Question for the experts

[Rakesaw]

I am new to metal detecting and have a question about hunting for jewelry with the Garrett AT Pro. The parks I am hunting in are high traffic, multi use, and downright busy. I am thinking there has to be some lost jewelry around. It's my understanding that most jewelry reads btwn 40 and 65. My problem is that after digging 50 trash holes at those readings, I find myself not taking those readings serious anymore. My question: Is there a way to differentiate the trash from treasure by sound alone?, and Should I just expect to dig hundreds of trash holes in hopes that one may be a treasure? Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

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[Irishgoldhound]

I’ve been hunting with the AT pro for almost 10yrs now and to me If you want to increase your chances of finding gold rings in the park where lots of trash can hide rings this is what has increased my gold... If I’m going for only decent sized gold rings I don’t bother digging anything in the forty’s or from 70 and above and I only dig solid repeatable numbers from 50 to 69 anything that jumps around I skip to the next solid target. Most if not all gold rings will give a solid reading unless it is broken or laying next to another object or if it is deeper in the ground. So by concentrating only on solid and clear tone targets in this range you increase your chances of hitting rings. Sure your gonna miss small gold chains and maybe bracelets and yes their are also rings and gold in the forty’s but gold rings in the forty’s are usually smaller. Once you start digging 70’s to high 80’s your now digging lots of can slaw, bottle caps, coins, and pennies. Much bigger gold rings can fall into 70’s for sure but chances are much higher digging for gold rings from 50-69. Now after you’ve hit a park this way, you can go back and dig the iffy signals that could be chains, silver or gold. You will dig lots of pull tabs this way also but those tabs are exactly what you want to hear over and over and over lol. Here is a 7 gram 10k gold ring I found last summer which I thought was gonna be another pull tab. Rang up solid in the 60’s.

 

[Rakesaw]

Thank you so much for the info. I'm gonna key in on those clear, stable readings of 50 to 65 and let you know what happens.

 

[Irishgoldhound]

Thank you so much for the info. I'm gonna key in on those clear, stable readings of 50 to 65 and let you know what happens.

....not just to 65,..up to 69, I’ve found many rings 66-69. Good luck!

 

[CASPER-2]

you will increase your odds by going to places where more jewelry is lost - that is beaches
I did parks and schools for about 20 yrs and maybe got 70 gold rings in that span
in 2012 I got 72 gold from beaches in that one yr

 

[Loco-Digger]

I use the F75LTD and when my machine gives me a mid tone with a solid target ID or one that only varies by a digit up or down I dig it. When the target ID has a vast variance I suspect it's trash and do not dig it.

 

[Irishgoldhound]

I use the F75LTD and when my machine gives me a mid tone with a solid target ID or one that only varies by a digit up or down I dig it. When the target ID has a vast variance I suspect it's trash and do not dig it.

That’s how you find them gold rings!

 

[Professor of Engineering]

When I'm at a park or play area looking for gold, I dig all signals from 49 - 69. With that said, I have dug small gold rings in the 28 - 45 region and platinum rings 5 - 12.

 

[Irishgoldhound]

When I'm at a park or play area looking for gold, I dig all signals from 49 - 69. With that said, I have dug small gold rings in the 28 - 45 region and platinum rings 5 - 12.

I’ve never seen any rings coming in 5-12 on the At pro. Especially Plat rings. This range is iron that low on the AT. I found a 11gram plat last yr that came in mid 60’s. Anything below 30 on the At pro is almost always iron or garbage.

 

[CCDAMEEK]

Look, we can talk VDI numbers till we're blue in the face (& hair). Bottom line is, I have pulled gold rings, that sounded and read like pull tabs, and pull tabs that made my heart skip a beat with the sound, readings, and numbers. One method of hunting just doesn't work. Each location has differing soils, moisture levels, and chemical makeup that in my opinion react and change readings of the metal objects in it, (and the orientation of the objects), even if only slightly. Work a location until you see what your pulling up, and start from there in determining what you feel comfortable skipping.
I find more silver than gold. But I have found some valuable silver. I just think your making a mistake if your machine is set to search for coins & jewelry, to skip over good repeatable signals just because they are not in a certain reading range. I once tuned out a specific pull tab using my DFX, because they were everywhere. Just for giggles after hunting for about a half hour, I wanted to make sure the machine was still reading properly, so I took off my 10K gold ring, put it in a hole, and swept the hole. NOTHING. NADA. ZIP. No signal at all. Turned off the pull tab block setting, and bingo. That particular pull tabs VDI was exactly the same as my 10K gold ring in that soil. Lesson learned.......... DIG ALL GOOD SIGNALS. Dig a lot of trash, yes. Don't miss a gold ring. Perfect!

 

[Irishgoldhound]

Look, we can talk VDI numbers till we're blue in the face (& hair). Bottom line is, I have pulled gold rings, that sounded and read like pull tabs, and pull tabs that made my heart skip a beat with the sound, readings, and numbers. One method of hunting just doesn't work. Each location has differing soils, moisture levels, and chemical makeup that in my opinion react and change readings of the metal objects in it, (and the orientation of the objects), even if only slightly. Work a location until you see what your pulling up, and start from there in determining what you feel comfortable skipping.
I find more silver than gold. But I have found some valuable silver. I just think your making a mistake if your machine is set to search for coins & jewelry, to skip over good repeatable signals just because they are not in a certain reading range. I once tuned out a specific pull tab using my DFX, because they were everywhere. Just for giggles after hunting for about a half hour, I wanted to make sure the machine was still reading properly, so I took off my 10K gold ring, put it in a hole, and swept the hole. NOTHING. NADA. ZIP. No signal at all. Turned off the pull tab block setting, and bingo. That particular pull tabs VDI was exactly the same as my 10K gold ring in that soil. Lesson learned.......... DIG ALL GOOD SIGNALS. Dig a lot of trash, yes. Don't miss a gold ring. Perfect!

Our point here is to increase chances of hitting good targets in a park with the AT pro by skipping likely garbage signals that bounce all over. Gold rings generally don’t bounce around. You do not notch out in the pull tab range doing this method and is why this works. Doing it this way you are actually digging every darn pull tab in the park. You can also dig garbage till your blue in the face by digging signals that are not steady and waist valuable time doing this. Digging all good targets, yes!..digging targets that sound more like trash instead of a gold ring, sorry I’ll save those for another day or at the beach. In a park digging everything in the same day to me, isn’t fun or productive. At the beach, sure I dig everything but if I want to find gold in the park and be more efficient about it, this it what works and puts more gold rings in your pocket at the end of the day. Like I said, go back after and dig those iffy targets that might be chains or more rings. Dig the easy best signals first and save the not so good for last. Just like at a buffet you hit the good stuff first, then go back for the stuff you’re not so keen with. But if you want to dig all targets in the same day at the park, then do what you like. I started the hobby that way and I was always exhausted and frustrated at the end with more junk in my pocket. I enjoy the hobby don’t get me wrong but In the park I’m more serious business, at the beach I enjoy the hobby much more.

 

[digger27]

I am new to metal detecting and have a question about hunting for jewelry with the Garrett AT Pro. Is there a way to differentiate the trash from treasure by sound alone?, and Should I just expect to dig hundreds of trash holes in hopes that one may be a treasure? Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

When I started I dug it all, most signals anyway, and as I slowly learned my detectors I found a lot of great things but not a whole lot of good jewelry.
Even a blind squirrel can find nuts here and there and in my case I did manage to find a couple of silver rings and even two gold rings.
At the time I was using a Vaquero and an F2.
Back then I lived here in Birmingham where the dirt is mineralized, the iron is insane and in public sites it seems like very few that live here figured out what a trashcan is for...ever.
Our challenges are great and finding just about anything past 3-5" is tough for everyone with most any detector because of masking problems, ask most hunters around here and 99% will tell you they rarely dig anything past 5" in our red clay filled typical dirt and I wasn't either.
It was so difficult to find deeper, older coins in the public parks I usually hunted, parks that others had easily found old coins shallow back in the day but most were culled in the 60's and 70's, so I got very frustrated.
So frustrated I decided I would just become a dedicated jewelry hunter because I believed that stuff can be shallow and most anywhere...and then I proceeded to study gold, how it sounded, how it behaved, higher percentage sites where I might find it and all of it had to be on land because I don't live anywhere near any beaches.
Also chains needed to be understood better because those are weird and generally don't act like coins or rings in their behavior.
I also bought a Compadre because I had read so much about how good that thing was at finding jewelry, especially chains.
The next task was to learn my 3 detectors and I mean learn them better than well, concentrating on listening to all of them closely and learning target behavior like it was a religion.
All target behavior including trash.
At the same time I got very frustrated with digging tons of trash and as my skills with my detectors grew the volume of trash I dug shrunk.
Ultimately I ended up digging mostly the more solid signals, I called it my high percentage hunting style, and I was digging only about 20% of the jumpy, iffy trash signals I came across and I still do it this way to this day.
I started to find more, I was digging more coins, more junk jewelry and even a little more precious metal jewelry.
I am not saying you should do it this way, you will find what works best for you, eventually, but for me this is the way I enjoy doing this hobby and it works for me.
BTW...I found all of of what you see below using my no screen, one tone only Tesoros or in the case of my Fishers I use all info available to me, both the tones AND the screen behavior.

Then something wonderful happened, we moved to Kansas, land of almost perfect soil and a ton of parks.
Everything I learned, everything I was doing just jelled, all that work learning became way worth it and I found a ton more than I ever thought possible, especially since I hunted public parks 99% of the time.
I added an F70 to the arsenal, eventually, I still dug only about 20% of the trash after I learned it pretty well but I continued to find lots of jewelry and lots more older coins.
A lot of what I found over the years is pictured below, all the gold is there, many of the chains but there are a lot of silver rings missing because I just quit posing a lot of them for group pictures... I dug a lot more than what you see.
At least half of it all was found with my two entry level detectors, the F2 and the Compadre.
The tools I use isn't as important to me as the level of understanding I have using them which makes all the difference...too me.
All the gold you see came in as solid, stable signals despite the fact that I usually hunt in major trash pits, all were complete surprises when they popped up except one.
Did I miss some more iffy great targets doing it this way, almost certainly but I haven't done all that bad despite that.
Three years later we moved back to the same place I started in the South with all the same problems and challenges and I was depressed about that but I came back with a higher skill level and more knowledge about hunting in difficult conditions and it still ain't easy but I am finding way more than I did when I started.
Again, way more including jewelry and even a few bucket list coins.
Knowledge is a powerful thing if you put it to use.

I was exactly where you are today at one time, signals were similar and target behavior was mostly a mystery and digging garbage was my life but by learning my tools better and better I became more and more successful and started to avoid digging a ton of trash.
It took awhile but not really all that long and I had great fun the whole time all along that learning curve.
There are no magic detectors out there, not your Pro, not my F70, F2, Vaquero, Compadre, Mojave or even my Nox.
Advanced tools can ultimately make things a bit easier but the real magic is going to be in you and how well you commit to learning your detector and what it is telling you.

Have paitience, learn and have fun doing it above all.
Soon enough you will laugh at what you know now and everything will make so much more sense and the great finds will start to show up more and more.
You'll see.

 

[Irishgoldhound]

I am new to metal detecting and have a question about hunting for jewelry with the Garrett AT Pro. The parks I am hunting in are high traffic, multi use, and downright busy. I am thinking there has to be some lost jewelry around. It's my understanding that most jewelry reads btwn 40 and 65. My problem is that after digging 50 trash holes at those readings, I find myself not taking those readings serious anymore. My question: Is there a way to differentiate the trash from treasure by sound alone?, and Should I just expect to dig hundreds of trash holes in hopes that one may be a treasure? Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Also different detectors have different VDI # readings for same metals. I’m sure you know this. Your AT pro won’t read the same as say like a Fishers VDI. One reads a gold ring in the pull tab range where the other could read it in the zinc penny range. So don’t go by what other different detectors readings come up as and compare it to yours.

 

[Clad2Silver]

Why aren't you checking signals in the 70's and 80's where silver rings come up? All sterling jewelry is worth money. The silver ring in the pic is one I dug a few years ago and sold it for $175.00

 

[Irishgoldhound]

People are missing the point of this thread which is to pass on most junk and concentrate more on high valuable targets that have better odds of being gold. Not saying to not ever dig for silver rings or targets in 70’s 80’s or 30’s and 40’s on the AT pro. This method is to specifically increase your gold ring count.

 

[CCDAMEEK]

People are missing the point of this thread which is to pass on most junk and concentrate more on high valuable targets that have better odds of being gold. Not saying to not ever dig for silver rings or targets in 70’s 80’s or 30’s and 40’s on the AT pro. This method is to specifically increase your gold ring count.

Not so certain that posts made have been missing the point. Rakesaw, who started this thread is new to detecting, and posted "have a question about hunting for jewelry". "My question: Is there a way to differentiate the trash from treasure by sound alone?"

You make valid reasoning for skipping iffy targets, but that wasn't the core of his question.

 

[Irishgoldhound]

The core of the question?? That was my answer to his question. ?? “Is there a way to differentiate targets by sound”? I explained a method , simple that was my answer. He was digging targets between 40-65 and getting frustrated. I gave a technique for using VDI numbers along with explaining solid and steady “sound” readings as well, which sounds like it’s “core” with his question to me.

 

[trdking]

I'm with CCDAMEEK I dig everything. I carry a pouch for the slaw and at the end of the day I have whatever goodies came my way and a large bag of earth clean up. Dig everything miss nothing, clean up America one swing at a time. There is some very interesting trash that comes with this. Bonus

 

[Irishgoldhound]

I'm with CCDAMEEK I dig everything. I carry a pouch for the slaw and at the end of the day I have whatever goodies came my way and a large bag of earth clean up. Dig everything miss nothing, clean up America one swing at a time. There is some very interesting trash that comes with this. Bonus

I do dig most everything as well. Like I said I dig the easy good targets first when I’m in hard ground, then I go back to dig other targets.

 

[A2coins]

I’ve been hunting with the AT pro for almost 10yrs now and to me If you want to increase your chances of finding gold rings in the park where lots of trash can hide rings this is what has increased my gold... If I’m going for only decent sized gold rings I don’t bother digging anything in the forty’s or from 70 and above and I only dig solid repeatable numbers from 50 to 69 anything that jumps around I skip to the next solid target. Most if not all gold rings will give a solid reading unless it is broken or laying next to another object or if it is deeper in the ground. So by concentrating only on solid and clear tone targets in this range you increase your chances of hitting rings. Sure your gonna miss small gold chains and maybe bracelets and yes their are also rings and gold in the forty’s but gold rings in the forty’s are usually smaller. Once you start digging 70’s to high 80’s your now digging lots of can slaw, bottle caps, coins, and pennies. Much bigger gold rings can fall into 70’s for sure but chances are much higher digging for gold rings from 50-69. Now after you’ve hit a park this way, you can go back and dig the iffy signals that could be chains, silver or gold. You will dig lots of pull tabs this way also but those tabs are exactly what you want to hear over and over and over lol. Here is a 7 gram 10k gold ring I found last summer which I thought was gonna be another pull tab. Rang up solid in the 60’s. View attachment 1785947 View attachment 1785948

Thats great advice I agree totally