CHUNK OF GOLD THAT THE CTX ALMOST MISSED

[DaytonaGold]

I finally found a nice chunk of gold today, but here's where the story gets interesting...

I am experimenting with wading in the surf with my waterproof earbuds and while it's fun it is a bit challenging, so I decided to go into waist deep water where I get a hit almost immediately. I got a dime but it was hard to get that sucker, many tries with the T-Rex. After nearly 30 minutes of no hits after the dime find I decide to start walking to shore and about ankle deep I get a nice low 12-01. I push the trusty T-Rex in for the first scoop and throw it to the right of the newly formed hole, I run the ctx over the hole and no tone whatsoever, I swing the coil over the pile of freshly scooped beach and guess what? No tone either. I figure I hit the "halo" and decide to start walking away when out of the corner of my eye I see a twinkle in the hole. I swing the coil over it and nothing again, yet I bend down and pull out this 14k chunk of an earring. I figure it must be costume jewelry because the ctx did not act properly or "nulled" out this item. Mind you, I detect in open screen and dig everything. I throw the earring on flat ground and swing the coil yet one more time over it and it gives me the 12.01.

My point here is that I almost walked away from the find of the month and the ctx would have let me do just that if I hadn't looked twice. I am very disappointed in the ctx as this has happened to me several times in the past, and who knows? Maybe I passed up other gold items then too but I'll never know. I really don't know what to say about this problem other than it rubs me the wrong way. Has anyone else had this problem too?

 

[GKMan]

I am not a jewelry hunter at all so I can't offer advice.. However, I have heard people say that the CTX isn't good with the small gold items, and chains... But wow!.. that looks like one heck of a piece of gold to give no tone...I am sure someone more Sand Hunting Savvy will chime in with an idea...

 

[Furious T]

Hi, I noticed that the larger photo of the earring shows it with the "latch open", whilst the photo with it on the scales shows the latch "closed". Do you recall what the situation was when you re-tested it after you had found it, lost it and then found it again. Do you recall whether the latch was closed, thus completing the circle of metal, as it may have been closed when you first detected it, then open when you ran your detector over it after you eyeballed it. I dont have a CTX, but I have and have had a number of detectors (including an Explorer II) and my current arsenal includes an Excalibur....they all do "strange" things from time to time, and targets "disappear" from time to time. At times there appears to be no sound explanation why this happens, and I suspect this is because we do not know the whole circumstances of the sand/salt/mineralisation/condition or placement of target "thing". If the detector and the target could talk to us, then it would probably all become clear, but they cant, so it doesn't. I just accept it now as part of detecting. I would say that under normal circumstances, most detectors should pick up a gold object weighing 8 gm just a few inches down. HH

 

[C&RHunter]

Circular gold items that do not have the "loop" completed may not not create a response. The jewelry hunters in my club have told me it isn't just the minelab machines that this happens with. I was searching for a gold earring with diamonds for a friend with no luck. It was a hinged hoop type earring, the guys told me, unless the hoop got closed to make complete contact I would probably never find it. The experienced jewelry hunters on here will probably be able to explain why. But it isn't a quirk with the CTX (or E-trac for that matter).....

 

[DaytonaGold]

Circular gold items that do not have the "loop" completed may not not create a response. The jewelry hunters in my club have told me it isn't just the minelab machines that this happens with. I was searching for a gold earring with diamonds for a friend with no luck. It was a hinged hoop type earring, the guys told me, unless the hoop got closed to make complete contact I would probably never find it. The experienced jewelry hunters on here will probably be able to explain why. But it isn't a quirk with the CTX (or E-trac for that matter).....

Very interesting information, I guess I should consider myself very lucky then that the ctx found it at all. Also answering Furious T's response...the clasp was open upon finding it and as I recall I may have closed the clasp and threw it back down on the beach then ran the coil over it again.

 

[GKMan]

Do you still have it to try it out open and closed clasp?

 

[DaytonaGold]

Unfortunately no, I immediately cash in my gold because I have a friend who gives me top dollar for it and I had a really bad habit of hoarding all of my finds. The cash is going towards my 17" coil.

 

[gordonquixote]

Yeah...I recently saw a comparison between the Etrac, AT Pro, and MXT.....the Minelab hardly made a peep on an 'open loop' earring like yours while the other two nailed it. When the clasp was closed, all three performed the same.

 

[lazyaussie]

I mostly hunt for gold jewellery & that sounds normal most detector pass up open hoop earrings, it's something to do with the way the detecting field see's the target, a closed earring makes a large solid target & a open earring makes a long small target that sometimes gives no signal the same a chains.
lazy

 

[Buried Crap NJ]

A very common occurrence when hunting with Minelab's. Earring are the most culprits of this type of response or I should say lack of. It has always been a know fact that when digging gold sounding items, that once disturbed in the attempt to recover the tone will disappear. If not recovered on the very next scoop you need go right to the open earring syndrome. Many times just packing down the sand pile will bring back the tone. Open chains seem to do the same thing. As posted above not all detectors have this issue. Now with the 3030,s ability to have its tones changed at will by the end user,the term gold sounding is no longer a valid term. What I mean by this is one can set gold or silver to sound like what ever they want it to be. To me this defeats the purpose of a tone machine in some ways. But in some ways it makes for a better machine. This all depends on the end users choice.
BCNJ

 

[Big Boys Hobbies]

WOW! nice gold snag!

 

[DaytonaGold]

thanks Big Boys.

 

[grouser]

I'd say YOU almost missed the gold my friend,,,, by throwin it aside before you shook it out !! I always shake it out. Why take a chance of losing a target you just found? The 3030 gave you a solid signal when it was in the ground , good enough for you to dig anyways. All targets can give a different signal when up-rooted and on the surface at times. More air test would have been helpfull. What did that thing weigh ?

 

[valeria]

How much the cost of pure gold per gram and how much copper is mixed in godl to make jewerly.?? can anyone tell me.