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Problems with gold chain/necklace

Sanderling

Sanderling

Member
Just received my 800 last week. I am having issues with it hitting on gold necklaces. I used a very thin 14K ankle bracelet at the beach the other day to test it and could not get the 800 to respond. I cranked the sensitivity to the max with the recovery on 8. With these settings I would get a signal, but it was still iffy and I probably would not dig it. With the sensitivity so high I was getting a lot of unwanted chatter. So, I am wondering if any of you have had success in finding gold chains and what settings you use. I had mine set on Beach 2, sensitivity 25 and recovery at 8. One of the major reasons I purchased the 800 was its advertised ability to identify gold chains, so I am hoping someone out there can help me get it dialed in.
 
Beach 2 is the least sensitive mode to small gold, of all the modes on the machine. If you are hunting in the wet, and beach 1 is "usable," it should be more sensitive to small gold. On the dry sand, you should be able to use other modes that would also be much more sensitive to small gold (particularly field 2 and either of the two gold modes...)

Steve
 
Sorry Steve ..... thats going to depend on how small AGAIN. Dont believe everything you watch on a video. Both beach programs have a salt setting which limits their ability to find small gold. Ive gotten 5 chains thus far none very small. The Nox maybe just a tab better on smaller gold than our other machines. Like Steve said........ beach 2 is using half the power, has a salt setting........ AND you have the salt and minerals to deal with. Next question is........ since it was adjusted a tad sweeter on small gold did it loose depth on larger gold? Maybe.
 
I did a test at Galveston in late February. Had small gold pickers in plastic baggies, small ankle chain, larger longer necklace and several small rings, all gold. I buried them all in small plastic baggies except for he long chains which laid in a line, not in a pile. All about 3" deep. The 800, in every stock program would hit everything except the thin ankle chain. I had to get right over the clasp before it would hit. In both gold modes it would hit everything. It would not hit the small chains laid out lengthwise, but did hit them in a pile. Could have been just hitting the clasps though in a pile.
 
The Nox may hit small gold better, but that isn't saying much. Small chains on a salt water beach are just not very good targets to find. The detector is doing everything it can to ignore the conductivity of the salty sand and unfortunately that means small gold too. Clasps, thicker chains are a maybe, but not at depth. In my opinion a small coil like the 6 inch will probably see them better, but then you are sacrificing coverage. Everything about detecting is a trade off. Sorry but the magic stick you are swinging is just a nice detector with limitations.
 
Sanderling
You might try a slower recovery speed I don't have any personal experience in salt but 8 seems a bit extreme. Any thoughts guys I'm surprised no one has commented about this?
Laplander
 
You are right, lower the Recovery 3 or 4 ........ it allows for a longer look at the target and a bit longer tone on the target. That fast of a recovery is chopping the target you arent in a lot of trash requiring that high a recovery speed. Even moisture under the dry sand can cause a lose of depth on these targets. goodmore...... good reply. The 6 coil like you said is a trade off....... and not really worth the effort for the pay off on a large beach. You have a much better chance in the dry sand....... because you can use other modes. Get near the wet sand or even worth...... in the salt water and watch more of those targets you found a 3" disappear. BUT...... none of the other multi freq machines do any better at 2 to 3 times the price...... so thats a win for me.
 
I'll just add a bit more. Since you are new to the machine don't mess with adjustments yet. The presets are quite good. Unless you are hunting in the water just run Beach 1 and sensitivity at whatever is stable (I run mine at 20/21). Several of my buddies have hit small to medium gold chains, some in pieces, using this set up. Dig anything that reads a "1." If you're lucky it's a chain. If you're me it's a ketchup packet.

And honestly just hunt with the 800, don't waste your time testing. The machine is really, really good on gold. Best I have ever used at the beach.

Bill (S. CA)
 
Recovery 3 regardless of target at my beaches.
Don't know about thin chains - haven't found any gold with it yet.
Beach1 may be too noisy for you - test a target for depth as you back off on sensitivity to kill the noise. You might be running hotter than you need to - I think I may have been. Beach1 can give you a stronger TX signal - maybe that makes a difference with a chain? Let us know. Also test at a park or somewhere with no emi.
 
Thanks to all of you for your responses. I will be hitting the beach tomorrow with some gold chains and will try out the various suggestions. Really appreciate the tips on which mode to use and I will try Beach 1. Typically I run Beach 2, Sensitivity at 12-13, recovery at 2. I can increase the sensitivity some and put the recovery speed up to 3 or 4. I wanted to use 2 as I did not want to lose a lot of depth. Thanks for the tip on digging the 1s wpaxt. I would have ignored that ID. When I was doing some air test last night I saw that the ID was 1, so I will dig those, ketchup packets and all. I will let you know if I succeed.
 
Dear . its better to use Beach 1 and forget beach 2 because you don't want to lose more depth with 2 think about that
 
Out of the water....... use beach one, and that sensitivity is way way low. You should easily be able to run 18 the more the better. Running a really low recovery like 1 or 2 would require a much slower sweep speed and i dont think there is a depth advantage over say 3. In the dry sand Field 2 is even better...... i just do some adjustments to make it sound more like my beach 1. Bill right...... best dig those 1s even pretty heavy OPEN gold earrings come in at 1. I also run disc at -2..... it can clean up a bad signal. It also allows iron to move more in that first bin than falsing in the second ...... right where you dont want it to sound off.
 
Des D perhaps "as advertised" was a poor choice of words as I have not seen anything in writing from Minelab about the Equinox's ability to find gold chain. I should have said it was my understanding that the machine finds gold chain. There are several you tube videos out there demonstrating its ability to find them as well as posts in this forum. You can also see from some of the above posts that it is capable of finding gold chain. My Safari and CTX do not pick up gold chain, thick or thin. Additionally, I was fortunate enough to meet a Minelab rep who was demonstrating the 800 on the beach with a gold necklace. The rep had a little trouble dialing it in at first, but once it was it would give a clear signal in every direction.

Dewconn I really appreciate your responses as well as everyone else. Heading to the beach in a few hours and we will see what I can do with the gold chains using the suggestions given by everyone. Thanks again!
 
Sanderling said:
...... One of the major reasons I purchased the 800 was its advertised ability to identify gold chains, so I am hoping someone out there can help me get it dialed in.
Click to expand...

The Equinox is certainly better at seeing gold chains than any other detector I have owned in 36 years of detecting. Thats not saying it will see EVERYTHING. I believe many of the videos you saw are hitting on the clasp which can be huge in relation to the chain it holds.

Just because you havent found any yet, doesnt mean it cant. Test and experiment in your actual conditions with targets you believe it should find.
 
"Thanks for the clarification Sanderling.

I was confused because I hadn't seen any 'official' word about that.

Yes, several videos do show the gold chain scenario.
Very difficult to detect chains as each link is an individual piece.
Hence difficult to 'excite' an Eddy current in a link and as the links 'move' the Eddy current [that might have started to form] ends abruptly with the constant shifting of the chain [ IN WATER ] Excuse the Pun but [ the chain links break ] so no current forms.
So Eddy currents rarely form and that's why they go undiscovered UNLESS, by a fluke perchance that it's a bigger size, the thing 'moves' and momentarily compresses to a 'detectable mass' because MASS of the targets is very important in detection.
Orientation can also make a difference so a chain with a decent clasp/fastner in a straight line might be detectable?"
 
Its nice to have the target in your hand or even in a test garden to play around with and get it DIALED IN. But you dont have that option out there........ things change dramatically on the beach and in the salt water. You arent going to find a smaller chain hunting fast trying to cover more beach like you do for recent ring drops. You settings can make a big difference ...... but your hunting technique and intensity to cover a area well is just as important.
 
Settings are only part of how to find small gold chains. I have 2 small gold chains in my box of test gold, the Equinox hits one of them but not very deep and can't detect the other at all, Park 2, recovery speed 3, sens 22. The one it does detect ID's as 1. So once you have optimized your settings for small gold then what?

Knowing I will only be able to get a signal on small gold chains very close to the surface I look for spots on the beach where this will be the case. You want waves to be stripping sand OFF the beach, with wave action that drags the lighter sand and aluminum into the water, with heavier targets lagging behind. They still get dragged down into the water but at a slower pace. As more sand is stripped off small gold and silver chains begin to appear near the surface. That's when I slow down and hunt for small gold chains and small jewelry. If I don't have a section of beach like this I just speed up and hunt for larger rings. The odds of finding a small gold chain in normal beach conditions where targets are several inches deep is pretty rare, maybe it if was lost just hours earlier.
 
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