Skippy SH13
Bronze Member
- Feb 18, 2015
- 1,131
- 2,376
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
Follow-up to "Why gold doesn't Ring up Gold" Digging erratic Signals.
This is a follow-up thread to the first one I started a few days ago.
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/m...p-gold-aka-why-you-should-dig-more-trash.html
I decided not to just continue the other thread, because the topic is a bit different.
Specifically, last night, I decided to put my money where my mouth is, and specifically go to an area that I KNOW has been hit by MDers in the past (I've seen them there), and go behind them to dig the erratic signals. The purpose of this was to demonstrate whether or not there were gold items missed.
I STRONGLY expected there to be items, here. As noted by Tom in CA, this was about LOCATION... not about TRASH.
The location was a local skate park, smack dab in the middle of a bunch of subdivisions. The most common location for the kids to plop down in is under a large tree in front of the entrance to the skate ramp. I've personally hit this park several times, but never under this tree, because it was always chock full of kids during the day. In full disclaimer, In the past, I've pulled a gold ring from near the basketball court (about 20 feet away from the edge), and I like the tot lot here, because of the loose change. I know this park gets hit regularly from MDers, not only because I've SEEN them, but also because I've come behind and enjoyed the evidence (holes dug, etc.). Quarters and Dimes near the skate park should be plentiful (kids are always laying down in the shade), but are not... also indicating the area has been worked.
In one hour last night, I worked the 12 foot radius around the front part of the tree, and about a 4 foot radius around the back. That's it. I'd suggest this was about 200 square feet is all. I dug everything. Approximately 65-75 targets (a bit more than one a minute of finding, pinpointing, and digging) Here's the haul of non-gold:
There were only 2 dimes pulled and 2 pennies. This was unsurprising, though, given the fact I know the area gets worked over by MDers. Both dimes were surface finds, not yet fallen through the grass fully. I found exactly 11 nickels. These fall into the "pull tab" category on the detector. This is also evidence, in my opinion, that the area was worked over for large value coins. To find 11 nickels all separated, but no quarters or dimes in the dirt seems pretty obvious that someone has been through the area.
There was also 25 and one half pop tabs, 1 skateboard roller bearing, 2 bottle caps, and a small army of foil caps and gum wrappers.
With the exception of the 2 dimes, 2 bottle caps, and 1 roller bearing (which all showed up as solid coin signals), the rest of this was trashy signals, or strong pop top readings.
Two additional finds were detected and dug... One erratic, and the other a solid pop top signal. I almost gave up on the erratic first one because of the density of the roots, but decided to continue cutting the signal free. These are Rings # 57 and #58 for the year, and gold rings # 7 and #8.
About 15 minutes in, then again about 40 minutes into the hunt, I found both of these gold rings. Each of them are 10K. The "Someone Special" ring with the diamond in it, was about 3-4 inches down, under a thick root that had to be cut, and literally had three roots growing through it (one through the main hole, and the other two through small holes in the lettering. That's a pretty strong indication it'd been there a while! The second 10K ring has a hear shaped orangeish colored gem (don't know what it is), and was found about 1/2 under the root mat in the dirt. It was right near the grass ring edge of the manicured tree ring.
My points are these:
1) LOCATION is key... Obviously, i knew there were lots of kids laying down in this area. I figured it was prime for lost jewelry.
2) Areas obviously worked by MDers, but that contain lots of trash still, are VERY viable.
3) Erratic signals are not always trash!
with the summary:
Digging the RIGHT trashy areas can be very lucrative.
Now... I also readily recognize there's a fair amount of LUCK in this hobby. Those two rings were fortunate finds, I get that... I could have just as easily found nothing! (and then I probably wouldn't have posted this, but that's another story, LOL!) But the fact remains, they were there when other MDers went over them... What WASN'T luck was the strategy to dig that location to uncover any missed treasures.
Cheers!
Skippy
This is a follow-up thread to the first one I started a few days ago.
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/m...p-gold-aka-why-you-should-dig-more-trash.html
I decided not to just continue the other thread, because the topic is a bit different.
Specifically, last night, I decided to put my money where my mouth is, and specifically go to an area that I KNOW has been hit by MDers in the past (I've seen them there), and go behind them to dig the erratic signals. The purpose of this was to demonstrate whether or not there were gold items missed.
I STRONGLY expected there to be items, here. As noted by Tom in CA, this was about LOCATION... not about TRASH.
The location was a local skate park, smack dab in the middle of a bunch of subdivisions. The most common location for the kids to plop down in is under a large tree in front of the entrance to the skate ramp. I've personally hit this park several times, but never under this tree, because it was always chock full of kids during the day. In full disclaimer, In the past, I've pulled a gold ring from near the basketball court (about 20 feet away from the edge), and I like the tot lot here, because of the loose change. I know this park gets hit regularly from MDers, not only because I've SEEN them, but also because I've come behind and enjoyed the evidence (holes dug, etc.). Quarters and Dimes near the skate park should be plentiful (kids are always laying down in the shade), but are not... also indicating the area has been worked.
In one hour last night, I worked the 12 foot radius around the front part of the tree, and about a 4 foot radius around the back. That's it. I'd suggest this was about 200 square feet is all. I dug everything. Approximately 65-75 targets (a bit more than one a minute of finding, pinpointing, and digging) Here's the haul of non-gold:
There were only 2 dimes pulled and 2 pennies. This was unsurprising, though, given the fact I know the area gets worked over by MDers. Both dimes were surface finds, not yet fallen through the grass fully. I found exactly 11 nickels. These fall into the "pull tab" category on the detector. This is also evidence, in my opinion, that the area was worked over for large value coins. To find 11 nickels all separated, but no quarters or dimes in the dirt seems pretty obvious that someone has been through the area.
There was also 25 and one half pop tabs, 1 skateboard roller bearing, 2 bottle caps, and a small army of foil caps and gum wrappers.
With the exception of the 2 dimes, 2 bottle caps, and 1 roller bearing (which all showed up as solid coin signals), the rest of this was trashy signals, or strong pop top readings.
Two additional finds were detected and dug... One erratic, and the other a solid pop top signal. I almost gave up on the erratic first one because of the density of the roots, but decided to continue cutting the signal free. These are Rings # 57 and #58 for the year, and gold rings # 7 and #8.
About 15 minutes in, then again about 40 minutes into the hunt, I found both of these gold rings. Each of them are 10K. The "Someone Special" ring with the diamond in it, was about 3-4 inches down, under a thick root that had to be cut, and literally had three roots growing through it (one through the main hole, and the other two through small holes in the lettering. That's a pretty strong indication it'd been there a while! The second 10K ring has a hear shaped orangeish colored gem (don't know what it is), and was found about 1/2 under the root mat in the dirt. It was right near the grass ring edge of the manicured tree ring.
My points are these:
1) LOCATION is key... Obviously, i knew there were lots of kids laying down in this area. I figured it was prime for lost jewelry.
2) Areas obviously worked by MDers, but that contain lots of trash still, are VERY viable.
3) Erratic signals are not always trash!
with the summary:
Digging the RIGHT trashy areas can be very lucrative.
Now... I also readily recognize there's a fair amount of LUCK in this hobby. Those two rings were fortunate finds, I get that... I could have just as easily found nothing! (and then I probably wouldn't have posted this, but that's another story, LOL!) But the fact remains, they were there when other MDers went over them... What WASN'T luck was the strategy to dig that location to uncover any missed treasures.
Cheers!
Skippy
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