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Target ID Segments - GTI 1500
- Thread starter cc8137
- Start date
Talked to Garrett this morning. The segments for popular targets are:
7 to 7+ Zinc
8 to 8+ copper
9 clad quarters
10 silver quarters
Anything else would be a good idea to air test. Problem there is I haven't found any silver yet to air test.........I just keep swinging.
Charlie
7 to 7+ Zinc
8 to 8+ copper
9 clad quarters
10 silver quarters
Anything else would be a good idea to air test. Problem there is I haven't found any silver yet to air test.........I just keep swinging.
Charlie
The real answer is that there is a range of notches where a specific target will indicate depending on it's depth and orientation in the ground, the soil conditions, the presence of other nearby metal, and several others.
Here is what I have experienced:
Gold Rings/Pendants 3 - 6.5 (I bet as I dig more gold this range expands)
Silver Chains 4 - 5.5
Silver Rings/Pendants 7.5 - 10.5
Large Cent 10.5
IH Cent 7
Wheat Cent 7-8
Zn Cent 6 - 7.5
Cu Cent 7.5 - 8.5
Nickel 3 - 4.5
Dime 8 - 9 (Clad and Silver)
Quarter 9 - 10 (Clad and Silver)
Half 10 - 11 (Clad and Silver)
Small Dollar 9 - 10
Large Dollar 11.5
US Quarter Eagle Gold Coin 5.5
Your detector might be a hair different than my 2500 so use this as a guide only. If a coin or a ring is bent or damaged it could show up well out of it's normal range. I like hunting in jewelry mode and have trained myself to dig just about everything. There are hunts where I still cherry pick thought depending on my mood.
Feel free to keep this thread going. I am happy to offer my opinion.
Chris
Here is what I have experienced:
Gold Rings/Pendants 3 - 6.5 (I bet as I dig more gold this range expands)
Silver Chains 4 - 5.5
Silver Rings/Pendants 7.5 - 10.5
Large Cent 10.5
IH Cent 7
Wheat Cent 7-8
Zn Cent 6 - 7.5
Cu Cent 7.5 - 8.5
Nickel 3 - 4.5
Dime 8 - 9 (Clad and Silver)
Quarter 9 - 10 (Clad and Silver)
Half 10 - 11 (Clad and Silver)
Small Dollar 9 - 10
Large Dollar 11.5
US Quarter Eagle Gold Coin 5.5
Your detector might be a hair different than my 2500 so use this as a guide only. If a coin or a ring is bent or damaged it could show up well out of it's normal range. I like hunting in jewelry mode and have trained myself to dig just about everything. There are hunts where I still cherry pick thought depending on my mood.
Feel free to keep this thread going. I am happy to offer my opinion.
Chris
roseon3rd
Member
Ok, I've been putting this post off for a few days because I did'nt want to come across as being completely ignorant. However,after much thought, I'm to the the point that I'd rather be percieved lacking in knowledge than lacking in "finds." Ok, that said, I am fairly new to the forum here. I joined a couple of weeks ago. As you can see, this particular topic was posted back in October whichs shows, I'm reading and researching as much as possible to try and find out if I'm doing something wrong with my GTI 1500, or possibly hunting in the wrong places, or who knows. Hopefuly one of you will and give me some advice. I've had my 1500 for about a month. Prior to that I have had numerous other lower priced units over the summer months. Now to the point of my post: I keep reading and seeing your post showing gold rings, gold jewelry, coins, etc. But I'm not finding any of that. I 'm just finding coins as seen in my photo. I've tried hunting in the Jewelry mode, but still nada. I did find one silver saphire ring but that's been it. Now ,when I have been in Jewelry mode and hit on a target that lines up in size and range of Gold, I've dug it but it has been either pull tabs or small pieces of wadded -up aluminum. Any advice you can give me fellas? Oh by the way, I hunt old parks, playground, farigrounds, soccer fields, tot-lots, etc. Have I given enough info for a fix?
There is only one piece of advice to give. Keep at it. Finding gold is extremely lucky. For example. This year I dug 11,500 some coins and 10 or 11 gold items. To add I didn't find any gold in the first 2 months of the year or for the last 2 months either. I found gold two days in a row once. Last year I found gold 3 days in a row once and then on the fifth day too. I was super duper lucky that week.
Dig all those pull tabs and pop tops in size A and B range and one will be a gold item some day. My best areas for gold have been soccer and baseball fields (sidelines and outfields.) I don't live near a beach.
Good luck.
Chris
Dig all those pull tabs and pop tops in size A and B range and one will be a gold item some day. My best areas for gold have been soccer and baseball fields (sidelines and outfields.) I don't live near a beach.
Good luck.
Chris
Mick in Dubbo
New member
It sounds to me, like you are doing everything right to score some gold. I personally live in an area where there is only a low probability of finding gold items. I average out to about 1 gold item per hundred hours of hunting. Most of them have been in lawn.
Your highest probability locations are, beaches, swimming holes, around tot lots, lover's lanes, and playing fields; especially around goal post and penalty areas. I have found 2 in school play grounds (lawn section) as well.
If you owned a water machine, then hunting in swimming areas would be your number one spot for jewellery finds, but this comes with a couple of cravats. It's harder than it looks to recover items from a surf beach. I've also seen video footage of a fellow who was detecting with his back to the ocean. Only about 3 meters away (3 yds) was the unmistakable dorsal fin and tail fin of a large shark, lazily swimming past, just checking him out. The chap was totally oblivious to it. If that was me, I would have contributed some raw sewerage to the ocean.
Mick Evans.
Your highest probability locations are, beaches, swimming holes, around tot lots, lover's lanes, and playing fields; especially around goal post and penalty areas. I have found 2 in school play grounds (lawn section) as well.
If you owned a water machine, then hunting in swimming areas would be your number one spot for jewellery finds, but this comes with a couple of cravats. It's harder than it looks to recover items from a surf beach. I've also seen video footage of a fellow who was detecting with his back to the ocean. Only about 3 meters away (3 yds) was the unmistakable dorsal fin and tail fin of a large shark, lazily swimming past, just checking him out. The chap was totally oblivious to it. If that was me, I would have contributed some raw sewerage to the ocean.
Mick Evans.
Joel-Winnipeg
New member
Digging los of junk and pulltab this season gave me 35 pounds of clad plus 3 gold rings and quite a few silvers on land.
Can you guess how many kneebends for three rings ?
Can you guess how many kneebends for three rings ?
There is little to add to the others comments about gold and perseverence. Flatly put, the more you look the more you will find.
But, let's discuss a few other things on the matter that are pertinent.
First, you gotta understand that there just is not that much good gold lost. Go to any big-box store and look at the quantity of costume jewelry versus gold. They are at least even, and I'd wager the fake stuff outnumbers the good stuff 2:1. Add to that all the junk jewelry from gum machines, Avon and the many other sources and you see the odds are stacked heavily against you.
Also, when you see a nice piece of gold jewelry displayed, you have no idea what led to it's recovery, how much deduction or blind luck was involved or even what odds were overcome to get it. So give up on negative envy right off.
When you do, you have passed the first test to becoming a true detectorist.
However, don't be dismayed. There are some recognized things you can do to tilt the odds in your favor; these things you must consider.
Read on, my friend
THE BIG THREE
There are three primary elements involved in recovering lost gold jewelry. You hit on the first yourself, summarized by this question: "Where are you hunting?" Gold jewelry is made to stay on a person. It isn't meant to come off. So, there must be the right sort of activity to jar it loose from it's owner. Athletics, outdoor activities, work activities, etc. are what you want to look for.
Second, adults for the most part, have the good gold. Kids and adolescents may have a bit of it, but by and large the good stuff is worn by adults with enough money to buy the good stuff. So, you need to look for the places where earning adults are active enough to lose their good gold jewelry.
Third, there needs to be large numbers of people frequenting in the places you wish to hunt. This dramatically skews the odds in your favor. Most valuable jewelry, when discovered missing, is searched for and often found. So there must be a lot of people to both lose gold items and fail at recovering them. You really need to understand site usage and the numbers of people which pass through a given locale, if you are to get ahead of the odds.
A BLIND DOG
Now, "any one thing can be in any one place," to quote H. Glenn Carson. But he wasn't endorsing random searching with these words. Rather, he too, was suggesting adding focus to your efforts.
I was commissioned last year to search for a fellows college graduation ring. The ring had been lost in a residential backyard, while the man had gone about feeding his pet horse. It was found, without difficulty, but it was the only piece of jewelry recovered there. It was a one of a kind situation, and I was led to where it was.
So even a blind dog can sniff out a bone, now and then. But, that is definately NOT what you are after. What you must concern yourself with and focus on, is increasing the odds of finding gold jewelry.
BACK TO MATH CLASS
Lets sum this up in a short and yet familiar way - mathematically. Simply put, we have a basic "gold equation" at hand: Physical Activity + Earning Adults + Large Numbers = gold jewelry
This illustrates why the beaches along any shore produce jewlery in such steady numbers.... all three factors in the equation are present at the beach. But, you must also multiply our basic equation with what I like to call the "Beach Factor." The Beach Factor is really an amalgam of elements and includes: water (which causes skin to shrink and stretch), sweat (from sun and strenouous activity), suntan oil, sudden cloudbursts, sudden wind gusts and all the other things associated with beach going.
When we include the Beach Factor, our previous equation mow looks like this: Physical Activity + Earning Adults + Large Numbers (Beach Factor) = MORE gold jewelry
This is universal in it's application, too. From the near arctic to the equator, wherever people flock to the beach you will find a probable jewelry hotspot. If you do not have any beaches nearby, or never hunt them, then your annual jewelry finds are probably going to decrease.
Happily, there aren't many places you can live where there is no swimming area of some sort, whether freshwater or salt, within easy driving distance.
THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM
Finally, here is the real secret, the thing most people don't talk about much: You must become selective, even exclusionary in your recoveries if you want to find gold jewelry.
I notice you have a lot coins in that pile. Quarters, dimes, cents, nickels, brass tokens - it's all there. I commend you on your effort. But only the nickles and tokens represent what would be seen by your detector as gold jewlery. When I searched for that mans ring I mentioned, I recovered nothing in the coin range except nickles and screwcaps.
Occasionally a jewelry piece will go outside the "nickle and brass" realm, but I recall a study done by Fisher years ago. In the study, it was found that 76% of gold rings were found in the nickel/pulltab range. There were a few outside of that, notably small womens jewelry which tend to be below and the 10K class ring, which tends to ring up around screwcap. But, by and large, gold jewelry falls right in the low-to-center midrange.
This means you must be eager to dig targets in this range and NOT waste time on the others - if gold is your target.
THE LOWLY PULLTAB
I don't see any pulltabs in your pile. Pulltabs are the low brow kin to gold jewelry, and they far outnumber their more valuable cousins. However it is a brutal truth of detecting that beverage pulltabs look like gold rings to a detector. Period. You cannot sugar coat that inconvenient truth, and you may as well burn that into your mind now. Go ahead, we'll wait...........
On the other hand, where you are finding pulltabs you know these things:
1. People have been there, and they have at least been active enough to be drinking beverages.
2. You are finding the right target range for gold jewelry.
So pulltabs, contrary to what you may think, are your friends and you must dig them if you want the gold jewelry. Your GTI 1500 is a premier intrument for finding that which you seek. But, when it tells you it sees a pulltab - you must believe that and dig it. You cannot shirk, or whine or pass it up, "just this once." No sir, you must recover it.
And yes, you will dig a lot of trash and very few coins that way. I'll notch in quarters or dimes when searching for rings, but that is just to keep it interesting. They are not my main quarry.
DOES IT WORK?
There was a fellow detectorist here on the forum some time back, Ralph Bryant. He notch-selected only the midrange targets and used a little Ace 250. He didn't dig coins at all, except for nickles. And he found alot of rings... I mean a lot. Not a week went by where he didn't show off a nice one. I spoke with Ralph recently, via email and he is still doing well. And he still uses this method.
Ponder these things, and vow to remain persistent. After all, if finding gold jewelry with a detector were easy, everyone would do it.
But, let's discuss a few other things on the matter that are pertinent.
First, you gotta understand that there just is not that much good gold lost. Go to any big-box store and look at the quantity of costume jewelry versus gold. They are at least even, and I'd wager the fake stuff outnumbers the good stuff 2:1. Add to that all the junk jewelry from gum machines, Avon and the many other sources and you see the odds are stacked heavily against you.
Also, when you see a nice piece of gold jewelry displayed, you have no idea what led to it's recovery, how much deduction or blind luck was involved or even what odds were overcome to get it. So give up on negative envy right off.
When you do, you have passed the first test to becoming a true detectorist.
However, don't be dismayed. There are some recognized things you can do to tilt the odds in your favor; these things you must consider.
Read on, my friend
THE BIG THREE
There are three primary elements involved in recovering lost gold jewelry. You hit on the first yourself, summarized by this question: "Where are you hunting?" Gold jewelry is made to stay on a person. It isn't meant to come off. So, there must be the right sort of activity to jar it loose from it's owner. Athletics, outdoor activities, work activities, etc. are what you want to look for.
Second, adults for the most part, have the good gold. Kids and adolescents may have a bit of it, but by and large the good stuff is worn by adults with enough money to buy the good stuff. So, you need to look for the places where earning adults are active enough to lose their good gold jewelry.
Third, there needs to be large numbers of people frequenting in the places you wish to hunt. This dramatically skews the odds in your favor. Most valuable jewelry, when discovered missing, is searched for and often found. So there must be a lot of people to both lose gold items and fail at recovering them. You really need to understand site usage and the numbers of people which pass through a given locale, if you are to get ahead of the odds.
A BLIND DOG
Now, "any one thing can be in any one place," to quote H. Glenn Carson. But he wasn't endorsing random searching with these words. Rather, he too, was suggesting adding focus to your efforts.
I was commissioned last year to search for a fellows college graduation ring. The ring had been lost in a residential backyard, while the man had gone about feeding his pet horse. It was found, without difficulty, but it was the only piece of jewelry recovered there. It was a one of a kind situation, and I was led to where it was.
So even a blind dog can sniff out a bone, now and then. But, that is definately NOT what you are after. What you must concern yourself with and focus on, is increasing the odds of finding gold jewelry.
BACK TO MATH CLASS
Lets sum this up in a short and yet familiar way - mathematically. Simply put, we have a basic "gold equation" at hand: Physical Activity + Earning Adults + Large Numbers = gold jewelry
This illustrates why the beaches along any shore produce jewlery in such steady numbers.... all three factors in the equation are present at the beach. But, you must also multiply our basic equation with what I like to call the "Beach Factor." The Beach Factor is really an amalgam of elements and includes: water (which causes skin to shrink and stretch), sweat (from sun and strenouous activity), suntan oil, sudden cloudbursts, sudden wind gusts and all the other things associated with beach going.
When we include the Beach Factor, our previous equation mow looks like this: Physical Activity + Earning Adults + Large Numbers (Beach Factor) = MORE gold jewelry
This is universal in it's application, too. From the near arctic to the equator, wherever people flock to the beach you will find a probable jewelry hotspot. If you do not have any beaches nearby, or never hunt them, then your annual jewelry finds are probably going to decrease.
Happily, there aren't many places you can live where there is no swimming area of some sort, whether freshwater or salt, within easy driving distance.
THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM
Finally, here is the real secret, the thing most people don't talk about much: You must become selective, even exclusionary in your recoveries if you want to find gold jewelry.
I notice you have a lot coins in that pile. Quarters, dimes, cents, nickels, brass tokens - it's all there. I commend you on your effort. But only the nickles and tokens represent what would be seen by your detector as gold jewlery. When I searched for that mans ring I mentioned, I recovered nothing in the coin range except nickles and screwcaps.
Occasionally a jewelry piece will go outside the "nickle and brass" realm, but I recall a study done by Fisher years ago. In the study, it was found that 76% of gold rings were found in the nickel/pulltab range. There were a few outside of that, notably small womens jewelry which tend to be below and the 10K class ring, which tends to ring up around screwcap. But, by and large, gold jewelry falls right in the low-to-center midrange.
This means you must be eager to dig targets in this range and NOT waste time on the others - if gold is your target.
THE LOWLY PULLTAB
I don't see any pulltabs in your pile. Pulltabs are the low brow kin to gold jewelry, and they far outnumber their more valuable cousins. However it is a brutal truth of detecting that beverage pulltabs look like gold rings to a detector. Period. You cannot sugar coat that inconvenient truth, and you may as well burn that into your mind now. Go ahead, we'll wait...........
On the other hand, where you are finding pulltabs you know these things:
1. People have been there, and they have at least been active enough to be drinking beverages.
2. You are finding the right target range for gold jewelry.
So pulltabs, contrary to what you may think, are your friends and you must dig them if you want the gold jewelry. Your GTI 1500 is a premier intrument for finding that which you seek. But, when it tells you it sees a pulltab - you must believe that and dig it. You cannot shirk, or whine or pass it up, "just this once." No sir, you must recover it.
And yes, you will dig a lot of trash and very few coins that way. I'll notch in quarters or dimes when searching for rings, but that is just to keep it interesting. They are not my main quarry.
DOES IT WORK?
There was a fellow detectorist here on the forum some time back, Ralph Bryant. He notch-selected only the midrange targets and used a little Ace 250. He didn't dig coins at all, except for nickles. And he found alot of rings... I mean a lot. Not a week went by where he didn't show off a nice one. I spoke with Ralph recently, via email and he is still doing well. And he still uses this method.
Ponder these things, and vow to remain persistent. After all, if finding gold jewelry with a detector were easy, everyone would do it.
Joel-Winnipeg
New member
dahunt very good explanation and discriptions.
.
Still say that you should be into writing stories on detection finds.
.Still say that you should be into writing stories on detection finds.
bulletman
Well-known member
Dahut is correct! If it sounds good and not a broken signal above foil - you had better dig it out. You will dig an amazing amount of trash - but gold can be found (extremely rare though). Been swinging Garrett's for about 20 years - and finding gold is scarce in my neck of the woods. Perhaps your part of the country is like mine - people in my area don't wear too many gold rings to lose. Go to a location where folks have more money, and your finds will be better! Gas is cheaper these days - so I plan on detecting some places that I wouldn't have driven to in the past few years.
lazyaussie
New member
spot on Dahut i think you should put that up as a separate post ( E.G how to improve your gold finds ) you"v done the best job of explaining how to find gold .
i love finding pull tabs when hunting for gold as i know i"v got a spot with a high chance of finding gold.
my small input in this thread is to hunt areas that are easy to dig the less time spent digging targets = more targets witch = a higher chance of finding gold witch = a
mick that"s soooo funny
i know when i"m hunting in the water i keep a good eye on the water for the dorsal finned variety of fish 
.i love finding pull tabs when hunting for gold as i know i"v got a spot with a high chance of finding gold.
my small input in this thread is to hunt areas that are easy to dig the less time spent digging targets = more targets witch = a higher chance of finding gold witch = a
mick that"s soooo funny
i know when i"m hunting in the water i keep a good eye on the water for the dorsal finned variety of fish
roseon3rd
Member
My goodness! Ask and ye shall receive, eh? Thank you all for the insight and advice you've given! I really appreciate it! I'm hung outta town up here in the cold northeast but will be back in Caolina on Thursday and have a day off Friday. Hope the weather is good cause I know what I'll be doing!
Great advice from David... That should be an article in one of the MD magazines. I found several rings this past year that looked like gold, but on closer examination were HGP. Makes me cynical when I see someone with a nice looking gold/diamond ring. It seems there must be a ratio of pull tabs dug to gold rings found, maybe one gold ring for every 500 pull tabs or more. Good luck, keep swinging.
That should be an article in one of the MD magazines. I found several rings this past year that looked like gold, but on closer examination were HGP. Makes me cynical when I see someone with a nice looking gold/diamond ring. It seems there must be a ratio of pull tabs dug to gold rings found, maybe one gold ring for every 500 pull tabs or more. Good luck, keep swinging.lazyaussie
New member
i think i"m running at 400-500 gold sounding targets to 1 gold so it"s hard work
... that is an interesting way to describe it LA, perhaps the best way I've heard yet.
There has been a Rule of Thumb floating around the detecting world for years, that says you have to dig 1000 pulltabs for each gold ring recovered. I think that is a little high, and that your 500 is closer.
I did post the writeup over in the MD forum and polished up a bit more. Some astounding recovery pics have begun to pour in as a response from our fellow hobbyists. Not he least of these is the guy with 55 lbs. of metallic trash to accompany his superb jewelry finds!
Here's the link:
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?18,861668
There has been a Rule of Thumb floating around the detecting world for years, that says you have to dig 1000 pulltabs for each gold ring recovered. I think that is a little high, and that your 500 is closer.
I did post the writeup over in the MD forum and polished up a bit more. Some astounding recovery pics have begun to pour in as a response from our fellow hobbyists. Not he least of these is the guy with 55 lbs. of metallic trash to accompany his superb jewelry finds!
Here's the link:
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?18,861668