So..Ive cleared out all the clad from the sportspark. Now its time to.....

[will*in*cali]

Howdy fellas,

In another thread I was asking for advice on using my F5, its a new language to me. Just a refresher, Ive found what I feel is an untouched sports park with pic nic tables, tot lots, basketball, volleyball, big soccer field in the middle of it all, with long sweeping concrete sidewalks that people run on, push strollers on etc... The first time I hunted there I set my tesoro compadre to full descrim and had to bend over every 2ft to dig a quarter or dime, all clad of course. I came home with a sore back and approx $10 in clad. I refuse to dig zincs in this place, theres got to be 1000s of them. So Ive gone back a few more times and cleaned out more clad each time, its been fun but the focus has been getting this spot ready for some serious jewlery hunting with the F5.

I know there is no easy button and gold jewlery hides in multiple trash zones, but I was wondering about something. IF yes IF all the clad is in the top 4 inches then most likely any jewlery is also, is there a way of gaining any advantage of telling trash from treasure by lowering the gain AND threshold, and then only digging solid hits...thereby ignoring alot of trash?

I know I will dig some trash, and dont have unrealistic expectations. Its just that I noticed about 3/4 of the time that Im getting a very sold nickle signal im digging up a shallow pull tab.

My point is this...In the Mike Hillis tips and tricks for the F5 he talks about covering a lot of ground. My question is HOW?
The F5 is telling me to dig everywhere! This is with iron and foil notched out, and EMI already dealt with.
Yes yes I know....... This is where you guys are saying, " Ahhh, those F5 newbs are so cute aint they?" Still so new and confused! "
Its enough to make me want to put the F5 back in the truck and grab the compadre.... but that wont learn me nuffin.... excuse me, "teach me anything"

 

[D&P-OR]

THAT'S CUTE!------Get a GB Pro--now I've taught you sumthin!-----Hang in there pardner---Mike oughta be around before long, he's our resident F-5 expert.

 

[mudpuppy]

Theres a few things you can do that may help...try to determine the size, shape, depth, and composition of the target...I know, I know...it takes a lot of coil time and playing with the settings to find a program that you really understand for a particular piece of dirt...so Lets say your intended (gold jewelry) targets are surface to 4"...

I guess thats why I run 'soft' sens settings and manipulate the height of the coil over a target...I get a better modulated audio on shallow targets...the volume of the ping tells me depth, the tone configuration of the ping tells me size, composition, shape...If I try to run too hot Sens on shallows, they all sound the same to me as far as depth..lets say foil...a small piece of foil (or gold) has a tight profile and soft sound...a large piece of foil (can slaw, gatorade tops) holds its signal the higher you sweep over it...so I try to set up so I can hear a 2gr small gold ring at 4", TID in the low to mid 20's...but lose the signal at 5-6" coil height....if you take a standard size Mens wedding band, or a gold womens class ring, they should be right in the square tab signals. (mid/high 30's)..just about no way to determine what is what unless you experiment with those settings and targets, and even then, its not a guarantee...in field, you can set up and wave your ring over your coil, to try to see exactly what depth you are getting with your settings in an air test, and also get your ears tuned to that tone, then you drop coil to surface and focus...

I think everybodies brain accepts certain languages differently...so find one your brain seems to comprehend the best for YOU...by tone, and not so much by eye on screen...the screen is a 'learning tool', a tutorial in essence so that your eyes can associate the various pings to the TIDS...after a while, you wont even look at the screen anymore, except to do a set up...your ears should get to telling you what I stated in the first sentence here...

On my 70 I run sens in low/mid 50's, with a -3 thresh...for hunting jewelry at 4" depth in a typical park, unfortunately, gold rings hide in foil, tabs, and zinc tones...it takes a long time of dedicated hunting to even sense a minor nuance in a tone...you could also default to a 'dig it all strategy' at least for the first half hour on a location to see whats up with the place, and get attuned to it.....Like D&P said, Hillis should be along shortly...
Mud .

 

[Steve O]

I don't think I'd notch out foil, I can hear you now "oh crap".... Unless you are just after the bigger gold/silver. Jewelry hunting in a old busy park is labor intense. My hats off to you guys that hunt jewelry and clad.
My thrills are old coins and occasionally I'll come across a antique silver ring or broach of some sort. I do more walking and less kneeling and digging... but again, the old coins are my passion.
And Yes, Mike Hillis should be along shortly....he's the Guru of that great unit.

 

[Digger 45]

I feel your pain but digging trash is still the only way to score Gold. I just recovered a 14k gold band that showed up as a pull tab, the only difference was the sound, as Mud has said with much practice you will hear that special little sound that says " Hummm this sounds a little different, maybe a little stronger than an pull tab " and that is what it is all about.

Takes a lot of practice but well worth it.

Good Luck

 

[mudpuppy]

It really does take a huge amount of coil time...Never thought I'd say this about the F's, but one 'bummer' for a new user is the wide variety of settings/coils available.....

I think it may actually hurt a new user to flit around from setup to setup and not really MASTER any particular one! Thats why I said a guy has to try to find one band of settings he understands above all others! Hell, I've been running the SAME settings for what 4yrs now boys? and I'm still learning them...I ran in AT for a yr straight and watched the screen if you can believe that!...what an awful deal! I didnt want to 'miss' anything!.....then settled on DP tones, light sens, stable platform and started learning the language..(thanks Zeekeys)....I'm pretty sure theres no way I can hunt in any other settings than the ones I use and am very comfortable with...talking well over 30k coins and who knows how many other targets? once it clicked, it really clicked though..takes coil time..lots of it...lots of targets...these F rigs are capable of delivering if a fellow learns them..

Nice score on that ring there Digger! Do us a post!
Mud

 

[Lakota]

Recent finds of the last three weeks. Hunting with the F75 standard.

Historical.district home , 6 ( also three firsts for me on this spot) Indian head pennies ( never found one before this) dates from 1900 to 1890 ( first 1800s coin) .... All in the 4-6" range. Also a 1922 bronze advertising coin for the 75th anniversary of the 1847 Rogers brother silverware company. Again 4-5" in the ground.

Fast forward to Turkey day weekend and I ended up on a local football field . Lots of quarters and little trash. 3" down a solid unmoving ID of 22 on the F75. Yup 10k girls heart ring. Year before it was a solid 23-24 and a 14k Ares signet girls ring also 2-3" down in the root structure.

Now that ring is the easy ( and I say that half joking) gold to find . Revier's post on his great experiences with gold rings has stuck with me and it has helped me with 3 gold ring finds. You are right they hide in the grass roots a lot of times, only had one ring that was below the roots and it was a long faced onyx stone sterling on the same ground that gave me a 1900 & 1901 Barber dimes, that ring was a solid 7-8" and pure curiosity with a new coil.

So from gold and silver rings to 14k ladybug bracelets and ear rings it all like to hang up in the shallow range.
I will say this though, use the coin behind your pro pointers on/off switch to supercharge the thing to find those smaller gold items. This technic saved me from giving up one more then one small 14k ear ring in the clump

Now the kick in the head my friend. Ask Rev how many zinc signals he abandones ? My guess in not many. That man has some serious fat gold that came in the zinc range with his F2.

So there is a good chance that one or more of those 1000 signals is chunky gold.

Now onto the not so easy to find sports field gold. I have found most with a Tesoro Cutlass uMax. And its not that I don't trust my F75 to find the signal but I like the tone response better for small gold. And some has come in as a nasty crap signal that I only investigated due to limited signals. Hell of time pin pointing it too, ( supercharge the PP ) 14k horse shoe shaped ear ring.

So from crap iron numbers to foil to nickel and tabs and zinc, brother you want that gold you have to dig it all lol.

 

[Mike Hillis]

Hi Will,
Everyone that replied shared some good information.

I tell people that you hunt gold with your mind, and recover it with your detector. You post shows that you are thinking about it and thats good.

The only difference between the F5 and the Compadre is that the F5 can give you more information about what is under your coil and can be fined tuned for any site. That information makes you more efficient if you trust it. That is the reason you bought the F5, otherwise you could have just use the Compadre with a lower disc setting.

You should bench test your Gain and Threshold settings so you understand what to expect from a particular setting combination. You will learn that there are multiple setting combinations to achieve a particular result. The F5 Gain settings are very linear and predictable. The Threshold settings, while not as linear are also very predictable. Your bench testing results will give you a very useful matrix. It's a lot of effort but well worth it. Also pay attention to the difference in audio between negative threshold settings and positive threshold settings. Negative threshold settings make the F5 sound just like every other metal detector. Positive threshold settings amplify the audio response. Makes them more robust. The positive threshold settings will spoil you.

My area doesn't grow grass. To grow grass requires someone to lay down sod, or fill dirt with sod laid on top. So my area parks and athletic fields finds will only sink to the bottom of the fill dirt. I set up for that depth. I like a medium Gain and a high positive Threshold. Something like 50 or 55 and a +5. This keeps the coil foot print small but gives a very robust audio response.

If you are going to dig gold, you are going to dig trash. The key is to dig the right trash in the right places and trust what your F5 is telling you. You want to dig gold trash and tabs are gold trash if they are dug at the right locations. At the settings I recommended, the detector won't lie to you. It will tell you exactly what is under the coil based upon the items conductivity. As you get more experience your trash to treasure ratio decreases. But there are no short cuts. Everyone has to put in their time.

You can't hunt gold jewelry and notch out foil. I found a thin 18kt white gold ring worth about $60 at today's scrap price that is large enough for my third finger that only reads 4 TID numbers above the iron cut off point. That is a TID of 19 on the F5. It doesn't give a very strong signal. Most small 10k rings are going to respond between 22 and 26. Only the larger, solid 10k and 14kt yellow gold rings are going to read as high or higher than a nickel. My last ring find was a very solid, thick 14k ring that fits my wife's finger. It read a 28. So you can't disc or notch out the foil.

As far as where to hunt in your new spot, the volley ball court is a no brainer, only you hunt those in All Metal mode and recover every thing that creates any response at all. The other sites, well...what did all that clad you found tell you?

You need to find your first ring in the turf to start the wheels really turning. That first turf ring really turns on the lights. Regards covering lots of ground, well, that comes with time

Good luck.
HH
Mike

 

[will*in*cali]

Well I went to a few parks today that I've been to before with the F5, took you guys advice and ran with only iron discrimination out and low gain of 30-50 , threshold of -2 up to 0 with 4 tones and really tried to use my ears. This is only my second time swinging this machine. I dug plenty of trash and clad. The earing rang up as a dime if I remember correctly and it says STER on back. The cross is junk and was less than an inch down and overloaded the F5, those were both on sports fileds. The 14K stamped beauty in the middle rang up zinc 60 in a tot lot about 1" down in wood chips. I thought for sure I was about to put another zinc cent in my pocket and almost didn't even bother getting it, LOL. Yeah I like this machine!
Just gotta put in the saddle time to learn it.