How much gold do you think we all miss?

Metal Maniac

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I'm just curious to know what everyone thinks about signals we don't dig , that may have possibly been gold. I'm looking for opinions on the subject. I've often wondered myself , did I miss the gold.
 
You'll never miss it if you dig it. Otherwise, it's anyones guess. Jewelry comes in so many configurations and shapes especially after getting trampled on in the dirt, it could give off many different signals.
 
Probably not that much. Since the dawn of time, man has mined about enough gold to fill an olympic sized swimming pool. It is pretty rare considering what is required to create the metal in the first place.

Given the scarcity of gold, it is not lost as frequently as we would like. The most common site of lost gold would be the beach, in the form of rings, thin chains, and earrings. Other sources of lost gold would be in the belly of ships that sank in storms long ago.
 
I understand your point MrNovice . I guess I should've worded it better. What I mean is just laziness not to dig .

I wouldn't call it laziness. Some people just have a limited amount of time to hunt and they would rather pass over something that is statistically a pull tab or foil and search for something that is a better use of their time.

If I only had an hour to hunt on average and all I did was dig pull tabs, I would probably quit the hobby in favor of one that generates all those pull tabs.
 
I'm just curious to know what everyone thinks about signals we don't dig , that may have possibly been gold. I'm looking for opinions on the subject. I've often wondered myself , did I miss the gold.

There's no question that if you go into junky parks, and start passing foil, tabs, etc.... that you will miss some gold. Or the technique of passing those type signals that don't "lock on" or "have a round-ish feel" to them, etc.... (because you suspect those are elongated junk metal can slaw or slag, etc...) will also mean you could miss an elongated bracelet shape, or gold stick pin, etc....

But the REAL question is not "how much gold will you miss?", but rather: "how much junk will you dig?" To make sure you don't miss the gold you speak of.

And then that boils down into an endless debate of various type hunt environments. Beaches versus turf, and a million stripes of types turf (that range from ghetto blighted to upscale athletic in rich neighborhoods).

The question would be sort of like musing: How often, when you're playing black-jack, when you "hold" because you have 20 in your hand, have you made a mistake, since the next card *might* have been a 1 card ? Sure, perhaps it was. But odds are, it wasn't. And even though detecting allows you to continue to "take hits" (unlike blackjack where the game is over if you exceed 21), yet .... at a certain point, ANYONE is going to have their patience limit, and reach a point where they begin to wonder if their time and energy isn't better suited at another strategy or location.
 
OK , BottleCapKing, you have "theoretically " all the time in the world , you pass up that one pulltab signal . It's possible that it was gold, no or yes.
 
OK , BottleCapKing, you have "theoretically " all the time in the world , you pass up that one pulltab signal . It's possible that it was gold, no or yes.

When I am going to be out for several hours, I will dig pull tab signals. Hell, I was out with Cellrdwllr one night and he got bored with the lack of targets and started digging the pull tab signals. He pulled out a gorgeous 14k gold cross. It was a nice big one too. Rang up 14 on my box. If I was pressed for time, I would have passed right over it given all of the foil and can slaw in this park.
 
I read somewhere that in the entire world we having even mined close to 50% of gold that the earth holds
 
I read somewhere that in the entire world we having even mined close to 50% of gold that the earth holds

Yeah, but, the total supply of gold is still pretty low, even if it were all mined. I am sure there are planets out there that do not have gold, and there are other planets that gold is almost as common as iron. It is the cosmic luck of the draw. Silver, Gold, and Platinum are only formed when massive stars go super nova. So in the grand scheme of the universe, precious metals are still pretty scarce.
 
To some degree ground conditions play a role in how easy it might me to miss something good. Here in southwest Kansas my experience has been not very likely as long as you are fairly good with your detector. Now missing goodies due to depth or masking is a different subject altogether.

I've actually done a fair amount of testing this concept and the results were pretty much what I expected. I've gone through sites like parks and schools and passed up everything I felt was not worth digging. Then go back later and dig it all. My results were I had passed up a good 98% junk. Only a few turned out to be good targets and most were either corroded really bad or missing/cut parts.

If you're fairly competent with your detector then you can tell the good from the bad with pretty good accuracy. There is always a chance you can miss something, but I would attribute it more to having just not gotten your coil over the good target rather than passing up a good target.
 
I am almost positive that I have walked over gold in the dirt. If I dug all the pull tabs etc that I swing my coil over I would be worn out in an hour or so. too old to dig all targets. I have found two 10k gold rings in parks and both of them were dug because of the tone I got and the steady numbers on the meter. Just had to see what sounded so good.
 
There is one park that I hunt that has a small area where I dig any repeatable signal. Last year I pulled two gold rings and one silver ring from there. Both of the gold rings hit with a siginal that I wouldn't have dug anywhere else in the park. That being said, I am sure that I have missed some gold. But I do dig enough pull tabs, and can slaw, and other just plain old junk, that I am sure that one of these days I will be rewarded. At least that's what I keep telling myself. :lol:
 
Here's another variation on the topic: How many caches have you walked past, simply because they gave you an overload signal on your machine ? And you thought: "Durned sprinkler head" or "durned hubcab", right?

Ok, in order not to miss any caches, you must dig up all such overload signals (that were too big to be a coin so you skipped them). That might mean digging up sprinkler heads in parks, utility boxes, etc.... But ... I'm sure the city people will understand. Afterall, it "might have been a cache".
 
Something to try out

Put a gold ring in a dab of pla doh and pass the coil over it. Then change the angle you stuck the ring into the pla doh and pass the coil over it. Do this a number of times (& depths) and see what shows on your detector.

On my Fisher 1266 x it gives several sounds that one would ordinarily pass on. I never have used anything but sounds so don't know for sure about metered detectors.

Steve in so la
 
Any signal that repeats could be gold really, I go by location mostly. Obviously you have a better chance finding gold in an old park rather than in the middle of the woods. When searching for gold in the dirt (or anywhere for that matter) target recovery speed is key. Just ask mud lol good luck in 2017!
 
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