LST best mode for gold chains?

[BeerBelly]

Hey everyone,
I finaly got a metal detector. I ended up getting a Tesoro Lobo SuperTraq. I haven't used it yet, but my first trip out,(prolly tomorow) I plan on hunting a beach area. It's somewhat secluded, (way off the beaten path) and tons of mexicans go there during the summer. (The significance of "mexican" to me is the large number of gold crucifix's, etc. they wear, not meant in a racist way).
My question is, what mode should I hunt in? Discriminate or all metal? Like I said, I'll be hunting 14-24k gold chains and bracelets. The manual that came with it doesn't really address that, as far as I can tell. However, it does say to hunt in all-metal mode when hunting nuggets.
Thanks in advance!

 

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[Planet1mars]

i know lead and gold are close to the same frequency you might have to use all metals unless someone corrects me on this model i know i have to with cibola

 

[Sandman]

The Lobo hunting in all metal will be almost like using a PI. It will sound off on every tiny piece of metal, iron and others. It can find thin gold chains and also bird shot. We can't have it all. Many don't like to dig all them signals and also leave some good stuff in the sand.

Good Luck,
Sandman

 

[BeerBelly]

Thanks for the replies,
I'm new at metaldetecting, so I don't mind digging everything.
Whats a PI?
I wasn't able to get out this past weekend, but hopefully this coming saturday or sunday I can make it out there. Anybody else have advice as far as settings, etc?

 

[Planet1mars]

i dig everything, i like to help mother earth with the cleaning

 

[sherpa t]

Well you could have your hands full, but here goes.
Do you have headphones ? you are going to need them with waves and wind noise. For the all metal mode you should be getting use to it at home before you go. Set the threshold knob to a comfortable spot for your hearing, run some gold items under the coil and concenterate on lisening to the smooth sound of a gold object.
When you get on the beach you will need to decide how much trash is in it, if it's really loaded up with cans and tabs your going to be frustrated. So on the discrimination side you may want to set your knob about 6 ,check it with a nickel. then you could flip back and forth with all metal, it's going to take a while to get the feel for the sounds and only time on the machine is going to help you get it down.
Good luck I hope it is a realitivly clean beach for you.

 

[BeerBelly]

Thanks Sherpa t,
Appreciate your advice. Here's hoping I have good beginers luck!

 

[nuggetshooter323]

In really trashy areas, I found the 5.75" concentric really cut down on the false signals, and allowed me to run the gain a lot higher. The higher gain settings is what's going to get those thin gold chains to stand out. The only Tesoro that I know that is consistant on gold chains is the Tiger Shark, but there is no reason that the LST can't do the same or better.

 

[BeerBelly]

Well, I finaly made it down there. I left in the afternoon (had to wait for my brother) and took my youngest son and my daughter. After I passed all the stores along the way, I remembered I still hadn't got headphones. So a u-turn and an hour later, after buying a $25.00 Garrets headphone set, I'm back on the road.
We arrived with about 2 hours of daylight left, and after hiking over 2 small mountain ranges we were at the site. There were several fisherman there, and the water had risen, so there wasn't much beach area left. I didn't want to pull the detector out in front of all those people and deal with the questions, etc, so we decided to hike back over to the car and do some nugget shooting in one of the arroyos that were nearby. There must have been hot rocks everywhere, but I did manage to find some tinfoil and a bottlecap! I also brought back a load of dirt that had some hits, the sun was going down so as I dug each hit, I checked each scoop of dirt, discarded it if there was no hit, dumped it in the bucket if there was. Probably hot rocks or caseings or other junk, but I'll go through it anyway. But the kids enjoyed it, so it was worth it!
I think I'm going to change my strategy. Forget the beaches, there's just too many people here unless I'm willing to drive hundreds of miles, which I'm not. I'm just going to concentrate on nuggets in areas that have produced in the past.

 

[nuggetshooter323]

Many nuggets look just like clods of dirt until you wash them off. Save everything that is questionable.

 

[pakeha63]

I have a Tesoro Lobo St. Use it in black sand mode with discriminate at between 3-4. Sometimes the sand will cause it to go a little haywire, but hang in there. Use a 5.75 concentric coil, you won't cover as much area,, but when you get the hit, its in the middle of the coil. All metal mode drives me nuts, to me its too much noise, and you dig more iron than you ever want to see. Sometimes I will switch to 'Normal Soil" mode if static is getting out of hand. Determination is the key.