What DON'T you dig???

Yeah BCD, you have a few years behind the coil now and you are thinking strategically concerning Gold...Thats good!

Well, the Waterbabies of course dig it all or most of it all, high iron and foil on up..Same with the Totlotters...Both of these kinds of hunters find Gold...

DIRT Gold in parks/sportsfields/etc..Is the Hardest Gold to find! That said, theres a few members here that seem to get more than their fair share, and you can study their posts to try to pattern their success in your AO...Study their posts, apply in field, modify as necessary to suit your Area......

Some do it by pulling sheer volumn of numbers in likely gold bearing locations, some evaluate the crispness of the signal like you mentioned...All evaluate a site based upon what the junk is telling them, and sharpen up in the right locations...

You want to find that 60's-70's dirt that saw a lot of activity...Lots of Gold was worn back then and people recreated outside a lot more than they do now a days, they didnt have access for calling in the 'Ringfinders" either...so gold lost back then was pretty much good and lost...

Didja see that big Gold chain Detector got out of a totter yesterday? Heres a guy with 40yrs behind the coil, massive amounts of noteworthy finds in a cross spectrum of genres, yet he kicks some chips and up comes that monster!.... Gold is a cruel Mistress!!

Take this for what it's worth as I don't have a year yet under my belt, but this is what I do. Whatever site I'm at will usually vary a little in the TDI #'s, but if I dig a few modern pulltaps I notice the numbers coming up...usually 33-34 on my F70. I then won't dig those #'s UNLESS it's a solid 33 or 34. I really look for the oddball numbers that are really solid and don't vary...like 39 which was my first gold ring. I don't think I've ever dug a pulltab that was a solid 39 or even one that varied a number or two off 39. So once you see what pulltabs are ringing up in that particular site with that particular mineralization you'll have a clue as to what not to dig. I say this because pulltab #'s will change slightly in different soils at least on my F70.

Also don't forget the zinc zone. This can be a little trickier because zincolns will ring up differently depending on how corroded they are. For example (again with my F70), a new zincoln that's still shiny and not corroded at all will usually ring up around 61 give or take 1. Corroded ones will ring up lower and almost always be more jumpy especially the deeper ones. I've had corroded zincolns come in as low as the low 50's like 52 or so and some really bad ones in the upper 40's. But what you have to look for especially with gold rings is the solidness of the number. One of my other gold rings came in at a solid 56 from all directions...I dug it because it was solid and just about any zincoln will be jumpy when down in that range.

So, look for solid numbers that don't ring up in the usually pulltab or zinc range. Those old ring style beavertail tabs still fool me as they will usually ring up solidly because of the ring shape...especially if the beavertail part was folded around the ring and these come in at oddball numbers like 40 or 42 depending on the size of the ring part.

Hope this helps. I'm fairly new to this stuff, but I do pay careful attention to what I dig and try to analyse what's going on with the numbers. And one more thing for those that use the F70...there's a bar graph on the display that's called a confidence meter. Just about any ring I've ever found, including old pulltab rings will come in with 3 or 4 bars on the confidence meter. Four bars being the most. So, when I see 4 bars, I dig no matter what the numbers are.

All I can tell you is hunting for gold is a crapshoot...without X Ray vision you just never know till you dig it and that is any and all targets.
That being said I am a dedicated gold hunter and found my share in my earlier dig most signals days but over the past few years I changed.
My hunting time was reduced after I got married and my energy levels were being depleted quickly plus my patience for digging mounds of garbage just fell off a cliff to low levels.
I still wanted to find great treasure including gold but I just couldn't do it the same way anymore if I wanted to stay in the hobby.
What to do...
In my case it became a case of heavy education and gaining knowledge.
Knowledge about gold and how it behaves in the ground under all kinds of situations and knowledge about how my detectors behave when swinging over targets both good and bad.
I hunted, I listened to tones and watched numbers closely on the screen units or listened to how targets came in while manipulating my disc knobs on my Tesoros then I dug targets and tried to match up the behavior I observed to the targets I dug exhibiting that behavior...and I did all this a lot more intently than ever before.
As time went on my confidence grew as I slowly cut out even considering digging any targets that I saw exhibiting trashy behavior...and those "what if" feelings faded away.
In time I cut down on the volume of trash I dug by about 80% so I was happy and much more rested but something else happened along the way...my volume of good targets I recovered soared including gold.
I am not saying anyone else should use this high percentage method but only that it seems to work for me more than well and has been for the last several years because I still do it this way.
Can I miss something great that has more iffy behavior that doesn't fit into my now more strict digging rules, sure, but honestly it doesn't affect me at all because my track record is so surprisingly good and I just figure what I don't know I am missing I won't let bother me and if I miss something on one hunt I have a shot at finding it on the next one.

Back in 2013 I used this exact method all year with all my detectors, an F2, a Compadre, a Vaquero and for one month a new F70.
Limited time with the Vaq and the Compadre and found no gold with the little "C" but plenty of silver jewelry with it when I did use it, I found one gold ring with the Vaq however on one of the few hunts I had with it, one with the F70 and 10 with the F2...a total of 12 gold targets that came in at foil up to the zincoln area, all using this high percentage method and all the time avoiding that same 80% of the trash I came across.
That was double the gold I found any other year digging way more junk.
It helped that I noticed and learned that most trash was just usually way more jumpy and outside my digging rules but every one of the gold targets acted stable even around tons of trash and well within those strict digging rules so they got dug.
None were deeper than about 5-6", deep gold might act way different and could have been missed for all I know but 98% of all targets I have ever dug usually were 6" or less everywhere I have hunted so I just assumed if there was gold around I had a better than average chance of finding it using my methods.
Again, what I miss I don't know about so I just don't care about it either...but that is just my mindset.

After 2013 I continued to use this same method and continued to find more than my share of gold and all kinds of other great treasure so I still do it that way with confidence.

That is how I do it, I learned about gold and how it acts and even more importantly learned my tools more than well...and then some, and how different targets behave using any of them at the deepest levels possible.
Still learning and honing this method too, that never ends for me.
After all just getting out there and hunting is fun but finding some great treasure while doing it is even better.

I usually dig based upon frequency response when I pin point. If 2.5khz and 7.5khz are hitting the hardest, I will dig it for sure. Anything in coin range that has 22.5khz hitting the hardest I usually ignore as it is a bottle cap or other such nonsense.

I use to ignore the 48-50 range because that is where the pull tabs and decomposing zincolns live. But, something changed my view on that.

Was at my parents house for father's day and he happened to have a pretty worn type II three cent silver piece. I had never run my coil over one of them, let alone ever held one. I brought it outside, put it on the ground and ran my coil over it from different angles and different heights. From things I had read, I was expecting it to ring up ~35 or so. But, it consistently rung up between 48-50. So, I am now going to dig those signals every time, so long as the the frequency response is correct. I hunt a number of places where three centers are not outside the realm of possibilities. I am wondering now if I have passed one or two by?

I definitely do not dig what I expect to be foil signals. I know I can be missing small rings, but, at this point, just don't care. Finding rings is nice and all, but, I am looking for the coins.

Something to consider and also drive you crazy concerning this topic...A nice solid 14k 6gr+ ring is one thing, worth a bit of money...crisp signal, no variance at all....But Chains? Oh Lord! Even a massive chain will not give you any kind of familiar or "DigMe" signal!

You gotta know theres a lot of chains both in Gold and Silver that have certainly had a coil or two overhead! What a washed out and crappy signal! Damn near impossible! No crisp ping concerning chains whatsoever! Even the massive ones...

Dont get me started on the open filligree -3gr 10k rings! Which are of course the most common drops... Another crappy signal, and as far as value, about worthless! Then theres Broken bands and mower strikes to consider!

Fergeddaboutit! Its a fools errand hunting for Dirt Gold...a guy can make pay cladstabbing easy, and occasionally get a gold bycatch..that might be the best strategy?.

BufordCityDawg said:

... and ending up with a LOT of trash. Should I start weeding out signals where the numbers are in the gold zone but jumpy? Are there ways to dig less trash or am I just going to have to accept all of the trash if I want to find any of the gold...

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BCD: There is not any magic tone-fomula, or TID/VID systems to hone in on gold. About the best you can do is ring-enhancement programs, which knock out the most recurring types of aluminum (round tabs, smaller foil, etc...). But rest assured you will still dig junk (esp. if you're in a zone where can-slaw exists), and rest assured you will still miss some gold.

So ... if gold rings are your objective: Why are you knocking yourself silly in junky turf in the first place ? The trick to finding gold jewelry isn't to "dig junk till your arms fall off", or "figure out where it reads on tones/TID's". Instead the trick is LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION. Go to where gold ratios are better, in the first place.

Swim beaches are the best. Or if you have no swim lakes or ocean beaches near you, then certain type land sites are better ratios: sand volleyball courts, mud-wrestle pits, grassy lawns that surround swimming pools, ski-lift lines @ summer melt, etc.... If you MUST hit turf to find jewelry, then avoid turf where eating/drinking occur. Because, go figure: That's the instant recipe for aluminum (tabs for drinks, foil for foods, etc...). So instead hit frolicking sports turf (soccer, etc...) where there is not normally eating/drinking/BBQ type activities/usage.

Depends on the day, the detector I am using that day, the history of the location, temperature outside and location of what I dig that day.

I, on the other hand, head to the trashiest areas, I am never knocking myself silly, don't dig till my arms fall off, noticed behavior in the tones and ID's that gives me an edge no matter what others seems to believe, don't use hardly any disc and yet still find gold.
If I miss some so what...I still find plenty and enjoy myself every minute while doing it.

BufordCityDawg said:

As I mature as a metal detector, I try to re-evaluate my style and make sure I am maximizing my good finds and minimizing my 'bad signal' digs. I ask your advice today to assist me in this endeavor.

Lately, I've been digging pretty much every signal in the gold zone and ending up with a LOT of trash. Should I start weeding out signals where the numbers are in the gold zone but jumpy? Are there ways to dig less trash or am I just going to have to accept all of the trash if I want to find any of the gold.

Thanks for your input.

BCD

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Best advice I can give is to get out every gold piece of anything you have available, and toss it on the ground. Then grab a bunch of trash and put it out there with it. LISTEN to how the signals are different, and adjust your digging accordingly.

While I cannot differentiate between SOME aluminum and scrap signals from gold, there's a whole bunch out there that I can conclusively say "that ain't gold."

Sometimes, too, the realization it's not gold isn't at the main rig, but when I bend to check the signal with my pin pointer. A gold ring at 2" is going to create a massive field disruption of the pinpointer... a small chip of foil will not, but it can sure sound good at the main rig.

Use both tools to help ID what is gold and what isn't. Then have someone go out and mix up your field and do it with your eyes closed. You'll be surprised at how quickly you'll be "right" on the gold.

All of my statements and suggestions all get fundamentally boiled down to this, though:
When in doubt, dig it

But dang if there's not a lot you can skip. Also note that any particular fields mineralization will affect how some targets show up. For example, in one field, quarters will show a solid 87 every time. in another they can be as low as 85. Something about the ground changes things. When you first start out in a field, dig a bunch of signals to recalibrate your brain, too. Several times, I've found gold and once, platinum, on first signals in hunts, and several times it's been within the first 10 signals pulled. It's best to grab them all when you show up.

Cheers,

Skippy

I avoid digging anything super deep or super large. Since I mostly dig public places, I don't want it to appear as if I'm digging a hole to China.

I do try to dig trash though, if only to 'clear the area' so I can see the good finds being masked by the junk.

DIGGER27 said:

I, on the other hand, head to the trashiest areas, I am never knocking myself silly, don't dig till my arms fall off, noticed behavior in the tones and ID's that gives me an edge no matter what others seems to believe, don't use hardly any disc and yet still find gold.
If I miss some so what...I still find plenty and enjoy myself every minute while doing it.

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Amen to that. You just cannot beat observation.

Years ago, in a former career, I was an elementary school teacher. On my first day teaching, the teacher next door came in and said this, "You need to figure out what kind of teacher you're going to be, NOW, not years from now. Ask yourself, 'am I going to be a teacher with 30 years of experience, or a teacher with 30 one-year experiences?'"

It was a powerful statement/question that I've applied to a lot I've done in my life.

Metal detecting is no different.

*gets onto tree stump for some preaching*

Everyone, if you're just out swinging and digging every beep without attempting to get BETTER at it, each and every time, you're losing the benefit of cumulative experience! You're going out and having individual detecting experiences, and not getting any better at learning your signals.

After over 1000 hours on my AT Pro, I can very conclusively state that I hear things and subtleties that others miss. Especially those occasional detectorists, who may be using an AT Pro, but don't understand what they hear. I also have discovered this information is not fully transferable, meaning one cannot "teach" the signals. They are SUBTLE, and each object you detect has to be evaluated by your brain on the spot. There's patterns, for sure, but you eventually will get exceptional at picking out what is trash and what is not, but it's not something you can readily explain. It's SUBTLE. And those subtle differences can make all the difference when trying to decide whether or not it's trash or treasure. Based on the volume of treasure I pull, I'm confident I'm not missing too much, but I'm skipping a LOT of trash. Others who came before, clearly skipped the treasure, thinking it was trash, or simply discriminated out all trash, focusing on the high tones of silver (which has far less trash in that range). Time & effort only equal experience if you're LEARNING from your time and effort. Every object, try to guess what it is. Learn from when you're incorrect...

There's no substitute for knowledge. And a great portion of our knowledge comes from experience.

*steps off stump*

Digger27, hats off to you. Behavior in Tones and ID to give an edge. WELL said.

Well said!

Skippy

What DON'T I dig? Iron - If I can help it. I discrim to 32 on the ATG but sometimes lower and dig all signals above. no iron here is worth the effort of recovery. It is the non ferrous treasures that I'm interested in.

Tom_in_CA said:

So ... if gold rings are your objective: Why are you knocking yourself silly in junky turf in the first place ? The trick to finding gold jewelry isn't to "dig junk till your arms fall off", or "figure out where it reads on tones/TID's". Instead the trick is LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION. Go to where gold ratios are better, in the first place.

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That brings its own set of challenges!!! Any place around here that gets high traffic and has a high chance of gold gets hit a TON. I do as much of that as I can, but it is total luck of the draw as it of someone has come by and cleaned up all of the targets.

BCD

Tom_in_CA said:

BCD: There is not any magic tone-fomula, or TID/VID systems to hone in on gold. About the best you can do is ring-enhancement programs, which knock out the most recurring types of aluminum (round tabs, smaller foil, etc...). But rest assured you will still dig junk (esp. if you're in a zone where can-slaw exists), and rest assured you will still miss some gold.

So ... if gold rings are your objective: Why are you knocking yourself silly in junky turf in the first place ? The trick to finding gold jewelry isn't to "dig junk till your arms fall off", or "figure out where it reads on tones/TID's". Instead the trick is LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION. Go to where gold ratios are better, in the first place.

Swim beaches are the best. Or if you have no swim lakes or ocean beaches near you, then certain type land sites are better ratios: sand volleyball courts, mud-wrestle pits, grassy lawns that surround swimming pools, ski-lift lines @ summer melt, etc.... If you MUST hit turf to find jewelry, then avoid turf where eating/drinking occur. Because, go figure: That's the instant recipe for aluminum (tabs for drinks, foil for foods, etc...). So instead hit frolicking sports turf (soccer, etc...) where there is not normally eating/drinking/BBQ type activities/usage.

Click to expand...

Tom told me this 2 years ago, and my gold ring find average literally tripled. Totally changed the way I view potential digging areas. I now longer view them as fields that need cleaning, but rather, fields that need gleaning. See my ring post for my observations on where I feel gold is best found in parks and schools. LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION. Tom's the man.

All my best observations on where to find gold on land in parks and schools can be found here:
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=245454

BTW, I've found 3 more gold rings since posting that 10 weeks ago. My average is still holding nicely. It DOES require me finding new spots, though!

Skippy

Skippy SH13 said:

Best advice I can give is to get out every gold piece of anything you have available, and toss it on the ground. Then grab a bunch of trash and put it out there with it. LISTEN to how the signals are different, and adjust your digging accordingly.....

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skippy, just be fore-warned that ....... sure : There will be a "difference" between each aluminum item you toss on the ground vs each gold item you toss on the ground. And at first blush you'll think "aha! there's a difference! " But the devil-is-in-the-details:

SO TOO will there "be a difference" between each aluminum item you compare. And SO TOO will there "be a difference" between each two gold items you compare, etc....

Best bet is , as we agree: location location location. I have yet to see anyone do any better than random chance (or simple ring-enhancement TID programs) when it comes to angling junky park turf for gold. They might SAY there is a "tone difference". But when you ask them for ratios or proof, all you'll hear is the sound of crickets . Doh!

On the beach, in the water or on a permission yard and I'll dig about anything that's not iron...but at the parks, schoolyards and ballfields it's mostly high tones, the silver sounds I listen for...and here depth is important. I don't chase shallow clad or Felix pennies hunting public places, but will dig a clean sounding mid tone when I come across one.

Tom_in_CA said:

skippy, just be fore-warned that ....... sure : There will be a "difference" between each aluminum item you toss on the ground vs each gold item you toss on the ground. And at first blush you'll think "aha! there's a difference! " But the devil-is-in-the-details:

SO TOO will there "be a difference" between each aluminum item you compare. And SO TOO will there "be a difference" between each two gold items you compare, etc....

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No tom, you're missing my point. I'm only saying you can rule out SOME of the targets. Quite a few pop-tabs and other things you CANNOT. It's why you need to practice. I can most certainly rule out gum wrappers these days...unless they are folded up into those nice little dense squares. SOME of the foil I can rule out, SOME I cannot, and I simply have to dig them. Same goes with SOME aluminum shards. Sometimes its the size of the object in the ground (using edge bouncing), and sometimes it's just by the way the signal sounds. But for folks who don't have dozens of golds found, and don't have a clue how gold behaves compared to trash, they NEED to go out and toss their gold on the ground and LISTEN. They'll discover SOME signals, they might be able to rule out, while SOME signals they cannot. When in doubt, dig it up.

To be clear, I dig plenty of pop tabs and aluminum along with my gold... but I can tell you I dig a whole lot LESS than I used to, while my gold finds are staying nice. But ultimately, you have to get your coil OVER the gold before you can find it. Hence. Location Location Location.

Tom_in_CA;2794741 Best bet is said:

SAY[/I] there is a "tone difference". But when you ask them for ratios or proof, all you'll hear is the sound of crickets . Doh!

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Yep. It's why I spend Winters around here gridding the big "random chance parks" the find rate per day hunted is WAY less, but there's still some random drops out there.

There is a tone difference between trash you can rule out, and trash you cannot. That's all I'm saying.

Oh, and I'm also saying that sometimes I cannot rule it out by tone difference, but I CAN rule it out with the pinpointer behavior. I'm saying that, too.

Cheers!

Skippy

Captain Silver said:

On the beach, in the water or on a permission yard and I'll dig about anything that's not iron...but at the parks, schoolyards and ballfields it's mostly high tones, the silver sounds I listen for...and here depth is important. I don't chase shallow clad or Felix pennies hunting public places, but will dig a clean sounding mid tone when I come across one.

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A half dozen of my nice gold rings came up in the Felix penny range, my friend. so do about HALF of my silver rings.

Just sayin, you could be missing BIG gold by passing on the small pennies.

Cheers,

Skippy

NCtoad said:

Take this for what it's worth as I don't have a year yet under my belt, but this is what I do. Whatever site I'm at will usually vary a little in the TDI #'s, but if I dig a few modern pulltaps I notice the numbers coming up...usually 33-34 on my F70. I then won't dig those #'s UNLESS it's a solid 33 or 34. I really look for the oddball numbers that are really solid and don't vary...like 39 which was my first gold ring. I don't think I've ever dug a pulltab that was a solid 39 or even one that varied a number or two off 39. So once you see what pulltabs are ringing up in that particular site with that particular mineralization you'll have a clue as to what not to dig. I say this because pulltab #'s will change slightly in different soils at least on my F70.

Also don't forget the zinc zone. This can be a little trickier because zincolns will ring up differently depending on how corroded they are. For example (again with my F70), a new zincoln that's still shiny and not corroded at all will usually ring up around 61 give or take 1. Corroded ones will ring up lower and almost always be more jumpy especially the deeper ones. I've had corroded zincolns come in as low as the low 50's like 52 or so and some really bad ones in the upper 40's. But what you have to look for especially with gold rings is the solidness of the number. One of my other gold rings came in at a solid 56 from all directions...I dug it because it was solid and just about any zincoln will be jumpy when down in that range.

So, look for solid numbers that don't ring up in the usually pulltab or zinc range. Those old ring style beavertail tabs still fool me as they will usually ring up solidly because of the ring shape...especially if the beavertail part was folded around the ring and these come in at oddball numbers like 40 or 42 depending on the size of the ring part.

Hope this helps. I'm fairly new to this stuff, but I do pay careful attention to what I dig and try to analyse what's going on with the numbers. And one more thing for those that use the F70...there's a bar graph on the display that's called a confidence meter. Just about any ring I've ever found, including old pulltab rings will come in with 3 or 4 bars on the confidence meter. Four bars being the most. So, when I see 4 bars, I dig no matter what the numbers are.

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Toad - I use the F5 and your numbers are the same as mine. I do the same thing.

You in North Carolina?