All great replies that I would agree with..

.One thing I try to do is read as many of these Forums I can to try to identify the users that seem to find a lot of gold...or any other metal you decide to target..It doesnt matter what rig they run, some only hunt inland parks and sportsfields, some are the beach guys, anyway, a guy can sort of follow their posts and find a person that is hunting in an area similar to what you have to work with, then try to duplicate their success in your area...you will find gold if you keep doing what you are doing, and develop a nose for the 'right' looking locations... for fresh drops, theres gold in totlots, on account of we are essentially 'tracking' women, so those small rings are foil/nickel/tab...Although Its a stupid shame for a person to be hunting a totlot with a high end rig!
Simply put, the 'great gold losing' years were the 60's-70's and a bit in the 80's...thats when people spent some time outdoors and generally were married, had a bit of money and before all these junk ring amalgamations came out as popular wedding rings...also, class rings were gold back then too....so if the trash you are finding is from that time frame, focus up!
An old guy told me to "dig 1000 pennies, and dig 1000 pulltabs" it taught me several things, mainly how to read a site and the trash age and also how to get a very fast retrieval method...go and read a few of REVIER's and Tabmans and Goldstrikes posts...they hunt inland gold very successfully and share their insights in abundance.....you will see a pattern you can duplicate....Dancer found so far 5 gold rings this year all because he set a goal to hunt nickels!
Dont fret about it, Goldstrike and another buddy of mine who runs an E-trac (wades shallow inland water) who has so far this year found 9 gold rings, so it can be done with what is considered a 'silver' machine...it truly is location and focus on those gold tone targets..Good Luck! Gold is a cruel mistress once you got the fever, no cure but more cowbell!

Now if you gentlemen will excuse me, I have to go get my dose of some dirtwork!
Mud