Which detector would you use to find Gold chains

[Waterdog]

I went out the other day detecting along a beach and I seen this guy toss something into the sand. As I got a little closer to him he told his little one "watch him find it" as he pointed to the ground where he threw it. I went over the area where he pointed to and heard a Little scratch of a sound with numbers in the Iron area. He reached over and ran his finger thru the sand. dangling from his finger was a Nice Gold Chain that I would have walked away from with the sound and numbers I had just got.
Any ideas?

 

[Elton]

Their tough to find with any detector really.. The way their assembled( Links) to go around the wrist causes the biggest issues in detecting them..

 

[tabman]

From my testing the Tesoro Compadre and the Teknetics G2 do a great job detecting fine gold chains. The performance between the two is pretty darn close.

tabman

 

[ken ward]

I am with tabman. The Tesoro compadre would be the one to use. There is a good story on the compadre over on frendyl treasure forum called " The Church of the Compadre by Digger 27. Check it out... KEN. Ind.

 

[MarkCZ]

Lobo, or a Tejon with the 5"X 10" coil.

Mark

 

[tabman]

Lobo, or a Tejon with the 5"X 10" coil.

Mark

Mark you're probably right about the Tesoro Tejon with the 5" x 10" DD coil. I don't believe I had it when I was doing some testing on a small gold necklace. I have the necklace on my desk right in front of me and the first chance that I get I'll test the Tejon against the Compadre and post the results. I don't have or ever used a Tesoro Lobo.

tabman

 

[Mega]

Finding gold chains in not a every day find is it,on the beach i would have thought would have been the most common place to find them but in all the years i have been detecting and out every week on club digs and rallies i cannot recall as such anyone finding a gold chain,plenty of other solid gold items like coins and other jewellery and artifacts but by the nature of a gold chain they are pretty hard to find.

A detector in theory usually can lock onto say a larger clasp or charm that type of thing but for some reason its something to do with the detector only seeing the links as individual items and the smaller the chain and i mean small womans chains are even harder to find,some detectors will locate chains slightly better than other,but of course i can only speak from my experience of finding gold chains in the UK.Solid gold items like rings and bracelets i would guess that most detector could stand a very good chance of nailing them if within coil distance but of course the deeper the solid gold item is then you would tend to bring in the heavy hitters.

One of the Goldbug machines would be a good choice or a detector with a smallish coil on like a Tesoro Compadre,but then as i mentioned earlier small gold chains are not your everyday find well not for me anyway,i am not saying that folks dont find them but hand on heart how many that have been detecting for decades find gold chains say every month,i doubt it very much.

Its nice when you do find gold thats for sure,and i have found some very nice finds over the years as well but its rare to find a decent item say once a year,some old timers over here in the UK have never found a gold coin in decades,so gearing up to find gold chains or trying to increase your chances of finding them is it really worth it ?? My answer would be just enjoy your style of detecting this could be beach,parks,tots lots or what but if you do hit gold in any shape it makes the old ticker miss a beat.

For specific gold hunting with a detector like say nugget hunting in Aussie land or beach detecting when the possibility of a fair amount of general finds gold are found then its worth buying the proper tool for the job as it would be worth your while,but just the odd days hunting on the beach while on vacation or tots lot then a detector with a small coil would be your best bet.

 

[Southwind]

I've done a lot of testing on different gold chains since I hunt tot lots a lot. Best buy far was the AT Pro. I'm a bit surprised with the Compadre answers. I've owned 3,two with the 5" and 1 8" coils, and none of them could hit small gold more than 4-5" deep. Most tot lots I hunt have at least 6" of fill.

 

[Southwind]

Some of the chains found with my DFX and AT Pro and tested.

 

[plidn1]

These were found recently with the MXT and M6. The longest one at 4.5" and the top center one at 7.5", both in a park using 6" coils. Bottom center came out of a tot.

Most of the chains I have found, over the years, have had clasps. Hard to tell if I hit the clasp or chain. But the long one was 4.5 grams @ 14 K and had no clasp.

 

[plidn1]

Delicate gold chains, earring studs and fasteners along with tiny gold and platinum rings are no different then finding tiny gold nuggets.
They hit in the light iron / foil range.
Most people discriminate them out while they hunt. Some detectors that run in the lower KHZ ranges will not see them at all..
Using larger coils will also ignore the tiny treasures.

 

[Tom Slick]

Fisher F19, Gold Bug Pro, and Teknetics G2 are all hot on small gold chains.

 

[mudpuppy]

I'm with Southwind on this...and a guy has to be a 'chain hunter' to find them with any repeatable success...which he has for years, testing every make and model, so I value his opinion on the subject...

One things for sure, the AtPro will hit them if a guy is hunting for that signal..I found a nice one with the F70 too, but the Pro seems to have the upper hand for some reason, I have complete confidence in it to not miss a gold chain...like I said, a guy has to really hunt chains for a living, like everytime you leave the house you are hunting chains primarily, and everything else is bycatch kind of mindset...

Its a whole specialty subset skill within this sport is gold chainhunting...lots of them see a coil, never get heard or dug if they do on account of that crappy signal...a fools errand and cruel mistress is chain hunting.... I find dirt chains too..they are out there. I guess I get maybe 3-4/yr chains either gold or silver being a relative noob coming into my 5th yr into this sport...3 gold chains in 5yrs hunting represents a lot of crappy signals that sound like a 'chain'..most certainly these were all missed by others since they were in very popular and heavily hunted locations...they are always a welcome surprise...not at all like ring hunting....You have to commit yourself to hunting for them daily, in the 'right' areas with the right gear...you see a pattern to chainfinders mentality..like Plidn posted on his results..
Mud

 

[bootyhoundpa]

Most of these items were found with an old whites 5900 over a 3 month period....ive only found a few chains over the years and none of them sounded very good as a matter of fact the best one i ever found sounded just like you described in your post - it was just a short scratchy disturbance..Fortunately i caught a glimmer of the clasp hairs sticking out of the ground... most items in this pic didnt sound all that great either.... i just happened to be hunting a drained swimming area and like mud mentioned you gotta get your head and machine set up just right... most of these signals i wouldnt even chase on land unless i had prior knowledge of them being lost prior to...[attachment 311457 20141225_0616371.jpg]

 

[Walknstik]

Most of these items were found with an old whites 5900 over a 3 month period....ive only found a few chains over the years and none of them sounded very good as a matter of fact the best one i ever found sounded just like you described in your post - it was just a short scratchy disturbance..Fortunately i caught a glimmer of the clasp hairs sticking out of the ground... most items in this pic didnt sound all that great either.... i just happened to be hunting a drained swimming area and like mud mentioned you gotta get your head and machine set up just right... most of these signals i wouldnt even chase on land unless i had prior knowledge of them being lost prior to...[attachment 311457 20141225_0616371.jpg]

Proof that some of the older units used under the right conditions set up right can still find the goodies

 

[Frank in NH]

I find the AT Gold works well for me. Small chains and the tiny gold earing backs.

 

[Jim Robertson]

With the 5 X 10 DD coil will work.

 

[REVIER]

I've done a lot of testing on different gold chains since I hunt tot lots a lot. Best buy far was the AT Pro. I'm a bit surprised with the Compadre answers. I've owned 3,two with the 5" and 1 8" coils, and none of them could hit small gold more than 4-5" deep. Most tot lots I hunt have at least 6" of fill.

Why surprised?
As great as the C is in tot lots, especially for getting close to big metal, I never expect it to go super deep.
I have other detectors for that if needed in tot lots or the dirt.
On the other hand I have found 31 gold rings, 1 medallion and 2 gold chains in 5 years hunting time and only 1 in a tot lot...all the rest of them in dirt.
Not one of them was deeper than 5", most of them were less more like the 1-3" area including 5 heavy large men's class rings.
Using these experiences I believe in my case at my sites the Compadre is still a good choice especially since it seems to hit on all kinds of chains...hard.
Not only the clasps but it can pick up some pretty thin chains even without a clasp with pretty solid and repeatable signals.
My experience only, of course.


As far as the OP about chains and coming in at iron this is exactly right if they are thin or have small clasps.
Due to eddy currents the links in chains can easily cause a diffused signal to come back to our detectors and they will be lower than where you think they would come in.
This includes silver chains and broken rings, too.
I have found many silver chains from very small and thin up to thick and not one came in in the usual silver ring area but from foil on up to zinc only except one.
That was one of my smallest and came in at iron also.
Pic below of that one.
To find chains of any kind you need to understand them and how they behave and they aren't normal.
Know and believe this and you have a good shot at finding them.
Digging some iron and foil signals also helps.

 

[Southwind]

Most of these came in in the iron range or close to it.

Here is a video I did using various pieces of gold including two chains. I wasn't impressed. Of course I did have the Compadre discrimination set at the Iron mark and was told I should turn it all the way off. LOL The AT Pro hit all of them with no special setting and at much greater depth.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcZzgB7qxsA[/video]

 

[plidn1]

Southwind,
You must have some really adverse ground where you are at.
I must say, I am very lucky.
I have very mild ground here in Sac. but I run my Padre set right on the R in iron and I would have hit all four of those targets at depth. (2 to 3"?)
Up to 6" my Padre will run right with my M6.
In fact, the Padre will hit a 3 grain gold picker on the surface.
I have been toying with picking up an AT Pro for quite a while, but I have so many machines now..........................

Excellent Vid.