m-reese, to answer your question, think about the following analogy or test:
Take an aluminum can. Wave it in front of your SE pro in an air test. What does it read? Way up high right? Like quarter or half dollar I presume? (depending on how close to the coil you swing it, etc...). Ok, no take some tin snips and snip out a smaller quarter sized piece of the can, and wave that in front of your SE pro. That reads about mid-range on your TID, right? Now snip that piece smaller to the size of a dime. That might read down around nickel now, right? Same with the square tab (which is also aluminum): If you wave the tab, you'll get a square tab reading, right? (which is mid-range). And if you snip that tab in half, and test that, it reads
lower yet, right?
But ask yourself m-reese, what changed in all those above tests? ONLY THE SIZE of the object. In each case, the composition was exactly the same:
Aluminum.
So you see the folly of asking "
where does aluminum read?". So too is the question: "
where does gold read". Because the answer, just like aluminum, is that it "reads all over, depending on the size".
And as you can imagine, gold rings come in INFINATE shapes, sizes, karots, densities, weights, etc.... From as small as dainty wire rings or teensy women's solitaires, up to big honkin men's college class rings, etc... And chains present a problem all-on-their-own: The machine will try to see the individual links (since it's a compilation of oodles of little individual links, and not a singular target). So chains (especially dainty tinsel thin ones) give EVERY machine fits. You'd practically have to have a nugget hunting prospecting machine to find the thinner smaller ones. However, bigger gold bracelets can be detected (albeit at perhaps a waffling signal in the lower range, since the machine is still trying to see each link).
Yes, if you test a bunch of stuff in any jewelry store, you will indeed walk out thinking "gee, I pass junk signals like that all the time". Because, yes, it's no secret that gold and aluminum share the same conductivity, on a relative size per size basis. But on the other hand, while you may have passed a "ton of those signals", it's also true that you passed "tons of junk". In other words, even if you'd dug every last one of "those signals", you'd have probably gotten sick of digging junk, and given it up in disgust (assuming you're hunting junky areas, like blighted inner city turf, etc...).
So the trick to getting/finding gold, is not so much trying to figure out "where gold reads", but rather, it's a function of WHERE YOU HUNT. Junky inner city blighted parks might be good for sniping out older silver and old coins, but ......... they might not be a good place to look for gold jewelry. The ratios might just kill you (or you'd get kicked out for making too many holes, etc....). So if jewelry is your goal: try swimming beaches, which is more condusive to jewelry losses. Plus digging in sand is easier as well
