Gold and Silver Finds

[Treasure Mike]

Found the .925 silver Cladaugh ring this morning in the grass at a local park. Thought it might be a dime since it registered 81 on the VDI meter of my MXT. The gold 18 K men's wedding band was found in the wood chips at the bottom of a kid's slide along with a bunch of pennies. The ring registered at 40 on the meter. It is about a size 11 and weighs 6.4 grams. The Asian pendant was found in the turf of a soccer field about 2 inches down and hit at 80 on the meter. I tested the gold colored bezel that holds the pendant and it registered 18 K. The pendant itself appears to be copper and tested "Not GOLD". I used my new Mizar electronic gold tester that I got for my birthday last month. I tested about 10 gold rings with it that have karat markings on them and the Mizar was right on every time. Looks like it's accuracy if very good and it is easy to use. Costs about $75.00 and well worth it. It has been very productive summer for metal detecting here in Seattle. Good luck to you all! Mike

 

[Hunt4Fun]

Hi Treasure Mike,

Congratulations!!! Again, you have made some really nice finds. I have enjoyed seeing all of your posted finds for quite a while now.

I understand you use an MXT equiped with a Bigfoot coil. And, that you hunt parks and sport fields mostly. Are there any special settings you use that you could share with us? And, just curious about how much time you spend detecting per average week?

You have so many finds and such great finds at that, I just can't help but ask these questions.


Really do enjoy your posts,
Bob

 

[Treasure Mike]

The settings I use are as follows: Ground balance in the track mode. Trigger in the center position. I use the relic mode with the discrimination set just below nickel. Threshold just barely audible. And gain set at +1. I dig most everything with a repeatable signal between 10 and 45. My lowest VDI reading for a ring was a 6 gram 950 platinum and diamond engagement ring which registered at 10. My highest reading was about 42-44 for a 6.4 gram yellow gold 18 K mens wedding band. So that is why I dig signals in that range. Although good stuff can be found within the full range, I find that a vast majority of targets are junk in the 46 to 77 VDI range, which includes pennies. I am primarily a jewelry hunter and most of my finds are on the surface to about 4 inches in depth range. I have had my MXT for just one year now and I have averaged just over 1 gold and 1 silver piece of jewelry a week. I detect most every day that it is not raining. I probably get in about 15 hours a week. I hope this helps. Good luck to all! Mike

 

[Hunt4Fun]

Thanks Mike,

Do appreciate your feedback info. My "good" finds are almostly exclusively clad with only an occasional jewelry item. Just recently got a Bigfoot coil for my MXT. Hope to increase the jewelry to clad ratio using your strategy.


Thanks again and good hunting,
Bob