In an attempt to maybe, hopefully, end your frustration a few ideas for hunting for gold in the dirt....
Feb 15th of next year will mark the 5th year from the day I entered this hobby. In that time I have managed to find 31 gold targets.
2 chains, one large religious medallion, the rest rings including 5 large class rings.
I consider myself blessed, but over time I have also put much thought and effort into finding gold and that has had a definite bearing on that number.
I found them with 4 different detectors from low end on up, I came to realize it is not the tool you use that will give you the best shot at finding this elusive metal but more about understanding your detector well, having the knowledge about how gold acts and presents itself in the wild and most importantly site selection and how to read them and what you do when you find a good one.
Luck also plays a part, don't ever discount that in this hobby, but if you do come across gold in an odd or wide open area you must have the knowledge
to suspect and recognize it and the mind set to dig it.
I suspect many hunters have come across golden targets but they are all still laying in the ground because they were never suspected or recognized as a possible gold target and were never dug.
It started out slow in the gold biz for me, in the first few years I was lucky enough to find a small handful and that was due mostly to luck, but since this is the target I love to dig the most I studied where I found them and the put some ideas and theories together over time.
As I put these theories into practice the gold finds increased in volume and consistency...when I am on my game hunting mostly public parks as I tend to do I now seem to average about 1 gold target every 2 months.
In 2013 I decided that was the year I would set a goal and really try to find this metal more than ever before and put most of my effort and knowledge into that task and targeted more high percentage sites than usual to find it.
I was rewarded with 12 gold targets, an average of 1 per month, and it might be 13 because I still need to test a suspicious old earring I also found.
This is what I know and how I do this.
Gold is the ninja of all metals...it is usually disguised as trash of all kinds.
I have only had 1 or 2 gold targets that showed up as a dead on nickel signal...all others have been in trash areas in numbers and areas 99.9% of the time for me including many others in the nickel area but at numbers that usually turns out to be trash.
In the case of small pieces of micro jewelry like studs or very thin chains it could be no higher than iron, the rest usually come come in at all other ranges from foil on up into the lower zinc area as in the case of the larger class ring types.
Not zinc areas where Lincoln cents dwell but lower in areas that is usually trash like can slaw.
What kind of gold, purity and alloys, will make a difference along with size.
Someone I knew dug a very tiny gold ring, under normal circumstances something of this size in 10k or 14k would have come in no higher than a foil signal.
In this case the ring was very old and marked .999...as close to pure 24k as you can get.
This one was a solid dime signal because of that.
I have dug larger white gold rings than others made of yellow gold of comparative or even larger sizes.
My larger size yellow gold rings came in as nickel or tabs mostly, the even larger than those white gold pieces came in as lower foil because of the alloys.
All my gold targets were fairly shallow...5" or less in depth.
Because of this most were actually pretty solid targets with very little jumping around even though they presented themselves as definite trash in numbers and tones.
Deeper gold targets can and may act very differently no matter what tool or coil you use to find it.
A couple targets were masked very well by different kinds of trash in close proximity and started out as very iffy signals but I stopped to spend some time to investigate these signals a little more closely.
I maneuvered my coils around the area, and this includes larger coils and not just my snipers, until I was able to get even a hint of a more solid and consistent signal even if that was fleeting and not 100%.
If I did I dug them and even though lots of times it turned out to be trash between other trash, a few times I was surprised with gold instead.
This is why you must learn your detector, any detector you swing, as well as possible and how it works and acts...also a major factor if you want to be successful in the gold game.
I
do not dig every signal I come across to find gold or any of the other coin or silver targets I aim for.
Digging 100% of the signals you come across will give you a much better chance of finding great targets in any given area, this is a numbers game and that is a sure way to increase your successful numbers for sure, but I just don't have the time and/or patience for doing it that way.
In the last few years I have settled into digging mostly just the solid signals I come across, sometimes a few of the iffy ones if they sound really good and the site conditions call for it, but mostly just the more solid ones because that is how most gold targets seemed to act for me in my experience so far.
By learning my detectors well I have eliminated taking the time to dig about 80-85% of the trash signals I come across and have slowly gained enough confidence in my skills ability so the "what ifs" no longer bother me if I leave something in the ground.
I still may miss something good doing it this way, you never know 100% what you are swinging over until you dig it, but my numbers of good targets dug percentage wise are more than good enough for me and I am very happy spending my time digging the more possible good targets than wasting my time digging probable trash.
This hobby is all about the numbers for me...numbers and percentages have ruled every part of my life and affect how I act and what I do for as long as I can remember.
This is me, others may think and hunt differently and that is fine...there is no wrong way to do this hobby when you do it
any way that makes you happy.
Site selection.
A few of my gold targets were just out in parks in wide open areas and I was just lucky to get my coil over them especially since I was using small sniper coils a few times in very huge and wide open areas.
I definitely believe that would be credited totally to that luck thing coming into play.
Many more were found in sites I have discovered were more high percentage areas when it comes to the possibility of hidden precious metals.
This can be different for every hunter depending on where they live and what goes on at different sites regarding the population and use.
Many hunt sports fields and are very successful at it.
Not just the fields but the sidelines where spectators tend to gather.
A friend found a 14k necklace with an 18k ring attached on the sideline of a kids soccer field.
Others have found and posted about some great gold finds at sites like these, also.
They have never been fantastic for me, but I have found silver rings and one of my class rings on the sidelines of soccer and football fields in the past.
Areas around tennis courts could be good, the problem I find at these sites is those stupid tops off of tennis ball cans infesting these places.
All usually a nice high tone signal, some brands could be right up into definite coin numbers and I hate the ones where I find those kinds.
I have no idea why people would just pull these off and throw them on the ground but they do in very high numbers.
Not my most favorite place to hunt because of this but there still could be jewelry around these things and I have found a few silver rings at a few courts.
As far as quality precious metal jewelry I have determined that if I want the best chance to find it I zero in on 3 types when I can and it has proved to be a wise choice...for me.
#3 are areas near picnic pavilions.
They are usually extremely trashy, but in public parks this is one area where people tend to spend time.
The places where the most people hang out is also the place that has the most trash...but also could hold the most lost jewelry.
Several silver rings and a few gold ones were plucked from the trash in this type of area when I hunted them...including another one of my class rings.
#2 is parking lot dividers, the kind that are filled with pebbles, chips or especially grass dividing up large parking lots.
This is thinking outside the box, it was total luck that I discovered how much some of these things could hold, but after that I targeted these whenever I come across them.
Any public place can hold a lot of targets because people pulling out their keys walking over these things tend to cause them to pull other things out of those pockets, and for some reason they lose all kinds of jewelry stepping over these, also.
Areas near any parking spots at public sites can be lumped into these too.
I have found the best sites like these tend to be at high schools and colleges, lots of the students will sit or hang out on these things before and after class, but I have found a lot of great targets and coins in parks and other sites with parking lots divided by these things.
A huge amount of coins, all kinds of junk jewelry, tools, pocket knives, lighters and a slew of other cool targets were found when I hunted these things because most of the time these are virgin sites.
Also a couple of very nice size silver necklaces, about a dozen silver rings or more and 3 gold rings were found in these things by myself so far.
These also tend to be very trashy but all high percentage jewelry sites usually are.
#1 for me are the perimeters of basketball courts.
The older and the trashier the better.
I guess you can lump volleyball courts in with these because the way people behave around these is similar, but for me I have never found great jewelry at one of these...yet.
That could change.
The reason there can be so much jewelry around these things is because of what the players do at these sites.
They make a pile of their coats, shirts and what have you, and then sometimes they
TAKE OFF THEIR JEWELRY AND PUT THEM IN THESE PILES!
Trust me, they do.
Sometimes these players tend to forget that jewelry is in those piles so when they pick up their belongings the jewelry drops out right there or somewhere on the paths that lead back to the nearest parking lots.
More than 1/3rd of my gold target total has been found around these things, more silver rings than I can remember and some very nice and heavy silver necklaces too, among other jewelry like small rings and pendants in both silver and gold left behind by girlfriends of these players.
Not only do numbers and percentages rule my life but I have always been a student of human behavior...in this hobby that can be a big asset.
When I first hunt these court sites I usually cherry pick all the solid signals I can find...both coins and trash.
If I find some good targets I will revisit these things because once through will never be enough because of masking and the shear amount of trash you can find at these things.
All of them old and new can be trashed out, but you haven't lived until you hunt a 50 or 70 year old court and discover the unbelievable level of trash you might find.
If I find a good one I usually over time do come back over and over, hit these sites from more than one angle and eventually dig all signals I come across because masking is such a problem at these things...more of a problem than many suspect.
That masking problem can be true for other trashy sites too, or even a lonely good signal hidden by something else in wide open areas.
It can happen, don't ever think it can't.
The universe is not all that charitable to us that do this hobby...if it was easy to find all the great targets out there all of us would posses much more than we already have.
If there ever was a site I decide to dig ALL signals this would be one if I suspect it is a good one.
A ton of work, you have to wrap your head around doing this to be successful and that ain't easy,but the rewards can be great.
2 times I did go back and dig every blasted signal I came across at 2 different courts I suspected could be great.
One was not super old but a friend found a silver ring in a small grassy area between 2 courts and I found a gold ring on one hunt, on the next hunt I went back, used the sniper coil dug everything I came across and found 2 more gold rings.
The second one was a very old court where I had already found a big silver ring and many coins but also where every hole had at least 2-3 or more targets in it...mostly trash, but again my persistence rewarded me with 2 gold rings on one hunt because I put in the work.
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=125006
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=155174
One thing about extreme trash sites like these courts, picnic pavilions and others...
Sometimes other hunters attempt to hunt them but the daunting amount of trash to pick through and/or dig makes them think differently.
For this reason I consider them almost virgin sites and many on this forum can attest that these can be very difficult, frustrating and labor intensive to hunt...but most every one that found precious metal around them will also say the effort was ultimately well worth it.
"Fortune Favors the Bold".
If you took the time to read through this novel and consider trying a few of these ideas I hope they might work as well for you as they have for me over the last few years.
Anything I can do to help the next hunter, any hunter, find that next great thing it is my honor and privilege to attempt to do that.
HH
Below is all the gold I have found and the signals and areas I had to dig to find them.
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