couple a rings with Bandido today..

[pinenut]

Out for a while with a Bandido II μmax this afternoon, back on the mountain top where I've been finding some gold and silver rings and silver coins. Same area where I recently got the walking Liberty half and weird Chinese lucky charm.
Bandido found me a small handful of coins today, though nothing old, and two rings. The monkey faced one sure looks and feels like silver, but no marking on it. Not sure what the other could be made of but it's heavy, not ferrous, has an odd hallmark with an arrow going through a U. Probably a junker, but I'll take it. Monkey face was only under a couple inches of pine needles, other one about 4" deep in dirt.
Got a feeling there's plenty more up there..

 

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[trdking]

Odd to get this concentration on a mountain top. Was it a popular hang out Party spot?

 

[pinenut]

yup..

Odd to get this concentration on a mountain top. Was it a popular hang out Party spot?

Still is. There are a couple campgrounds on that mountain and the area has been hunted on for over 100 years. The summit is around 8500' altitude and the place fills up with snow dummies every season. Snow play in the winter, camping in summer. Folks seem to have lost quite a bit there over the years..

 

[Electricfrontporch]

Nice ones Pinenut!
That mountain keeps on giving.
Anyplace that folks remove gloves should be a ring hotspot!

 

[Vern2]

Nice going pinenut. Two rings of any kind make for a fun day.

 

[Nomad NJ]

 

[Tony (Michigan)]

pinenut, really, I am impressed.

I got my Bandido II µMax today but the guy forgot to ship the lower rod with the machine. Maybe you can give me some pointers on this machine?

 

[pinenut]

well, I'll try..

pinenut, really, I am impressed.

I got my Bandido II µMax today but the guy forgot to ship the lower rod with the machine. Maybe you can give me some pointers on this machine?

Pretty simple to use. My two favorite coils are the 5.75" and 8" concentrics, and I keep one of each on two different Bandidos. I was using the 8" when I found the rings yesterday, but would have grabbed the 5.75 if I were doing inside a campground.

Start off setting your threshold to a low, steady hum. I usually set mine up with disc a bit before where a nickel breaks up, and I use a spent .22 shell to do that.. .22 shells are one of my most common trash targets, and they're gone before nickels. On my Bandido with the 8" coil on it most of the time, that point is right about on "5". On my other that always wears the 5.75" coil, it's just a tad past "4".

If your common trash target is nails, set disc to where the nails break up, but aren't completely gone. Just so you know what they are and how they sound (scratchy, popping, clicky), is all the disc you want. Where to run disc is always a compromise, based on your most common (despised) trash and what you're not willing to miss. I don't want to give up nickels or gold rings, so as low as I can go before nickels, usually works out.

From there I'll "power balance" a bit negative (a little chirpy when bobbing coil in disc), with sensitivity about "10". After a few swings I'll know if I can turn sensitivity up a tad more (usually to about middle of the red zone), and then readjust GB as needed. These Bandidos seem to be happy with sensitivity fairly high, as long as mineralization isn't too bad. I notice on the newer Tesoros though (Outlaw and Vaquero), that target response can be degraded running sensitivity too high.
If I get into an area with lots of hot rocks, I have to both lower sensitivity and run a little more positive on the GB setting. In those spots, lowering sensitivity seems the best thing to do, as you don't want to get too positive on GB. If you're not sure they're hot rocks, switch over to all-metal and check; hot rocks I encounter are "cold" hot rocks, and null when sweeping in all-metal, though give a prolonged but smooth beep in disc..
In other places with deep pine needles (low mineralization), I can go a bit more negative on GB and bump the sensitivity higher into the red..

Seems that the Bandido II μmax likes about a medium sweep speed, though it's not to fussy if you go a bit faster, hear a chirp and slow down to check it again. Too fast and you may miss targets though. It's not quite as quick as the Vaquero and Tejon, which I think tolerate a faster swing.
If I'm in a fairly clean area, I'll run it in fast retune all-metal and listen for targets, then toggle over to disc and check. I really don't use the no-motion AM function.

I probably should do as Monte recommends and run minimal disc...but I hate digging .22 shells. I do end up digging the bigger shells though, and usually pulltabs, bullet lead, etc. I can often tell pulltabs by their harsher sound, but not always; the deeper, small ones can sound like coins. Bottlecaps will usually just "click" where I set the disc before nickel, so if I hear 'em at all, I still know not to dig 'em. With my disc set before nickels, I'm probably getting all the small gold rings (and bigger ones), though likely missing the tiny ones. Only way to get it all, is set disc really low and dig it all... Disc before nickels, seems like a happy medium to me.

Not sure if I helped much, but that's how I run mine.

 

[pinenut]

'nuther ring there this afternoon..

Back up there with the Bandido this afternoon and found another ring that looks pretty old, but it's just costume jewelry. Also found a Kennedy 1/2, '74 dog license tag, another lump of crusty keys (lots of keys this year..), a couple of watches and a handful of clad. Also lots of bullet shells and lead, tabs, and about a dozen aluminum cans, some dug and most just picked up.
Figure I might as well help clean up our forest, so I've been recycling the cans.
Another beautiful day on the mountain.

In case you wonder what it looks like up here:



Took a picture of the 1/2 in the hole. 'Twas about 8"-9" down, shown here with the layer of pine needles removed, and the dirt dug out. Didn't know what it was 'till I got it out of the hole, but it's just a crusty '71. A '72 nickel was down there with it, a couple inches over. Found it when I rechecked the hole.



The rest of today's junk:

 

[Stoof2010]

Hey pinenut,
You ever thought of plasti-dipping your pro pointer?
I did last year and it's still holding up!!!

 

[pinenut]

Hey pinenut,
You ever thought of plasti-dipping your pro pointer?
I did last year and it's still holding up!!!

Thought about it...then went in the garage and retaped the thing.
Tape holds up for a couple months, then just I redo it a different color..