Need some help metal detecting

One way to start is to make yourself a test field.
First lay down some cardboard in an area outside of the house to avoid false signals from the many different metal objects inside your house. Preferably in the backyard. Scan the ground to try to find an area that is free of metal. (No signals)
Now lay down a penny and scan. Record your reading on a piece of paper. Replace the penny with a nickel and scan. Record the reading. Remove the nickel and replace it with a dime. Then a quarter, then a half dollar. Make sure you identify and record each target and target I.D. number. The numbers you have recorded will be transferred to a white piece of cardboard that will be taped to the side of your detector or carried in your pocket for a quick reference. Do the same with silver coins and a few different pieces of Silver jewelry. (Ring, necklace, pendant, etc).
Now comes the fun part. Round up a few pieces of gold in different purities. (10kt, 14kt, &18kt.) (Rings, necklaces, pendants).
Also lay down a few pull tabs, pop tops, and some aluminum foil. Record each number. You will notice that some trash numbers may duplicate the gold numbers. Also, it should be noted that the signal strength can be amplified or decreased by soil moisture as well as the depth of the target. To further complicate matters, put a silver dime next to an iron nail. Listen rather than depending on the visual display of numbers.
There are numerous other little tricks but for now, high pitched signals may be Silver and low tones may be Gold. Good luck and happy hunting.
 

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welcome to tnet.... I too have an f2... which coil size are you using?, the 4 inch does a great job separating some targets
 

The 8 in Stock coil it came with three a 12 in a 8in and a 4 in
 

Hey G&S, you need to gain many hours of experience with your detector, I agree with the advice given by ATW. Gold rings in anywhere from a target ID of 11 (small 10K wedding band) all the way up into the 50's (large men's class ring). I never dug any gold with my F2 nor F4 but have pulled a few using my F75LTD and the XP Deus. They all showed solid target ID numbers. If you are hunting in trashy areas, I hope you have the 4" sniper coil. You won't get great depth, but you will get good target separation. Most of those (I know) who dig gold and silver jewelry dig all mid tones. I would estimate they pull 100 plus pull tabs each hunt. I am primarily a coin shooter and did very well using the F4 and now the F2, but I used to disc out most trash ranges since I felt there was hope for me pulling gold from the sites I was hunting. Now I only disc out iron. GL & HH
 

Great advice given by previous members. The more hours you will spend with your machine the better you will get at decoding what it’s telling you and just when you think you have the nickels pull tab signals figured out a gold ring will “POP” up for the hole.

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Great advice from other members! I use an F22 I know it's a bit different, I've used a F2 also. I have found more silver and gold rings with the 9" elliptical coil than any other coil I've used on any of my machines. Great target separation. Gold and silver rings between 20 and 99 if you don't dig it you won't find it. Good luck!!!
 

Thank you man that helps went back out today and found two tin cans so it's a work in progress but I love it
 

I used the F2 for over 1000 hours and we became one.
Half that time I used the 8" coil, a few hours using the 10", but once I put on the 4" sniper it rarely ever came off again.
I found lots of gold and silver with mine in mostly trash infested sites, the pic of the gold below is of a lot of my gold with F2 VDI info I have found in the last few years.
About half of them were found with the F2 and most of those were with the sniper.

The two similar 10k gold channel wedding rings both with dimonds will give you an idea why I dig all solid signals from the low 20's on up no matter what.
The white gold one was bigger an hevier than the yellow gold version but came in lower because it was probably alloyed with nickel.
White gold alloyed with silver comes in higher.
Basically gold can come in anywhere from iron to low zinc and even higher on very large or high karat items.

The pic of the silver chains are just a few of mine, chains are weird and do not act like coins ad rings at all, they come next way below silver coins...usually.
Again most of these were found with the F2 and the sniper.

I didn't dig it all to find all this, as a matter of fact I made a great effort to avoid digging as much trsh as possible
Ultimately I got down to digging about 20% of the trash I came across and left the rest in the dirt.
What I did dig was the solid signals I came across and I mean all of them no matter where they were.
Signals that sounded good and rarely jumped more than 3 numbers or so and this high percentage method seemed to work for me more than well.
Other's mileage may very.
If you want to dig more trash than I do go for it, it just wasn't for me anymore but I still wanted to find gold so I studied that metal and how the F2 reacts to it...hard.

The F2 is a coin magnet and great on jewelry and everything else and will indicate when it is swinging over something good...once you learn what it is telling you.
 

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Op.....I actually have a 4" coil for an f2.

I bought mine used with low hours and a 4" coil was included but never used. I will ship it out to you if you cover the shipping. I have no use for it now that I got my f75 and sold off the f2. Just throwing that out there. Would like it to go to a member here before craigslist ect.
 

Digger27's first line is the real KEY with any detector. TIME ON THE MACHINE! Doesn't matter if it is a $200 machine or $2000 machine, spend time on it. The rewards are proportional to the time spent on it. Period. ╦╦Ç
 

Hey G&S their a great group in here, terry and loco always have great advice, and welcome! Is that 12" coil you mentioned a DD coil? I used the F2 as a scouting detector for many years for quick look and see areas. Each time I found any jewelry it was by complete surprise. I found digging good hard signals regardless of the Id helped. Basically dig it all. The DD coil worked the best for my given situation & your's could be different. I ended up loving the NEL DD Sharpshooter coil on it. In the end the only real difference for the DD was my Heavy mineralized Utah soil ( F2 has no ground balance) and the amount of area covered with the longer DD sweep. Gold, rings in at all different numbers, you can have two identical gold rings and get different numbers on either its kinda funny. Learn the detector and it will talk to you.
Best of luck and Stay Gold!!
Opie
 

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