dahut
Hero Member
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2004
- Messages
- 809
- Reaction score
- 54
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Lee's Tavern Road
- Detector(s) used
- 21 years behind a coil
Fisher F70
Bounty Hunter Lone Star
Tesoro Tiger Shark
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
- #1
Thread Owner
I made a commitment recently: I would pound the local high school as part of my 2008 Wrap Up Campaign.
I would hunt nowhere else for the last 3 or 4 days of 2008. It was a commitment known only to me, but I kept it and last Tuesday, I hit the high school grounds with my Tesoro Golden.
The Golden purred along as it should, a new battery beeping reassuringly each time I tested it. The day before I had allowed my power cell to run down to nothing, causing the Golden to act "weird." I didn't discover this 'goof-up' until I was finished for the day. Believe me, I felt like a real idiot.
With new batteries, none of the previous days 'weirdness' was seen. I'm here to say there is much comfort to be had from full power cells. Do yourself a favor - make it part of your pre-hunt routine to check those batteries!
I thought that instead of relating the in's and out's of this particular hunt, we ought to break things up. So, let's take a look at the trash that surfaced, and see how the Golden responded to it
"The trash?! Who wants to look at that stuff, David? Have you lost it, man?"
You might think I'd been in the sun too long, if it wasn't winter here.
But, think about it for a minute. So often we are focused on the good stuff, that we fail to pay attention to and learn from the trash that we find. This stuff is metal, too, after all, and it has it's own response. Perhaps looking at it this way, we can become better at what we do as detectorists by 'knowing our enemy.'
"A picture is worth a 1000 words," as they say, so here is Tuesday's Rogue's Gallery of Trash:
Along the top you will see I've laid out a common US coin and, arranged vertically below each coin, trash items associated with it. What you see arranged before you is just how the Golden perceives these junk items. Following are some comments that came to mind as I arranged this picture.
The mid-range occupied by the pull tabs is very wide, and I've tried to show that here. There is a large gap between nickel and the coin realm and the Golden is designed to open that up. Many trash targets fall into this gap and we are told by the "experts" that this is where many gold items will fall, as well. Folks, I'm here to say - you could fool me. I haven't dug a decent gold ring since the last water hunting season!
I still focus on this range of targets, though, because smarter people than me figure this stuff out. Who am I to argue? I DO know that my 14K wedding band would fit nicely into the line-up, right between the small ring tabs and the oblong ones. So I dig 'em... so as not to miss 'em.
Since I normally set my DISC at the segment below nickel, I tend to get quite a wad of foil items. This is another one of those 'mystery gold' target ranges. Small rings and amulets, chains and filigree items come up in this area. I found a nice Scorpion amulet last year, right in the foil range. As small gold items are often worn - and lost - by teens, this is a must dig target range at a high school.
I haven't shown here the many pencil eraser ends found. These things breed underground at schools, I believe, and they fall right in around nickels. I have noticed, though, that they tend to give a high-low mid tone response that fades out quickly due to their small size and aluminum composition. After a while using the Golden, you get used to them.
For those who don't know it, the GOlden offers four distinct tones:
Low.... iron Low-mid.... nickle/tab
Upper-mid.... tab/screwcap/zinc cent High.... copper cent/silver
While we're focused on the mid-range, let me tell you about something I've started to do. On the Golden, the two middle range tones are close together in frequency and this can be a little confusing. So when I get a mid tone, I've begun singing the note aloud to myself. "Singing the tones," like this is a little whacky, I admit.
But it helps to firm them up in your mind and eliminates a lot of the confusion. I'm certain any bystanders would wonder what sort of nutball I am, singing to myself like this, but it helps.
Alright, up on the other end of the target range, we come to the upper mid-tone and "fer sure" high tone targets.
In the upper mid-tone range, you find zinc cents and the largish aluminum items like roofing nails, grommets, large ring pull tabs, square opening tabs and screw caps. It so happens that this is also where you find most 10K gold, some small silver items and the Holy Grail of jewelry, high school class rings. So again, when you hit this tone with a repeatable signal - you dig.
So far, I haven't mentioned what I consider to be the Golden's strong point, the high tone range. Flatly put, it is a killer on high conductivity items. This includes bronze, pre-1982 cents which come in with the high tone. This audible distinction between zinc and bronze cents is a very nice feature, if you prefer not to recover those "Stinkin' Zincolns."
There's a simple rule to follow with the Golden: If you hear a high tone, dig it. Unless you don't want to find the payola coins on purpose, as when hunting only for gold jewelry, this holds fast nearly all the time.
Even when you get a high tone mixed with other tones, don't hesitate. I dug several dimes today that were under the coil with other trash. When I re-scanned the spot from which I recovered the dimes, I'd find these other targets still there. But the high tone on the dimes still came through.
Of course, anything can be fooled and the Golden is no exception. Those large items and the little brass nut chimed in with high tones, too.
Also found were the junk jewelry items seen here, and a small tear drop silver earring about 1/2 inch long. Sorry, but it didn't make the pic - I had forgotten it in my pocket at foto time!
However, it rang in at high mid-range tone, like trash or a zincer cent. I thought that's what it was, in fact. It is possible that some bit of foil or iron was nearby enough to spoil the signal; I don't really know. All I can say is to be careful about passing up those zinc cent signals...
All together, this makes about 6 jewelry items so far. When will the next one be a high grade piece? Only time will tell.
UPDATE: The following day, I recovered the Holy Grail itself - a mans high school ring!
Well, what I thought was the Holy Grail. I was about to do the victory dance when I tool a close look and realized it was a a fake. A FAKE high school ring?! What sort of cruel SOB came up with that idea?
Here are Tuesdays coin gleanings and trinkets:
The Golden can deliver the goods, if you get to know it. It has no meter, and only tones to help you discern target type. But those tones speak volumes, if you care to listen.
Thanks for looking.
I would hunt nowhere else for the last 3 or 4 days of 2008. It was a commitment known only to me, but I kept it and last Tuesday, I hit the high school grounds with my Tesoro Golden.
The Golden purred along as it should, a new battery beeping reassuringly each time I tested it. The day before I had allowed my power cell to run down to nothing, causing the Golden to act "weird." I didn't discover this 'goof-up' until I was finished for the day. Believe me, I felt like a real idiot.
With new batteries, none of the previous days 'weirdness' was seen. I'm here to say there is much comfort to be had from full power cells. Do yourself a favor - make it part of your pre-hunt routine to check those batteries!
I thought that instead of relating the in's and out's of this particular hunt, we ought to break things up. So, let's take a look at the trash that surfaced, and see how the Golden responded to it
"The trash?! Who wants to look at that stuff, David? Have you lost it, man?"
You might think I'd been in the sun too long, if it wasn't winter here.
But, think about it for a minute. So often we are focused on the good stuff, that we fail to pay attention to and learn from the trash that we find. This stuff is metal, too, after all, and it has it's own response. Perhaps looking at it this way, we can become better at what we do as detectorists by 'knowing our enemy.'
"A picture is worth a 1000 words," as they say, so here is Tuesday's Rogue's Gallery of Trash:
Along the top you will see I've laid out a common US coin and, arranged vertically below each coin, trash items associated with it. What you see arranged before you is just how the Golden perceives these junk items. Following are some comments that came to mind as I arranged this picture.
The mid-range occupied by the pull tabs is very wide, and I've tried to show that here. There is a large gap between nickel and the coin realm and the Golden is designed to open that up. Many trash targets fall into this gap and we are told by the "experts" that this is where many gold items will fall, as well. Folks, I'm here to say - you could fool me. I haven't dug a decent gold ring since the last water hunting season!
I still focus on this range of targets, though, because smarter people than me figure this stuff out. Who am I to argue? I DO know that my 14K wedding band would fit nicely into the line-up, right between the small ring tabs and the oblong ones. So I dig 'em... so as not to miss 'em.
Since I normally set my DISC at the segment below nickel, I tend to get quite a wad of foil items. This is another one of those 'mystery gold' target ranges. Small rings and amulets, chains and filigree items come up in this area. I found a nice Scorpion amulet last year, right in the foil range. As small gold items are often worn - and lost - by teens, this is a must dig target range at a high school.
I haven't shown here the many pencil eraser ends found. These things breed underground at schools, I believe, and they fall right in around nickels. I have noticed, though, that they tend to give a high-low mid tone response that fades out quickly due to their small size and aluminum composition. After a while using the Golden, you get used to them.
For those who don't know it, the GOlden offers four distinct tones:
Low.... iron Low-mid.... nickle/tab
Upper-mid.... tab/screwcap/zinc cent High.... copper cent/silver
While we're focused on the mid-range, let me tell you about something I've started to do. On the Golden, the two middle range tones are close together in frequency and this can be a little confusing. So when I get a mid tone, I've begun singing the note aloud to myself. "Singing the tones," like this is a little whacky, I admit.
But it helps to firm them up in your mind and eliminates a lot of the confusion. I'm certain any bystanders would wonder what sort of nutball I am, singing to myself like this, but it helps.
Alright, up on the other end of the target range, we come to the upper mid-tone and "fer sure" high tone targets.
In the upper mid-tone range, you find zinc cents and the largish aluminum items like roofing nails, grommets, large ring pull tabs, square opening tabs and screw caps. It so happens that this is also where you find most 10K gold, some small silver items and the Holy Grail of jewelry, high school class rings. So again, when you hit this tone with a repeatable signal - you dig.
So far, I haven't mentioned what I consider to be the Golden's strong point, the high tone range. Flatly put, it is a killer on high conductivity items. This includes bronze, pre-1982 cents which come in with the high tone. This audible distinction between zinc and bronze cents is a very nice feature, if you prefer not to recover those "Stinkin' Zincolns."
There's a simple rule to follow with the Golden: If you hear a high tone, dig it. Unless you don't want to find the payola coins on purpose, as when hunting only for gold jewelry, this holds fast nearly all the time.
Even when you get a high tone mixed with other tones, don't hesitate. I dug several dimes today that were under the coil with other trash. When I re-scanned the spot from which I recovered the dimes, I'd find these other targets still there. But the high tone on the dimes still came through.
Of course, anything can be fooled and the Golden is no exception. Those large items and the little brass nut chimed in with high tones, too.
Also found were the junk jewelry items seen here, and a small tear drop silver earring about 1/2 inch long. Sorry, but it didn't make the pic - I had forgotten it in my pocket at foto time!
However, it rang in at high mid-range tone, like trash or a zincer cent. I thought that's what it was, in fact. It is possible that some bit of foil or iron was nearby enough to spoil the signal; I don't really know. All I can say is to be careful about passing up those zinc cent signals...
All together, this makes about 6 jewelry items so far. When will the next one be a high grade piece? Only time will tell.
UPDATE: The following day, I recovered the Holy Grail itself - a mans high school ring!
Well, what I thought was the Holy Grail. I was about to do the victory dance when I tool a close look and realized it was a a fake. A FAKE high school ring?! What sort of cruel SOB came up with that idea?
Here are Tuesdays coin gleanings and trinkets:
The Golden can deliver the goods, if you get to know it. It has no meter, and only tones to help you discern target type. But those tones speak volumes, if you care to listen.
Thanks for looking.
