Best machine for jewelry on land

[Acornhead]

I have asked this question before but suggestion for a machine for gold jewelry in parks. I have an E track so I’m all set on coins. I bought a used Dfx but it’s not like I remember it. Seems very chintzy. Des in Buffalo

 

[REVIER]

I have found the best jewelry hunter is one that you learn well, considering it is decent at finding that stuff.
I hunted with a friend that had an E Trac, I did notice on chains it is not good at all and I heard it struggles with nickels but on silver coins it shines.
I am a jewelry hunter at my core, found it with all of my detectors fairly easily but here are my most productive for tiny precious metal targets, all other jewelry targets including broken and open earrings and rings and especially chains.

Tesoro Compadre...A full 180 expanded discrimination unit which means in disc it sees it all.
I believe the Mojave is the same but a little deeper.
They see and find chains like a religion, very tiny ear studs, pin backs, earrings and more even way down in or close to iron where very thin chains can come in.
Can get close to big metal and find stuff like no other, near, next to or even leaning on bench legs, fences or tot lot equiptment.

Fisher F2, a deadly jewelry hunter especially with the concentric sniper coil mounted.
Not super deep but up to 5-6" or so like a Hoover vacuum.
My $200 F2 paid for itself 10x's over in the silver and gold jewelry it found in 3 seasons.
The F22 and F44 might be just as capable but never used them, most Fishers are real good at this task, though.

My F70 is absolutely no slouch at this, big and tiny targets no problem, chains aren't either...not quite as sensitive as the Compadre but close If you set it right, way deeper, too.
Paid for that one 4-5 times at least in jewelry finds...probably more.
The Patriot is the same unit but cheaper, different name, exact same abilities.

I just bought an F5 for $299 specifically to hunt jewelry but found out its great for everything else, also.
This one has a rep for jewelry hunting thanks to Mike Hillis.
Supposedly Compadre level sensitivity but with way more power to get even deeper.
There is something called the F5 Bible out there to help owners get the best out of this thing for jewelry hunting.
Might be more out there but these are the ones I have experience using and I have found a shocking amount of silver and especially gold jewelry with most of them.
Except the F5 because I just got it but I have great hope it will do more than just well in the jewelry department.

Oh yea, the Noxes, too.
Found a tiny gold ring surrounded by massive trash with the standard size coil recently and it zeroed right in on it so it seems pretty good at that, also.

 

[Acornhead]

Thanks so much for your reply. Will let you know what I go with! Des

 

[LTimedigger]

Revier the Deus is the bomb on tiny gold jewelry, but for tiny chains have to set at highest kfz in which case you pick up tiny bits of slaw which ring up deeper than they are and are the devil to find. Are u able to get around these pests? I can notch them out on a little lower Kfz but then cant pick up chain. Thanks

 

[REVIER]

Revier the Deus is the bomb on tiny gold jewelry, but for tiny chains have to set at highest kfz in which case you pick up tiny bits of slaw which ring up deeper than they are and are the devil to find. Are u able to get around these pests? I can notch them out on a little lower Kfz but then cant pick up chain. Thanks

Yes, the Compadre can find the tiniest chains, easily, I found a coup!e way down in Iron on that one.
That one has had a reputation for finding any and all jewelry types for years for a reason...because it's true.
I think the Mojave can do it too, I found a nice bracelet with that one easily but the real small ones not yet as I only use that here and there mostly just for fun.

My Fishers don't seem to have a problem with any chains, either, as long as their are not microscopically thin, but even on those with a sniper coil they can still pick up extremely small clasps.
Mike Hillis says the F5 can find small chains with no problem either, not balled up or the clasps but just tiny straight chain pieces if set correctly.
I have found a lot of chains of all sizes with The Compadre and the F2 and F70 in total trash heaps littered with foil, can slaw and tabs galore.
Pretty much the kind of sites I aim for and live in since I am always looking for jewelry and the trashiest areas are where the most people hung out.

The Nox I have no idea, I have not found any chains with that one yet and some owners have posted about some big ones being found but real small thin ones...no clue.
Pretty sensitive, though, and multi freak so I hope it's possible.

 

[Acornhead]

Revier, if you had to pick just one Machine, which would you go with? Obviously I want to pick up rings too.. Thanks again, Des

 

[LTimedigger]

Yes, the Compadre can find the tiniest chains, easily, I found a coup!e way down in Iron on that one.
That one has had a reputation for finding any and all jewelry types for years for a reason...because it's true.
I think the Mojave can do it too, I found a nice bracelet with that one easily but the real small ones not yet as I only use that here and there mostly just for fun.

My Fishers don't seem to have a problem with any chains, either, as long as their are not microscopically thin, but even on those with a sniper coil they can still pick up extremely small clasps.
Mike Hillis says the F5 can find small chains with no problem either, not balled up or the clasps but just tiny straight chain pieces if set correctly.
I have found a lot of chains of all sizes with The Compadre and the F2 and F70 in total trash heaps littered with foil, can slaw and tabs galore.
Pretty much the kind of sites I aim for and live in since I am always looking for jewelry and the trashiest areas are where the most people hung out.

The Nox I have no idea, I have not found any chains with that one yet and some owners have posted about some big ones being found but real small thin ones...no clue.
Pretty sensitive, though, and multi freak so I hope it's possible.

Thanks Revier, will consider these for backups but none are waterproof are they? The Deus will p/u the smallest of the small gold at 28kfz at great depth except for tiny chains then have to switch to 70 to pick up but then u p/u tiny slaw bits. EQ-- great machine overall but seems to struggle in the really trashy areas.

 

[REVIER]

Thanks Revier, will consider these for backups but none are waterproof are they? The Deus will p/u the smallest of the small gold at 28kfz at great depth except for tiny chains then have to switch to 70 to pick up but then u p/u tiny slaw bits. EQ-- great machine overall but seems to struggle in the really trashy areas.

None waterproof, unless you mod them and put the head in an Otter box which some have done.
A guy out there did that on a Compadre I saw once, several have done that with Minelabs and others, pics on a few forums about all the steps.
The Equinoxes are waterproof...unless you get one that isn't but no way to tell unless you try.
A few have drowned theirs but they were fixed or replaced in a timely manner.

The Compadre is great on absolutely all precious metal targets but not super deep, the smallest coil version, anyway, the F5 is deeper and supposed to be great on all jewelry but I haven't had mine for long so no gold yet.
Did find a Barber dime and a tiny silver locket recently, however...both shallow.

The F70/Patriot are super powered, way overpowered just as the F75's are and can hit shocking depths on coins and even tiny jewelry in good soil, surprising depths in bad soil too, but it took me awhile and some out of the box settings and a new language to learn to do that.
The issue is with the F75 it has a DST noise reduction feature which lets you turn the thing up to almost max gain and it stays quiet where the F75 and Patriot don't so set too high they can be chatty.
Very chatty.
I learned to ignore that and a lot of jumpy behavior and can notice good targets in a wall of sound at max gain and thresh settings but many could never do this, many don't want to do this even if they could because they prefer a much quieter environment.
However those things are so overpowered the 1-99 power range on the gain is deceiving, they are not like a stereo volume control where really low is silent and max will blow your ears off...far from it.
The factory settings are 60 to start on the gain but I believe this is actually about 80% of the possible power in real life and the next 39 numbers will control the highest 20%.
60 is just where the factory figures it will be quiet for most owners in most situations.
Conversely 1 on the gain isn't actually low, like there is a governor built into the programming plus you have the thresh control that has a lot to do with depth.
I think 1 is still something like 40-50% power but this isn't what most detectorist can wrap their head around so many got them, turned them up too high past 60 looking for major depth and they were so noisy and unintelligible they dumped them quick...and cheap.
A great thing for us Fisher guys that understand these things because we bought them, turned them down and hunted happily forever more.
There is a vid in YouTube with an F70 owner hitting an 8" nickel in his test garden with the thresh at + 4 but with the gain on...1.
I have used mine in very trashy sites and had the gain at 30 or below and the thresh into the positive numbers super quietly and still found coins and jewelry up to and a few a bit past 5-6" ...easily.
Probably could go deeper but that was just where most of my deepest targets seem to be hiding.

The Nox can get pretty deep in both good and bad dirt, seems to be pretty stable in most settings and I have found some pretty teeny tiny targets so great on jewelry....probably.
I use mine mostly to look for old coins in sites with heavy masking so even though I have found silver and gold jewelry I wasn't actually looking for it but still, always a great surprise.

 

[o 2 find dosh]

• #6

Well its horses for courses. I have had many detectors since 1977 43 years ago. The Whites v3i i have had since release 2009 updated from the v3 to v3i. Now if you coin & jewellery with correllate with span at 1 and use frequency offset going up and down the scale from -5 through to =5 this is your fine tuning. You will find that at 1 you will be able to get some fine gold rings but no foil or pulltabs or aluminium .The way i use it is set it up -2 through to = 19 this is my first program with discrim accepted to =22 the tones accepted to 19 with the rest blocked out. Sensitivity set so you are just at grass root depth. As you increase you spam and frequency offset you will have more rings and this will also start to bring in foil aluminium etc. If you are searching for gold chains best data is your go. I Have polar plot with a graph on the screen which tells me where foil is sitting and other targets. Recovery delay is also very important & resolution you will get a lot more about your target with resolution set at 1 using 3 frequencies. One other thing is to come down to a smaller coil i use the 7 inch mars dd it is incredible in sensitivity. After gridding a patch with string lines accross the grass i then go over the same area again with my second program for the larger gold rings. The v3i is an incredible detector and it does take some time to master but when you get the gist of what to put with what and you save it you only have to do some minor settings to suit the area of new ground you are going to search.

Try doing this with an Equinox 800 and you have not got a hope you can do it but you will be digging a heap more junk.

 

[REVIER]

Revier, if you had to pick just one Machine, which would you go with? Obviously I want to pick up rings too.. Thanks again, Des

Out of everything I have used the best overall for everything including jewelry is still the F70, now called the Patriot.
Also the most enjoyable for me to stand behind, still.
The Nox is great but the 1-40 target range is way too compressed for me to really enjoy it, the full range on the Tesoros or my Fishers is really my thing.
I hate digging trash nowadays, I still do dig some because you can't avoid it all, but over the years I have cut it down to only digging about 20% of the trash I come across, avoid the rest and get still manage to find way more jewelry and coins than I probably deserve.
A shocking amount, actually, using this that I call my High Percentage Method.
The only way this possible is I strive to learn my detectors better than just well, notice all repeating behavior patterns that I can which helps me to avoid the most trash which tends to be more jumpy and less repeating.
With the Nox I tend to dig more trash than I prefer to, lots of trash on that one is pretty solid and that compressed range gives me too many of the "What Ifs"....something I let stop bothering me years ago.
Still, it is very good at unmasking and has found me some great treasure so I just deal with it.
Sometimes in life you just have to make some concessions to achieve your ultimate goals.

This is an example of why prefer using Fishers.
A few years ago in a park near my house that nobody hunts anymore because it was considered hunted out I was hunting a spot that I believe was a spot where people used to hang out for some reason because of the great amount of bottle caps, foil, can slaw and beaver tail tabs that are there.
Now it is just a small piece of grass sitting between two Frisbee golf tees.
I was hunting there using the F70, the big 11" DD coil too, I think , and I got a million hits on those beaver tail tabs.
Most jumped a little too much, I dug a few just to be sure and then just avoided them after that.
Eventually I came across one that didn't jump, stayed solid from more than one direction and was the exact same numbers as all those beaver tail I left in the dirt.
I dug it and about 3" deep, standing vertical straight up, was this gold religious pendant.
Huge, 8.9 grams of 14k, I found one online that was an exact copy but half the size and weight and even though it was selling on a discount website it was still priced close to $500.
To this day this is one of the few gold targets my wife rejected and won't wear because it is too big and blingy.
I still have it, one day I will sell it and make some nice bucks.
If I was using the Nox that day I would have had to dig lot more of those other tabs which would have frustrated me and probably forced me to give up before I hit the disguised gold one.
But I didn't own the Nox then, didn't get frustrated digging trash and still spent my precious time and energy looking for the best signals and ended up finding gold that day.
My High Percentage Method...it has worked for me for years.

Go to advanced search here and put in my name, all caps, F70, a comma and the word ring..or gold, ring.
Tons of my threads will pop up regarding jewelry, no pics, all of them were left behind when the forum changed servers, but you will get the gist.

If you just want a low cost tool that is very able in the jewelry department look for a used Compadre, they still pop up once in awhile.
Spend some time learning the Tesoro language, many tips are out there from myself and many other owners that can speed up the learning curve and then have at it.
You will be shocked at what this cheap, simple little thing can find.
Or the previously $500 F5 is being sold for a crazy cheap $299 by one online metal detector dealer with two coils.

 

[Acornhead]

Thank you so much Revier .If It’s OK I’ll stay in touch with you, you sound like you have an incredible amount of knowledge for Gold in Parks. I’ve always been a coin shooter but my parks are pounded and I know there’s a lot of jewelry in them. Going to go with Patriot or Compadre. Des

 

[Acornhead]

Review I see the Patriot for sale Uber Technetics brand, is this the machine you’re talking about? Didn’t see Patriot under Fisher brand. Did see F5 for $299

 

[REVIER]

Yes Technetics Patriot, a new marketing model, you can only buy it from them because no dealers have it.
I believe it is marked $449 but easy to get coupon codes all over the place for $50 off.
An exact copy of the formally $700 F70 with the 11" DD coil for $399 with a new paint job...pretty amazing.
For jewelry hunting I have a few coils for mine.
The 10" elliptical concentric coil is great for jewelry, it loves that stuff...the original designed for this thing, super smooth and sweet tones.
Any sniper makes it easy to deal with masking, a common problem if you hunt trashy sites like I do.
I used the 5" Fisher DD hockey puck coil for many hours, found me a ton.
I switched to a Nel Sharpshooter, better shielding on that one so you can use higher settings, get deeper and it still stays quieter and a bit more stable than with Fisher coils.
Fisher also has many other small coils that are very popular.
All F75 coils will fit, both are built on the same platform, same core engine but different programming....no built in programs and a few less whistle and bells and no DST on the Patriot.
A rat-rod version of the F75 but still with massive power and it even has a boost feature which can come in handy.
The T2 is also built on this same platform but I am not thrilled with the larger iron section and for some reason you can't use concentric coils...and I do like to use concentrics from time to time.

They all work, the big DD coil it comes with can suck up the jewelry in trash and iron too, turn the gain down to between 30-40 in heavy trash and it somehow fools that big coil into thinking it is a small deadly sniper with laser-like accuracy.
Pretty shocking when you see it in action doing this.
The big coil works for major depth, also.
In good soil I easily hit 10-12" with that thing and more on a few very deep targets.

The F5 is one step below that model, pretty deep, also has separate gain and thresh control which for jewelry hunting comes in handy.
Not quite all the features the Patriot has but close.

I have written a ton about how I find gold in parks with several different models, they are all over the place both here and on a few other forums.
Just ask if you have questions...happy to help anybody find the yellow stuff easier.

 

[jim tn]

Mike Hillis might be one of the better inland jewelry hunters I am aware of. Thats pretty much all he chases and hopefully will visit here and chime in. He loves trying different detectors in his quest for the jewels, too.

Although I mainly hunt for old coins, throughout my 48 years with the hobby I have found most detectors will find gold jewelry. Save, however, for thin chains and very small other jewelry pieces. As a coin hunter, by digging all nickel range readings along with zinc and copper cent readings, I've been averaging 6 + gold items annually now for a good number of years. The bigger class rings frequently come in the cent range and other rings and smaller pendents in the nickel range. In fact, I just recently recovered a 3.2g 10K gold 4 leaf clover design ring with 13 (real diamonds) that locked on a 30 nickel reading with my F 75 at 3". I also know there is gold to be found in the lower foil range and in-between nickels and cents range.

From my limited gold chasing experience I have found location plays a major role in ones success and locations within said location. One of my better gold producing spots over the years have been curb strips.

Anyway, just my 2 cents on gold. HH jim tn

 

[Acornhead]

Hey Jim, thanks for the input. I too am a coin shooter, I use the E-trac, silver animal but gold and nickels terrible. Had a DFX back in the day lots of gold with that but not much silver. Happy with my Etrac but want to find jewelry in these pounded out parks. No one shooting for gold here in Buffalo. Des

 

[rarysgaaed]

I have used the minelabs, whites, tesoro & deus & I hunt specifically for gold jewelry & hands down the deus with the high frequency coil 4 1/2 x 9 in eliptical is hands down the best detector I have used. I have found chains, rings, earrings. I run it 31 khz. Very sensitive & with super fast reset I can go in to heavily infested trash filled parks & pick out ht jewelry hiding there. It's light weight so you can swing it all day. I am getting better at picking out gold rings from pull tabs. No matter what detector you use, to be successful you will need to put the time in & really learn your machine.

 

[Monte]

Des,

Kind of a tardy reply, but I'll throw this in anyway. Come the first of March I'll wrap up 56 years of enjoying this great sport. For the past 37 years I have devoted the bulk of my hunt-time to older sites sch as ghost towns, encampment, out-of-date resorts, etc., etc. When I can't get to remote sites I spend all the time I can Coin & Jewelry Hunting, just like I started out doing. I have owned and used a lot of detectors, and currently have an F5, 2-Apex, Vanquish 540 Pro Pack, 2-Simplex +, a FORS CoRe & FORS Relic, Bandido II microMAX & Silver Sabre microMAX and an XLT with needed search coils to cover all the different tasks I encounter. I have Special-Use favorites, and my Daily-Use Team that ride along in my vehicle to be ready for any opportunity that confronts me.

Other than the current heard I manage I have let most other makes and models do a little grazing for a while before I ship them off, hanging on to only those that work hard for different needs. I have some that I prefer for different potential sites, and I am referring to some models that have severed me better when I am both Coin Hunting, but especially have rewarded me with an ample amount of gold and silver jewelry.

For best success you need to pick a very good detector and search coil for the different types of sites you plan to hunt, AND to take heed of jim tn's comment:

'jim tn': "From my limited gold chasing experience I have found location plays a major role in ones success and locations within said location."

One important ingredient is living in and around locations with an ample number of people, plenty of sites where they might recreate or do things to lose good jewelry, and then hunting them, patiently, with the right detector & coil, and be attentive to certain places within that productive area that might have an increased amount of good-jewelry losses. Today I live in a very small town in far eastern Oregon and I've been here for 5 years and 1 month. My total gold jewelry finds during this period amounts to 6 rings, pendants, etc. But when I lived in the greater Portland Oregon metro area, counting gold ear rings, charms, pendants, broaches, and all manner of rings from child's to men's and women's, I generally averaged between a dozen on a bad year to perhaps double that or more on an average to better years.

The vast majority of the better silver and gold jewelry I found was with some of the simpler detectors I used, and most of the time was done by audio response only. I either didn't use a TID detector or I just didn't make use of that feature because I rely on the audio.

Monte

 

[jmaclen]

Any decent detector will find recently dropped quality gold and silver jewelry in normal hunting conditions where targets aren't too thick and the ground is mild. Like many have said here, location is everything. Hunting a park, school or home in a less affluent neighborhood for gold jewelry may not produce many results. There will be plenty of clad and bling and maybe some silver but quality gold jewelry is not likely on a regular basis. You have to go where lots of people from differing economic levels gather and mindlessly lose things.

Where a better detector is a big help is where EMI, soil mineralization levels and trash levels become an issue and good coin and jewelry targets (even shallow ones) are hard to pick out of the sea of signals. The Deus and Equinox, to name two detectors, are very good for this type of hunting if you know how to use them well.

 

[Mike Hillis]

Loss characteristics matched to the site = hot spots with repeatable finds month over month, year over year unless a key variable changes.

• I use the F75-LTD, the Gold Kruzer and the Compadre with the Cleansweep coil mounted on it in the chips and play grounds.
  • I use all three in a concerted effort in my playground hot spots. The F75 is the primary with either the 5x10 DD or the elliptical concentric coil. Once I hunt a hot spot to silence over time with the F75 I'll glean it for tiny stuff with a high frequency model like the Gold Kruzer once or twice a year. In between clean outs with the F75 I'll hunt it with the Compadre Cleansweep combo for the fresh drops.​
• I like the F75 LTD and V3 and the Golden Sabre II for small gold in the turf.
  • Key to small gold in turf is target sizing....All three of these models allow that. The F75 VCO modes work well of hunting small gold targets.. The only draw back it has is that low gain can still be too high. I wish I could dial it back further below it's minimum setting. I like the V3 in mixed mode, either in 22.5 kHz single frequency with normalization turned off which gives me a 59 point spread between 0 and a nickel reading of 59, or in 3 freq with the 2.5 kHz serving as a density check. Great machine. The Golden Sabre II analog audio is awesome in foil....the only draw back is that a lot of small gold falls below what is normally viewed as the iron range, and the Golden Sabre II has an auto iron disc the Disc mode so sometimes I can't get low enough.​
• I bought the 8500 for large gold in the turf but haven't got around to actual gold hunting yet with it....mostly just get acquainted hunts so far. All my detectors would do good for large gold but I think the 8500 TID features may be helpful. I'm going to find out anyway, I may alternate between it and the Impact, the F75 and the Golden Sabre II and see which one produces the gold the easiest.
• I really like the Etrac as a touch up gold hunter in the turf at specific locations. Its like my pitch hitter. It finds goooooood gold.

If I was limited to just one detector for jewelry hunting it would most likely be the F75 LTD with DST. It is just hot on gold, any size, and the feature set is diverse enough to handle most any site. DST made it possible to get it stable in EMI almost anywhere.

HH
Mike