Question on Minelabs and small gold.

[Foilman]

Hi Everyone,
I ran into another MD'er at the beach and was asked if my coil picks up small gold chains. I said I don't know I have not found any with it yet. I noticed she had a Sovereign and I thought surely the way Minelabs is touted that it should find them. I said that has the same electronics as the excal, won't it find them? She had a wot on the sovereign and she says that she has the Excal also and it doesn't find the small chains either. This whole conversation baffled me. Questions are:

1) Why would someone be concentrating on small gold chains. It seems they wouldn't be worth much anyway.

2) Are small gold chains that much harder than a piece of foil or small ring?

3) How does the Sovereign and Excal do on small chains.

4) I told her maybe a gold flake or nugget machine would do it and she says no that is different technology. Is this true?

Happy hunting, I am doing well in the dry for fresh drops. All you gotta do is get it before somebody else which ain't easy!

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Agony and Death on a Gold Rush Steamer: The Disastrous Sinking of the Side-Wheeler Yankee Blade - Grab it through Amazon!

[Sandman]

The smaller the coil the better it finds small things. However my Excal 1000 will find earring backs or tiny earring studs. I've used it on small chains and the signal is very low and short if at all. We're talking very thin chains here too.

People tend to think gold chains are valuable since the retail price is high. It's more the workmanship and demand for these chains, not the gold value. Most chains you find are broken or in need of some repair to a clasp. Since gold chains are very hard for other detectors to find, it seems to be a benchmark or goal to find them.

Gold nugget detectors still VLF's but are not different technology as much as a lot higher gain and sensitivity. To use a nugget machine at a beach would drive me crazy because it would find the tiniest hot rocks and bird shot mixed in with all that sand. Forget any wet sand hunting too.

But not all Excals and Sovs are created equal. It's best to test yours on the smallest chain you can lay down on the sand near the local you plan to search to see how yours behaves.

Good Luck,
Sandman

 

[Kut2TheChase]

My explorer SE doesnt like small chains, the excalibur makes a slight sound if close to the coil.
I was told most chains are found because they have a charm on them, its solid. The detector has a hard time picking up on a tiny link of a chain since a chain is not a solid piece, it's links..
Im off to the beach today, wish me luck!

Chase

 

[dahut]

1) Why would someone be concentrating on small gold chains. It seems they wouldn't be worth much anyway.
They aren't worth more than their weight allows. Its like Sandman says, the workmanship is what you pay for. Some people have the notion that if they can find chains, then they can find anything.

2) Are small gold chains that much harder than a piece of foil or small ring?YES. Make no mistake about this. Small chains - any chain for that matter - is more air than metal. Detectors are AREA sensors, that is, they detect the area of an object. Chains have very little surface area. Nearly all detectors are set up to detect coin sized objects - the makers understand "The Fallacy of The Gold Chain."

3) How does the Sovereign and Excal do on small chains.
Little better than anything else, from what I can tell.

4) I told her maybe a gold flake or nugget machine would do it and she says no that is different technology. Is this true?
For the most part, yes. Prospecting instruments are a stand alone breed, just as water machines are. They are too sensitive to be of much use at the salt beach.

People DO find chains, mind you. But know that they are going to be broken and choppy signals, at best. Its usually the "dig everything" folks who get them.

 

[bazinga]

I just brought my Excalibur out to make sure it was working for tomorrow and ran a THIN sterling chain underneath the coil. I found it earlier today with my explorer, but that was only because it had the charm on the end of it.

The excalibur didn't make a sound no matter how close I got it to the coil and how small I mashed it up.

 

[dahut]

Thats typical reaction. I checked a few from my collection on several detectors and none of them reacted well to the chains.

 

[jeff of pa]

Yep, it's a Chain Thing.

My Sovereign with a 15"WOT will pic up Earrings.

But not Gold Chains. Maybe at the right Angle.
and definately if there is a Charm attached.

Silver and junk chains Yes.

 

[FLauthor]

It has something to do with gold cain density. My Excalibur picked up a heavy gold bracelt chain but it had several charms on it so there was plenty of density for it to hit on. I take a plain gold or silver chain and pass it under my Minelab XT18000 Gold machine and it'll sound off because its made to pick up small flakes of gold and small wire gold. I took it to the beach one time and it went NUTS, I thought the Auto-tune would cancel out the Salt but it didn't. Maybe the newer Minelab Eureka does. The XT18000 works fine on the dry sand but I'll swing it only during the winter when the water is too cold to hunt.
That's my two cents worth.

 

[Foilman]

Very interesting!

Ironically I found my first sterling silver chain yesterday. Broken as you predicted Sandman. The interesting part is I pulled the chain up and thought there must have been something attached. There was. A crucifix and it was right in the same whole and a very weak signal by itself. Check dem holes carefully! Of course as stated, I guess silver chains are easier than gold chains.

 

[dahut]

Silver is easy, compared to gold. It is more conductive, by far.