I Did Some Testing With A Tiny 14k Gold Necklace

[tabman]

I found a tiny 14k gold necklace in my wife's jewelry box and did some testing with it. I went out in the yard and threw the necklace on the ground in a metal free spot and started swinging. I wasn't surprised that my Tesoro Compadre with its 5.75 inch coil would sound off on it, because it's well known for finding tiny gold jewelry. With the discrimination set just above 'iron', the Compadre was getting a little over 3 inches with a good audio response. I got no audio response with either the Outlaw or the Bandido II

 

[Scanman]

I have read finding Gold Necklaces/Chains to be very challenging for many detectors. Thanks for sharing your findings.

 

[MarkCZ]

I found a tiny 14k gold necklace in my wife's jewelry box and did some testing with it. I went out in the yard and threw the necklace on the ground in a metal free spot and started swinging. I wasn't surprised that my Tesoro Compadre with its 5.75 inch coil would sound off on it, because it's well known for finding tiny gold jewelry. With the discrimination set just above 'iron', the Compadre was getting a little over 3 inches with a good audio response. I got no audio response with either the Outlaw or the Bandido II

 

[Hombre]

I found a small gold chain very similar to your wife's gold chain in the wood chips at a tot lot, I was using the Bandido ll

 

[MarkCZ]

I found a small gold chain very similar to your wife's gold chain in the wood chips at a tot lot, I was using the Bandido ll

 

[wltdwiz]

humm very interesting
thanks for the info tabman

 

[kaolinwasher]

Tab Intresting report, its always good to hear of any testing

 

[MarkCZ]

Just encase some my find post here off the wall, I wanted to post this information from the internet. I have also read a number of other articles on the same subject stating that even clumped up small chains are still hard for a detector to hit on. (also, gold doesn't build up a halo effect, but lower quality gold filled or junk chains may)

WHY CAN CHAINS BE VERY HARD TO FIND?

Chains consist of many individual links. Unless chains are tangled, or have built up a halo effect, metal detectors can only pick up the individual links, not the complete mass. So if the individual links can be detected (or the largest bit, eg the clasp), the chain will be detected, fine chains with small catches are often impossible for metal detectors to detect.

Ralph @ Sun Ray Detector

 

[tabman]

My G2 gave a VDI number of '40' which is the top end of iron and the lower end of foil on the conductivity range.

One other note, the Cortes got better depth on the gold chain with the 8 inch doughnut coil than it did with the 5.75 concentric coil.

You'd think the smaller coil would be more sensitive to the gold chain.

tabman

 

[deliveryboy]

Very interesting info here guys thanks for sharing, I have yet to find a gold chain and am probably listening for that 5 star tone too often.

 

[mudpuppy]

Good experiment! theres more chains out there than we realize..rings generally hit hard and should not be missed, but chains, now theres the challenge...even those nice big figaro silver chains can sound like scrap aluminum wires off a chain link fence...gold, now thats tough unless a guy focuses on crappy foil, even then theres a lot of crappy foil out there...most of the 15gr 10-14k chains hit like high iron, low foil on my rigs, very scratchy and not firm, almost like a gum wrapper, and then the signal does not hang on once the coil is raised a little...so its usually tiny foil, or a chain..theres all sorts of small dirt chains out there I can imagine, totlots and sportsfields...the chains in the water or sand get easily scooped up by folks keying on all targets, and the smaller and crappier the tone the better...the dirt chains go undug....so Tab, you know they are there!
Mud

 

[MarkCZ]

My G2 gave a VDI number of '40' which is the top end of iron and the lower end of foil on the conductivity range.

One other note, the Cortes got better depth on the gold chain with the 8 inch doughnut coil than it did with the 5.75 concentric coil.

You'd think the smaller coil would be more sensitive to the gold chain.

tabman

Here is some testing my brother has done with the Tejon (air testing) and when I got my 5.75" Widescan he wanted to include the results in his testing.
See pictures below. (small gold chain was in the test)
He is now on the lookout for a 5.75 Widescan coil for himself, we both have a Tejon.

Mark

 

[MarkCZ]

My G2 gave a VDI number of '40' which is the top end of iron and the lower end of foil on the conductivity range.

One other note, the Cortes got better depth on the gold chain with the 8 inch doughnut coil than it did with the 5.75 concentric coil.

You'd think the smaller coil would be more sensitive to the gold chain.

tabman

Here is some testing my brother has done with the Tejon (air testing) and when I got my 5.75" Widescan he wanted to include the results in his testing.
See pictures below. (small gold chain was in the test)
He is now on the lookout for a 5.75 Widescan coil for himself, we both have a Tejon.

Mark

This just in, I received a picture of the items used in the chart above, so seeing how I posted the chart I thought I would include this picture as well. That's a pretty small chain as compared to the earring stud beside it.
Mark

 

[C.J.M.]

Compadre did great with the 8" donut coil on gold chain and gold ring in my coin garden.Has never been in the field.

 

[razerback408]

hay tabman did you try the outlaw in all metal if not would you try it thanks

 

[Monte]

By "casual readers" I am referring to those who are newer to the hobby or who just don' get out often enough to learn their detectors, or learn proper techniques to hunt varying site conditions. And, since many newcomers or less experienced might not know or have the various models at hand, I'll just add my reminders and descriptions and cautions.

I found a tiny 14k gold necklace in my wife's jewelry box and did some testing with it.

There's a good hint anyone ought to consider [size=small](even if it means waiting until the wife is away for a while)[/size].

I went out in the yard and threw the necklace on the ground in a metal free spot and started swinging. I wasn't surprised that my Tesoro Compadre with its 5.75 inch coil would sound off on it, because it's well known for finding tiny gold jewelry.

Tue, the Compadre can do well on smaller and lower-conductive targets, but that's because it has a nice analog circuitry, and the Discrimination range can adjust to a true 'Zero' and accept all metals, ferrous and non-ferrous.

Plus, readers ought to note you were using a 5

 

[Ken/CO]

I found a tiny 14k gold necklace in my wife's jewelry box and did some testing with it. I went out in the yard and threw the necklace on the ground in a metal free spot and started swinging. I wasn't surprised that my Tesoro Compadre with its 5.75 inch coil would sound off on it, because it's well known for finding tiny gold jewelry. With the discrimination set just above 'iron', the Compadre was getting a little over 3 inches with a good audio response. I got no audio response with either the Outlaw or the Bandido II

 

[tabman]

Thanks for your reply Monte. You're very good at explaining stuff.

I encourage people to do their own testing, because I learn so much by doing my own testing, especially target masking.

What I have learned from this last test is a lot.

1) The Cortes and the Golden

 

[tabman]

hay tabman did you try the outlaw in all metal if not would you try it thanks

I checked the Outlaw in the all metal mode and it got a little over 3 inches on the necklace. It just gets a little light popping in the discriminate mode. A rusty nail pops a tad more than the necklace does which tells me that the necklace is just at the top of the iron range. I really like the Outlaw a lot. It walks right through sites that are loaded with iron and still bangs hard on gold rings and nickels. It just doesn't do all that well on a tiny 14k gold necklace in the discriminate mode.

tabman

 

[MarkCZ]

Mark,
Your comment, "Keep in mind that the detector doesn't see the whole chain, but rather each link, or clasp",
and "So, with your tiny chain the detector must be able to hit on a single link before it will hit on the chain at all, or at least it's clasp".
is incorrect. That's not the way a detector works. When the detector's signal penetrates the ground and it cannot separate out a single
link in that chain. It sees the entire chain as a single target.
Ken

You must not have looked on down at my other post where I copied and pasted basically the same information from "Ralph at SunRay Detectors"

WHY CAN CHAINS BE VERY HARD TO FIND?

Chains consist of many individual links. Unless chains are tangled, or have built up a halo effect, metal detectors can only pick up the individual links, not the complete mass. So if the individual links can be detected (or the largest bit, eg the clasp), the chain will be detected, fine chains with small catches are often impossible for metal detectors to detect.

Ralph @ Sun Ray Detector

Also, I never said anything about detecting a small chain hooked or unhooked, that was in reference to a loop earring, my brother did that test with his Tejon and with the earring latched the Tejon would detect it, with its latch opened it wouldn't, or to say the earring closed acted the same as a small ring, opened it didn't (that wasn't a chain)
Also, I have read other articles from other experts in the hobby that made the same claim to the separate links of a small gold chain. I have also seen a lot of post in other forums where people had sold their $1,000.00 plus detector because it would not hit on a small gold chain clumped up in their fist doing air test, even in all metal mode.

I use to have those other articles but when my OLD computer died there was some stuff I didn't have backed up and so I lost them. It looks like I may have to research that information again and its source.

I thought information from some place like SunRay would be pretty credible.

Mark