Micro Jewelry Hunting Detector Advice

[Guest]

Argyle,

You are so right in so many ways, and in one stroke cut through the hype created on this I have seen both on some forums and what the manufacturers would like us to believe about the value of the finds.

I have been water hunting gold jewelry for many years and know first hand what gold jewelry brings. Not nearly what a fella might think. My first favorite is your second, swimming holes. And the water is where I have spent the most time. More gold, less junk, easier to get. But many do it now, and decent finds are rare so this is a thing I want to try to see if old sites will once again become productive. I know there are not many that do it, and of course the reason is obvious, foil. That is probably why micro jewelry hunting will never be popular. Too much work for too little return, too much patience required, and if a guy had to do it anywhere the digging was not easy I do not think it would be worth it to even try.

Of course right there is one reason to try Steve's Blind Squirrel hunting which is a form of looking for recent drops that are near the top in the turf. Combined with Micro hunting that might be fun. I do not do the cunning fox thing, I like to be out in the sun and not care at all who sees what I am doing but I see where the temptation for some might arise. Not enough value in the take to be worth the loss of peace of mind.

I like how you said all that, thank you for responding in such a kind way.

 

RoughWater,

You bring up an excellent point. I am not in a hurry for the Makro so have time to wait and see what others say, Truly excellent advice I think. I also think there may some compromise wiggle room for a less expensive option too, considering this in beach sand some of the features of a full fledged top of the line humdinger might not be necessary right away. The compadre is one example as already suggested, I am getting one of those for sure just to see how overrated the claims are, my daughter wants to come this year anyway so if nothing else it will be a nice detector for her to learn on. My god, $160 with a coil cover and tax, one button control, easy learning curve, and a lifetime warranty. Almost unbelievable, you can't buy a coil for a minelab for that. Naturally we all know the humdinger is a must have at some point if it looks promising, but it can wait. New humdingers come out every day and those old humdingers can be a bargain.

[Mike Hillis]

SL Guin,

I would suggest that before you jump into "micro" gold jewelry that you get some experience with regular gold jewelry.  I'm reading your posts and it is pretty clear that you really don't know anything about it.

You are wanting "hot" and "high frequency", which combination will have you digging trash galore with no real ability to tell good targets from alum trash.  The aluminum trash will bang so hard and loud that you'll never even hear the jewelry.   

 I'd suggest a step down to a Fisher F5.  The F5 runs at 7.8 kHz which will give you good discrimination abilities, yet the separated Gain and Threshold controls allow you to run it 'hot' at various gain settings.   While it is not a true 'micro' jewelry detector it fits the bill for the normal and small pre-micro jewelry size.  

It is hot enough that It will pick up the little round ring on the end of the fine chains that the clasp itself connects to.  That is pretty good in anybody's book.

Start there, get some experience so you can make better equipment decisions down the road. 

Good luck,

HH
Mike

 

 

 

   

[Guest]

 

11 hours ago, Mike Hillis said:

SL Guin,

I would suggest that before you jump into "micro" gold jewelry that you get some experience with regular gold jewelry.  I'm reading your posts and it is pretty clear that you really don't know anything about it.

You are wanting "hot" and "high frequency", which combination will have you digging trash galore with no real ability to tell good targets from alum trash.  The aluminum trash will bang so hard and loud that you'll never even hear the jewelry.   

 I'd suggest a step down to a Fisher F5.  The F5 runs at 7.8 kHz which will give you good discrimination abilities, yet the separated Gain and Threshold controls allow you to run it 'hot' at various gain settings.   While it is not a true 'micro' jewelry detector it fits the bill for the normal and small pre-micro jewelry size.  

It is hot enough that It will pick up the little round ring on the end of the fine chains that the clasp itself connects to.  That is pretty good in anybody's book.

Start there, get some experience so you can make better equipment decisions down the road. 

Good luck,

HH
Mike   

I did not realize I appeared this way. I have been hunting jewelry in water for 30 years and have found a lot of it. Of course I know absolutely nothing at all about micro jewelry hunting, it is something completely different, something I want to try. Seeing who likes your post I see you are not alone in your opinion of me. Perhaps you all are right and I am wrong to consider it, and in fact know nothing at all about what I have been doing. Perhaps others think the same and are too kind to say. Your point is taken Mike and Steve and Rick.

[auminesweeper]

SL when you look at machines like the GMT, Gold Racer and the Gold Bug II and think about getting one for micro jewellery, You have to remember these machine can be a PIA, for folks that are not use to them and folks like Steve and Rick have been using these type machines since Jesus played full back for Jerusalem,

don't take offence by what they say they don't mean anything by it, Just Note I am on my second GMT and my view of using it for such a task starts with an F and ends with " That",

No joke and in my sites they are a Son of a Revenuer , There is no way would I use it for that, these things can pick up a mouse fart at 20 paces,  But what I will say is that the G-Racer has a lovely tone unlike the Hornet that lives in my GMT.

I can still hit tiny bits with the MXT and that is about the limit I would want to use for such a task that will take you 20 minutes to find on your hand and knees, The comments made were out of kindness, I would not wish an LF machine on the mothering Law for hunting where man has been, be kind to your self and get a multi purpose machine and live the quiet life, My MXT Air tests half of an Air Gun pellet at 7 and a half inches, Now when you think about it micro jewellery is only light so it's not going to sink very far which is why you can use a normal multi purpose machine to find it because if I loose 50% of my Air test in the Ground I'm still going to be hitting tiny bits at around 4 inches and more, Ok

good luck, John  

[tvanwho]

Yes, you can pay for a Compadre in 1 summer if you just pound tot lots ,school yards, playgrounds, house yards,  grassy spots by parking meters, sled hills, and small hills in  a park- people set up there and look around and set back on their elbows and the money falls outta their pockets without them realizing it.etc Heck, I've had this happen to me relaxing on the living room carpet..Gold rings don't sell for much more than melt price altho they may appraise for MUCH more, UNTIL you go to sell it and the appraiser refuses to give you that amount and just offers you melt value for the gold.....sure seems like a scam at times...if you can sell to a friend at work or somebody who lost/misplaced their wedding ring or such, you should be able to do better....

[Steve Herschbach]

3 hours ago, SLGuin said:

I did not realize I appeared this way. I have been hunting jewelry in water for 30 years and have found a lot of it. Of course I know absolutely nothing at all about micro jewelry hunting, it is something completely different, something I want to try. Seeing who likes your post I see you are not alone in your opinion of me. Perhaps you all are right and I am wrong to consider it, and in fact know nothing at all about what I have been doing. Perhaps others think the same and are too kind to say. Your point is taken Mike and Steve and Rick.

Big leap there! I liked Mikes post because he is one of the best there is so I am happy just to see him posting. It had nothing to do with his assumptions about your level of expertise

Give it a go, see if it is for you or not. Good luck!

[Eklawok]

3 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Big leap there! I liked Mikes post because he is one of the best there is so I am happy just to see him posting. It had nothing to do with his assumptions about your level of expertise

Give it a go, see if it is for you or not. Good luck!

I have to say, with my interactions with steve in the past, in person btw, he won't steer you wrong.  I say this as being a total metal detecting noob in my opinion. And from what I have found with my MXT, and the size of the targets, something in that class may be better suited for your application. I have never ran a machine with a higher sensitivity than the one I own now. But, I can only imagine the patience, or greif, one may have by running a unit that has been tuned for a more prospecting environment used in a park full of bubble gum wrappers that has been chewed up by a lawn mower. Just my 2 cents for what it is worth.......from a self proclaimed noob.

[Guest]

I am not stupid. In this context I am ignorant, and the cure for that is learning. I am educated well past the doctorate and still hold two professional licenses but will never practice again. I am old and used up and figuring stuff like this out makes me happy. It can easily be seen that the notion of hunting very small gold in an urban setting is a thorny problem, the options currently available for doing it not good, and the possible reward small. Big deal. Fun is fun no matter how you find it.

My ignorant posts are clearly irritating to some, and a topic not popular to discuss by more. There will be no more of them, thank you all for what I have learned.

[auminesweeper]

SL your posts are fine and the Only Stupid Question is the One That's Never Asked, keep on going mate.

John

[Mike Hillis]

I'm sorry, SLGuin.   Don't take my post the wrong way.  Just trying to help.

Hunting gold on land is different than hunting gold in the water.   Hunting the tiny gold on land is different again.   Frequency is the least of the required feature set unless you are truly after micro jewelry.  Even then, frequency alone isn't the key.  Jackpine's post on the 1270, my post on the F5, the posts you should be reading about the Goldbug II, all have something in common, and that is that the feature set of the detector enhances it use for such activity. 

As good as the Gold Bug II is, I'd never take it to a middle school athletic field.  Its feature set is best for sand and/or woodchips.  However,  Jackpines 1270 would work good in the athletic field, as does the F5.  I thought the GoldBugPro/F19/G2 would work good in the athletic fields but they don't because the Audio vs Sensitivity vs Frequency aren't designed in such a way to work well in that environment.  But in sand they do ok.   

My best recommendation is to continue to use the Compadre, maybe by a used detector you are looking at until you can make a more informed decision on what type of equipment it takes to do what you after.  You'll probably wind up like the rest of use with multiple units specialized for just one thing in one environment, or in constant flux as you try this one and that one until you get it sorted out.

Good luck.

Mike