Tested medium gold ring at 5 inches --

[TabWhisperer]

But it seems like the only gold rings I would find would be no more than 3 inches.

If I am searching ONLY for coins that are relatively shallow or in favorable ground, I might rely a bit more on the numeric VDI or TID segments/icons, but when the goal is to recover silver and gold jewelry, in all sorts of sizes and shapes and such, then TID is just an interesting feature more than a rock-solid tool. I rely only on hearing a good or recoverable audio hit and then I retrieve the target.

Most of the gold rings, bracelets, ear studs and other gold items since march have come by way of using a Teknetics Omega. Earlier than that and going back to last fall, the White's MXT was the clear winner on nabbing those finds as it was in my hand the most. While some Tesoro's worked well for me, as well as the XLT's I've owned or the XL Pro's, since about '96/'97 the White's Classic III SL or later the Classic ID or IDX Pro models were the champs and gave me very good audio responses on gold jewlelry.

For me TID is a nice tool to help cut down digging zinc pennies so I can spend more time looking for something more worthwhile. I find the V3 is excellent in identification with the color display and number system and sound. I have dug a lot of items I thought were trash just to double check and have found it to be pretty accurate.

I just picked up a used Tejon. I buried a womans wedding band set (engagement + plain band soldered together) 5 inches in my yard. I tried the V3i and MXT with the 300, 10DD, 950 and 6x10 coils and none of them would hit on the ring and any descrimination mode. I had to go to relic or prospecting mode.

First comment. A ring that is 'fresh buried" at 5" can be a challenge for many detectors on the market, especially if you're banking on a good visual TID. Even a 'proper' audio Tone ID. But if you want a good 'beep' from it, that ought to be doable if the settings and coil presentation are functional.

You say you tried the V3i and MXT with all the available coils you had and none of them would hit on the ring "and any discrimination mode." That you then went to the Relic or Prospecting mode. Well, the Relic and Coin Hunting 'modes' with the MXT are using the same Discriminate adjustment range and ought to have performed quite similar so you lost me on that statement. You didn't mention just what mode and what Discriminate setting or what Sensitivity/Gain setting you used with those models, either.

With the MXT, especially, I usually hunting in the Coin & Jewelry mode but occasionally used the Relic mode when I wanted to just rely on the Iron/Non-iron audio difference in audio tone. Discrimination was usually set at the lower factory preset marker and I didn't have a bit of trouble signaling on gold rings and such.

I used C&J both from the factory and custom programs (Fox's V3). The MXT disc was at 3. On the Tejon I set the first disc at Foil and the second at Tabs. The ring hit equally loud and clear on both at both locations. In my yard the White's were silent in C&J mode even with sens and TX boost on the V3. At the school yard the White's were scratchy at best (scrubbing the ground) and quiet if the coil was an inch off the ground. That has me concerned.

Then they indicated Low Iron which I probably would have passed on. Same for the QXT Pro with a 950 coil.

If you set the detectors up, such as the MXT, so that you were only rejecting iron nails or less, and you had a proper Ground balance for the site, then a fresh-buried ring (laying flat to the surface?) at 5" could easily signal. Apparently it did, and THEN you referred to the visual Target ID.

Tone ID and visual TID can be fooled by targets in disturbed ground or possibly buried to a fresh depth where they might not process the audio all that well, and if they have Tone ID or visual, they can 'read' up-scale or, as you noted, down-scale form what you'd anticipate.

If I see a few good VDI hits on repeated sweeps and not very deep I normally dig since I have found it to help weed out the trash. The V3 makes a lot of targets a no brainer. On deeper targets I mainly listen to the audio from different directions and speeds and try to size it up.

However the Tejon hit the ring hard with good discrimination.

First, what do you consider to be "good discrimination" on the Tej

 

[Monte]

I'm glad you replied and I'll try to finish this and post before sun-up here in NW Oregon. (I'm a slow, two-finger typist.)

For me TID is a nice tool to help cut down digging zinc pennies so I can spend more time looking for something more worthwhile. I find the V3 is excellent in identification with the color display and number system and sound. I have dug a lot of items I thought were trash just to double check and have found it to be pretty accurate.

I got a V3 when the Vision was first released in march of last year, and I went through two of them. I will say the newer V3i has a nicer assortment of visual display info, but I still prefer other models to the Spectra V3/V3i for most of my hunting. For 3

 

[crazyman]

Monte, the connection here is that the MXT, V-3 and QXT wouldn't hit the ring until the lower end of discrimination in the iron range was used on all three detectors. I'm not sure any depth or freq. differences between any of the detectors in this test on a target that size and at that depth would make that big of a difference so there is something missing here. Expanding the lower discrimination range could improve depth as well as improve sensitivity especially to small low conductors but the ring is sufficient in size and mass that the added sensitivity at that depth shouldn't have made that big of a difference. Some of my past detectors like my old modified IDX Pro wouldn't have had a problem with a ring that size and that would be a piece of cake with my Sovereign GT. It would help to know what the ring reads in a air test because a ring that size should read at least nickle/pull tab or higher. Two rings soldered together and the shape could shift the ID lower I suppose.

 

[Critterhunter]

Ahhh Monte....My old nemesis who never did like the QXT. I'll do my part and throw my opinion in to act as a counter weight. Of all the low frequency Whites (6000 Pro XL, XLT, Classic ID line, etc) the QXT was the best to me. Deepest on silver and copper coins, my primary target of interest. Loved the ability to assign high tones to any zone and lows to the ones I wanted to ignore, thus I never discriminated anything out and went by ear. No faster machine out there either. They don't get any faster. My main gripe was no numerical target VDI # to split hairs on say rings and tabs easier, though it could be done via sound and VDI response. Same deal with coins. I could usually tell you if it was silver or not and what kind it was. After seeing the M6 in action I'd probably still opt for a QXT over one of those or a MXT. Had those machines been lower frequency detectors like the old Whites models they would have been great for my old coin hunting, but the higher frequency of those makes them more apt for gold ring hunting and they also have trouble penetrating the minerals in my area where as lower frequencies are more stable/get deeper in my soil. That being said, I'd still take one of those over a DFX or V3 if you were to offer me any one of them for free. Just more program tweaks to bother you without any real noticeable increase in depth ability.

All that being said, I'm a Minelab guy. Didn't want to be but Whites forced my hand on that subject. I don't need all that useless micro managment control that can end up hurting you anyway unless tweaked perfectly for a site. Even then those flagship Whites aren't going to touch a Minelab on most days. Owned quite a few Explorers over the years but they never seemed to get the kind of depth in my soil that others reported. My Sovereign GT is a different story. It goes deeper in my soil, has a more stable ID and more telling audio to targets, and of course compared to the Whites it has all the frequencies from low to high for superior sensitivity to targets in any conductivity range as well as being able to penetrate the ground better. Why Whites has abandon the low frequency line in favor of higher ones is lost to me. Better for gold rings? Yes, but worse for old coins and won't run as stable or get as deep in any kind of minerals IMO. I know I've said this a hundred times already but the aftermarket is RIPE for a 12" coil for these older low frequency detectors. Perhaps Detech will realize that and make a 12x10 for them. The only existing coil is the Hot Shot, and it didn't work on any of my QXTS and is reported to note have any great success by a lot of people. The older Whites need a DD coil in about the 12" range or so. That should push them deeper and keep them up with the competition. Well, most competition. Back to my GT...

 

[Critterhunter]

Forgot, Back to the question of this thread- By the looks of those rings a QXT should have no problem at all hitting it fine and hard at 5". Even a very thin wedding band at that depth won't be an issue for it PROVIDED you are setting the machine up properly. Don't just use those pre-built programs on ANY machine. They are terrible. Never rely on those as they often are way off in terms of how things should be set. Load the COIN only program first. That will set most things where they should. Then do what else I said before. No tracking. Ground balance properly. VCO On. Noise Reduction OFF. Sensitivity 16 to 18. Pinpoint Sens at 16. Accept ALL zones, then assign high tones to the ones you want. Zinc, Coins, Nickles when coin hunting. Foil, Tabs, Nickles when ring hunting. I've dug the thinnest of the thinnest plain gold bands with the QXT that hit fine. Most will bounce evenly between foil and the next zone up. Dig the smooth sounding ones. Ignore the scratchy, harsh, tinny, broken up ones.

 

[slingshot]

Dang! He never even mentioned the Compadre!

 

[TabWhisperer]

Monte, the connection here is that the MXT, V-3 and QXT wouldn't hit the ring until the lower end of discrimination in the iron range was used on all three detectors. I'm not sure any depth or freq. differences between any of the detectors in this test on a target that size and at that depth would make that big of a difference so there is something missing here. Expanding the lower discrimination range could improve depth as well as improve sensitivity especially to small low conductors but the ring is sufficient in size and mass that the added sensitivity at that depth shouldn't have made that big of a difference. Some of my past detectors like my old modified IDX Pro wouldn't have had a problem with a ring that size and that would be a piece of cake with my Sovereign GT. It would help to know what the ring reads in a air test because a ring that size should read at least nickle/pull tab or higher. Two rings soldered together and the shape could shift the ID lower I suppose.

The test ring reads 17 VDI on the V3i. Nickels on that one read 19.

 

[mattw]

I would expect a very low vdi. The dfx vdi's gold from about -5 to +25, depending on size. The explorer will also id gold very low.


Matt

 

[crazyman]

I'm not sure why a top end Whites would not hit the ring until you opened up the lower discrimination range. I don't own any of the Whites detectors that you used so I can't duplicate the test. I thought that maybe the two rings soldered together may have had some effect but I tested two Minelabs, a Sovereign and Advantage and a neighbors Bounty Hunter on this soldered ring which reads a little bit higher than yours and the Minelabs didn't have a problem at 5 inches even in my ground.

 

[chuck ky]

i don't remember which which model white's it was but it had a jewlry mode and a relic mode. we were hunting a jewelry competion hunt in cullman,al. i had found several rings with my fisher cz-5. the guy with the whites hadn't found any. when he tried his on the ones i had found it wouldn't pick them up in jewelry but would in relic. we thought it was because they were white gold but i'm not sure.

 

[TabWhisperer]

Just a quick update. I just discovered a problem with my wireless headphones. I decided to play around with the V3i again today and only had wired headphones handy. The detector seemed to be working better and hitting the gold ring. I tried single freq 22 and multi freq and it ran pretty darned good. I found my wireless headset to do more testing and suddenly it was running like crap again. I noticed the icon indicated the headphones weren't detected and that was confirmed in the control panel. I can't get the headphones to pair properly. They get sound but the console doesn't see them and the detector immediately gets unstable. Good batteries and all. The V3 had the batteries out for the last 5 day or so. I'll call Whites on Monday and report back.

 

[TabWhisperer]

A quick update. I have a new Gold Bug Pro. I ran it today with an 11 inch coil that I expect to use when coin & jewelry hunting. I ran the same test and this thing hits it hard every time, different angles and speeds. VDI locks at 58-59 at 5 inches below or on the surface. It was running in disc mode (41) at about 77 sens. I have not tried the 5 inch coil yet.