You will definitely find gold in the pull tab range, also much lower and much higher. Gold is much harder to identify through ferrous and conductive numbers because every piece rings in different. Silver coins is different, much easier to call before you dig. There's no digging smarter when it comes to gold IMO. The dirt gold game is not easy, your much better off going to the ocean or water in general in search of gold. Chances of gold skyrocket at sites like these. Happy hunting!
where I hunt on land I really don't expect high chances of finding gold jewelry, but I do expect massive amounts of pull tabs. The general philosophy among MD'ers, is to dig pull tabs to find gold. If that weren't the case, nobody would dig signals that were dead-on for pull tabs. But when we have additional info being given to us via the machine in the form of not just a conductive number, but also a ferrous number, and that ferrous number is far off (or off enough) from a pull tab number, then we should dig it. But if the Fe & Co numbers are right on the bull's eye for a pull tab (Fe 09-10 Co 08), should it be dug, or should we trust the machine that it is an undesirable target? That's a personal choice, but if, as in my case, I'm in a park that has heavy pull tab trash, I'm going to trust my machine. That's one of the reasons why we bought the 'advanced technology' of the Exp/E-T/CTX, isn't it? I think if an exp user is only looking at the smartfind screen, they're only using half of what they paid for.
As for beach hunting, I dig everything, no question.
The problem with finding gold is that there are so many different ways in which 10k, 14k, and 18k gold is alloyed. Some of these alloys are more conductive than others. Add to it that the geometry of the object will have an impact on this as well. Thicker rings will be more conductive than thinner rings.
So, as those above has stated, gold will be all across the board.
Some 14k gold is alloyed with just gold, silver, and copper. Some is alloyed Gold/silver/copper/zinc (this will ring up lower than the gold/silver/copper alloy).
Things get crazier with colored gold (white, green, blue) due to the addition of things like palladium, nickel, iron, aluminum, and lead/cadmium (for real low end stuff).
Red/Rose colored gold is still just gold/copper/silver.
I agree that he conductive reading of gold can and will be all over the place, but the conductive is only half of the information when your machine also gives ferrous readings. I'm sure if I had an AT Pro, or any other machine that only provided conductive numbers, I would be more likely to dig a pull tab signal (and more tired). As an example, if machine A reads pull tabs as a '23', and that's the only info available, I agree that in most cases it should be dug because gold could fall anywhere. But when your machine is giving you more information on the target, you can make a more educated decision/guess as to whether or not to dig.
To expand -
Imaginary Machine A has proven that gold can ring up anywhere from 01 to 99 on it's VDI scale, based on numerous factors. Machine A also has always shown that every pull tab of style X has rung up at '23'. But because it's possible for gold to ring in at 23, you still should dig every signal that reads a '23'.
Imaginary Machine B (aka Explorer SE Pro) has shown that it is unlikely that gold will ring at the same Fe & Co numbers as a pull tab. It may have a Co of 07 (although reports show only 2 gold jewlery pieces found with this Co number) the additional ferrous number can be far enough away from a pull tab to warrant digging. Whereas if it rings up as solid pull tab number, why would you dig it? Considering there are probably 100,000 pull tabs (or more) for every piece of lost gold that would/could ring up with both numbers as a pull tab, why would you dig a pull tab number?
I've dug pull tabs that came in at Co 09, 08, 07, 06, 05, 04, 03, and even a bit higher/lower, so I'm not saying I never do or will dig tabs, but I'm starting to get the feeling that the benefit to digging tabs is diminishing, now that I'm getting a good grip on all the info my machine is giving me about any given target.
Last night at the beach I used the Explorer, and pulled about 99% of the signals. I tend to run more in the digital mode, rather then the smartfind screen, but I flip back and forth. Using all the information the machine was giving me, I was able to call the target correctly in all but 3 cases (a screw, a copper hose fitting, and a bit of aluminum tubing got me), but it didn't stop me from digging tabs and part tabs, and other crapola.
If I get feedback from other explorer/E-T/CTX users that they have found gold with readings that were solid pull tab numbers, then I may reconsider my theory. But at this point, I'm not seeing that as being the case.