Gold chains:veryangry:

[Sven]

Yeah, Adrian. That Spartan was a favorite of Karl Von Mueller, if you remember him and the books he wrote-I tried to read everyone of them. I had the TinyTex by Dtex which was a teeny box on a walking stick-my very first detector. Plugging in the headphones turned the unit on. I have a dealer who has one on display but won't sell it to me. Oh well, we're taking up space on this forum and telling how old we are-since I'm a Tesoro fan, maybe all will forgive a slip into time. Just took my Silver umax out today into "screwcap hell"- an old park in the bad side of town where winos loiter and throw their wine bottle caps just anywhere. I had the disc set at Zn cents and pulled some "real" copper cents and dimes out as if the caps weren't there. Couldn't do that with the bfo's!

Yup, the Tiny Tex was small and toyish looking but, worked!!! It was my first real good detector that I could afford on a paperboy's salary. A BFO unit with no descrimination. If the tone changed, you dig.
It was world's better than the Relco I first tried, miserable unit, all it did was drift constantly. The Jetco wasn't much better. When I got that TinyTex, I found stuff, alot of stuff. My first gold ring and Canadian Large Cent found on Toronto Island, near the base of the tree. I remember washing the ring off of dirt in the lake and it fell out of my hand. Lucky for me it didn't go father than about 12" and was able to get it back. Any further it would have went straight down into 6' of water. I found enough stuff with it to afford a White's Coinmaster IV.

 

[tabdog]

Hay Jabo,

You are right to a certain extent. But gold is gold.

14k gold is worth about $12 per each gram.

I find that the most common gold jewelry is a few

grams or less.

I sold 90 grams last year at a higher price and got

a $1290 check.

I am sitting on a little over 100 grams right now.

By far, most of it is small stuff.

So, I go for it with a passion.

I am close to re-cooping my MDing cost.

Mostly because of little things that aren't worth that

much.

HH,

Tabdog

 

[JB(MS)]

My first detector was a kit BFO in 1969, and although it would only go maybe three inches deep on a large coin I found a lot of coins and other stuff with it. As Tabdog said, BFO stands for beat frequency oscillator. There were actually two oscillators in a BFO, a fixed frequency oscillator that controlled the frequency sent to the seach coil and a referrence oscillator that was adjustable and controlled the frequency in a small coil of wire inside the detector housing. The transmit frequency to the seach coil was generally in the 80 to 100 khz range, and the frequency to the small coil winding inside the housing was adjustable, within a limited range, from the same frequency as the main coil to 200 to 300 hz higher or lower than the main frequency. The referrence oscillator frequency was set with a Tuning knob, and setting it close to the search coil frequency resulted in a putt-putt-putt, motorboat type audio from the speaker or headphones. When the search coil was passed over metal the audio increased in volume and frequency. Primitive compared to the bells and whistles on todays VLF detectors, but a lot of coins and relics were found with them.

Most of the Civil War sites in this area were almost cleaned out in the 1960's by people using the arm breaker Metrotech BFO's. They came with about an 11 inch coil and because the ground here is so mineral free they would go pretty darn deep. Most of the cannon balls, beltplates and other larger than about quarter size Civil War relics could be detected deep enough that not a lot was left. Back in the 1990's we hunted a couple of Civil War sites with Fisher 1266's and CZ's that according to the land owners had only been hunted in the 1960's, which meant mostly with Metrotech BFO's, and all we found were bullets and buttons and very few of those. I did find an amazing amount of coins with that 1969 kit BFO, and still like to play with the old detectors but wouldn't want to go back to using them full time. The photo of a BFO was filched from Ebay. By the way, Metrotech still makes the same basic BFO they made in the 1960's, only now it's sold as a pipe/valve locator, you can buy one direct from http://www.metrotech.com/.
[attachment 115588 bfo.jpg]

 

[jabbo]

n/t

 

[Southwind]

Reverse Discrimination is simply hunting in All-Metal-Mode and checking each signal using Discrimination mode.

 

[Sven]

Hobby detecting was still fairly new back then. Loads of coins lost for a hundred years or so buried with the top 5-7 inches. Not many folks were in the hobby yet. Just about anywhere old-park, school, beach were virgin grounds. The BFO's worked to pull the coins from the surface to about 4". No discrimination, so you dug everything---tons of junk. This paved the way for the TR detectors, less junk around but, still tons of coins etc. Now sites were hunted harder to really clean-up. By the middle 80's, there were detector dealers everywhere selling thousands of machines. Those folks with those new fangled machines were able to go back over previous grounds and pick up the older deeper coins. The race was on to get the deepest seeking detector and hunt like a mad person and try to find new virgin sites.............we had about 15 dealers in our area with a club membership approaching 200 back then. Unhunted sites were becoming hard to find. I actually got out of dirt hunting around for a long time and switched to water hunting, it was like virgin ground all over again, this time you found gold by the ring handfuls. So I spent 15 years scuba treasure hunting beaches, swimming holes with a Garrett U/W detector, besides hunting the lake beds for relics. The water always gave up fantastic finds.

No days, I don't expect to really find too many sites that were not hunted in the past. Stuff is still there, just 90% less. I remember days you would come home with two front pockets bulging with coins...........

Below are some of the items that were found in the Buffalo harbor on one day diving, I had lots more pictures but they got ditched during my first divorce. The musketballs were found at the Ft. Erie Battle site as well as the cannonballs with a Garrett VLF/TR Master Hunter and 10" searchcoil or Whites Coinmaster IV. By the way the Coinmaster found all the stuff pictured over a one month period during summer vacation. Detecting became addicting, had summer vacation, parents second car and went out detecting every few days, gone all day Sat and Sundays. Just too much stuff to find..............

My first run in with Tesoro was a C&G Lynx and Bobcat detectors. They were cute, fine for organized treasure hunts, lousy in the depth department, hence I didn't own them long. My first real Tesoro was a Cortes about 8 years ago. So, I developed a real fondness for them now.

Anyone else have some pictures of wat they found back in the old days?

By the way my friend used a Garret BFO until the late 70's then finally switched to a VLF/TR machine after he was convinced it was a better machine.

 

[JB(MS)]

Southwind is right, but there's a little more involved than just hunting in all metal mode and switching to disc mode to check. When the VLF/TR detectors came out they would go a lot deeper in the VLF all metal mode than they would in the TR disc mode, so the targets out of range of the disc mode had to be dug to know what they were. Someone, maybe Richard Hirschi at Whites, discovered that once a target was detected in all metal mode we could ID targets as either being above or below our disc setting a lot deeper by using "reverse discrimination". The TR disc mode had an audible threshold that would null when a discriminated out target was under the coil, and by centering a detected target under the coil in all metal mode, then switching to the TR disc mode and retuning to the target to restore the threshold while the keeping the coil centered, we could ID targets as good or bad a lot deeper by listening to the audio as the coil was moved away from the target. If the threshold nulled when the coil was slid away from the target that meant it was a good target, or at least one above our disc setting. If the threshold increased when the coil was slid away from the target that meant it was a bad target, one that was below our disc setting. It was slow, but it worked and allowed discriminating a lot deeper than the TR mode was capable of if "reverse discrimination" wasn't used.

 

[Bill in Texas]

Reverse Discrimination is simply hunting in All-Metal-Mode and checking each signal using Discrimination mode.

After finding a deep target in all metal TR (old non-motion), you would set the coil on top of it and re-tune the detector, so you could just hear the detector. Then you would slip the coil to the side of the target. If the sound went away, it was a good target. This was used with non-motion all metal detectors to help them overcome ground interference. I have found silver coins and rings with a non-ground balancing TR at very good depth using this technique, but it is slow. Bill in Texas

 

[tab-nabit]

I remember the days terms like Reverse discrimination, TR, De-Tuning, BFO, Ratcheting, things like that were more common.

 

[R-n-R Magnolia SpringsAla]

Never used it much. Did try it a few times and found maddingly small specks of lead and tiny,tiny(even for a tesoro) foil bits not deep though.

 

[Monte]

JB is right, and beat me to the correct reply because it does NOT mean hunting in the VLF Ground Balanced All Metal mode then switching to TR-Disc., but HOW you classified the now located target using the TR-Disc. mode. if you don't mind, JB, I'll add a little bit to your correct response.

When the VLF/TR detectors came out they would go a lot deeper in the VLF all metal mode than they would in the TR disc mode, so the targets out of range of the disc mode had to be dug to know what they were.

Someone, maybe Richard Hirschi at Whites, discovered that once a target was detected in all metal mode we could ID targets as either being above or below our disc setting a lot deeper by using "reverse discrimination"... To those not familiar with the VLF/TR-Disc. models, the TR-Disc. mode was not ground compensating and it was paramount to maintain a uniform coil-to-ground relationship. Also, the idea of discrimination at the time (pre-TID and pre-Tone ID) was that the threshold would null or go silent when the coil was moved over a rejected object.

The TR disc mode had an audible threshold that would null when a discriminated out target was under the coil, and by centering a detected target under the coil in all metal mode, then switching to the TR disc mode and retuning to the target to restore the threshold while the keeping the coil centered, we could ID targets as good or bad a lot deeper by listening to the audio as the coil was moved away from the target. If the threshold nulled when the coil was slid away from the target that meant it was a good target, or at least one above our disc setting.... Thus the term "Reverse Discrimination" because we listened for a DECREASE and not an INCREASE in threshold audio to signal a desireable target with-in range,

If the threshold increased when the coil was slid away from the target that meant it was a bad target, one that was below our disc setting. It was slow, but it worked and allowed discriminating a lot deeper than the TR mode was capable of if "reverse discrimination" wasn't used.... this technique worked better for some than others, and was somewhat dependant upon the ground searched and coil size used, operator skill, etc., etc.

One thing that some forgot was that if the coil was slid to the side and there was NO CHANGE in the Threshold, they should recover that target as well because it alerted the operator to a located find in VLF All Metal that was beyond the depth capabilities of the TR-Disc. mode/

Today, I'll just stick with some of our modern equipment as that was time consuming.

Monte

 

[slingshot]

You know, reading all this, I had to ask myself "Now, what were we talking about?" I just felt that the BFO would be a good choice in a tot lot, if it's not mineralized or full of stuff to drive the detector null down very far, as far as gold chains were concerned. Maybe Monte can add a little here-but I just noticed how easily they picked up the tiniest gold chains without having to fool with paper clips, hairpins, and tiny wire like bread ties. They just seemed to have the natural discrimination (ferrous-non ferrous) at just the right cutoff-even though you would still have to put up with large nails, bolts, nuts, etc.

 

[Wayne/TX]

Let me add that in the early 70's I owned a Garrett Master Hunter BFO with
the dual coil within a coil design (6" within a 12" coil & 4" in 8") that were switchable
one to the other and they worked quite well. I tried a few others but Garrett, IMO,
produced the very best BFO's ever made. His instruments were very stable
and unaffected by wet grass (the bane of early BFO's). The metal/mineral
control was very efficient and one could tune to the most effective motorboat
speed to suit one's hearing of the change in PITCH of the target. In those
early days of virgin grounds (in my area's mild minerals), I found many, many
coins and lots of Silver in parks and schoolgrounds and old homesteads.
It was truly great fun that perfectly emphasized that childlike "sense of wonder"
that intrigued all us early detectorists ("Treasure Hunters" back then).
When Garrett came out with some of the first really good TR's, I continued to
benefit from his excellent engineering, with even more great finds. Truly the
"good ol' days" of detecting!
..W

 

[Monte]

Those early days were 'fun', in many ways more than today. The "many ways" might just be the MANY more silver coins, or coins in general, that we were able to find.

I had and used BFO's that I built, to start, then in '58 a White's GhostTowner, and from then into the early /mid-70's I usually had a BFO in my arsenal. I was mainly using TR's, then TR-Discriminators, and continued to progress. I think I got another Master Hunter BFO with both dual coils again in the mid-'80s for the fun of playing around and doing comparisons. That was the last I wanted to have one as we've come too far from that technology.

But the times were great as there was a lot to find. I used several Garrett BFO, Hunters, Master Hunters, etc., and I had all of the Compass Klondike BFOs, to include some with dual coils (encased). Some D-Tex and others, too, but I had better overall success with some of the TR's and T-Disc. models from Garrett, Compass, and White's.

More than missing the equipment we had is missing the bounteous amount of coins, volume of silver coinage, and so much 'neat stuff' that just doesn't surface today. Mainly because ... IT'S GONE! (Most of it, anyway, but it's still fun to look for those that were missed.)

Monte

 

[tab-nabit]

Anytime I dig any gold chain is worth a pat on the back - one of the toughest tricky picky