Just can't figure it?

[Dancer]

So I got these two sites I hunt that produce between $25 to sometimes $60 clad plus. a yr. Been hunting them for years. Never dug a gold or silver ring out of either of them. Now I have 2 small sites I only go to every other yr or two. Lucky to break $3 clad.
One site has given up two gold rings & a silver. The other a silver ring and a silver charm. Now how can you explain that.
Went to one of the small sites yesterday with my Ace250 hunted hard for 25 coins ($2.34) And yep a nice heavy silver ladies ring !
Go figure?

 

[mudpuppy]

I know..the dangedest thing...I've got 6 silver rings and a stinky heap O clad off this one soccerfield, but not one gold, and I'm all over those signals...demographics? I dont know, some of the poorer places in town have given up some big gold, still trying to get good at figuring good locations out.
Mud

 

[dirt doctor]

There is no figuring it out . It's either there or it's not or somebody else has gotten it .

 

[BarberBill]

I'm always getting surprised - one of the things I like about this hobby. In 12 years I'd never dug a Boy Scout neckerchief slide, then dug 2 within a couple of hours of each other in diffferent parks.
BB

 

[mudpuppy]

Lets explore the age and demographic of "droppers"...All in all, the ones that drop the most clad are kids, middle school to high school, so if a guy is a clad hunter, thats where you hunt, where the kids are...
Once a Kid gets into Junior Senior year high school, thats when they lose their class rings, silver rings, etc...once they are in their higher teens, 20's, 30's is when they really lose their GOLD!

I read the lost and found of craigslist to pick up some info on the drop patterns of people and try to make a study of where to hunt..most lost rings posted are lost in parking lots and bathrooms.

Lets say our primary target market for dropped gold is women in the ages of 18-40, most of their gear is small gold with the occasional big honker, so a fellow can sort of think of a location where they might be inclined to travel and drop. now if a fellow wants to hunt for mens big gold, thats a whole nother matter...and some of the postings here of where big gold chains etc are found makes perfect sense.

It really is astounding anybody finds wild lost rings at all, out of 1000 random women, how many wear gold, and how many of them ever lose it out in the areas where we hunt? Out of 1000 random men, how many of them wear a big chain and can be sort of tracked to hunt where they would hang out and lose it? This is a fun part of the sport, trying to read an area and figure out where a potential gold dropper would travel in it...looks like the Jersey Shore is full of big gold chain wearing drunken young men, the perfect recipe for losing gold! Thats why water hunting is a profitable endeavor, a guy can figure out swimming holes and jump zones and shallow flats where rough housing takes place, and the other metal signs we find in those spots tell us if this is gonna be a good one pretty fast. Sure, those random drops of gold in unlikely places make this sport one of those things you cant quite totally figure out.
Mud

 

[Dancer]

n/t

 

[BarberBill]

And if you're ever contacted to help recover alost ring, don't be surprised if the possible drop locations are multiple and hazy. People often wander a fair bit before noticing their loss.
BB

 

[mudpuppy]

Yeah...miss by an inch, miss by a mile! Some of the inland and water jewelry hunters that post on here really have it figured out, and its a good thing they share willingly for the rest of ours benefit.

I think effort, focus, optimism, and time afield are important for successfully finding what you seek, but NO gurantees that you will...I dont focus on old silver coins, so I dont find a lot, just a few every year accidentally. The many subsets of this sport should keep a guy interested for a long time trying to master them all. Clad is a great place to start for getting good with your gear and retrieval and learning about where and why things get dropped. Then a person can spin off those skills into whatever the location or situation dictate.
Its just one of those puzzles why some area heavy in clad and silver does not have the corresponding ratio of gold in there, somebody could have not possibly beat you to it, or the other targets would be gone...I can understand why a clad poor area that has been picked by somebody highgrading could still hold some gold hidden in the tabs....so if theres plenty of tabs and foil in the right kind of location a fellow has got to think about gold in here someplace to keep motivated enough to dig them all up!.
Mud

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Most parks are still loaded with gold rings because most of us cherry pick.Back in my early days the metal detectors didn't discriminate well. I probably found at least 50 gold rings or more a year.The more improvements with discrimination my silver finds increased but the gold finds decreased.My current strategy is to go back digging(lots of work) more so called junk targets to find gold.LOL like fishing there is also some luck and the right place.HH Ron