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Should I upgrade?
- Thread starter AZWIP
- Start date
The Silver will find gold jewelry. Grab some gold rings and put them on top of a cardboard box, one at a time. Swing the coil over a ladies ring using different discriminator settings to see at what disc setting the ring doesn't respond anymore. That will tell you a lot about your detector. The Golden is a nice detector for jewelry because it has 4 tones, the 2 middle tones is what to listen for when searching for gold. The Golden also has an adjustable notch, lets you tune out most tabs and still get ladies rings, but heavier mens rings will get tuned out with the tabs.
BarberBill
New member
The Silver will do just fine if the coil passes over the goodies. You'd be better served in my opinion by adding a small coil for the trashy areas, use as little discrimination as possible and just keep doing what you're doing. If you do decide to upgrade, I'd keep the Silver if you can, as a backup or loaner, and add another detector to your arsenal. Perhaps one with either true auto or manual ground balance and/or TID. As a friend of mine often says, "if a thing is worth having, it's worth having two (or more) of."
My two bits
BB
My two bits
BB
I don't have a Silver but I do have a Compadre, Cibola and Tejon and have found gold with each of them.
The two biggest things about finding gold are:
1) you have to put the coil over it.
2) you have to hear it when the coil is over it by not discriminating it out.
The standard coil does well in a lot of conditions, but as BarberBill says, the smaller coil helps in trashy situations. It also helps get even closer to the edge of sidewalks where rings and trinkets sometimes end up.
Find all the gold you can in your house, or a friends house and test it with the detector. Some of the small link chains don't show up well unless you are in all metal, and sometimes not even then if they are really tiny links. Many small gold chains completely disappear when discriminating out iron. If they have pendants on them, the pendant is frequently what the detector will pick up.
Thumb the discriminator as you sweep a gold ring and see where it disappears. By thumbing the discriminator while sweeping targets you can get a good idea of what conductivity range a target is. Small foil and tabs all fall into the ranges where the gold you want falls. So if you aren't digging your share of foil, pieces of aluminum can, tabs and pencil eraser ferrules, then your chances of getting that ring when the coil is over it are not so good.
Learn your detector and know what trade offs you make when you choose your discrimination setting. In tot lots I frequently run all metal and dig everything. Around the school yards and parks I give up many of the small chains by running discriminate mode set between iron and foil.
In time, at the right place and the right time, you will get gold. Ways to increase your chances ... watch people patterns. How much traffic, what kind of traffic. Lots of events held in an auditorium, gym hall or church? Notice if people come in with or with out a lot of jewelry. If you can find a pattern, go where the heavy traffic, lots of jewelry patterns are for your hunt. And get permission for private properties like the halls and churches. In some places you need permission for schools and play grounds; some places you don't; please check local laws. Plan your hunts after big events when there are few or no people around to get too inquisitive.
Good luck!
Cheers,
tvr
The two biggest things about finding gold are:
1) you have to put the coil over it.
2) you have to hear it when the coil is over it by not discriminating it out.
The standard coil does well in a lot of conditions, but as BarberBill says, the smaller coil helps in trashy situations. It also helps get even closer to the edge of sidewalks where rings and trinkets sometimes end up.
Find all the gold you can in your house, or a friends house and test it with the detector. Some of the small link chains don't show up well unless you are in all metal, and sometimes not even then if they are really tiny links. Many small gold chains completely disappear when discriminating out iron. If they have pendants on them, the pendant is frequently what the detector will pick up.
Thumb the discriminator as you sweep a gold ring and see where it disappears. By thumbing the discriminator while sweeping targets you can get a good idea of what conductivity range a target is. Small foil and tabs all fall into the ranges where the gold you want falls. So if you aren't digging your share of foil, pieces of aluminum can, tabs and pencil eraser ferrules, then your chances of getting that ring when the coil is over it are not so good.
Learn your detector and know what trade offs you make when you choose your discrimination setting. In tot lots I frequently run all metal and dig everything. Around the school yards and parks I give up many of the small chains by running discriminate mode set between iron and foil.
In time, at the right place and the right time, you will get gold. Ways to increase your chances ... watch people patterns. How much traffic, what kind of traffic. Lots of events held in an auditorium, gym hall or church? Notice if people come in with or with out a lot of jewelry. If you can find a pattern, go where the heavy traffic, lots of jewelry patterns are for your hunt. And get permission for private properties like the halls and churches. In some places you need permission for schools and play grounds; some places you don't; please check local laws. Plan your hunts after big events when there are few or no people around to get too inquisitive.
Good luck!
Cheers,
tvr
joe dirt_1
Active member
The Silver
I have a Silver and have found gold rings with it. I use a 4" coil and do well with it. It rules. You know with it what your digging. Though you dont need depth to find rings that is the only thing that you could upgrade on with the Silver IMHO. A gold machine maybe what you need for jewelery hunting.
Alot of good info above, I was going to say the same tvr beat me to it - "Some of the small link chains don't show up well unless you are in all metal". Other small jewelry might not be picked up if not in all metal mode. Get a bunch of different jewelry items & waive them under your coil and see what happens, it will give you a good feel for when you go out hunting. I always liked finding jewelry myself even if it is so called junk jewelry something about it is fun to me. I have found that some of the better jewelry hunters were the older 12 kHz model Tesoro's. Nothing wrong with the Silver
I have a Silver umax, also. I too wanted to find more rings so I upgraded to the Compadre. I promise you this is a serious post. You would have to type in Monte in the search box for all the details, but everything he said about the simple Compadre is true. The Silver is a great machine and will find rings-but the really thin rings and gold necklaces is where the Compadre shines=mostly because the disc level is ED-180 and it does not have the high gain, low-noise circuitry.
AZWIP, although I believe that the Silver Sabre uMax is a good machine, I believe that there are better machines currently made by Tesoro. I have been using a Vaquero for about
3 weeks now (newbie I know), but I have found 8 rings (3 gold, 3 silver, 2 junk), a small silver necklace, and numerous coins with it already. I find it vastly superior, at least in depth, to my Golden uMax. I figure that the Silver and Golden should be pretty much exactly the same in depth, since they are of similar design.
Plus, the Vaquero has manual ground balance, which I believe is an advantage, and potential explanation as to why I can get better depth with the Vaq than I could the Golden. If the GB option is not for you, the Cibola has preset GB, like the Silver, except that it has the same "high gain" circuitry like the Vaquero does. The Vaq is in your price range, about $420 new. Again, though, I cannot stress the importance of the smaller coils, they are invaluable in high-trash areas and especially for jewelry hunting. I personally like the 5.75" best, as I feel that the 4" is too small. The 5.75" can still give the depth too, I can still get coins and tabs at 7" with it with not much difficulty. I believe it is worth the extra money to get the small coil along with your standard one. In brief, my feeling is the Vaquero is a very good (and sensitive) jewelry machine and I would recommend it over the Silver for that purpose, but I wouldn't be opposed to keeping the Silver as a backup unit.
That's my two cents,
Mark
3 weeks now (newbie I know), but I have found 8 rings (3 gold, 3 silver, 2 junk), a small silver necklace, and numerous coins with it already. I find it vastly superior, at least in depth, to my Golden uMax. I figure that the Silver and Golden should be pretty much exactly the same in depth, since they are of similar design.
Plus, the Vaquero has manual ground balance, which I believe is an advantage, and potential explanation as to why I can get better depth with the Vaq than I could the Golden. If the GB option is not for you, the Cibola has preset GB, like the Silver, except that it has the same "high gain" circuitry like the Vaquero does. The Vaq is in your price range, about $420 new. Again, though, I cannot stress the importance of the smaller coils, they are invaluable in high-trash areas and especially for jewelry hunting. I personally like the 5.75" best, as I feel that the 4" is too small. The 5.75" can still give the depth too, I can still get coins and tabs at 7" with it with not much difficulty. I believe it is worth the extra money to get the small coil along with your standard one. In brief, my feeling is the Vaquero is a very good (and sensitive) jewelry machine and I would recommend it over the Silver for that purpose, but I wouldn't be opposed to keeping the Silver as a backup unit.
That's my two cents,
Mark
I to am a newbie, with a Vaquero, with 6 months of experience and still no gold. I bought the Vaquero because I did not want to be upgrading in a short time.
I have dug over 600 coins so far and quadruple that in trash I am sure, but still no gold. I believe it is just a matter of time before I dig some. I have started using a new technique, for me any way, that is using the minimum discrimination and then pressing the all metal mode button to find targets and then releasing the button and that gives me first level of discrimination. I am hitting more targets now and am reading them better. Just read a post about the virtues of slowing down and it works. I have not given up on the Vaquero and I do not think that you should give up on the Silver umax as you have had much success and if we apply some of the other strategies given by the seasoned veterans we will have success. The coil changing for your Silver I believe requires the unit to be tuned to the new coil by Tesoro. I am also looking at getting a 5.75 Coil but Vaquero can adjusted for other coils without sending it back to Tesoro for tuning.
I am still learning my machine and gleaning the years of experience from forum members posts.
Signed: Having fun even without gold or getting on the detector treadmill (yet).
Now off to investigate the Compadre.
Don
I have dug over 600 coins so far and quadruple that in trash I am sure, but still no gold. I believe it is just a matter of time before I dig some. I have started using a new technique, for me any way, that is using the minimum discrimination and then pressing the all metal mode button to find targets and then releasing the button and that gives me first level of discrimination. I am hitting more targets now and am reading them better. Just read a post about the virtues of slowing down and it works. I have not given up on the Vaquero and I do not think that you should give up on the Silver umax as you have had much success and if we apply some of the other strategies given by the seasoned veterans we will have success. The coil changing for your Silver I believe requires the unit to be tuned to the new coil by Tesoro. I am also looking at getting a 5.75 Coil but Vaquero can adjusted for other coils without sending it back to Tesoro for tuning.
I am still learning my machine and gleaning the years of experience from forum members posts.
Signed: Having fun even without gold or getting on the detector treadmill (yet).
Now off to investigate the Compadre. Don
A lot of good information. The Silver is a very capable gold ring hunter. In addition the discriminator has to be set low and you must dig alot. My girlfriends gold ring comes in at the foil range and a lot of the ladies rings don't come in much more than that. As far as a better detector for gold rings, the Tejon would be the best as it has a higher frequency, but a good all around detector with a higher frequency and all around performance would be the Vaquero. The Vaquero is a very good all around detector. It's up to you, but your Silver will find gold if you put the coil over it and don't set the discriminator to high.
Yeah on that. I have to keep mine at min. disc. and it will still find small gold rings. It has more of the trash talk capability, also. The Compadre can be lowered in the discrimination range to find gold so tiny that most other detectors can't read. But the price is also lots of tiny trash. At this disc. level, you have to choose your sites carefully. You can also turn your Compadre up the the Silver's disc level if needed, but the depth is greater with the Silver. It's great to have both and I was able to save and an unexpected source of funds enabled me to have both.John (Ma) said:
Tons of great info here, thanks folks, ya'll rock!
Ok, I seem to have gleaned several points here:
1.) Hunt in Min Disc. (or Am mode)
2.) Hunt "Slower"
3.) Perhaps be choosier on my sites
4.) Might want to think of a smaller coil
5.) See Point 1
6.) Upgrading may not increase my chances of finding the gold, at least not significantly. Although there are
indeed better machines, will probably still remain with the Silver for now and try some of the different
techniques recommended here (thanks again for the info about the other machines, they sound awesome)
7.) Run some more tests...
Ya'll have offered some great advice and suggestions. I will try these and see how things go.
Funny no one commented on the Lobo?
I tried another experiment with a small engagement ring... and used my normal swing and setting at around iron... and guess what, I think I would have missed it! In AM Mode, it hit hard (buried about 4 inches under)... but in iron, with my normal swing, I am pretty sure I would have walked away from it. Unreal! Although i did not try it in MIN disc. (darn! forgot about that one). So, that was indeed a bit eye opening for me anyways.
I think I will try hunting in MIN for a few times and then in AM for a few times and see how that goes, and SLOW DOWN my swing a bit. Although iron disc did pick up a mans size ring pretty good, I still would have missed the small enagagement size (at least at the swing speed I was using... slowing it down, did hit it better, but still "may" have walked from it).
Neat advice about watching for patterns etc... seems to have helped me in the past... good advice. Its funny really....
Once I saw a bunch of softball players congregated at one area of a softball field... I went back and hit that area that night... found a pair (yup, both) of real silver earrings, a small (gold plated?) locket and a silver pendant in that area... all around the 2-4 inch mark (so I knew it was NOT from that night, but that area seems to be where they hang out etc)... and at the other end of that scenario... I have a park that gets heavy family parties every weekend... I mean tons of folks BBQ'ing etc... I hit that place and WOW! Trash city! Gets frustrating, real quick. Just too many pull tabs. I mean I have hit that place 3-4 times, each time, for a good 2 plus hours... and its pulltab after pulltab, with some clad mixed in. Not one iota of jewelry found yet in that park... unreal. I think its a wee bit too trashy for me. I don't mind the trash etc, but also need the ocassional victory as well. Lol.
Thanks again for all the advice etc.... keep it coming if ya'll have anymore... I know I am listening. (-;
Ok, I seem to have gleaned several points here:
1.) Hunt in Min Disc. (or Am mode)
2.) Hunt "Slower"
3.) Perhaps be choosier on my sites
4.) Might want to think of a smaller coil
5.) See Point 1
6.) Upgrading may not increase my chances of finding the gold, at least not significantly. Although there are
indeed better machines, will probably still remain with the Silver for now and try some of the different
techniques recommended here (thanks again for the info about the other machines, they sound awesome)
7.) Run some more tests...
Ya'll have offered some great advice and suggestions. I will try these and see how things go.
Funny no one commented on the Lobo?
I tried another experiment with a small engagement ring... and used my normal swing and setting at around iron... and guess what, I think I would have missed it! In AM Mode, it hit hard (buried about 4 inches under)... but in iron, with my normal swing, I am pretty sure I would have walked away from it. Unreal! Although i did not try it in MIN disc. (darn! forgot about that one). So, that was indeed a bit eye opening for me anyways.
I think I will try hunting in MIN for a few times and then in AM for a few times and see how that goes, and SLOW DOWN my swing a bit. Although iron disc did pick up a mans size ring pretty good, I still would have missed the small enagagement size (at least at the swing speed I was using... slowing it down, did hit it better, but still "may" have walked from it).
Neat advice about watching for patterns etc... seems to have helped me in the past... good advice. Its funny really....
Once I saw a bunch of softball players congregated at one area of a softball field... I went back and hit that area that night... found a pair (yup, both) of real silver earrings, a small (gold plated?) locket and a silver pendant in that area... all around the 2-4 inch mark (so I knew it was NOT from that night, but that area seems to be where they hang out etc)... and at the other end of that scenario... I have a park that gets heavy family parties every weekend... I mean tons of folks BBQ'ing etc... I hit that place and WOW! Trash city! Gets frustrating, real quick. Just too many pull tabs. I mean I have hit that place 3-4 times, each time, for a good 2 plus hours... and its pulltab after pulltab, with some clad mixed in. Not one iota of jewelry found yet in that park... unreal. I think its a wee bit too trashy for me. I don't mind the trash etc, but also need the ocassional victory as well. Lol.
Thanks again for all the advice etc.... keep it coming if ya'll have anymore... I know I am listening. (-;
[bYour Silver Umax is more than capable of finding gold, it's what you swing the coil over. We all like to find gold and silver and do on occassion, but we as detectorist know it's all in how frequently we hunt, and the higher the number of different likely sites we hunt is the deternining factor in whether or not we might swing the coil over gold or silver.
By now you should know that finding gold or silver also means we're going to dig more than our share of trash targets. You have a great machine & if you are lucky enough to be able to afford another machine to go along side the silver in your arsenal, I'd say get a Golden Umax..... But, if your money is tight like mine is now, I'd stick with the Silver.... it's a well proven gold & silver finding machine...[/b]
By now you should know that finding gold or silver also means we're going to dig more than our share of trash targets. You have a great machine & if you are lucky enough to be able to afford another machine to go along side the silver in your arsenal, I'd say get a Golden Umax..... But, if your money is tight like mine is now, I'd stick with the Silver.... it's a well proven gold & silver finding machine...[/b]
Monte warned about swinging the coil too fast because the Silver is a two filter machine and the filters can be overloaded by the ground signal. It's at this point the Compadre shines-the disc. can be set just below the Silver's min. disc. point and that ring you had trouble with will come in clearer, albeit, soft.
Hmmm, maybe there is something to all this. Lol. went out last night... hit a place I had already hit before. Tried to slow down my swing a bit and set the disc to MIN. Found a few pieces, some fairly small that I may not have found before. Two pieces of jewelry... junk (I think) but they were small... I think my previous way of hunting... I probably would have missed these. The experiment continues. (-;
AZWIP,
You are not missing out on much by switching to another detector. I personally have not used the Silver uMax, but from what I have read, it is a very capable detector. Don't think you are not detecting "gold." I'm sure the Silver uMax would have detected gold had there been any to detect. If anything, you should consider upgrading your pin pointer, that pistol probe has been getting some exceptional user feedback. All in all, the Silver uMax is one killer detector for parks.
You are not missing out on much by switching to another detector. I personally have not used the Silver uMax, but from what I have read, it is a very capable detector. Don't think you are not detecting "gold." I'm sure the Silver uMax would have detected gold had there been any to detect. If anything, you should consider upgrading your pin pointer, that pistol probe has been getting some exceptional user feedback. All in all, the Silver uMax is one killer detector for parks.
Hello again, and thanks for all the replies so far... am curious though... to find the gold jewelry... I keep hearing about a higher frequency is better for gold items... therefore having me think that switching to something like the Lobo would increase my chances of finding gold jewelry - no? I think the Silver uMax is like a 10 point something or another and the Lobo is at least a 17 mhz (?) machine - therefore would not the lobo find what the Silver is missing? Or is it that for gold jewelry, the Silver will do just fine and that the Lobo will find flakes etc as well... therefore unless I am nugget prospecting (which I am not), the Silver is still fine and dandy and that I most likely just have not passed the coil over Gold jewelry yet?
Also, NVmar (I think) suggested upgrading my Garret Pro Pointer to a pistol probe... not sure if that will help more in finding gold jewelry as compared to Garret PP. I have heard the Pistol Probe is deeper, but as it seems I have no probs finding my items with the Garrett Pro Pointer once I have dug... could someone explain how the Pistol Probe may be better? Thanks for the help folks... still gold free, but did find more silver the other night. (-;
Also, NVmar (I think) suggested upgrading my Garret Pro Pointer to a pistol probe... not sure if that will help more in finding gold jewelry as compared to Garret PP. I have heard the Pistol Probe is deeper, but as it seems I have no probs finding my items with the Garrett Pro Pointer once I have dug... could someone explain how the Pistol Probe may be better? Thanks for the help folks... still gold free, but did find more silver the other night. (-;
Darkflight
New member
I sometimes yearn for a notch feature. Days like today-100's of bottle caps-will do that to you.
But other than that the Silver is very capable of finding all but the smallest jewlery,Gold & otherwise. Lotta ways to hunt but I have stopped cranking up the disc & my finds have improved. I even use all metal for deep sand & rocky areas.
I like the K.I.S.S. style & lightweight. I have pretty much decided I don't need an upgrade.
But other than that the Silver is very capable of finding all but the smallest jewlery,Gold & otherwise. Lotta ways to hunt but I have stopped cranking up the disc & my finds have improved. I even use all metal for deep sand & rocky areas.
I like the K.I.S.S. style & lightweight. I have pretty much decided I don't need an upgrade.
tvr said:
The two biggest things about finding gold are:
1) you have to put the coil over it.
2) you have to hear it when the coil is over it by not discriminating it out.
the only think I would add to that is:
3) the gold has to be there in the first place
some advice i got on another forum from a master of the white's dfx is ...location...location....and location. he mostly hunts relics and is also a master of research and uses his downtime to pour over maps of various sorts and uses computer map overlays to find old places that used to exist. he says he's rather have an inexpensive detector at a great place than a great detector at a lousy place. but i also know that he takes a machine that he knows inside out to well "researched" places. i have an ace 250 and now a vaquero. at first i thought that maybe i shouldn't have gotten the vaquero...i hunted my own backyard and i couldn't find anything over 8" with it (and i'd mark the spot with a bamboo skewer) and i'd pass the ace 250 over the same spot and it easily found what the vaquero could find. hmmmmm...isn't the vaquero supposed to go deeper? he said that since i was in a 'tract' home that a lot of the soil is moved around with a bull dozer and there might not BE anything deeper than 8" and recommended to try my luck at an older place...that's where the vaquero would shine over the ace. he was right. found a mercury dime at 11" and the ace couldn't read it even in all metal mode so I'm now very happy with the vaquero.
you said you like the fact that the coil was waterproof. are you near an ocean or lake? found one gold ring at the ocean at low tide in the "surf" line. never found anything in the "towel" line yet. seems the water gets cold and shrinks the finger and that makes the ring slide off + putting sun tan lotion on really helps the jewelry slide off. if i get another one it will be the sandshark. i live close to the ocean and i need the warantee that a new one gives you. dan in so cal
The two biggest things about finding gold are:
1) you have to put the coil over it.
2) you have to hear it when the coil is over it by not discriminating it out.
the only think I would add to that is:
3) the gold has to be there in the first place
some advice i got on another forum from a master of the white's dfx is ...location...location....and location. he mostly hunts relics and is also a master of research and uses his downtime to pour over maps of various sorts and uses computer map overlays to find old places that used to exist. he says he's rather have an inexpensive detector at a great place than a great detector at a lousy place. but i also know that he takes a machine that he knows inside out to well "researched" places. i have an ace 250 and now a vaquero. at first i thought that maybe i shouldn't have gotten the vaquero...i hunted my own backyard and i couldn't find anything over 8" with it (and i'd mark the spot with a bamboo skewer) and i'd pass the ace 250 over the same spot and it easily found what the vaquero could find. hmmmmm...isn't the vaquero supposed to go deeper? he said that since i was in a 'tract' home that a lot of the soil is moved around with a bull dozer and there might not BE anything deeper than 8" and recommended to try my luck at an older place...that's where the vaquero would shine over the ace. he was right. found a mercury dime at 11" and the ace couldn't read it even in all metal mode so I'm now very happy with the vaquero.
you said you like the fact that the coil was waterproof. are you near an ocean or lake? found one gold ring at the ocean at low tide in the "surf" line. never found anything in the "towel" line yet. seems the water gets cold and shrinks the finger and that makes the ring slide off + putting sun tan lotion on really helps the jewelry slide off. if i get another one it will be the sandshark. i live close to the ocean and i need the warantee that a new one gives you. dan in so cal