what am I doing wrong???

I've got a Bounty Hunter Tracker IV and all I've found is clad as well. But I don't think the problem is the machine. I've found clad pretty deep (6"-8") so surely it can find jewelry too. I've tested it on jewelry in my own test garden and it seems to do fine. I don't know what the others are going to tell you but I would say that the most likely problem is that you aren't looking in the right places or just haven't gotten lucky yet. I'm beginning to think that luck has a lot to do with it.

But I will defer to the other members to give you specific pointers. And I'll be listening in hoping to learn a thing or two myself.
 

To find gold rings you have to dig all signals. A ring will lock in like a pull tab plus the ring has to be lost and you be at the right spot to find it. There is some people that finds a lot of jewelry and some that don't. I have found around 50 gold and silver rings in the 25+ years of detecting. With about 90% of them being found in the water. So it is not the machine or if you are doing something wrong. Head for the beach and do some detecting but make sure you don't get the detector box wet. Keep us posted if you find any gold.....Matt
 

Beaches are not the only places to find rings. A friend of mine found a beautiful, heavy man's onyx ring in the middle of a soccor field, then found a ladies ring in the second field of the complex. This all within 2 hours of the same day. I was with him and chose to hunt one sideline.....and found NOTHING. ;D Oh, yeah, the lady's ring was kinda, sorta in the middle of the field, too. This was a group of 3 soccor fields at a high school in OKC, back in 1996. I DID find some coins and a cheap ring on the backside of one of the posts holding the net. Seems that players will often put their pocket stuff and jewelry in a neat little pile by these net posts while playing and sometimes don't recover it all---including the jewelry. Keep that in mind. ;D

And WELCOME TO THE FORUM. Not yelling, just cheering. :laughing9:
 

Soccor fields are great because the adults practice and many play with jewelry on. Most of my jewelry has been found on soccor fields.
 

Tat,
It is all a matter of time. Round up a few gold rings. Bench (air) test them with your machine. Now THAT is the signal you are looking for. But you say, "That's the same signal for pulltabs!" YES. If you're not finding pulltabs, and Nichols, you're not finding gold! It just takes time. They will be there. TTC
 

Those persons who tell you that the answer is to simply lower the disc., dig everything (above iron), and have a lot of patience, are simply setting you up for a big headache, and ultimately, to give up. I can think of blighted inner-city urban parks where this practice would just net you 1000+ pieces of junk and clad, for each possible gold item. So why bother? You're MUCH better off to ........ yes, dig all low conductors, BUT to go to a place that simply has better ratios. Like for jewelry, go to swimming beaches. For relics, go to an un-spoiled old stage stop or pioneer campsite/station, etc....
 

There's more to this sport than just MDing. Most of the successful old timers have been at this for as long as they have because they recognized that you must spend as much if not more doing your research. You can't find what has never been there, let alone if it was never dropped. :wink:

If your finding clad, then your doing everything right. Your just doing it at the wrong locations. :icon_thumleft:
 

I've found gold in parking lots but for the 10 years I've been detecting, I never found gold...until last Saturday:)

I thought it was my lack of research or technique...or my machine (A Fisher)...nope, it's all location, location, location.

I found my 14k gold bracelet in a park:) :laughing7:
 

If your finding clad, then your doing everything right. Your just doing it at the wrong locations.

That makes me feel better. Except that I might would change it to "If you're finding pulltabs, then you're doing everything right. You're just doing it at the wrong locations."

After all, I can have my discrimination set so that I can still find clad but be discriminating out all of the gold. Correct?
 

mts said:
If your finding clad, then your doing everything right. Your just doing it at the wrong locations.

That makes me feel better. Except that I might would change it to "If you're finding pulltabs, then you're doing everything right. You're just doing it at the wrong locations."

After all, I can have my discrimination set so that I can still find clad but be discriminating out all of the gold. Correct?

True, but I rarely burden newbies with lower signals it is enough to learn silver first and then get into the whole gold platinum areas. If their finding clad then their likely to be finding coppers and silver. :wink:
 

MTS, you say:

".... I can have my discrimination set so that I can still find clad but be discriminating out all of the gold. Correct?"

Yes, of course, I can show you spots where you can dig hundreds of clad, BUT ..... even lowering your disc. all the way .... will NOT find a piece of gold jewelry (unless you intend to dig 1000+ to 1 ratios). In THOSE cases, you pick places with better jewelry ratios, TO BEGIN WITH.
 

I myself dig everything , I've had gold show as tin foil , to dimes ...
 

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No matter what detector you use, it still boils down to one main factor..........To find gold, you have to get your coil over gold.

Like TOM In California said, go where you have the highest probability of finding the targets you are looking for. You have the potential to find gold rings anywhere, but the probability of finding them are 100 times higher in swimming areas.
 

It is amazing how much trash is in the ground. I always hope for technology to come along that would allow me to only find gold and nothing else... I won't hold my breath. The goodies are there in the trashiest of parks to the pristine beaches. The more time you spend just enjoying the outing and yes, digging lots of junk you'll be successful in finding the most incredible things beyond your wildest imagination... relax, take a deep breath and yes... keep digging.
 

ok I can help you a lot. --- first the beeping in all metal mode is due to the high mineral content in the salt water -- all metal is the most powerful mode but , the down side is its the "touchist" mode as well -- if there is too much minerals --beep --beep -beep -- since its "sees" the minerals in the wet sand- as a solid wall of metal * the only way to counter it with a "preset" type ground balance machine is to lower its sensitivy setting till it no longer picks up the minerals -- thus basically readjusting it to account for the minerals in the ground your hunting ("ground balancing" it by turning the sensitivy down a bit till it quiets down(no longer picking the minerals up) -- the same thing often occurs around power lines due to the energy leaking from the lines --use the same fix) while the machines have a "preset" balance --its for basic dry land and "normal" conditions --not high mineral / high energy aeras :wink: :icon_thumright:

now to find gold requires that you have pulltabs in discrimation wize --since pulltabs, nickles and gold often ring up very close to one another -- a detector makes a electrical feild under its coil --it figgers out what metal its found by the interaction between the metal and the find's "electrical conductivity"as its called -- sadly --pulltabs,nickles and gold are quite close as far as electrical conductivity goes --so to find one you must dig em all .
but first and foremost --you gotta hunt the proper places --you want food you go to the food store right? --you want lost gold items --then go to high % areas where your likely to find em. common sense tells you anywhere that folks that have bling --they do alot of jumping around or other phyiscal stuff to cause them to lose it --key on it. (say a softball feild that womens teams play on)
 

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