Gravel parking lot machine

[FirstCav]

Hi, bought a used CZ-5 for the beach after a long absence from Md'ing. I think it was Mr. Monte who suggested I stay with what I know as I had one before. Does fine.

Now, a neighbor wants me to hunt gravel parking lots with him, some are sand and gravel mix, and well used parks, very trashy as one can imagine. The CZ-5 is not happy in this environment. He has a Tesoro Tejon which seems better but not much.
We both use small coils.

What we need is a machine, metered or not metered, which can discriminate coins and jewelry from the trash, and has a very fast recovery speed. Depth is only 2"-5" as any deeper is hard pack.

Hopefully someone is familiar with this type of Md'ing and could point us in the right direction. We are not much interested in spending a months retirement check either.

So, any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, FirstCav

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Minelab Sovereign would work,but is different than your CZ and requires a little time learning.A old XS2 may cost you a little over 3 hundred dollars.I use a CZ,Sovereign and 1236x and find they all work very well.

 

[Dyna_Willie]

Tesoro Compadre $151.20 on eBay, end of story.

 

[Daniel A.]

Troy X5 high kHZ 19.3 good disc would do fine. Dan

 

[JB(MS)]

While silver jewelry will often be in the coin range, a sad but true fact is the majority of gold jewelry falls in the same conductance range as trash targets. Most women and girls rings will be in the foil range and some white gold, platinum and tiny yellow gold rings can be right at the breakpoint between nails and foil. Many mens wedding bands, smaller boys class rings and most girls class rings, along with assorted other medium sized rings, will be in the tab range. Huge boys class rings, and various other very large mens rings can be in the bottlecap/zinc range. I have yet to find a gold ring that was higher in the conductivity/conductance range than a zinc cent.The top photo is about 2/3's of the gold jewelry I've found at athletic fields, playgounds and schools in the last 10 years or so. For every piece of gold jewelry in that photo I recovered at least 5 junk jewelry items, countless tabs, foil pieces and pencil erasor bands plus a lot of other trash. Bottom photo is maybe half of the junk jewelry found while hunting gold jewelry.

[attachment 79392 junkjewelry.jpg]

 

[Dyna_Willie]

I don't mind diggin trash, you've got to dig to win...

 

[Elton]

Check out the Coinstrike with a 5" coil......Best machine I ever used in trash.... Or just turn down your sens a little with the CZ5 and Disc with your analog meter,, You will be surprised at what a setting of 2, or 3 will get in the gravel..with disc set at iron out. 1St notch if I remember right

 

[chuck ky]

you have the best machine for coins that you can get. i use mine at a ball complex where the whole area around the concession stand and the bleachers is rocks. the cz-5 cleans up on coins. i haven't there for jewelery because of the pulltabs but you're going to have to dig pulltabs to get gold no matter what machine you use.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

n/t

 

[FirstCav]

Hi, thanks for your responses. After another two hours of frustration this a.m., where I did everything suggested, there are simply too many targets at different levels for the machine to digest the information. We talked to a young person who had a Wal-Mart machine that was doing better. The entry level Tesoro suggest seems the way to go, or similar. I'll ask over on the Tesoro forum.

Thanks, FirstCav

 

[rmptr]

Trashy gravel lot seems like an excellent place for a Little Yeller Feller and an Arky Barky tool.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

I tried an old turn of the century train station.The parking lot was hard packed gravel with lot of trash and iron.I used a CZ and a 1236x.The 1236x was better in iron, but digging in gravel is just too difficult when its hard packed.I took a break from a long interstate drive and searched an old public school building.This search I used an ID Edge and was finding wheats dated in the twenties but the gravel was next to impossible to dig in.I doubt a cheaper unit is going to give you better separation and target identification or make your digging any easier.I would regroup and go to another site a cheap unit from Walmart or a low end metal detector is going to be very lame compared to what you are using.

 

[GaryL]

As posted on the Tesoro site, ya need a good machine ID analog would be a good one, with a small coil(which you state you are using) I use a Toltec II and a XLT with the 4X6" coil and do great.
Most folks won't hunt gravel to hard and a real time grabber. However most gravel sites are mostly virgin sites do to that fact.

If you have a good machine take your time, and as stated you are going to dig some trash if you want some GOOD GOLD. If only interested in coins set up the disc., and go coins only.

It's a hard job, spend a hour or two then go to some easier hunting ground so as not to get burnt out in the gravel.

Any detector with a small coil & cover with disc. will work well, go get'er done!!

HH

GaryL

 

[jmaryt]

try the new f2 from fisher!..some reports already out that indicate it does exceptionally well in trash strewn environments!..it comes with a 4" coil along with the standard 8" coil!..199.00 out the door!

(h.h!)
j.t.

 

[Dyna_Willie]

Thats a great deal, 4 and 8" coil, nice...

 

[jmaryt]

yeah!..i got one,and have been following any and all reports from users in the field!..initial reports indicate it could be a genine "sleeper"..it just picked off a cartwheel
out of a heavy trashed area!..tough to argue with that!..can't wait to try it in the spring!..

(h.h!)
j.t.

 

[FirstCav]

Hi, we would like to thank everyone for their kind replies.

We have no access to a good dealer and are unable to figure out which machine is best for what we want to do. For a nice simple hobby this can get really complicated.

So, we found a dealer that handles everything, I guess, and ordered one of most everything recommended figuring we'll sell whatever we don't like back to him. Don't know any other way to figure out what will work.

Thanks again for your kindness, FirstCav

 

[lordmarcovan]

Gravel? Hardpack beneath? Modern parking lots?

Ugh. You must be a glutton for punishment. More power to ya, fella, but that ain't my idea of fun.

Still, I hope you get the right machine for the job and it pays off for you. I suspect it could, in rings and things.

Just seems an awful lot of hard work to me. But what do I know- I'm a soft-dirt coinshooter. I did find a silver dime in a gravel driveway, once, but I was chasing old coins on a proven site. No way I would've set myself up for such punishment in a modern parking lot. If I was shooting for clad coins and jewelry, I'd go to the tot lots and the beach. But even those bore me, personally. I try to go where the deep oldies hide.

PS- didn't mean to sound like a partypooper or a sourpuss. I have a lot of respect for folks who can deal with harsher hunting environments like this. The snow shooters, the gravel shooters, the folks with heavily mineralized soil. I don't have any good suggestions for you, but it sounds like you've gotten some. If you can master this environment, then hunting in regular soil and on the beach and other sites with less challenges should be easy for you. I'll be the first to cheer when you score some gravel lot finds.

 

[GRAY GHOST]

hello firstcav, ive been thinking that you wont have such a hard time finding a good machine to hunt gravel lots with as much as you will find difficulty in digging what you have found. im at a loss as to which kind of machine i would recommend: its usually a highly mineralized area that maybe a vlf type of detector would do well in. if you think that its a good spot, and are really interested, then you should try it...what detector does your buddy use? ive been known to hit a gravel pack or two, and did well because nobody else hunts them. the digging can be a challenge, i would wait until after a good rain, and hit it! you just might be on to a niche market...hh,

 

[FirstCav]

Mr. Grey Ghost, my friend has a Tejon and mine is a used CZ-5. Even with small coils we are overwhelmed by targets at various depths and down into the hard pack. So, after asking, we decided to buy one each of the recommended bottom line machines and found a dealer who would take back the ones we did not want.
So, we are out some postage, but getting 4 machines next week we will know real quick what works here and what doesn't.

Since no one except a young person with a beginner Wal-Mart machine md the parking lots we figured they were prime territory. We are only interested in a max of 5" about to the top of the hard pack. We have cut down handle hoes, maybe True Temper, from the Ace Hardware store.

Parks around here would require carrying sidearms, but there are gravel parking lots everywhere esp.out in the countryside. Just an idea which might or might work out.

Thanks, FirstCav