Dowsing target material.

lesjcbs

Hero Member
Jul 14, 2011
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Pocket dowsing L- Rods shown above. Whites Beach Comber, Bounty Hunter Sharp Shooter II, Whites TM 808, Canon 350D EOS Digital Rebel XT DSLR Camera.
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I don't know about you, but I do not have a lot of pure silver or pure gold things to use for dowsing practice laying around. I recently discovered $1.00 gold plated coins can be purchased from banks. They are not very popular with the public so most are not in circulation but just sit in banks. Gold plated means there is a base metal that is covered over with a very thin layer of real gold. Since they are a $1.00 gold plated coin, they are worth, well, $1.00 each. Very simple. A gold class ring makes a good gold target also.

Like the $1.00 gold plated coin. as you know, there are things that are silver plated too. But, when it come to silver, you can buy Sterling Silver Blanks on Amazon. Sterling silver is 92.5% silver and 7.5% other metal. You can also buy silver coins and bars by the oz weight from online mints that are .999% and .9999% guaranteed pure silver. Also, if you see an item that is marked "Sterling" or 925, it is real silver.

So, if you do not have genuine precious metal targets to dowse, these are places you can get some for only a few dollars.

I have some of those gold plated $1.00 coins and I just purchased some Sterling Silver Blanks to be used in my dowsing practice also.

NOTE: If you buy something that says made in China, it could be fake. Put it through the acid test to find out the truth. I just happened to recently luck out and found two silver plated ash trays in a local thrift store marked "Made in China." I had them both tested to make sure they are real silver plated. They are plated with real silver I paid .50 cents for both.
 

elh

Sr. Member
Aug 10, 2015
494
590
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Thanks Les for the info on the gold and silver. I have a 14k gold necklace with no hooks that I use for target practice. Works well, plus I have some
Kennedy halves buried that work well. No need to bury deep, my halves are only 3.5 inches deep. I know one fellow who buried a fruit jar with silver plated spoons and a gold ring to practice on. He sunk it too deep to locate with detector and then lost his directions back. Since then the place was bought to make a dirt pit. I wonder who got the ring, IF it was found.
 

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lesjcbs

lesjcbs

Hero Member
Jul 14, 2011
880
338
Detector(s) used
Pocket dowsing L- Rods shown above. Whites Beach Comber, Bounty Hunter Sharp Shooter II, Whites TM 808, Canon 350D EOS Digital Rebel XT DSLR Camera.
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
For the longest time now, I have wondered about this subject. You read experienced dowsers posts that explain how to dowse and all, but none that I know of have given ideas about where to find real gold or silver to serve as targets. The closest advice given is to usually use a copper coin or a quarter minted before a certain date etc. That is fine but if you do not have one of those items to use as targets, then you can get things off the internet or at your local thrift store that are at least gold or silver plated.

Most high school and college rings are made of either gold or silver. I just happen to recently come across these sources and thought I would pass along this information. There are videos on youtube that show and explain how to determine if an item is silver or something else.
 

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Red_desert

Gold Member
Feb 21, 2008
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Midwest USA
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Garrett Ace 250/GTA 1,000; Fisher Gold Bug-2; Gemini-3; Unique Design L-Rods
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All Treasure Hunting
There was a place called Tripps in New Mexico back in the 1990s, you might check to see if still around. I would order from their catalog solid gold ring blanks, then mount my own stones. After moving here, it took my dowsing rods to find out where they were...found all of them by dowsing. My favorite gold ring I'd mounted a 9 carat black star sapphire of excellent clarity and quality, wasn't lost but all the others were. No amount of searching without L-rods could find the rings. Of those one had white faceted brilliant sapphires, 2 blank gold rings not with mounted stones yet.

Back then gold was cheap and so were rubies from India, Australia black opal cabs with plenty of red fire, good nice large black star sapphires, brilliant clear white sapphire cut like diamond, most never got mounted on rings only now used as dowsing targets.
 

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weregolf

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Jun 14, 2016
846
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Mexico
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Gemini III, Tesoro Lobo Supertraq, Fisher F2, Deepers 6, OKM rover C
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Cache Hunting
100% pure silver from a jeweler (silver in wire)
96% pure gold from a nugget
99% pure gold from a coin (collectible coin, gold with copper)
 

Red_desert

Gold Member
Feb 21, 2008
6,850
3,500
Midwest USA
Detector(s) used
Garrett Ace 250/GTA 1,000; Fisher Gold Bug-2; Gemini-3; Unique Design L-Rods
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
100% pure silver from a jeweler (silver in wire)
96% pure gold from a nugget
99% pure gold from a coin (collectible coin, gold with copper)
Oh, test nuggets can be bought in some western prospecting shops. My little test nugget from a Quartzsite shop, kept in a tiny ziplock which is put inside an old film container. Prospectors always liked to keep a small film container, to put small nuggets in when out in the gold fields. I dropped the small ziolock once with the nugget, as packing for a trip. Couldn't find it until picking up a pair of L-rods, then nailed the exact spot from a distance.
 

Red_desert

Gold Member
Feb 21, 2008
6,850
3,500
Midwest USA
Detector(s) used
Garrett Ace 250/GTA 1,000; Fisher Gold Bug-2; Gemini-3; Unique Design L-Rods
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Old silver Mercury dimes, often can be found by detecting around places, you have dug wheat pennies in the past. Iron rebar from a sidewalk, can throw off on a swing, your detector id enough to make a Mercury dime read as a pulltab. You must dig the "iffy" signals to find them.

Best silver coins that I've ever tested as targets, are these 2 coins. You can have one of them only about 14" away (covered) from the other, the rods can tell the difference, very good hits.
 

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aarthrj3811

Gold Member
Apr 1, 2004
9,256
1,169
Northern Nevada
Detector(s) used
Dowsing Rods and a Ranger Tell Examiner
I use a ¼ oz. gold nugget and a old silver dime. For anything else I use Lab grade material. Works for me...Art
 

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