Tried hunting for only gold rings today.

[coach c]

Today I set my machine to descriminate everything below foil and everything from below pennies up. Hunted four hours and dug more pull tabs, foil and bottle caps than I have total all year. The only thing I found worth five cents were nickels. Going to keep trying at other locations until I find the gold.

For someone who has always hunted only for silver, I don't know if I'm willing to spend the day without at least digging some coins. However, I do think a few gold rings could change my mind.......Coach

 

[slingshot]

I tried doing that for about 2-3 months and was totally unhappy with the results. Took all the fun and mystery out of it, especially when I realized that the gold could be anywhere on the screen. To me it was a dismal, boring task. To add to the misery, the ONLY gold items I found I eyeballed.

 

[khouse]

I understand what your trying to do. But for me I have to dig the coins too. I love battery money! At least when your hunting like that notch back in the quarters and halves. 4 quarters and one nickel buys you a double hamburger at any fast food place on the $1.00 menu too!

 

[flash5153]

If I understand this correctly,guessing. You are doing this to just to see how it works out. You are brave soul.
I would never try this myself. There is too many items you could be missing that would be easily found if hunting normal, with minimal effort. Better off to make sure to dig these gold range items while teckin normal.

Had a lady tell me once(worked at a school) that she lost 2 gold rings while making snowmen with kids in yard of a school.It was spring ,snow was melting and spotty in yard just a few weeks later.Closest I ever got to teckin like you are stating. Although I knew they would be on top, I detected normal but only dug solid quarter, some dime and all gold range items. I managed to find a gold ring at 4" wt 3 diamonds, not the ones was looking for.
BTW, me and a friend hammered that yard and never found another gold ring.

Lmao at the dollar "gut plug" from McDs. I think every tecker out there has done it at least once.

 

[Flintstone]

Keep after that gold, it hit high of 1037.50 today. It don't take but one or to gold rings to pay for a new detector. The news said they think it will hit $2000.00 this year. I hunt in all medal, that way you can get the coins to. Good luck Dean

 

[coach c]

Thanks for your input. I have found a lot of old silver coins and would hate to think I am missing key coins. I plan to hunt as usual in areas that should produce old coins. In hunted out areas and new places that hold big events that brings in lots of people, I will hunt only for jewelry......Coach

 

[dahut]

' - - and remember the odds have to be there. Clive Clynic, jewelry gold miner extraordinare, suggests the number one factor is site selection.
Big John has said this, as well, and he is another bloke who knows his stuff.
In Mr Clynicks book, "Ring Enhancement Programs for the XLT," he makes these comments:

"When reading a site, first comes Potential.
A site must have a certain level of activity to contain lost jewelry items. An old site through which people only pass, may contain coins, but not much jewelry. Thus the potential is a combination of age of the site and the kind of activity which has taken place there. Sunbathing and contact sports seem to produce consistently.

Second, heavy trash is a must. Trash is the basis of our advantage and therefore wholly necessary. Given that a site has the first factor, Potential, Trash is a confirmation, a sign of people traffic. Good patient "dig anything" operators are my worst enemy. Often their numbers will actually clean out a site. But, what I count on is the opposite - the trash will prevent a site from being cleaned out.

The trash and types of trash can then tell you with a degree of precision how hard a site has been worked.
High foils, nickels and the presence of solid square tabs should be enough to encourage further work, given the other factors are there.

A good site, then, must be a place with enough action to allow for lost jewelry, but with enough trash to discourage the average hunters and those with out the latest in modern equipment and methods.

A positive attitude is also a must. Try to focus on why targets get missed, and why the possibility exists of them being lost on this or that particular hill or soccer field.
If you have ever failed to find an item you knew was lost in a small area, you will understand just how hard it is to thoroughly cover ground with a detector - and why targets get missed."

Mr Clynick's comments weren't made with Garrett detectors in mind, but they are no less pertinent. In order to up your jewelry count on land, you must seek certain kinds of trash, in concentration, in the right places.

Hey, if it was easy, everybody would do it.

 

[khouse]

That's all true. Sometimes I come home after digging all signals but iron I have a ton of trash. I dump it all in the sink just to make sure no good items get tossed. I might have 100 tabs and 50 bits of foil. My wife says "been looking for jewelry?"

 

[dahut]

That's all true. Sometimes I come home after digging all signals but iron I have a ton of trash. I dump it all in the sink just to make sure no good items get tossed. I might have 100 tabs and 50 bits of foil. My wife says "been looking for jewelry?"

Great little lady you got there, Kenny!

 

[khouse]

I think she's hoping there's a honker in the sink!

 

[woodwizard]

I dig every thing and never have to wonder what I missed-this isn't a race slow down ,enjoy life and the time spent away from your other problems-the finds are just a little extra

 

[dahut]

Thanks for your input. I have found a lot of old silver coins and would hate to think I am missing key coins. I plan to hunt as usual in areas that should produce old coins. In hunted out areas and new places that hold big events that brings in lots of people, I will hunt only for jewelry......Coach

That is the crux of it.

Even Clive Clynick admits to notching in the upper ranges to recover quarters and dimes. He allows that these are worth the trouble to recover and the possibility still exists for finding older silver coins, which is at least emotionally satisfying and rarely financially profitable.
So they are considered worthy.

Interestingly, he offers that the penny range is where $20 gold coins will appear.

He also uses some very particular equipment, because of its signal processing features. This is the Eagle/Spectrum/XLT line from White's. And while his book is published through Whites Electronics, TODAY - it was originally self-published without their endorsement. The point is that his gear was selected based on the various features offered.

It all very interesting, to say the least.

 

[Old Katz]

It sounds like you have a lot of stamina. All that effort and nothing to show
for it but a few nickels!
Someone here said, if you want to just find rings, gold rings, you have to
go where people lose them: I guess that would be high volume parks and beaches.
Even race tracks. Personally I prefer the coin and jewelery mode on the Ace.
Its disheartening to find nothing but pull tabs. At least in Jewelery and coin mode
your bound to walk away with some clad.
Katz

 

[dahut]

It sounds like you have a lot of stamina. All that effort and nothing to show
for it but a few nickels!
Someone here said, if you want to just find rings, gold rings, you have to
go where people lose them: I guess that would be high volume parks and beaches.
Even race tracks. Personally I prefer the coin and jewelery mode on the Ace.
Its disheartening to find nothing but pull tabs. At least in Jewelery and coin mode
your bound to walk away with some clad.
Katz

Add to your site selection criteria athletics and other activities that have people moving, physically.

I've been learning lately that there are also some things about trash which gives it away. Once you begin to know how trash behaves, you can look for anomalies. In essence you focus on the trash itself and it's responses. That way, when something different "pops up," it stands out. So as opposed to "digging everything," it is a very focused search discipline.

 

[Gene]

You said a lot right then David. I have only hunted sports fields for many years
that have a ton of trash in them. There may not be a foolproof way to identify all
the gold rings, but trash, or at least some of the trash, can be identified by how
your detector reacts to it. So, you are more or less identifying some of the trash
targets rather than the gold targets. Just like you said, something different than
the ordinary trash targets and you should be digging. Anything to improve the
odds somewhat rather than dig it all. Excellent post David. I agree with you
100%. Good gold hunting to you ! Gene

 

[dahut]

You said a lot right then David. I have only hunted sports fields for many years
that have a ton of trash in them. There may not be a foolproof way to identify all
the gold rings, but trash, or at least some of the trash, can be identified by how
your detector reacts to it. So, you are more or less identifying some of the trash
targets rather than the gold targets. Just like you said, something different than
the ordinary trash targets and you should be digging. Anything to improve the
odds somewhat rather than dig it all. Excellent post David. I agree with you
100%. Good gold hunting to you ! Gene

Which is why jewelry miners are considered trash hunters, by those who are looking in.
In truth, they are trash discerners, learning how to selectively pick out the possible gold targets from among the trash items.

This is some heady stuff, eh?

 

[Gene]

A couple of gold rings sure changed my way of thinking about 20 years ago.
Before that I was a just a coin hunter staying away from as much trash as possible.
Now I probably dig more trash than anything else and usually hit spots after the
coin hunters, apparently because of so few coins, have already been there.
That's fine with me though, just give me a gold ring any old day. Anyhow, about
20 years ago I decided to hunt this older football field fairly close to where I live.
This time however I was going to dig everything that I believed was not iron.
Man, what a bunch of trash. Got 2 gold rings though in my 3 hour search. Never
had that happen before and was pretty happy with that. Probably was just lucky
I thought. Next weekend gave me another gold ring in 3 hours on that same field.
Hmmmm maybe it wasn't all luck after all. I gridded that old football field and the
surrounding area and pulled a gold ring or some other gold item out of there every
3-6 hours for the next 4 seasons. I only hunted for 3 hours at a time and hunted very
carefully and dug all signals that were not iron. Yes, every one of them. Left nothing
to chance and had absolutely great results. Not saying this is for everyone or even
for you but I sure like digging gold jewelry myself and this works for me.
No expensive detector or meter required....only patience and a lot of it !
Good hunting to all that read this ! Gene

 

[Gene]

Yep, most will look at all of this and shake their head David.
For the last 20 years I have lived it, Gold jewelry is what I am
after. Period. I have hunted for 3 hours and had less than a
dozen coins to show for it. Waiting for the gold to show up.
That's what keeps me going. Not for everyone but I like it.
This is unlike a coin hunter...the competition just isn't there.
That's part of the reason I like it too. Don't have to get in
any hurry because chances are the gold jewelry will be there
for a long time. Who else is going to dig all that junk ?
Junk and gold. Yeah, I really like that combination.
How about you ?

 

[dahut]

Yep, most will look at all of this and shake their head, David. For the last 20 years I have lived it, Gold jewelry is what I am
after. Period. I have hunted for 3 hours and had less than a dozen coins to show for it. Waiting for the gold to show up.
That's what keeps me going. Not for everyone but I like it. This is unlike a coin hunter...the competition just isn't there.
That's part of the reason I like it too. Don't have to get in any hurry because chances are the gold jewelry will be there
for a long time. Who else is going to dig all that junk ? Junk and gold. Yeah, I really like that combination.
How about you ?

Well, I've only just embraced this notion of jewelry hunting as a precise and focused practice.

Before, I only knew there was an off chance that I might stumble over some piece of valuable jewelry. And it did happen. That was Phase 1 in my progress towards being a jewelry miner. But the jewelry I found was merely an adjunct to other endeavors, "icing in the cake," as some one else around here called it.

Then I hit on the idea of being a "trash hunter" and actually investing some effort in learning about the trash targets we encounter. This was Phase 2, I guess you'd say. I had been at this detecting business long enough, by then, to know that coins are easy... nearly all detectors are expressly made to find them. That's when it hit me: If coins are the easy targets, then trash might well be the real target one should learn about. I had a "light bulb" episode then, a genuine epiphany.

I mean, if you can learn trash well enough to discern it, then anything else must be, by default, a good item. This struck me as revolutionary, or at least uniquely different. I was pretty sure few others had caught on to this concept, meaning there was quite likely some virgin territory still left. The fact that this virgin ground was no farther than the nearest athletic field or sunbathing spot only made it more appealing. I like to think that I occasionally hit on moments of brilliance... well, I have myself convinced of this, at least.

So now I am into Phase 3. I am a firm believer in the right tool for the job. When it comes to jewelery hunting in the trash, the more data you have about a target under the coil the better. So lets just say I'm following in the footsteps of one of the Masters of the Trade, Mr. Clynick. None of that re-inventing the wheel stuff for me, no sir.
I will soon be the owner of a very different sort of tool for me, one that has the potential to be a genuine trash discernment tool, par excellence. Gone will be the day of digging every piece of trash, on the off chance that it might be a goodie. Rather, the goal will be to dig those pieces of "trash" that hold up under analysis, and have the weighted potential to be something else entirely.

So there it is in a nutshell - my progress from detector hack to neophyte jewelry miner. Will all this pan out? Will I have the diligence to stick it out and can I make the right site choices? I think the answer is "yes" to all of these, since I know it has already been done. This isn't pie in the sky, but proven methodology. It is only up to me to take my knocks and learn the right lessons.

 

[slingshot]

Interesting, Dahut. What kind of analyses do you go thru-sound, steady ID of the target, etc? I'm all ears-I mean eyes.