set" yourself up to go out EVERY day and dig pull tab and foil signals all the time
then the information is meaningless!..some people might say that i am a poor hunter,however i CANNOT dig pull tabs and foils all the time,because i lose interest in a
"big" hurry!..truth be told ,i like the "old" coins anyway,and since i am constantly aware that i am never going to get rich doing this,if i dig a ring in the coin range
every so often,it's enough for me!

(h.h!)
j.t.

 

[dahut]

absolutely correct,unfortunately unless you can physcologically "set" yourself up to go out EVERY day and dig pull tab and foil signals all the time
then the information is meaningless!..some people might say that i am a poor hunter,however i CANNOT dig pull tabs and foils all the time,because i lose interest in a
"big" hurry!..truth be told ,i like the "old" coins anyway,and since i am constantly aware that i am never going to get rich doing this,if i dig a ring in the coin range
every so often,it's enough for me!

(h.h!)
j.t.

Such information is hardly useless. Looked at in reverse, if I only dug pulltabs that hit like beavertails, I would get 15% of all gold rings... some of which will be the nicest there are to be found. It so happens that this range accounts for wedding bands and mens rings, to name a few. Its all in your perspective.

If we are to be accurate, this is not detecting, anyway - it is recovery. If one is to recover items, any items, one must bring forth those things your instrument finds. The detector only tells you what you MIGHT have stumbled upon. Do you ever wonder how many items are left behind because we accept the information these instruments give us? Coins and iron are easy - it is the rest of the stuff that is in question.

No, perhaps we arent getting rich. But I made enough last year to buy a new detector, get a nice guitar fixed up and a few other goodies. Except for $157 worth of clad, the rest was jewelry. If I were to allow hindrances to stop me, before I got out of the gate, I would find nothing like that.

I agree that it is frustrating and often too much to dig only trash. But, there are things in life I must do - things I dont like to do - if I am to achieve my goals. This is one of those times.

 

[Alimo88]

Useless and Unless can change a meaning.

All knowledge is Useful in MHO

I don't think the word "unful" exists

just kidding

hahahahha

 

[jmaryt]

i don't disagree with your analogy,however upon further reflection,i SHOULD have stated that because of time "constraints"
i would prefer to hunt this way.digging "beaver tails" is virtually unavoidable,and i am NOT adverse to digging a nice ring from time to time
i can tell that you have hunted for many years,and i agree with everything you have said!..i have no doubt your 'approach" would ultimately prove more successful
than mine,however,i feel that for ME, the hobby is more enjoyable with the "strategy" that i employ!

regards!
(h.h!)
j.t.

 

[dahut]

i don't disagree with your analogy,however upon further reflection,i SHOULD have stated that because of time "constraints"
i would prefer to hunt this way.digging "beaver tails" is virtually unavoidable,and i am NOT adverse to digging a nice ring from time to time
i can tell that you have hunted for many years,and i agree with everything you have said!..i have no doubt your 'approach" would ultimately prove more successful
than mine,however,i feel that for ME, the hobby is more enjoyable with the "strategy" that i employ!

regards!
(h.h!)
j.t.

If you havent read Tom Dankowskis comments on pulltabs and the "1962 Soil Layer," you should give it a shot. It is at least enlightening.

Good Luck!

 

[rick in mi]

If you havent read Tom Dankowskis comments on pulltabs and the "1962 Soil Layer," you should give it a shot. It is at least enlightening.

Good Luck!
Where do i find this info? Sounds like some good reading..

 

[therover]

When you get to his site, there are links on the left hand side of the page to Metal Detecting Article archives ( where the 1962 soil article is located...article titled Hunt Wisely) as well as a PDF version of the 5th Edition of Fisher Intelligence, where I believe he also talks about this ( along with a lot of good info). You can download the articles and Fisher Intelligence too.

Tom's site is a great source of metal detecting info.

JC

 

[jmaryt]

if time permits,i will!..thanks for the info!

(h.h!)
j.t.

 

[Aaron]

I agree, except one thing....there is alot more foil in the ground than pulltabs. I tend not to dig that much foil. Although I did find a thin 14kt ladies band a few months ago. I lucked out on that one.

 

[dahut]

I agree, except one thing....there is alot more foil in the ground than pulltabs. I tend not to dig that much foil. Although I did find a thin 14kt ladies band a few months ago. I lucked out on that one.

If you are willing to accept the numbers, more than 1/3 of all recoverable gold rings are in the foil range. I can vouch for that - Ive found many gold items that read like foil junk.
It is my turn to agree with you.... if you don't dig indicated foil targets, then you are indeed lucky to find a ring.

Prospecting is inevitably hard. Whether in the rough back country moving rocks or busting your knees digging trash in the park... if it was easy, everyone would do it.

 

[nwayrue]

If your not digging foil and tabs your not digging gold. This is a very tedious strategy but it works. The amount of foil and tabs in the ground is insane. This strategy is not for everyone.

 

[marcomo]

David (or anyone else who knows) - a question I should know the answer to but don't.

I realize 24 carat is essentially pure gold, and anything less has other alloys with the gold that will affect the conductivity.

But at approximately what conductivity range does pure gold register?

I sure agree that Nasa Tom has a lot of valuable info on his site.

He taught me that when you find a beavertail, you know it's 1962 or later. Hence a lot of deep beavertails (or memorial pennies) in undisturbed ground is a bad omen for the immediate area - there's a good chance that silver (or old coins in general) have fallen to the strata beyond the reaches of a metal detector.

It's also worth noting that when you find a 90% silver coin you can be almost positive that it was dropped mid-1960's or earlier.

Wheat pennies - probably dropped mid-70's or earlier.

That's interesting info on where the gold rings hit. I had no idea (and was sorry to see) such a high percentage was in the foil range.

For some psychological reason I can't figure out, unlike pulltabs and other junk which I easily shrug off, I absolutely hate digging foil.

And BTW, congrats on those sweet rings Walt!