Let's talk about jewelry...

[portraitartist]

Hey folks -

As you can prollly see, since my last few postings I've been rather smitten with finding rings and jewelry... now, I know the inevitable answer to finding jewelry is dig everything, but what I'd like to hear are other hints, tricks, tips, etc., about finding jewelry... the where, the how, all that stuff... sensitivity settings, average depth of jewelry items, how different makes of gold hit, stuff like that...

As for me, the relatively few rings and jewelry items I've found do indeed hit in the "junk" range, however, on my current machine (Bounty Hunter, cheap) the biggest difference between a true ring/nickel signal and can slaw or tabs is that a junk items give a slightly different signal. The BH uses a 2-tone signal, and a tab or other junk item seems to have a slight "high" clip on either side of the low signal - kindof a "bleep" sound, as opposed to just the sweet low tone on a nickle or ring...

So, let's hear your 10¢!

[IronClad]

I'd like to hear are other hints, tricks, tips, etc., about finding jewelry...

...one word EXPERIENCE ! Know your detector and how to use it.

I could talk for days about my jewelry finds. I started detecting in 1983 with a White's Coinmaster 6000 D S2, and hunting a beach for 3 days paid for it with just jewelry finds. One 14K gold wedding band I found appraised at $375.00. Other small rings and 2 class rings all totaled more than my detector cost.

I will tell ya one thing. I was like everyone else. Arrive at a site and crank up the Discriminator. Over the years as sites became hit hard and finds diminished,,, I began to lower my Disc. setting into the pulltab range. I got alot more nickles and yes pulltabs too, but my small ring finds really started to pop. Alot of amall 10 & 14K rings will disc out at Pulltab settings and sometimes lower.

TIP: If your willing to turn down or un-notch PULLTABS,,, and your finding them and Nickles, then your going to find almost all rings and other small jewelry. Its a real pain in the A$$ digging Tabs, but 1 ring makes up for it.

Want another TIP ?? OK. My experience in finding jewelry is... most is NOT very deep. Almost all my finds came from 4'' or less,,, except in sand.

Todays new advanced detectors are ALOT better at disc'ing out Tabs and other junk and still getting small jewelry. I commend the manufacturers and the units they build today compaired to what I had to work with. My 6000 was no slouch, but it had its limitations.

As I said, I learned my equipment and with Practice came EXPERIENCE, and with EXPERIENCE came......SUCCESS !

GOOD LUCK

[stringfrenzy]

Pretty much sums it up to me. I've told people to listen to the sound and that if you want to find jewelry you have to be willing to dig junk because it will happen. Basically the "dig everything" attitude.

[portraitartist]

That's why I liked my old 1265-X - there was no visual I.D., and I had to learn the sound and trust it, and I liked that alot.

I didn't hunt for jewelry much with it though - at the time I was smitten with old silver coins, and jewelry took a back seat... now with my BH, I'm just digging a lot more signals...

I just think that now, given the state of hunted-ness and the fact that there are no more silver coins being dropped, plus the fact that jewelry has way more resale value - I'm gonna concentrate on jewelry more... and jewelry will continue to be lost for who knows how long!

[INDY]

Great topic, potraitartist. I also, would like to start concentrating on finding jewlery, instead of just coins. Thanks for the tips and ideas everyone.

[COMMANDR]

Nice post IronClad. Thanks for sharing those words of wisdom.

HH

Gary

[Boobird]

Just by coincidence the other day I went out for about an hour or so with my Tiger Shark, getting to know it better, and at one point turned the discrimination all the way down...I did happen to find 4 pennies, 2 nickels, and a ladies Armitron watch, along with a few pull tabs of course...With the nickels and watch I thought they were just another pull tab, but hey...It worked...this weekend, Look out ocean, I'll be there til I shrivel up like a raisin...


Boobird...

[LaRoper]

Small Gold Rings,
Here is a tip I posted a while back.

Here is another quick tip.
Ladies diamond rings- I have learned that most ladies rings with diamonds are small. When you are hunting and reject the -10 to +10 VDI #, you will miss all of these type rings. Most ring out as foil, but with practice you can tell the difference between the two. Most of the time the gold rings will give you a very smooth response. Foil will be close but jump the numbers at the end of the response.
Good luck all.

Just remember a lot of rings that have diamonds are small and fall at or below "foil". So when your at a beach or somewhere you know rings have been lost, don't reject Foil. With practice you can tell the difference between foil and a gold ring.
LR

[pris]

Gold shows up on my machine as pulltab and not below a nickel. Of course different compositions of gold may show up elsewhere...

[EBCIII]

This is very good and interesting infomation. Thanks for it, Beale.