Cannot detect gold chain Minelab XS users please help

[NWHunter61]

Hey everyone! Using the Minelas XS default detect settings, I cannot detect gold chain...any size, any weight. I know when to dig, as gold chain takes out the threshold tone and it goes silent, but I guess I just don't understand why a gold ring gets a very distinct fingerprint and chain gives no tone or fingerprint...
Any comments or ideas? Thanks, everyone!
Murph

 

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[Monty]

My Garrett detector has problems finding a gold chain also. I figure it's because it lacks the mass of a ring. A ring is also often mistaken for a coin because of its size and shape. As far as your Minelab, I know nothing about programming , but I'll bet the electronics have a similar problem. I found a gold chain that was showing up as a zinc penny! It just happened that it was buried right next to the penny and I found it while digging the penny. Now that's luck, not skill. Monty

 

[Eu_citzen]

Ah Monty no the mass has little to do with it.

A gold chain is as it says made of SMALL chains of metal, this gives it very little "responsive" area on the object.
Many machines have problem finding those chains, and this has been asked very often.

The threshold goes silent when something is discriminated out meaning the detector sees it as trash.
(because the factory presets discrimination pattern)

The rings is partly massive and not made out of thin chains this gives it more "responsive" area.
(Less air)

You could if your at the beach turn down Iron mask and see when the chain registers.

Or do it like me, go to all metal (-16 in iron mask) and use ferrous tones, dig all none ferrous.

Hope this helps,
Eu

 

[Keppy]

All detectors have the problem of detecting Gold chain's

 

[Tom_in_CA]

I answered this on the general forum. Yes most all machines have trouble with tinsel fine chains. Those that DON'T would be machines like beach pulse machines, dedicated nugget machines, and perhaps a few 2-filter machines which excell in low conductors. But in each of those, you will find drawbacks, like with the pulse and nugget machines, you'd have little to no disc. (you'd have to put up with iron). And with some 2 filter machines, to the extent that they fare better on low conductors, they wouldn't have the depth and TID of a powerhouse coin machine like the Explorer. They also might not do as well in minerals as the Explorer. So if you're hunting in an area where you suspect tinsel fine gold chains (like if you're strictly hunting swimming beaches, and you don't mind digging iron), you may want to get a beach pulse unit. Or, lower your explorer down to let in iron. The "iron" signal of a tinsel fine chain, may be veeerryyy faint though

 

[Monty]

I had a pulse machine and it would register all , repeat all objects the same. That's why it would pick ukp a gold chain. It would also pikc up a bobby pin at a foot deep! So, you always had to dig everything with a Pulse machine. And a gold chain does have less mass than a gold ring unless it is all balled up, therefore would not register the same as a gold ring. Monty

 

[NHDUG]

If I can find the article why chains are hard to find I will post it. Because the links are not joined, it is only seeing one link......try balling the chain up and see if it sounds off.....if it has a good size clasp on it or a pendant it will sound off....but there is a good explanation on the net somewhere and I will try to find it.

 

[NHDUG]

WHY CAN CHAINS BE VERY HARD TO FIND?

Chains consist of many individual links. Unless chains are tangled, or have built up a halo effect, metal detectors can only pick up the individual links, not the complete mass. So if the individual links can be detected (or the largest bit, eg the clasp), the chain will be detected, fine chains with small catches are often impossible for metal detectors to detect.

HOW DOES A METAL DETECTOR WORK?

To understand how a metal detector works, we first need to understand a bit about magnetism and electricity. If we pass an electrical current through a wire, a magnetic field is formed around the wire. Conversely, if a magnet is passed over a piece of wire, it induces an electrical current into the wire. This is called an eddy current. In a straight piece of wire, the induced magnetic field is very short-lived as the eddy current has nowhere to go, dies out quickly, and consequently the magnetic field created is quite weak. If the same eddy current is magnetically induced into a piece of wire with both ends electrically joined (like a ring), these eddy currents effectively run round and round, creating a stronger, more concentrated magnetic field which lasts longer.

The transmitter current of a metal detector is applied to the coil (of wire) and creates a large, concentrated magnetic field around the coil. This magnetic field will induce eddy currents into any metal targets in the ground and they will in turn create their own magnetic field. This magnetic field around the target then induces a current back into the detector coil. This is processed in the receiver and results in a sound from the detector. (Or in the case of a detector with a threshold, a change in that threshold.)

Consequently, one of the “best“ targets (or one that can be found at greatest depth) is a high carat gold ring (it is a shape that is most conducive to greater eddy currents, has high conductivity for larger currents and therefore a very strong magnetic field). If this same ring is cut, you may only find it at a quarter of the depth as the eddy currents quickly die out! “Worst“ target may be a thin straight piece of wire (weak, “short“ eddy currents and therefore a weak magnetic field).

And here is a the whole link in case anyone likes to read.

http://www.treasurelore.com/florida/detector_info.htm

This is not the exact place I read it from before but it's the same general Idea of chains.

 

[NWHunter61]

Thanks all for your input on this topic. Im one of those that has to know WHY (annoying as that may be sometimes) and now I can sleep better. I even went so far as to experiment with the gf's chains a bit out in the yard (don't tell her) and it seems that wether the chain just falls off a person or is sent flying for whatever reason, the clasp being the heaviest part of the chain dictates how it will fall and almost every time it would land in somewhat of a ball...and however I tossed it or dropped it, the way it fell always allowed it to register on the detector. My initial testing which resulted in not being able to read the chain, as you probably expect to hear, was done with the chain flat and extended. Makes me fairly confident I am not really missing chains, mostly just not finding them...yet.

 

[Monty]

That's kinda' what I said, saying if it was balled up. I shulda' added it added more mass to the target therefore it would be picked up easier. Good info Nhdug . Monty

 

[Uncle Willy]

Chains of any kind, especially small ones, are difficult to impossible to detect with almost any machine because your detector does not see the chain as a whole - just one link at a time. Usually one finds a chain by picking up the clasp. So don't feel bad.

Bill

 

[Kas]

Lower your discrimination until you can detect it.

 

[DINGO]

I can tell you this,the Tesoro Compadre will nail the smallest gold chain everytime. I am not a fan of Tesoro,but I bought one new,$151.00 just for tot lots....

 

[Uncle Willy]

Any kind of chain is difficult to detect unless it has a big clasp on it. On chains your detector only sees one link at a time - not the whole chain.

Bill

 

[cloviscliff]

The ring has a center openning the chain does not unless you find it still hooked to the clasp That's the difference in signal

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Clovis, even if the chain is still hooked to the clasp, it will still sound bad, and still not be a "complete loop". Not until each link is melted/soldered to each other (erasing even mininscule amounts of air between links, have you made it a single target (rather than hundreds). I've even sometimes tried to ball up a gold chain real tight in a wad, and it still has a hard time "adding all the links up", so to speak.

 

[rsc]

I know I will catch a lotta FLACK on this, BUT I have found 2 gold chains in the last 2 weeks with my Garrett 250. Gotta run it in all metal, but I do that anyways. MUCH better response in that mode. HH Gayle

 

[dewcon4414]

In addition to getting you disc set properly try upping your GAIN and turning on DEEP. Anyone hunting for chain jewerly should do this just because it amplifies the targets audio response. The Explorer is a SILVER killer, but tiny objects just isnt its forta... chain links are tiny.