Decided to hang in there, help please

[Brewsir]

So, it's been awhile. Back when I got my detector (Fisher F5) I was pretty excited. I went out a few times, and basically worked my butt off, and got...........not much. Summer is a bit hot around here to spend much time in the heat, especially when you're not getting much. I spent the summer and fall trying to decide whether to put my shiny new F5 on ebay or not. Ironically my wife, of all people, made the decision easy. She lost her keys, somewhere between our house and the neighbors New Years Eve. The next day, we looked for them a bit, but, we have very dense augustine grass, and at this time of year, much of the grass was goldish, camouflaging the keys, even if they hadn't gone deep (which they did). It occurred to me to bring the F5 out of mothballs, and within seconds I recovered the keys. I know you're thinking, that should've been my first thought, but, you don't know my wife. She loses her keys faster than you can say, what did I do with my purse

With my decision to give the hobby another go, I went to a local tot lot, and scored some clad, not much really, but, for me, it was a big deal. Reason being, it was coming easy. More than that though, I now had something I didn't have last spring.........confidence. Having said that, I'd like to bump that confidence up a bit, by finding something a bit more valuable. More to the point, jewelry. I know Mike Hillis has several informative posts, and I could wade through them all to try to cobble together how to set the F5 up for jewelry. However, before I try to construct a build from multiple posts. Does anyone know if there is a single definitive post, that instructs you to, "Set threshold to X, Gain to X, Tones to X, Freq to X, listen for X etc. Maybe I haven't searched enough yet, but, if someone has a link, it would be much appreciated.

 

[mudpuppy]

The heck with the settings on the machine...its the "settings" you confidently search..."Wife drops her keys on New years eve cutting through the yard".. translation: Girls always drop stuff, drinking girls drop more stuff than most.

Look for those crossovers, totlots, beaches, tennis courts, soccer fields, shady spots, art fairs, etc...Girls that are wearing the bling are never very far from their vehicle, boat, chair, or bathroom,... edges of parking lots and sidewalk entrances are good too.. like at a health Club, school, or snooty bar, or wedding reception hall, outback where the drunk girls smoke, and may fight in a jealous "hes mine" rage!...see? Learn the habits of the "droppers", read the lost jewelry section of Craigs list for some additional ideas..theres a pattern! We are actually hunting droppers of the female kind, get to know them, and you will find the bling! Most of its not deep, so set up your machine to run stable, fast, and easy on ya...then go at it with a confidence and absolute concentration thinking about the habits and patterns of your quarry. Focus on Foil, Nickle, Penny or weird signals meaning a gold rope chain...thats the one you want!
Or else just stumble around and get lucky...that works too..
Mud

 

[Brewsir]

Thanks Mud. Speaking of beaches, it's ok to get my coil wet, just not the control box, right? And, the gain and or threshold need to be turned down if I'm swinging in wet sand?

 

[mudpuppy]

Yeah, just the coil...practice a little with the settings and some targets you bring along.....I assume you are on salt water beaches...what with your mention of augustine grass and all...I really do well up on the dry sand, again, think like a girl, where would she most likely drop towel and park for the day...wheres the nearest restroom? Beaches are great for learning habits of people...you got tracks, cigarette butts, bobby pins, bottle caps, foil gum wrappers...all of which tells you important hints about who was here..I really slow down when I hit a bobby pin signal...I get real excited when I find menthol Virginia Slims, if there is a wine cooler screwoff there too, then really focus up! Move fast, and off to the side of the main beach up on the dry sand where some lady would lay her towel on a gentle slope...think of yourself as a stingray cruising the flats searching for shrimp...If you gotta particular beach close to home that you can hunt every morning early, then you will get some great excersize and learn a lot about people and beaches...if you find sparkler wires, GREAT! nobody lights a sparkler in the daytime! You want to find where somebody was drinking at night, and the path they would run peeling off their clothes to go skinny dipping!
Its funny! You will know all about a person and have never met them by what they left behind...thats part of the allure of this sport. I also think many good locations on the high and dry are not hunted by most detectorists in favor of getting right into the water. Off to the side, and downstream of the main beach buddy! The poor drunk tosser that lost this was peeling off his shirt, drinking Red Stripe, and smoking Winstons..obviously showing off to a girl...
Mud

 

[ez4sure]

well said mud, bottom line is it takes practice the more ya dig the more you learn if you put the time in you will start finding good stuff keep us posted on your finds good luck

 

[jmaryt]

believe it or not,they lose a lot of it in shallow beach water close to shore!
they are notorious for wading with children with the "bling" on! a lot of it is "loose" to begin with
then the salt water does it's thing,and shrinks the fingers allowing the ring to "vanish!" lot of nice bling in the surf!
many nice diamonds. ..just sayin'

(h.h!)
j.t.

 

[pasttom]

Hunting the wet salt sand is the hardest place I found to effectively use a standard MD. I much prefer my PI with no ground balance and no discrimination or my CZ with its salt switch. This is not to say it can't be done with a F5 and done well. It is not like other areas. Super high mineralization means Ground Balance manually probably 0 to 2/3 and much higher if you drift into the dry sand. Slow you swing speed down and dig everything that repeats.
Digging is another thing. Check often and learn to chase signal. If you have a scoop- check the hole after each scoopful when its out wash out with water or spread on sand and look for where it is dividing the pile until you get it. Shovel works much the same way.
There is a lot to beach hunting. Its fun and rewarding, but far less finds. Nice scenery, too.
Tom

 

[Mike Hillis]

In Disc mode, set threshold to +5. Set your Gain to where it is stable (no noise) with a +5 threshold. Use the 4 tone audio mode. Listen for and recover anything that even touches that nickel tone. Then hunt where jewelry can be lost.

That will get you started.

HH
Mike

 

[Brewsir]

Went to the tot lot for a bit this morning and found, what for me is a spill. 3 quarters all within 5 inches just below the surface. Good thing too, that ground was hard as concrete. 1 oddity. I have yet to pull a nickel from the ground. I had probably 5 nickel TID's with confidence bar filled. It was always either slaw or tabs. I'm almost as hot for nickels now as I am for jewelry Nickels are tricky little bastards, or, they're avoiding me, either way, I'm after em.

 

[mudpuppy]

If you want to practice, try stacking or slanting different denomination coins so when you hear those "b@stard" signals, you will recognize them...also gold jewelry you may have access to. Toss your wedding ring on the ground, and a pulltab nearby, and see if there is any difference in the tones...there is not unfortunately...one old guy told me to dig 1000 pulltabs, and dig 1000 pennies as fast as I can when I started this sport...it was good advice, I wound up finding 3 girls class rings that summer in the pulltab signal...it really trained me to get fast on target retrieval too...an important skill to have that can only be developed by doing. Good Luck, you are serious arn't ya?
Mud

 

[Brewsir]

you are serious arn't ya?
Mud

I'm assuming that's rhetorical.

 

[jmaryt]

it's the "mud" it's rhetorical!

(h.h.!)
j.t.

 

[redneckjimmy1980]

well the f5 can be be worse then a woman at times least here in pa as we got highly minerlized ground. me myself i go with tone 3 in discrim mode,lay detector on ground and turn thres down till she shuts up if i go below 0 i will turn the tres back up some and cut the gain down from thier ya just tweek it bewteen the 2. she will give ya some false tones ya just got to swing over them a few times and dig the good signals above 30 usualy but u will get pull tabs in the 30 range as well as some other good stuff. relics sometimes ring round 30 as well. always recheck youre holes ya never know. i dug one today it was a pice of a shot gun shell,rechecked was a pulltab,checked again because i had a nice 88 ring and pulled out a 1875 seated liberty dime. not shure if ya figured this out or not yet,but u dont need it in all metal mode to set ground ballance. shes a good girl keep lookin man. if ya got fields wear u live hit em up thiers lots of good stuff in fields uf u find alot of nails wich usualy come in around 8 good chance thier wass a old house thier may years ago. hope this helps. all yea i run discrimination around 8 or 9 not much more or youll loose the good stuff.