First silver ring of 2015...A beauty!

Knowledge of my machines is paramount, I couldn't have done 1/4 of what I have accomplished in the last 5 years if I wasn't so anal about learning my machines as well as possible...a process that never ends for me.

As far as location....

These are just public parks, pretty large and hunted well by myself and many others, I assume.
I do have some higher percentage sites where jewelry might be found, basketball courts and grass islands dividing up large parking lots at high schools and colleges have been very good to me in the gold and silver departments, but I do seem to find an unusual amount of gold in these everyday ordinary parks I target more often than not.
I believe the reason I find more than my share has to do with 2 things.
Some luck for sure, the fact that I got my small coils over these small targets in mostly very large areas has me thanking the MD gods every time that happens.
However there is another reason.
I really love to find jewelry and gold most of all so for the past few years I have endeavored to learn all I can about that special and rare metal, exactly how it acts and behaves in the wild, its behavior under the coils of all my detectors and some out of the box methods and techniques when hunting in very heavy trash to enable me to dig less trash than ever before all to give me a slightly better shot at spending quality time finding it instead of spinning my wheels digging more trash than necessary to do it...something I think I have accomplished as the years went on.
I have actually had a few others on these forums scoff at my volume of gold targets and post I am successful at this because I just happen to hunt sites where gold can be found so anyone can have success if they do that.
They can't find gold because their parks just don't have any and I am so lucky that mine do.
I have also had a few other hunters locally talk to me at sites I hunt when they see me and tell me, (good naturedly), not to waste my time because they and many others have pounded these areas in the past and they are positive there is nothing left to find...but I still managed to find some silver and sometimes gold at a few of these so called hunted out sites.
Is it all luck, or all just due to the fact that I just happen to have better sites to hunt than others that never seem to have luck finding much gold?
I ain't buying that premise...at all.

I have done this for the last 5 years since I started, especially in the last 4 or so after I went to school and decided to specifically target and spend time learning to specialize in hunting for and actually digging this metal.
Also, I have done this in 2 completely different states with wildly different soil types, in many different cities and at parks in locations that differ immensely with regards to income levels from inner city to medium to high end...and I have done it with 4 different detectors, my Compadre with one coil, my F2 with 3 coils, my vaquero with 3 coils and now my F70 with 3 coils available to me.
I have found gold with each one of those detectors and every coil I have for each one.

It is not what I use or just the luck of the draw on where I hunt that gives me a slight edge, the numbers just don't hold up when you crunch them if you think I am just the luckiest sob on the planet.
It is what I know that makes the difference and I truly believe that and I have freely shared my knowledge on these forums for several years.
Many have tried some of my ideas and techniques and became successful in the gold biz too and publicly thanked me...something that thrills me to no end when I can help someone else enjoy this hobby more than they did before.
I do what I do to make me happy in this hobby, and just having the opportunity and good health to do it all satisfies me to no end.
If I happen to find a few great things along the way mixed into all the more mundane targets that is wonderful.
If I happen to find more than my share of gold due to knowledge, luck, moon phases, lucky rabbit's feet or whatever other reason I am going to take it all in and just smile.

I am a land pirate after all...and that is what we do.


I appreciate your being brief with me, as I am not a avid reader...smiles.

I have to agree with the "knowing your machine" statement, I have already experienced a bit learning the ropes if you will, since I started. Makes sense too, your taking the time to "study your prey" and learning all you can about gold. I can see where that would be very helpful indeed.

I suppose my being new to the hobby makes me feel like I need to hunt in areas that are more affluent and a larger population to find more gold?

Although gold is not my desired objective when I start swinging the stick, I am not focused on anything other than hearing a good tone...

But I must be honest, it sure makes me smile when I stumble across anything appearing to be gold...

thanks for your comments...

HDD
 
I appreciate your being brief with me, as I am not a avid reader...smiles.

I have to agree with the "knowing your machine" statement, I have already experienced a bit learning the ropes if you will, since I started. Makes sense too, your taking the time to "study your prey" and learning all you can about gold. I can see where that would be very helpful indeed.

I suppose my being new to the hobby makes me feel like I need to hunt in areas that are more affluent and a larger population to find more gold?

Although gold is not my desired objective when I start swinging the stick, I am not focused on anything other than hearing a good tone...

But I must be honest, it sure makes me smile when I stumble across anything appearing to be gold...

thanks for your comments...

HDD

Anything worth doing is worth doing well...and that definitely includes learning your tools as well as you possibly can in this hobby.
As far as hunting more affluent areas to find gold I would take a 180 degree turn in that kind of thinking.
There definitely could be some in those types of areas, but I have found more gold in lower and middle income areas by far than any that were higher class.
 
Call me stupid, but I believe it. I'll buy it all day long in fact. I've got one year of what I'd say is serious detecting in, more than that total, but one serious year. I hunt old coins almost exclusively. In that year I'd say about every fifth hunt I'd go in search of gold. I found two gold rings, one I dug because it was a stupid foil signal that wouldn't let me pinpoint a faint high tone I was interested in, and the other while I was gold hunting (in fact I was trying something I had picked up from one of Digger's posts). 110 wheats, 21 silvers, a couple indians, one buff, 8 sterling pieces, and 2 gold rings. I look back through DIGGER27's posts and I see lots of jewelery and not lots of old coins. I wonder what my jewelery to coin ratio would be if I, like Digger, hunted almost exclusively for gold?
 
Call me stupid, but I believe it. I'll buy it all day long in fact. I've got one year of what I'd say is serious detecting in, more than that total, but one serious year. I hunt old coins almost exclusively. In that year I'd say about every fifth hunt I'd go in search of gold. I found two gold rings, one I dug because it was a stupid foil signal that wouldn't let me pinpoint a faint high tone I was interested in, and the other while I was gold hunting (in fact I was trying something I had picked up from one of Digger's posts). 110 wheats, 21 silvers, a couple indians, one buff, 8 sterling pieces, and 2 gold rings. I look back through DIGGER27's posts and I see lots of jewelery and not lots of old coins. I wonder what my jewelery to coin ratio would be if I, like Digger, hunted almost exclusively for gold?

Hey thanks!
While I always hope for gold when I go out hunting, especially in parks where I spend most of my time, I don't exclusively hunt just for that metal.
I just dig all signals that are solid and repeating in all ranges from low to high and whatever pops up, pops up.
I have found lots of great stuff, relics, silver in many forms, tons of knick knacks like lighters, knives, watches, old toys and yes, even older coins.
I have found a small handfull of rosies and merk's, a couple of silver Washington's, several dozen wheat's and some Indian heads, a couple of Benjamin's and a Walker half and even an 1865 two cent in beautiful condition.
I started hunting in the woods last year to find more of those old coins and I enjoy that so I will do more of that this year.
I am sure there is a civil war cache of gold coins buried somewhere in one of them that I will be sure to find one day.
I do always keep alert for any signal that could be gold, however, no matter where I am and I have been doing it long enough that it has become second nature for me...it is just how I enjoy doing this hobby.
Luckily, I also found out good ways that seem to work for me to reduce the amount of trash I have to dig to find it compared to earlier in my career and still find more than enough to keep me happy.
Gotta get out to different kinds of sites and get better at that coin finding thing, though.
I got the tools to do it, I learned some new skills last year that work and should help, now I just need some good sites to get experience.
110 wheat's and 21 silver's in a year, way to go and that would be a dream year for me.
One day, hopefully, I can reach that goal and then some.
 
I don't know the mechanics of spinner rings (and I'm currently too lazy to google it....all that typing) but I would think that there would have to be some bearings involved in it somewhere? If so and it "spins like a top" it must not have been in the ground very long. I know the bearings wouldn't be made of silver. Speaking of that, what kind of tone was it? Mixed?
 
I don't know the mechanics of spinner rings (and I'm currently too lazy to google it....all that typing) but I would think that there would have to be some bearings involved in it somewhere? If so and it "spins like a top" it must not have been in the ground very long. I know the bearings wouldn't be made of silver. Speaking of that, what kind of tone was it? Mixed?

It has bearings, cogs and wheels and a tiny little steam engine that powers the whole thing.:D

Ok, kidding.
I have found a few of these things, a couple made of stainless steel, a couple others made out of whatever but not precious metal.
These are just basic rings that have a freely moving plain or decorative center band that is not attached so it can spin around the axis if you push it.
On this one the fancy part in the middle is the spinner part.
Why these were invented or why people buy these things I have no idea, maybe nervous types like to play with them or more likely they they are just odd and new and shiny and curious...and people just like that sort of thing.

This was a solid non wavering stable for sure quarter signal in tone and exact number on the screen, and solid signals are usually the only kind I dig wherever they come in from foil on up and sometimes iron in the right sites.
I was very surprised and pleased when I opened the hole and noticed this wasn't a quarter.
 
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