Mid-tone Targets

[Cal_Cobra]

Here's a few examples of foil to tab or foil to nickel bouncers I've dug:

This 24K ring came in as a solid zinc penny signal:

9K English white gold ring came in like a pull tab:

Because gold comes in all sizes, shapes, and gold content (9K - 24K) it can hit anywhere from iron to penny or higher if it's a big enough chunk of gold.

The people in our MD club that dig the most gold, dig EVERYTHING.

HH,
Brian

 

[harvdog42]

I appreciate and enjoy all your input as I'm sure other people do as well.

1st update to the question:

How many gold items do you think are within detector range in an average size, average use, average age park or school at any given time?

Flintone: 10 to 15 (mega park)
Mudpuppy: 5
Harvdog: 2
Mike Hillis: 2 to 4
Gene: 10
Dan-Pa: 12 (large park)


Cal_Cobra?
TVR?
Therover?
Fishfinder?
Pratt?
WV62?
MarkCZ?
Ted the bottle guy?
Jerry Demas?
rapidroy7?
ElginTim?
Harold.ILL?
Joe_Dirt1?
Bryce-IL?
Mike from Illinois?
cometguy?
...?

HH

James

 

[tvr]

"How many gold items ..." another variable to the equation is do you consider plated and filled as gold at some level or not?

If I had answered after the first year I detected the high school nearest me, my answer would have been more than 50 waiting to be found in the school block, if you included plated and filled, and 10 or so solid gold. When I first hunted the high school, I pulled lower coin totals than I do now and a lot more jewelry. After each hunt, it seems the ratio changes to where I pull less foil and less jewelry out of the school but I'm also getting slightly increasing coin counts, particularly nickles and pennies and it seems a lot of the dimes and quarters are on edge or partly masked and only hit one way or only hint that they may not be iron. My belief is that the schools any where near me get hunted by several people for coins, mainly dimes and quarters, and have maybe one or two hunters for jewelry. I think more coins get dropped than jewelry, but there is jewelry reseeding going on. I some times find pieces laying on top of the ground or even on a sidewalk or parking lot.

Now after hitting schools many more times over several years, I'd say I'd divide those first answer numbers by about 10 at any one time. Like Mike says about location and trends, at the nearest high school there is one courtyard where the girls hang out and chat that produces more than other areas. The school team sports practice fields hold very little since the policy for the sports teams is no jewelry and it is enforced. I get mostly change along the sidelines and the occasional pin, almost never a ring on those practice fields. The courtyards used for socializing, along the sidewalks at the main entrances and the open fields used for pick-up games produce more in both coins and jewelry.
tvr

 

[harvdog42]

OK TVR,

Thanks for the input. First I'm going to say that, although fun to find, I don't consider plated or gold filled to be "real" gold finds. However, I'm a bit confused by your answer. As you can probably tell, I like to boil things down into easily digestible chunks. Boiling things down seems to give me a more solid frame of reference from which to approach this hobby and life in general.

You stated in your post "Now after hitting schools many more times over several years, I'd say I'd divide those first numbers by about 10 at any one time."
Since I am referring only to the solid "carat" gold finds, you mentioned 10 solid golds in your first paragraph. 10/10 = 1 if my math is correct.

If that is the case, then is it safe to say you think there is only one gold item within detector range somewhere within the perimeter of an average school at any given time?

James

 

[tvr]

James,
Yes, for schools getting hunted frequently, one solid gold piece is my guess. More if the school isn't getting hunted frequently.
tvr

 

[therover]

I am going to say 7-10 for the simple reason, if the area is an average square block, then thats a lot of cubic inches to cover, and unless someone is going super slow with a small coil, overlapping every inch, they ain't gonna hit all those cubic inches...and 1 cubic inch is all the area a gold ring needs to fit into. That, in addition to masking by iron and aluminum may have the 7-10 number range on the low end. Plus the fact that if this park or school yard has had activity for the last 10-15 years, the number goes up as well. I only state that because even though gold jewelry is mostly concentrated where people sit, play, etc., there can be a straggler here or there at the corners of the park and in places where you would not expect. Wonder how many lost pieces of jewelry are in the bushes ?!

Now that I just typed that, I am going to up it to 12-15 !!!

 

[harvdog42]

Thanks for your input Therover,

Greatly appreciated.

I enjoy getting responses from die hard detectorists. There is no better information than that coming from those of us that are out there in the trenches every day...so to speak. (and not selling anything)

In your response, you touched on something that was very much implied in my question. You mentioned something about covering "every square inch." The question put forth was absolutely meant to include every square inch of a park or school regardless of masking or anything else. The only criteria was that the carat gold item has to be within detector range. I don't want to split hairs here. We all know that CZ's go deep. From your response, I believe that you did understand that. (12 to 15???... I 'd die to have your optimism)

For those of you that are just tuning in...the question is: How many gold items do you think are within detector range in an average size, average use, average age park or school at any given time?

I'd like to get just a few more "educated guesses" before I draw any conclusions and put this thread to rest.

HH

James

 

[Hombre]

Probably a couple of dozen, hidden among the pulltabs, beavertails, canslaw, nails, foil, chewing gum wrappers, etc. and would take forever to grid off and find. You could fill a trash barrel with trash with what you would find. I believe in what Mike Hillis says: research and trending are the keys to finding inland gold jewelery. Me, I like to cut the odds a little more and waterhunt at a popular college town swimming lake. I still find alot of pulltabs though, but it is easy dig'n with a long handled water scoop.

 

[therover]

I was kinda thinking out loud and writing it down when trying to imagine all that area and what could be hiding there.

Even if there weren't any other target in that area except gold rings, and the max depth the detector could go would be 10 inches, that's a heck of a lot of dirt and I still would think 10-15 rings would be there assuming the park is 10+ years old.

Shoot, we could also throw into the initial equation if the park had any fill dirt brought it, was there spots where tons of mulch, wood chips, etc. spread that would cover up potential ring targets. Tons of variables.

I keep thinking about all the ring/jewelry pictures hunters post that state they were 'tot lot' hunting and I think that area, where Mom's go with the small children, have great potential and are probably seeded with jewelry items monthly...especially 14k earrings, pendants, charms, chains, etc. I included that hypothesis as part of my estimate. As I write this, I can't remember if you specifically said gold rings only but even so, I would suspect a ring or two would get lost as well.

With all this talk, it makes me want to hit the tot lots instead of the beach !!!!! Maybe I will do a quick hunt later this evening and see what transpires.

 

[Hombre]

The Rover

I have not had much luck at the 'tot lots' around my home town, the tots and tot lot moms must not lose much jewelery, even 'junk' jewelry.

I have had better luck at a small town close by, and it is a college town, the local lake beach gets alot of activity, and lots of gold finds have been found there.

 

[mudpuppy]

Heres a little 10K medallion found this am thanks to this thread...totlot, 22 on the TID, foil range, about as big as a dime, thats 147 coins with it from this am too, 13.28 total..
The back of my truck looks like a garbage truck exploded in it...thats where I shake out the junk...so it was a lot of foil digging to get this thing..

 

[harvdog42]

Mudpuppy,

That's quite a haul you got there. Way to go on the pendant. If it's gold its gold and adds to the count. A couple of weeks ago I found a smashed gold earing in a parking lot. I think it weighed all of two grams but I was a happy camper. Later that day I went to the beach and found a one gram gold earing. The whole ball of wax added up to about a tank of gas. I love this crazy hobby for some reason.

When I was about four years old my dad eyeballed an old rusty boy scout knife on a beach in San Fransisco. I thought that was the coolest thing. We brought the knife home and my dad let it soak in some kind of oil for a few days. He got the thing working again. I've been hooked ever since.

My dad is still going strong. A few years ago I was visiting him in Indiana. We went metal detecting together and all be dambed if he didn't find a nice mans silver class ring. I'm 54 years old now.

HH
Harvdog

 

[mudpuppy]

Thanks Harv, I cant get enough of this crazy addiction too...good thing it sort of pays for itself, and I come home all grubby with a fistfull of dirty loot, or the wife would suspect something...I turned 52 on the 19th, hope to get a few more years out of myself, I know metal detecting has added years to my life, and I've only been doing it for a year! HH

 

[mudpuppy]

Came in at a nickle signal shallow...14k with 7 diamonds...in the grass roots...I'm liking your midtone challenge Harvdog!

 

[harvdog42]

That is awesome mudpuppy. I think I'm going to go out today and dig mid-tones! Screw the sore back...

That ring looks like it may fit your wife. From my experience you get a six month free pass to go metal detecting when you find something your wife likes. I couldn't be happier for you.

HH
Harvdog

 

[mudpuppy]

14k with 10 little diamonds, came in at 23 on the F70...I went back to where I found that medalion and was looking for the chain...so thats two gold items from one woodchip totlot so far...I got it swept pretty clean.
Midtone Target Challenge has been good to me so far! I'll get that CZ 20 in the water soon. HH you all!
Mud