I am new to metal detecting and have a question about hunting for jewelry with the Garrett AT Pro. Is there a way to differentiate the trash from treasure by sound alone?, and Should I just expect to dig hundreds of trash holes in hopes that one may be a treasure? Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.
When I started I dug it all, most signals anyway, and as I slowly learned my detectors I found a lot of great things but not a whole lot of good jewelry.
Even a blind squirrel can find nuts here and there and in my case I did manage to find a couple of silver rings and even two gold rings.
At the time I was using a Vaquero and an F2.
Back then I lived here in Birmingham where the dirt is mineralized, the iron is insane and in public sites it seems like very few that live here figured out what a trashcan is for...ever.
Our challenges are great and finding just about anything past 3-5" is tough for everyone with most any detector because of masking problems, ask most hunters around here and 99% will tell you they rarely dig anything past 5" in our red clay filled typical dirt and I wasn't either.
It was so difficult to find deeper, older coins in the public parks I usually hunted, parks that others had easily found old coins shallow back in the day but most were culled in the 60's and 70's, so I got very frustrated.
So frustrated I decided I would just become a dedicated jewelry hunter because I believed that stuff can be shallow and most anywhere...and then I proceeded to study gold, how it sounded, how it behaved, higher percentage sites where I might find it and all of it had to be on land because I don't live anywhere near any beaches.
Also chains needed to be understood better because those are weird and generally don't act like coins or rings in their behavior.
I also bought a Compadre because I had read so much about how good that thing was at finding jewelry, especially chains.
The next task was to learn my 3 detectors and I mean learn them better than well, concentrating on listening to all of them closely and learning target behavior like it was a religion.
All target behavior including trash.
At the same time I got very frustrated with digging tons of trash and as my skills with my detectors grew the volume of trash I dug shrunk.
Ultimately I ended up digging mostly the more solid signals, I called it my high percentage hunting style, and I was digging only about 20% of the jumpy, iffy trash signals I came across and I still do it this way to this day.
I started to find more, I was digging more coins, more junk jewelry and even a little more precious metal jewelry.
I am not saying you should do it this way, you will find what works best for you, eventually, but for me this is the way I enjoy doing this hobby and it works for me.
BTW...I found all of of what you see below using my no screen, one tone only Tesoros or in the case of my Fishers I use all info available to me, both the tones AND the screen behavior.
Then something wonderful happened, we moved to Kansas, land of almost perfect soil and a ton of parks.
Everything I learned, everything I was doing just jelled, all that work learning became way worth it and I found a ton more than I ever thought possible, especially since I hunted public parks 99% of the time.
I added an F70 to the arsenal, eventually, I still dug only about 20% of the trash after I learned it pretty well but I continued to find lots of jewelry and lots more older coins.
A lot of what I found over the years is pictured below, all the gold is there, many of the chains but there are a lot of silver rings missing because I just quit posing a lot of them for group pictures... I dug a lot more than what you see.
At least half of it all was found with my two entry level detectors, the F2 and the Compadre.
The tools I use isn't as important to me as the level of understanding I have using them which makes all the difference...too me.
All the gold you see came in as solid, stable signals despite the fact that I usually hunt in major trash pits, all were complete surprises when they popped up except one.
Did I miss some more iffy great targets doing it this way, almost certainly but I haven't done all that bad despite that.
Three years later we moved back to the same place I started in the South with all the same problems and challenges and I was depressed about that but I came back with a higher skill level and more knowledge about hunting in difficult conditions and it still ain't easy but I am finding way more than I did when I started.
Again, way more including jewelry and even a few bucket list coins.
Knowledge is a powerful thing if you put it to use.
I was exactly where you are today at one time, signals were similar and target behavior was mostly a mystery and digging garbage was my life but by learning my tools better and better I became more and more successful and started to avoid digging a ton of trash.
It took awhile but not really all that long and I had great fun the whole time all along that learning curve.
There are no magic detectors out there, not your Pro, not my F70, F2, Vaquero, Compadre, Mojave or even my Nox.
Advanced tools can ultimately make things a bit easier but the real magic is going to be in you and how well you commit to learning your detector and what it is telling you.
Have paitience, learn and have fun doing it above all.
Soon enough you will laugh at what you know now and everything will make so much more sense and the great finds will start to show up more and more.
You'll see.
