Gold Jewelry Metal Detecting

[Miser67]

I am interested in doing some gold jewelry hunting, including the really small stuff like chains and earring backs. I have seen it called "urban prospecting". I know a lot of trash digging is involved.

Does anyone have an opinion of a really good detector for this? I am leaning towards the Fisher Gold Bug Pro or the Tesoro Lobo.

BTW, my soil is very sandy with low mineralization.

I have and like my Compadre, but I have to run in all metal to find chains, and I'd like to discriminate iron if I can.

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

If you intend to find teensy dainty items like tinsel thin chains and earing studs, you're not going to find anything that gets those things WHILE knocking out iron. Some machines can come pretty close, but .... if you're talking the true tinsel thin chains, you'll practically need something like a nugget prospecting machine. And no, those aren't very good at knocking out iron.

The amount of intrinsic gold in tinsel-fine chains and earing studs is pretty minimal anyhow, so why not just angle for normal gold like rings ? If you hit enough sand boxes, tan-bark boxes, beaches, etc.... accepting all your low conductors, you'll eventually find gold. Or just wait till after storms erode out the sand at some of your fabled FL beaches and wait for mother nature to do all the work for you, grouping heavy-targets all in neat rows on the beach for you

You could angle junky parks and yards for gold, but .... the ratios would be too punishing. ESP. if you start trying to dial in teeennnsssy items like dainty gold. I can think of urban turf where your ratio would be 10,000 to any 1 gold item you'd find. So stick to beaches, sand volleyball courts, tanbark play lots, etc.....

 

[Terry Soloman]

You'll have to run both the Goldbug, and the LST in "All Metal" and have GOOD ears on the threshold to find chains and earring backs, so discrimination is a pipe dream.

 

[Deft Tones]

I spend the bulk of my time looking for jewelry. I've looked into getting a dedicated micro-jewelry machine. I lean towards the Gold Bug, Gold Bug 2, and/or the Makro Gold racer. But XP may show up on the list if the ever produce a high-frequency coil.

Those three were my main candidates with an edge going to the Makro based upon value/features/options.

I have to say, (this is an assumption) you're being pretty bold to jump into micro-jewelry hunting without working your way to that point. It's a very tough game. Nobody cherry-picks chains!

 

[digger27]

Dainty chains...they will come in as iron.
Both of these were found with my Compadre and on both the tiny clasps came in at iron, one silver and one gold.
The Compadre is the best chain sniffer I have ever swung but I have found plenty with other detectors, too.

I dig mostly just the solid stuff so some jumpy iron trash can be avoided but so much of it comes in solid so if you are a gold hunter you just have to deal with it.
A gold hunter has to deal with and be aware of all trash levels as a matter of fact since gold loves to disguise itself so well as trash and in the dirt likes to live in trashy sites.

My Fishers seem to be pretty sensitive to the yellow stuff too but I have found that metal only from low foil to low zinc with them...so far.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

digger, both those chains you show are fairly thick. I think most coin machines could find those (albeit a fluttery signal). I think the type chains being talked about in this post, are the tinsel thin variety. THOSE will give standard coin machine fits. I've seen somewhere they don't even sound off if you press them against the bottom of the coil. And only in all-metal might you get a little burp of the threshold. Those types you practically have to have a nugget machine to find.

 

[foiler]

I like the Minelab Xterra 705 with the 18.75 gold coil set up. It's an excellent gold jewelry machine that with a push of a button has a prospecting mode. prospecting mode is super sensitive to smal gold and provides extra depth on all targets. Sunday I found a small diamond wedding set and a small gold cross. The 14k cross came in as iron at about 4 inches. The ring was about 5 inches under a penney at 3 inches. Also found a mans silver ring. I've had the 705 three years and it has produced nearly 100 pieces of gold and silver jewelry. If you learn this machine it is a jewelry killer

 

[digger27]

digger, both those chains you show are fairly thick. I think most coin machines could find those (albeit a fluttery signal). I think the type chains being talked about in this post, are the tinsel thin variety. THOSE will give standard coin machine fits. I've seen somewhere they don't even sound off if you press them against the bottom of the coil. And only in all-metal might you get a little burp of the threshold. Those types you practically have to have a nugget machine to find.

The silver one is small enough that yea, most detectors can see it but only if you are hunting with iron in.
The gold one, don't think you can tell how thin it is by the pic...it is micro.
I thought it was a dirty piece of thin string when I found it, surprised the heck out of me when the dirt fell off and the gold came through and I noticed the extremely tiny clasp.

 

[Miser67]

Thanks for all the replies. Sounds like I might be better off just using my Compadre in all metal mode and see how it starts. I can always upgrade to a really high frequency machine like the GB2 if I really get into it!

 

[digger27]

One person posted about finding a lot of those earring studs, he got down on his hands and knees at basketball courts and ran a Propointer at the edge where the grass starts and the court ends.
When these are lost on the courts by players these are usually kicked over to the edges.
I have tried this myself and it works and I love these court sites and found a ton of jewelry around these things including some studs around the edges because the Compadre can pick them up and they are not usually very deep.
I found that finding jewelry on land is not all that difficult if you learn to understand your detectors well and jewelry target behavior the best you can and you have a much better chance if you hit these higher percentage sites like these b ball court perimeters.
So far I am up to about 12 gold targets from just a few of these courts including a gold bracelet but it is not micro but a bit bigger.

Another hunter hunts tot lots to find jewelry but in his case it certain abilities were important because these were his prime hunting sites and all targets in them were mostly really deep so a machine that could see the tiny stuff at the 8"+ area was what he needed.

I have been a jewelry hunter for awhile now and read all posts about jewelry found and overall and have not noticed much about super thin chains being found compared to the bigger pieces and rings and pendants.
Either these types are rare or the super thin chains are so hard to pick up that not many detectors can see them...or they come in at areas that many just avoid like iron.
Probably a little of all of these reasons.
To look to purchase some sort of hypersensitive unit that can find these tiny chains that seem to be so rare doesn't make sense to me.
If you are going after tiny gold nuggets in areas where they exist to spend money on a specialty unit to be successful does make sense, to spend money on a unit to go after a specific target that is so rare like these white whale chains does not...to me anyway.

I have found 3 dozen gold targets in the dirt, tons of silver including chains and all of my detectors could have found them because they were all standard sizes and nothing was more than 6" deep which for me is more normal.
Heck...about half of them were found with my little ol' F2, the rest were divided between a Compadre, a Vaq and an F70.
I don't worry so much about the rarer tiny stuff, there is plenty enough out there in standard sizes to find, at least in my sites and areas, so I concentrate on using detectors with other specific capabilities.
Mine need to have fast recovery and good target separation because the bulk of my jewelry finds seem to love to hide in trashy areas.
I studied target behavior, especially gold, to have the best shot at noticing them if I come across any.
I hunt higher percentage sites when I can, basketball and volleyball court perimeters, tot lots, picnic pavilion sites, surprisingly islands dividing up parking lots, too, plus I have found more than my share in odd wide open areas just wandering around.
As long as my detectors can pick up rings and things from low foil on up I am happy, if I can find the really small stuff in iron when I choose to hunt that way that is great and my Compadre can for sure but so can my F70 and even my Vaq with a sniper coil.
It's all a percentage thing with me, I run the numbers and try...hope to be in the right place at the right time with the right detector and coil and it works for me well enough and often enough that I don't worry about the more rare hard to find targets too much.
I still find plenty enough to keep me happy and I hunt my sites more tgan once so i figure what I don't find one day I might find the next.

 

[Geochem]

If you intend to find teensy dainty items like tinsel thin chains and earing studs, you're not going to find anything that gets those things WHILE knocking out iron. Some machines can come pretty close, but .... if you're talking the true tinsel thin chains, you'll practically need something like a nugget prospecting machine. And no, those aren't very good at knocking out iron.

The amount of intrinsic gold in tinsel-fine chains and earing studs is pretty minimal anyhow, so why not just angle for normal gold like rings ? If you hit enough sand boxes, tan-bark boxes, beaches, etc.... accepting all your low conductors, you'll eventually find gold. Or just wait till after storms erode out the sand at some of your fabled FL beaches and wait for mother nature to do all the work for you, grouping heavy-targets all in neat rows on the beach for you

You could angle junky parks and yards for gold, but .... the ratios would be too punishing. ESP. if you start trying to dial in teeennnsssy items like dainty gold. I can think of urban turf where your ratio would be 10,000 to any 1 gold item you'd find. So stick to beaches, sand volleyball courts, tanbark play lots, etc.....

Tom, your reply is immensely valuable for someone new to "urban prospecting". Thank you!

 

[Geochem]

One person posted about finding a lot of those earring studs, he got down on his hands and knees at basketball courts and ran a Propointer at the edge where the grass starts and the court ends.
When these are lost on the courts by players these are usually kicked over to the edges.
I have tried this myself and it works and I love these court sites and found a ton of jewelry around these things including some studs around the edges because the Compadre can pick them up and they are not usually very deep.
I found that finding jewelry on land is not all that difficult if you learn to understand your detectors well and jewelry target behavior the best you can and you have a much better chance if you hit these higher percentage sites like these b ball court perimeters.
So far I am up to about 12 gold targets from just a few of these courts including a gold bracelet but it is not micro but a bit bigger.

Another hunter hunts tot lots to find jewelry but in his case it certain abilities were important because these were his prime hunting sites and all targets in them were mostly really deep so a machine that could see the tiny stuff at the 8"+ area was what he needed.

I have been a jewelry hunter for awhile now and read all posts about jewelry found and overall and have not noticed much about super thin chains being found compared to the bigger pieces and rings and pendants.
Either these types are rare or the super thin chains are so hard to pick up that not many detectors can see them...or they come in at areas that many just avoid like iron.
Probably a little of all of these reasons.
To look to purchase some sort of hypersensitive unit that can find these tiny chains that seem to be so rare doesn't make sense to me.
If you are going after tiny gold nuggets in areas where they exist to spend money on a specialty unit to be successful does make sense, to spend money on a unit to go after a specific target that is so rare like these white whale chains does not...to me anyway.

I have found 3 dozen gold targets in the dirt, tons of silver including chains and all of my detectors could have found them because they were all standard sizes and nothing was more than 6" deep which for me is more normal.
Heck...about half of them were found with my little ol' F2, the rest were divided between a Compadre, a Vaq and an F70.
I don't worry so much about the rarer tiny stuff, there is plenty enough out there in standard sizes to find, at least in my sites and areas, so I concentrate on using detectors with other specific capabilities.
Mine need to have fast recovery and good target separation because the bulk of my jewelry finds seem to love to hide in trashy areas.
I studied target behavior, especially gold, to have the best shot at noticing them if I come across any.
I hunt higher percentage sites when I can, basketball and volleyball court perimeters, tot lots, picnic pavilion sites, surprisingly islands dividing up parking lots, too, plus I have found more than my share in odd wide open areas just wandering around.
As long as my detectors can pick up rings and things from low foil on up I am happy, if I can find the really small stuff in iron when I choose to hunt that way that is great and my Compadre can for sure but so can my F70 and even my Vaq with a sniper coil.
It's all a percentage thing with me, I run the numbers and try...hope to be in the right place at the right time with the right detector and coil and it works for me well enough and often enough that I don't worry about the more rare hard to find targets too much.
I still find plenty enough to keep me happy and I hunt my sites more tgan once so i figure what I don't find one day I might find the next.

Digger, your highly experienced insight and recommendation is immensely valuable to an "urban prospector"!!! Your earnest study and work to be on top of this type of MD is like gold to newbies with detector in hand!