Sovereign on Gold??

[marco]

I just watched a video comparing an Etrac, AtPro and a Whites on several pieces of gold jewelry. The Etrac did fine on the gold ring....but what was disturbing was that it did not pick up...at all.....a gold earring or small gold cross necklace. Not a peep...not a sound...air test right over the coil. I'm sure that Etrac will sing a song over a 10 inch dime and and who doesnt want to find a nice barber? From what Ive read the Etrac is the deep silver king....however...I have also had a few people in these forums point me towards Sovereigns as an excellent beach machine and certainly not bad in the dirt....BUT...how does it do on gold? I'm sure there are quite a few of you out there with your Sov's..so this should be easy to answer. Have you found gold necklaces...earrings...ect...or only rings? Does the Sov give you any clues that you are over gold vs trash? I see used Sovereigns on ebay for half the cost of an Etrac. I like old coins....but I hate to think I could be walking right past anything gold without at least a good low nickel-type signal to consider digging. If you are an Etrac owner who can say...Ive found plenty of gold with the Etrac...well Id love to hear about that also.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Minelab PRO-FIND 35 Waterproof Pinpointer Metal Detector for Experts with Tone ID & Adjustable Sensitivity - Grab it through Amazon!

[Sandman]

Most Sov GT's have a hard time sounding off on those thin gold chains unless the clasp is larger or it has a pendant. My Excal and Sov both sound off on earring backs however but not the chains themselves. The only detector I have that sees these thin chains is my Tiger Shark, but it can also find bird shot. I had a photo on here somewhere where I show all the earring backs I had collected last year.

 

[marco]

Does the size of the chain matter? I would hope a Sov or E-Trac....any metal detector for that matter....would see a thick gold chain. I can understand if really thin-fine chains are a problem for many detectors.

 

[Keppy]

All i can tell you is when i got my first Sovereign in 1992............. I was told when i bought it it will not pick up small gold chains .............. And i would have to say they were right for i have never found a small gold chain with any of my Sovereigns............

 

[marco]

Have you found a few gold rings over the years? With gold value as it is...I would imagine only a few gold rings could pay back the cost of a used Sov.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I found a gold lobster clasp from a gold chain, but not the chain.....I feel certain it would see a thick heavy chain, but 99% of chains lost are the thin chains, they break easy, thick ones do not..... They will pick up heavy thick clasps or charms ect on the thin chains. I lose no sleep over not picking up thin chains as there is little gold in most of them, most are hollow, Minelabs ability to see gold next to iron and tell me gold is there, or tell me a target is iron don't dig more than makes up for the thin gold chains. One day on one target I had a null one direction and a nice solid low tone when I swept the coil from a different direction, when I dug the target up I found I had a gold ring with a small piece of iron in the same bucket...

I currently own 2 Sov GTs, one has been custom waterproofed. As far as I am personally concerned there is not a better beach machine than the Sov GT if your not going into deep water, coupled with a WOT, SEF Butterfly or Sunray S-12 coil it becomes a beach vaccum.. Other than thin gold chains if you get a coil over gold it will tell you it is there unless it is buried too deep to be seen.....The larger the DD coil the deeper it sees. I do not hunt the beach with any coil smaller that a 12x15 or 15 inch coil..... If I am hunting a saltwater beach and I am not going in the water any deeper than mid calf I use my Sovereign GT, if I am going deeper than mid calf, I use my Excal....... My smallest gold ring to date is .06 of a gram...I have found tiny gold earrings, as well as the earring backs as Sandman says......

 

[marco]

Sounds good. Im also curious if any of you also use the Sov GT in parks? I am surrounded by parks.....(very trashy parks...I would need to at disc a lot more there).....but the beach is over an hour away. I hit parks a few times a week when i have a free hour...I have to plan half a day to go to the beach....that will likely be only twice a month at most. But the beach is nice...and I like sand a whole lot more than hard rocky dirt. If i made a few good beach finds...i would likely try to get out there every week.
I find myself lusting after the Etrac....but a used Sov is half the price. Anyone feel that the Sov is close to Etrac on park depth...just not as much screen info to consider before digging?

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Sounds good. Im also curious if any of you also use the Sov GT in parks? I am surrounded by parks.....(very trashy parks...I would need to at disc a lot more there).....but the beach is over an hour away. I hit parks a few times a week when i have a free hour...I have to plan half a day to go to the beach....that will likely be only twice a month at most. But the beach is nice...and I like sand a whole lot more than hard rocky dirt. If i made a few good beach finds...i would likely try to get out there every week.
I find myself lusting after the Etrac....but a used Sov is half the price. Anyone feel that the Sov is close to Etrac on park depth...just not as much screen info to consider before digging?

I have used my Sov GT in our parks here and they also are trashy.....Remember, aluminum slaw, poptops, and some old bottle caps are going to give you a good signal, the sovereign gt nulls on iron so you will not be digging any iron and that eliminates a lot of trash unless your hunting relics....

If your beach is only an hour away and has much beach foot traffic, I would be making more trips that direction if it was me......It takes me 1:15 mins to hit my closest beach.....

 

[marco]

Do beach guys even bother with a propointer? Or just a good scoop.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Do beach guys even bother with a propointer? Or just a good scoop.

You could, but why bother? at the beach you do not need to worry about turf or manicured lawn, you dig your target scan hole till your sure you have target in your scoop, if on land throw scoop of sand with target on ground, run detector over it, when it sounds off kick that portion of sand and run detector over it again...Pick up target and move on, only takes a few seconds... If in the water then you use the water to sift the sand.... I own a good waterproof pinpointer and haven't used it in 3 years....No reason to.

Always cover your holes, even at the beach, just dont need to worry about packing the dirt and replacing the plus, next high tide will take care of that for you....

 

[marco]

I would imagine low tide is best...you can get out to where the sand was knee to waist deep at other times. Do beach finds tend to be more where people are laying around with their towels....or more by and in the water. Or maybe just both equaly. The one time I went out I only found some clad...and tried both edge of water and where people lay out.

 

[Keppy]

Have you found a few gold rings over the years? With gold value as it is...I would imagine only a few gold rings could pay back the cost of a used Sov.

Oh yes it will find gold rings...........It has no problem finding gold rings............. And i have used mine in parks ........ and i have found a lot in parks with the sovereign............As for salt water beach hunting the last time i have seen a salt water beach was about 10 years ago............ I do a lot of fresh water since i am on the great lakes...................And when i go on vacation i don't go to the coast i go to Canada............................