Anybody had a solid nickel hit, which turned out to be a gold ring?

[sgoss66]

I've been working hard to learn to dig nickels with my SE Pro, and getting the hang of it. Most often, a nickel on my machine is a solid 10-06 on the digital side. Has anyone here dug what they were SURE was a nickel, which then turned out to be a gold ring -- i.e. a 10-06 or thereabouts on the digital screen (if you looked at the digital numbers before digging)?

Just curious. I keep thinking one of these days that sure-fire nickel hit is going to be GOLD, but hasn't been, so far...

Steve

 

[dirt doctor]

None with my Explorer SE which I've been using for over 3 yrs. and 1 with the Explorer 2 I owned for a couple of years and that was a small one that rang up in the zinc penny range . I do lousy on the low conductors with the Explorers so I just mainly use them for deep silver seeking .

 

[DougF]

Steve, I haven't dug a gold ring yet, but my wedding band is a solid 10-06 when I air test it. I seldom dig nickel signals, but will occasionally dig one, and usually find an old ring pull tab.

 

[JJ]

Steve, I've never used the numbers so I have no idea what numbers gold or nickels are. A few years ago when I was learning to dig nickels I put a small paper sticker attached directly to my screen where nickels visually hit perfectly. I have since memorized the exact sound of nickels but still check the smart screen to see if the cursor visually lands perfectly around the sticker. The sound is consistent at all depths and cursor placement is usually very close. My wedding band reads exactly like a nickel, and most of the gold rings I have found ID'd close to a nickel. I don't dig very many targets that stray too far from that reading. That's my 2 cents, JJ

 

[banditicey]

Four Times

I have the ET and the sounds were right and the numbers were 12-17/18

 

[widebody]

[size=large]found a 10 kt. white gold mens ring last yr. just put the 8x6 sef on and went to a school area. swore it was a nickel as it came up low on the screen. classic nickel. bounced a little on the bottom. dug up a ring instead. only gold one so far with the ml se pro. one week earlier did the same with my whites xlt. numbers were low in the nickel range. dug up a white gold 14kt. man's ring. both had crosses on them. both were nickels on the machines.
you're correct in that most folks go with the odds and dig it all hoping for the gold.goes to show ya can't pin it down to numbers or sounds. just dumb luck.
of course you increase your odds by hunting where the odds are better suited to finding gold.

HH[/size]

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

I do dig nickels, but am a smart screen guy, so not sure about the numbers. Nickels signals can be greatly influenced by surrounding junk, and don't often read rock solid unless very shallow or miles away from other trash.

So.... Can't say for sure they were "dead nuts" locked on at nickel, but must have been pretty close for me to dig.

Chris

 

[Derrelld]

The only gold ring I found I thought was a DEEP nickel. Was pushing 10 inches, nice surprise to see gold instead of a rusty nickel

 

[sgoss66]

Thanks for sharing, everyone. Sounds like a good number of gold rings do read at least CLOSE to nickel.

I asked, because like I say, I'm trying to learn to dig nickels, and I think I've found the key to doing it. I am to the point that if I am confident it's a nickel, it is -- a fairly high percentage of the time (I can "call" a nickel now, with almost as much confidence as I can "call" any other coin, which is a huge improvement for me). Anyway, I keep thinking one of these days I may get lucky and dig a gold ring that reads "nickel," but my wedding band is 14K -- and air tests at 08-19 on the digital screen (whereas a nickel air tests at 10-06) -- not even CLOSE to a nickel. I was just curious if some gold bands DO hit like nickels.

The trouble is, part of becoming good at digging ONLY nickels (and NOT the trash that reads very similarly) involves being VERY precise with the pitch and nuances of the tone, as well as the CO numbers (otherwise, less "precision" results in a rapid, massive increase in the "tab" digs!) And, while this "precision" helps, when trying to dig nickels, it would HURT for digging any gold rings -- except for whatever small percentage of rings happen to be PERFECT nickel hits. (I also know I am "missing" many nickels that are near a piece of trash, and thus don't read "perfectly" as a nickel, but for now, this is the only way I know to dig the nickels and NOT the similarly-reading pull tabs/square tabs).

Doug -- sounds like your ring is a perfect nickel hit (air test). Mind if I ask what size it is, and what karat? Just curious...as I'm trying to figure out what the chances are that at some point I'm going to have a gold ring surprise me. I have had silver rings pop up at times that I was sure were silver dimes or silver quarters; just wondering if there are enough gold rings out there that air test as a perfect nickel, that I am going to be surprised by one of THOSE some day!

Anyone else dig, or air test, a gold ring that hits as a solid "06" on the CO number?

Steve

 

[dewcon4414]

Well now let me add a beach aspect to this. Gold rings from 1.8 grams up to 11 G .... that are 14 K yellow and 18K can hit dead on 10-06. Odd, but white 14K gold and 10K gold seems to want to hit say 08-12 or 13. Thin ones... about any K hit like 12-01, 13-01 or 16-01. FAT gold..08-13 and 09-09.... 14 or 18k. This being in Fl... there isnt much mineralization in the sand so its as close to air test as you get. 14 and 18K regardless of weight as long as its not a thin band seems to hit in that nickel range. Thats why on a beach i dig everything thats not a bottle cap. I have found some tiny 14k rings .... i mean tiny ring at 11-01 to 11-02 so even foil can hold a ring.

Dew

 

[DougF]

Doug -- sounds like your ring is a perfect nickel hit (air test). Mind if I ask what size it is, and what karat? Steve

Steve - 14K and size 11.

 

[born2hunt]

Great thread Steve. I too, recently started to get the hang of nickels and the deeper ones start to bounce around on the ferrous side but stay pretty steady at 05 - 06 on the conductive. I've been keeping all my nickels aside since the start of the year and it's probably a few bucks worth but still no gold. I've also dug a pile of can slaw and modern era beaver tails that hit just like nickels. I usually pass on the 01 hits because they always turn out to be slaw but I'm aware that I could be passing on the gold I so desperately want to find in the park. With so many variables in composition, size and shape it's pretty much a turkey shoot but I still dig every nickel hit I come across and hopefully one of them will be gold. The only gold I've found with my SE was a 10K on the beach and it hit steady at 11-02.

HH, Steve in PA

 

[sgoss66]

Wow, great info!

Dew -- thanks for the details. Sounds like quite a few hit at nickel...the ones that hit at "01" on the conductive side, wow. Every time I dig that, it's a tiny piece of can slaw or a little piece of foil. You said a FAT ring -- assuming by that you mean fat, like a class ring or something? Also -- with the SunRay X-5, my band hits 08-19...isn't that strange? It's a 14 K men's band, like this:

[attachment 234214 ring.jpg]

born2hunt -- like you, I now dig every nickel signal I hit. You are exactly right about the deep nickels...I have dug several deep "V" nickels this year, and the FE number bounces high (just like the FE number bounces high on deep silver). The V's at 6-8" deep seem to bounce from maybe 08 up into the high teens -- 16 or 18, on the FE side, but stay right at 05 and occasional 06 on the CO side. Shallower ones are most often 10-06, sometimes 11-06; I dig a VERY RARE shallower nickel at 05 conductive; only the deep ones seem to hit down at 05. I also dig an OCCASIONAL nickel at 10-07, but it's rare; 10-07 is generally one specific type of square tab. It's strange -- one day recently, EVERY nickel I dug that day was a 10-07! I even took one I had dug and laid it on the ground to see if it air-tested that way, and it did. SOLID 10-07! I don't know if my noise cancel number was different that day, skewing the nickels a bit -- but it's worth noting, for those who would like to dig nickels, you might check the numbers "in the field" each day, to be sure where they are hitting.

This is great everyone. Sounds like we will hit a gold ring eventually, digging nickels.

Steve

 

[dewcon4414]

Steve.... no FAT is a wide wide band not heavy like a class ring. I get a lot of the thin band hitting like i said and in a park you wouldnt even consider digging those kind of targets.... serious time waster. BUT.... there are far more thin rings that heavy one because a larger majority of them are worn by women.

Dew

 

[sgoss66]

Yep, I hear you, Dew. Time waster in a park, for sure -- with all the little bits of foil, etc. But, I have heard from others like yourself that many of the small-band womens' rings (often with the BIG STONES on them ) hit as "foil" at 01 on the conductive.

Thanks for the info on the FAT rings...I think I know what you are talking about.

Thanks also for the info regarding "numbers" on all different types of rings...it's much appreciated! It helps alot...

Steve

 

[sgoss66]

For what it's worth, I just tested a bunch of gold rings. Mine -- as I said, 08-19, with the SunRay X-5. My wife's small class ring was about 11-03, a tiny gold band she has is 11-02, a gold ring with small stones embedded is about 11-02 to 11-03, and her wedding set -- 10-06!! If you separate the set, the two individually are 11-02, but the set is 10-06.

Interestingly, adjusting the noise cancel setting alters things just a bit. Lower noise cancel settings tend toward slightly higher readings on the CO value; higher noise cancel settings are slightly lower CO readings. A ring that reads mostly 11-02, at noise cancel setting "11", seems to be mostly 11-03 at noise cancel "1". I tried a few nickels, and noticed that at noise cancel "1," I can get one of the "new nickels" to read at 10-07 on occasion, but mostly 10-06; at noise cancel 11, they were consistently 10-06. Older Jefferson nickels were 10-06 at any noise setting.

I found this brief, indoor testing interesting and educational...

Steve

 

[dewcon4414]

Someone said they believed 11 was better for gold.... but if the lower channel brings up the digitial reading thats what you want on the beach especially. If the tones start falling in the lower range of 11-01 or 02 especially near the water you might miss it walking down the beach as you cross the black sand with running high sensitivity. if you can increase the CO numbers it would stop you in your tracks. Ill have to do some on my machine Steve.... i was paying attention to the percentage of gold and white gold, but didnt check the channel.

Dew

 

[sgoss66]

Here's something else interesting I noted, Dew, FWIW. Last night, I was hunting one site, and my noise cancel channel was 6. I was digging nickels at my usual "10-06" number. I moved down the street about a mile, to a place I hunt all the time. I have dug many nickels at this spot in recent weeks, at that same 10-06 value.

I noise cancelled when I arrived to this spot, and checked what number my machine chose. It happened to be "11." Fine. So, I hunted quite awhile and didn't dig any nickels, but did dig alot of pull tabs at 10-06, more of them than usual at that ID value. Kind of strange. So, a bit later, I got a penny hit, and dug it...and when I replaced the plug and re-scanned the area, I got a solid 11-05 signal a couple of inches away. Figuring it was a pull tab (as 11-05 usually is), but since it sounded good, and knowing that I dig an occasional, odd nickel at 11-05, I thought just MAYBE this nickel was part of a "pocket spill" with the penny. So, I dug it -- and lo and behold it was a NICKEL. So, thinking back to what I discovered earlier with my gold ring testing (low conductors seemingly hitting with a lower conductive value at noise cancel "11" than they do at lower levels), I wondered if maybe that's what was going on. So, I took a few nickels out of my pouch that I found earlier in the evening at the other site -- which rang in at 10-06 or 11-06 when I dug them. I tossed them on the ground, and sure enough, EVERY ONE OF THEM rang at a solid 11-05! So, I dug 11-05 hits the rest of the hunt, and -- while I dug more tabs than usual, I also dug a few more nickels!

This, and the earlier testing, leaves me with NO DOUBT that different noise cancel channels will have an effect on the CO number of at least the low-conductive targets; I'll need to do some testing to see if it has any effect on high conductors...but I'm thinking it might (as there are several days when pennies seem to hit just a bit higher, more like a silver dime...and I've never known why. Hmm....)

Steve

 

[dewcon4414]

You are possibly correct. There were days that pennies hit differently. Some do to depth. I normally set mine at 6 or 11 manually. It just seemed i got better depth and response in mineralized dirt in 6. I would think the slight freq change could also alter the response the TID gave. Ive seen nickels .... especially older ones like Vs that were deep hit in the lower right area of the smartscreen that could just be a difference in metal content. Might be interesting to ask Tom. But now i have to do some gold testing to see if those channels alter the air signal gold items give as well as depth. Worth looking at Steve. This for sure is one reason FBS might have an advantage over BBS with the new 3030. The Xcal doesnt have the ability to adjust it freqs. It is what it is.

Dew

 

[Critterhunter]

On the Sovereign GT we see a somewhat similar thing happen. Using noise band 1 makes nickles read a little off compared to the Sovereign ID charts made with older Sovereigns that didn't have the ability to switch noise bands. For that reason most guys use noise band 2 on the GT so the mid conductors like nickles match all the ID charts out there.